Eating to Live
291
to the system. Of these our benevolent heavenly Father says we may
freely eat. Fruits, grains, and vegetables, prepared in a simple way,
free from spice and grease of all kinds, make, with milk or cream, the
most healthful diet. They impart nourishment to the body and give a
power of endurance and a vigor of intellect that are not produced by a
stimulating diet
Appetite Not a Safe Guide—Those foods should be chosen that
best supply the elements needed for building up the body. In this
choice appetite is not a safe guide. Through wrong habits of eating,
the appetite has become perverted. Often it demands food that impairs
health and causes weakness instead of strength.... The disease and
suffering that everywhere prevail are largely due to popular errors in
regard to diet
[381]
Children Who Followed an Untrained Appetite—While upon
the cars, I heard parents remark that the appetites of their children
were delicate, and unless they had meat and cake, they could not eat.
When the noon meal was taken, I observed the quality of food given
to these children. It was fine wheaten bread, sliced ham coated with
black pepper, spiced pickles, cake, and preserves. The pale, sallow
complexion of these children plainly indicated the abuses the stomach
was suffering. Two of these children observed another family of
children eating cheese with their food, and they lost their appetite for
what was before them until their indulgent mother begged a piece of
the cheese to give to her children, fearing the dear children would fail
to make out their meal. The mother remarked, “My children love this
or that so much, and I let them have what they want; for the appetite
craves the kinds of food the system requires.”
This might be correct if the appetite had never been perverted.
There is a natural and a depraved appetite. Parents who have taught
their children to eat unhealthful, stimulating food all their lives—until
the taste is perverted, and they crave clay, slate pencils, burned coffee,
tea grounds, cinnamon, cloves, and spices—cannot claim that the
appetite demands what the system requires. The appetite has been
falsely educated, until it is depraved. The fine organs of the stomach
have been stimulated and burned, until they have lost their delicate
8
Counsels on Diet and Foods, 230
.
9
The Ministry of Healing, 295, 296
.