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Testimony Studies on Diet and Foods
meat and your children partake of them. They are fed with the very
things that will excite their animal passions, and then you come to
meeting and ask God to bless and save your children. How high do
your prayers go? You have a work to do first. When you have done all
for your children which God has left for you to do, then you can with
confidence claim the special help that God has promised to give you.
You should study temperance in all things. You must study it in
what you eat and in what you drink. And yet you say, “It is nobody’s
business what I eat or what I drink, or what I place upon my table.” It
is somebody’s business, unless you take your children and shut them
up, or go into the wilderness where you will not be a burden upon
others, and where your unruly, vicious children will not corrupt the
society in which they mingle.
Testimonies for the Church 2:400
You can not arouse the moral sensibilities of your children while
you are not careful in the selection of their food. The tables that parents
usually prepare for their children are a snare to them. Their diet is
not simple, and is not prepared in a healthful manner. The food is
frequently rich and fever-producing, having a tendency to irritate and
excite the tender coats of the stomach. The animal propensities are
strengthened and bear sway, while the moral and intellectual powers
are weakened, and become servants to the baser passions. You should
study to prepare a simple yet nutritious diet Flesh-meats, and rich
cakes and pies prepared with spices of any kind, are not the most
healthful and nourishing diet. Eggs should not be placed upon your
table. They are an injury to your children. Fruits and grains, prepared
in the most simple form, are the most healthful and will impart the
greatest amount of nourishment to the body, and at the same time, not
impair the intellect.
Regularity in eating is very important for health of body and seren-
ity of mind. Your children should eat only at the regular meal time.
They should not be allowed to digress from this established rule. When
you, Sister E, absent yourself from home, you cannot control these
important matters. Already your eldest son has enervated his entire
system and laid the foundation for permanent disease. Your second