290
Counsels for the Church
at mealtime will largely disappear. Food should be eaten slowly and
should be thoroughly masticated. This is necessary in order that the
saliva may be properly mixed with the food and the digestive fluids be
called into action
Application of Health Reform Principles
There is real common sense in dietetic reform. The subject should
be studied broadly and deeply, and no one should criticize others
because their practice is not, in all things, in harmony with his own. It
is impossible to make an unvarying rule to regulate everyone’s habits,
and no one should think himself a criterion for all. Not all can eat the
same things. Foods that are palatable and wholesome to one person
may be distasteful, and even harmful, to another. Some cannot use
milk, while others thrive on it. Some persons cannot digest peas
and beans; others find them wholesome. For some the coarser grain
preparations are good food, while others cannot use them
Where
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wrong habits of diet have been indulged, there should be no delay
in reform. When dyspepsia has resulted from abuse of the stomach,
efforts should be made carefully to preserve the remaining strength of
the vital forces by removing every overtaxing burden. The stomach
may never entirely recover health after long abuse; but a proper course
of diet will save further debility, and many will recover more or less
fully.
Strong men who are engaged in active physical labor are not com-
pelled to be as careful as to the quantity or quality of their food as are
persons of sedentary habits; but even these would have better health if
they would practice self-control in eating and drinking.
Some wish that an exact rule could be prescribed for their diet.
They overeat, and then regret it, and so they keep thinking about what
they eat and drink. This is not as it should be. One person cannot lay
down an exact rule for another. Everyone should exercise reason and
self-control, and should act from principle
The diet reform should be progressive. As disease in animals
increases, the use of milk and eggs will become more and more unsafe.
397
The Ministry of Healing, 305, 306
398
The Ministry of Healing, 319, 320
399
The Ministry of Healing, 308, 310