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Counsels on Diet and Foods
them will be accredited the sins of their children which their improper
course has indirectly led them to commit. They tempt their children to
indulge their appetite by placing upon their tables flesh meats and other
food prepared with spices, which have a tendency to excite the animal
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passions. By their example they teach their children intemperance
in eating. They have been indulged to eat almost any hour of the
day, which keeps the digestive organs constantly taxed. Mothers have
had but little time to instruct their children. Their precious time was
devoted to cooking various kinds of unwholesome food to place upon
their tables.
Many parents have permitted their children to be ruined while they
were trying to regulate their lives to fashion. If visitors are to come,
they wish to have them sit down to as good a table as they would find
among any of their circle of acquaintances. Much time and expense are
devoted to this object. For the sake of appearance, rich food is prepared
to suit the appetite, and even professed Christians make so much parade
that they call around them a class whose principal object in visiting
them is for the dainties they get to eat. Christians should reform in
this respect. While they should courteously entertain their visitors,
they should not be such slaves to fashion and appetite.—
Spiritual Gifts
4a:132, 133, 1864
Study Simplicity
349. Food should be so simple that its preparation will not absorb
all the time of the mother. It is true, care should be taken to furnish
the table with healthful food prepared in a wholesome and inviting
manner. Do not think that anything you can carelessly throw together
to serve as food is good enough for the children. But less time should
be devoted to the preparation of unhealthful dishes for the table, to
please a perverted taste, and more time to the education and training
of the children. Let the strength which is now given to the unnecessary
planning of what you shall eat and drink, and wherewithal you shall
be clothed, be directed to keeping their persons clean and their clothes
neat.—
Christian Temperance and Bible Hygiene, 141, 1890
350. Highly seasoned meats, followed by rich pastry, is wearing
out the vital organs of the digestion of children. Were they accustomed
to plain, wholesome food, their appetites would not crave unnatural
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