Gluttony a Sin
[
Testimonies for the Church 2:412-414
(1868).]
It is sin to be intemperate in the quantity of food eaten, even if
the quality is unobjectionable. Many feel that if they do not eat meat
and the grosser articles of food, they may eat of simple food until
they cannot well eat more. This is a mistake. Many professed health
reformers are nothing less than gluttons. They lay upon the digestive
organs so great a burden that the vitality of the system is exhausted
in the effort to dispose of it. It also has a depressing influence upon
the intellect, for the brain nerve power is called upon to assist the
stomach in its work. Overeating, even of the simplest food, benumbs
the sensitive nerves of the brain and weakens its vitality. Overeating
has a worse effect upon the system than overworking; the energies of
the soul are more effectually prostrated by intemperate eating than by
intemperate working.
The digestive organs should never be burdened with a quantity or
quality of food which it will tax the system to appropriate. All that is
taken into the stomach, above what the system can use to convert into
good blood, clogs the machinery, for it cannot be made into either flesh
or blood, and its presence burdens the liver and produces a morbid
condition of the system. The stomach is overworked in its efforts to
dispose of it, and then there is a sense of languor which is interpreted
to mean hunger, and without allowing the digestive organs time to rest
from their severe labor, to recruit their energies, another immoderate
amount is taken into the stomach, to set the weary machinery again in
motion. The system receives less nourishment from too great a quantity
of food, even of the right quality, than from a moderate quantity taken
[161]
at regular periods....
It is impossible to have clear conceptions of eternal things unless
the mind is trained to dwell upon elevated themes. All the passions
must be brought under perfect subjection to the moral powers. When
men and women profess strong faith and earnest spirituality, I know
172