Diet and Mind
21
thus situated are unfitted to properly train their children. Their life will
be marked with extremes, sometimes very indulgent, at other times
severe, censuring for trifles which deserved no notice.—
Healthful
Living, 41, 1865
(Part 2). (
Selected Messages 2:434
.)
Dyspepsia Leads to Irritability—A dyspeptic stomach always
leads to irritability. A sour stomach leads to a sour temper. Your
body must be kept in subjection if you make it a meet temple for the
indwelling of the Holy Spirit.... Eat sparingly of even wholesome
food. Exercise moderately, and you will feel that your life is of some
account.—Lt 27, 1872.
Unhealthful Food Stupefies the Conscience—In health reform
our people have been retrograding. Satan sees that he cannot have
so great power over minds when the appetite is kept under control
as when it is indulged, and he is constantly at work to lead men to
indulgence. Under the influence of unhealthful food the conscience
becomes stupefied, the mind is darkened, and its susceptibility to
impressions is impaired....
Will our people see and feel the sin of perverting the appetite? Will
they discard all hurtful indulgences, and let the means thus saved be
devoted to spreading the truth?—Und MS 132.
A Definition of Temperance in Eating—The principles of tem-
perance must be carried further than the mere use of spirituous liquors.
The use of stimulating and indigestible food is often equally injurious
to health and in many cases sows the seeds of drunkenness. True
temperance teaches us to dispense entirely with everything hurtful and
to use judiciously that which is healthful. There are few who realize as
they should how much their habits of diet have to do with their health,
their character, their usefulness in this world, and their eternal destiny.
The appetite should ever be in subjection to the moral and intellectual
[395]
powers. The body should be servant to the mind, and not the mind to
the body.—
Patriarchs and Prophets, 562
(1890).
Shunning Extremes—Those who understand the laws of health
and who are governed by principle will shun the extremes both of
indulgence and of restriction. Their diet is chosen, not for the mere
gratification of appetite, but for the upbuilding of the body. They seek
to preserve every power in the best condition for highest service to God
and man. The appetite is under the control of reason and conscience,
and they are rewarded with health of body and mind. While they do not