Eating to Live
299
and a large dinner is wrong. Make your breakfast correspond more
nearly to the heartiest meal of the day
Provide an Abundance of the Best Foods—Children and youth
should not be underfed in the least degree; they should have an abun-
dance of healthful food, but this does not mean that it is proper to place
before them rich cakes and pastries. They should have the best of
exercise and the best of food, for these have an important bearing upon
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the condition of the mental and moral powers. A proper, wholesome
diet will be one of the means whereby healthful digestion may be
preserved
Partake of This in Moderation—Parents often make a mistake
by giving their children too much food. Children treated in this way
will grow up dyspeptics. Moderation in the use of even good food is
essential. Parents, place before your children the amount they should
eat. Leave it not with them to eat just as much as they may feel
inclined.... Parents, unless this point is guarded, your children will
have dull perceptions. They may attend school, but they will be unable
to learn as they ought; for the strength which should go to the brain is
used in taking care of the extra food that burdens the stomach. Parents
need to be educated to see that too much food given to children makes
them feeble instead of robust
Parents, Not Children, to Dictate Here—Teach them to deny
appetite, to be grateful for the plain, simple diet God gives them. It is
not for you to allow them to dictate to you what they should eat, but
you should dictate what is best for them. It is a sin for you to allow
your children to murmur and complain about good wholesome food,
just because it does not suit their depraved appetites
Do not let the child receive the impression that, because he is your
child, he must therefore be deferred to and permitted to choose and
direct his own way. He should not be permitted to choose articles of
food that are not good for him, simply because he likes them. The
experience of parents should have a controlling power in the life of the
child
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34
Counsels on Diet and Foods, 173
.
35
Letter 19, 1892
.
36
Manuscript 155, 1899
.
37
Letter 23, 1888
.
38
The Signs of the Times, August 13, 1896
.