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of health reform. I consider it a privilege as well as a duty to be a
health reformer.
Yet I am sorry that there are many of our people who do not strictly
follow the light on health reform. Those who in their habit transgress
the principles of health, and do not heed the light that the Lord has
given them, will surely suffer the consequences.
I write you these details, that you may know how to answer any
who may question my manner of eating....
I consider that one reason why I have been able to do so much work
both in speaking and in writing, is because I am strictly temperate
in my eating. If several varieties of food are placed before me, I
endeavor to choose only those that I know will agree. Thus I am
enabled to preserve clear mental faculties. I refuse to place in my
stomach knowingly anything that will set up fermentation. This is the
duty of all health reformers. We must reason from cause to effect. It is
our duty to be temperate in all things.—
Letter 50, 1908
General Principles of Reform
24. I have had great light from the Lord upon the subject of health
reform. I did not seek this light; I did not study to obtain it; it was
given to me by the Lord to give to others. I present these matters
before the people, dwelling upon general principles, and sometimes,
if questions are asked me at the table to which I have been invited, I
answer according to the truth. But I have never made a raid upon any
one in regard to the table or its contents. I would not consider such a
course at all courteous or proper.—
Manuscript 29, 1897
Tolerance of Others
25. I make myself a criterion for no one else. There are things that
I cannot eat without suffering great distress. I try to learn that which is
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best for me, and then saying nothing to any one, I partake of the things
that I can eat, which often are simply two or three varieties that will
not create a disturbance in the stomach.—
Letter 45, 1903
26. There is a wide difference in constitutions and temperaments,
and the demands of the system differ greatly in different persons. What
would be food for one, might be poison for another; so precise rules
cannot be laid down to fit every case. I cannot eat beans, for they are