Eating to Live
297
their meals and would find a pleasure in eating that would repay them
for their effort
Teach Children When, How, and What to Eat—Children are
generally untaught in regard to the importance of when, how, and
what they should eat. They are permitted to indulge their tastes freely,
to eat at all hours, to help themselves to fruit when it tempts their
eyes; and this, with the pie, cake, bread and butter, and sweetmeats
eaten almost constantly, makes them gourmands and dyspeptics. The
digestive organs, like a mill which is continually kept running, become
enfeebled, vital force is called from the brain to aid the stomach in its
overwork, and thus the mental powers are weakened. The unnatural
stimulation and wear of the vital forces make them nervous, impatient
of restraint, self-willed, and irritable. They can scarcely be trusted out
of their parents’ sight. In many cases the moral powers seem deadened,
and it is difficult to arouse them to a sense of the shame and grievous
nature of sin; they slip easily into habits of prevarication, deceit, and
often open lying.
Parents deplore these things in their children, but do not realize that
it is their own bad management which has brought about the evil. They
have not seen the necessity of restraining the appetites and passions of
their children, and they have grown and strengthened with their years.
Mothers prepare with their own hands and place before their children
food which has a tendency to injure them physically and mentally
[389]
Never Eat Between Meals—The stomach must have careful at-
tention. It must not be kept in continual operation. Give this misused
and much-abused organ some peace and quiet and rest....
After the regular meal is eaten, the stomach should be allowed to
rest for five hours. Not a particle of food should be introduced into the
stomach till the next meal. In this interval the stomach will perform
its work and will then be in a condition to receive more food
Mothers make a great mistake in permitting them [their children]
to eat between meals. The stomach becomes deranged by this practice,
and the foundation is laid for future suffering. Their fretfulness may
have been caused by unwholesome food, still undigested; but the
mother feels that she cannot spend time to reason upon the matter and
28
Counsels on Diet and Foods, 179
.
29
Pacific Health Journal, May, 1890
.
30
Counsels on Diet and Foods, 173, 179
.