386
Counsels on Diet and Foods
A Statement for Those Who Question Mrs. White’s Manner of
Eating
23. It is reported by some that I have not lived up to the principles
of health reform, as I have advocated them with my pen. But I can
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say that so far as my knowledge goes, I have not departed from those
principles. Those who have eaten at my table know that I have not
placed flesh meats before them....
It is many years since I have had meat on my table at home. We
never use tea or coffee. Occasionally I have used red-clover-blossom
tea for a warm drink, but few of my family drink any fluid at our meals.
The table is provided with cream instead of butter, even though we
have company present. I have not used butter for many years.
Yet we do not have an impoverished diet. We have an abundance
of dried and canned fruit. If our own fruit crop is short, we buy some
in the market. Sister Gray sends me the seedless grapes, and these
stewed make a very appetizing dish. We raise our own loganberries,
and use them freely. Strawberries do not grow well in this locality, but
from our neighbors we purchase blackberries, raspberries, apples, and
pears. We have also an abundance of tomatoes. We also raise a fine
variety of sweet corn, and dry a large amount for use during the winter
months. Near by us is a food factory, where we can supply ourselves
with the grain preparations.
[
Use of Dried Corn and Peas—524
]
We endeavor to use good judgment in determining what combina-
tions of food best agree with us. It is our duty to act wisely in regard
to our habits of eating, to be temperate, and to learn to reason from
cause to effect. If we will do our part, then the Lord will do His part
in preserving our brain-nerve power.
For more than forty years I have eaten but two meals a day. And if
I have a specially important work to do, I limit the quantity of food
that I take. I regard it as my duty to refuse to place in my stomach any
food that I have reason to believe will create disorder. My mind must
be sanctified to God, and I must guard carefully against any habit that
would tend to lessen my powers of intellect.
I am now in my eighty-first year, and I can bear testimony that we
do not, as a family, hunger for the fleshpots of Egypt. I have known
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something of the benefits to be received by living up to the principles