222
Counsels on Diet and Foods
denial of appetite and the simplest fare, but as their health improves,
they should be liberally supplied with nourishing food.
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You may be surprised at my writing this, but last night I was
instructed that a change in the diet would make a great difference in
your patronage. A more liberal diet is needed.
429. The danger of going to extremes in diet must be guarded
against in the sanitarium. We cannot expect worldlings to accept at
once that which our people have been years in learning. Even now
there are many of our ministers who do not practice health reform,
notwithstanding the light they have had. We cannot expect those who
do not realize the need of abstemiousness in diet, who have had no
practical experiences on this subject, to take at once the wide step
between self-indulgence in eating and the most strenuous diet in health
reform.
Those who come to the sanitarium must be provided with whole-
some food, prepared in the most palatable way consistent with right
principles. We cannot expect them to live just as we live. The change
would be too great. And there are very few throughout our ranks who
live so abstemiously as Doctor-----has thought it wise to live. Changes
must not be made abruptly, when the patients are not prepared for
them.
The food placed before the patients should be such as to make a
favorable impression on them. Eggs can be prepared in a variety of
ways. Lemon pie should not be forbidden.
Too little thought and painstaking effort has been given to making
the food tasty and nourishing. We do not want that the sanitarium shall
be destitute of patients. We cannot convert men and women from the
error of their ways unless we treat them wisely.
Get the best cook possible, and do not limit the food to that which
would suit the taste of some who are rigid health reformers. Were the
patients given this food only, they would become disgusted, because it
would taste so insipid. It is not thus that souls are to be won to the truth
in our sanitariums. Let the cautions that the Lord has given Brother
and Sister-----in regard to extremes in diet, be heeded. I was instructed
that Doctor-----must change his diet, and eat more nourishing food. It
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is possible to avoid rich cooking, and yet make the food palatable. I
know that every extreme in diet that is brought into the sanitarium will
hurt the reputation of the institution....