154
Counsels on Diet and Foods
best quality, they do not take into the stomach that which will suitably
nourish the system. Poor food cannot be converted into good blood.
An impoverished diet will impoverish the blood.—
Testimonies for the
Church 2:366, 367, 1870
318. Because it is wrong to eat merely to gratify perverted taste, it
does not follow that we should be indifferent in regard to our food. It
is a matter of the highest importance. No one should adopt an impov-
erished diet. Many are debilitated from disease, and need nourishing,
well-cooked food. Health reformers, above all others, should be care-
ful to avoid extremes. The body must have sufficient nourishment.—
[
Christian Temperance and Bible Hygiene, 49, 50
]
Counsels on Health,
118, 1890
319. Dear Brother-----, In the past you have practiced health reform
too rigorously for your own good. Once, when you were very sick,
the Lord gave me a message to save your life. You have been too
strenuous in restricting your diet to certain articles of food. While I
was praying for you, words were given me for you to set you in the
right path. The message was sent that you were to allow yourself a
more generous diet. The use of flesh meat was not advised. Directions
were given as to the food to be taken. You followed the directions
[200]
given, rallied, and are still with us.
I often think of the instruction then given you. I have been given
so many precious messages to bear to the sick and the afflicted. For
this I am grateful, and I praise the Lord.—
Manuscript 59, 1912
Vary the Menus
320. We advise you to change your habits of living; but while you
do this we caution you to move understandingly. I am acquainted with
families who have changed from a meat diet to one that is impover-
ished. Their food is so poorly prepared that the stomach loathes it,
and such have told me that the health reform did not agree with them;
that they were decreasing in physical strength. Here is one reason
why some have not been successful in their efforts to simplify their
food. They have a poverty-stricken diet. Food is prepared without
painstaking, and there is a continual sameness. There should not be
many kinds at any one meal, but all meals should not be composed
of the same kinds of food without variation. Food should be prepared