200
Counsels on Diet and Foods
Lives Sacrificed to Fashionable Eating
387. With many, the all-absorbing object of life—that which justi-
fies any expenditure of labor—is to appear in the latest style. Educa-
tion, health, and comfort are sacrificed at the shrine of fashion. Even in
the table arrangements, fashion and show exert their baleful influence.
The healthful preparation of food becomes a secondary matter. The
serving of a great variety of dishes absorbs time, money, and taxing
labor, without accomplishing any good. It may be fashionable to have
half a dozen courses at a meal, but the custom is ruinous to health. It
is a fashion that sensible men and women should condemn, by both
precept and example. Do have a little regard for the life of your cook.
“Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?”
In these days, domestic duties claim almost the whole time of
the housekeeper. How much better it would be for the health of the
household, if the table preparations were more simple. Thousands of
[259]
lives are sacrificed every year at this altar,—lives which might have
been prolonged had it not been for this endless round of manufactured
duties. Many a mother goes down to the grave, who, had her habits
been simple, might have lived to be a blessing in the home, the church,
and the world.—
Christian Temperance and Bible Hygiene, 73, 1890
[
Evils of the Course System—218
]
The Choice and Preparation of Foods Important
388. The large amount of cooking done is not at all necessary.
Neither should there be any poverty-stricken diet either in quality or
quantity.—
Letter 72, 1896
389. It is important that the food should be prepared with care,
that the appetite, when not perverted, can relish it. Because we from
principle discard the use of meat, butter, mince pies, spices, lard,
and that which irritates the stomach and destroys health, the idea
should never be given that it is of but little consequence what we
eat.—
Testimonies for the Church 2:367, 1870
390. It is wrong to eat merely to gratify the appetite, but no
indifference should be manifested regarding the quality of the food, or
the manner of its preparation. If the food eaten is not relished, the body
will not be so well nourished. The food should be carefully chosen