80
Healthful Living
indigestion, headache, and colic. A load has been placed upon the
stomach that it cannot care for, and a feeling of oppression comes. The
head is confused, the stomach is in rebellion. But these results do not
always follow overeating. In some cases the stomach is paralyzed. No
sensation of pain is felt, but the digestive organs lose their vital force.
The foundation of the human machinery is gradually undermined, and
life is rendered very unpleasant.—
Unpublished Testimonies, August
30, 1896
.
Drinking at Meals
409. Taken with meals, water diminishes the flow of the salivary
glands; and the colder the water the greater the injury to the stomach.
Ice water or iced lemonade, drunk with meals, will arrest digestion
until the system has imparted sufficient warmth to the stomach to
[90]
enable it to take up its work again.—
The Review and Herald, July 29,
1884
.
410. Food should not be washed down; no drink is needed with
meals. Eat slowly, and allow the saliva to mingle with the food.
The more liquid there is taken into the stomach with the meals, the
more difficult it is for the food to digest; for the liquid must be first
absorbed.... Hot drinks are debilitating; and besides, those who indulge
in their use become slaves to the habit.... Do not eat largely of salt;
give up bottled pickles; keep fiery spiced food out of your stomach;
eat fruit with your meals, and the irritation which calls for so much
drink will cease to exist. But if anything is needed to quench thirst,
pure water, drunk some little time before or after a meal, is all that
nature requires.... Water is the best liquid possible to cleanse the
tissues.—
The Review and Herald, July 29, 1884
.
Liquid Foods
411. I am advising the people wherever I go to give up liquid food
as much as possible.—
Unpublished Testimonies, October 29, 1894
.
412. Taken in a liquid state, your food would not give healthful
vigor or tone to the system. But when you change this habit, and
eat more solids and less liquids, your stomach will feel disturbed.
Notwithstanding this, you should not yield the point, you should