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Testimony Studies on Diet and Foods
Testimonies for the Church 2:369-370
There was one case in Montcalm County, Mich., to which I will
refer. The individual was a noble man. He stood six feet, and was
of fine appearance. I was called to visit him in his sickness. I had
previously conversed with him in regard to his manner of living. “I do
not like the looks of your eyes,” said I. He was eating large quantities
of sugar. I asked him why he did this. He said that he had left off meat,
and did not know what would supply its place as well as sugar. His
food did not satisfy him, simply because his wife did not know how
to cook. Some of you send your daughters, who have nearly grown
to womanhood, to school to learn the sciences before they know how
to cook, when this should be made of the first importance. Here was
a woman who did not know how to cook; she had not learned how
to prepare healthful food. The wife and mother was deficient in this
important branch of education; and as the result, poorly-cooked food
not being sufficient to sustain the demands of the system, sugar was
eaten immoderately, which brought on a diseased condition of the
entire system. This man’s life was sacrificed unnecessarily to bad
cooking. When I went to see the sick man, I tried to tell them as
well as I could how to manage, and soon he began slowly to improve.
But he imprudently exercised his strength when not able, ate a small
amount not of the right quality, and was taken down again. This time
there was no help for him. His system appeared to be a living mass of
corruption. He died a victim to poor cooking. He tried to make sugar
supply the place of good cooking, and it only made matters worse....
Our sisters often do not know how to cook. To such I would say,
I would go to the very best cook that could be found in the country,
and remain there, if necessary, for weeks, until I had become mistress
of the art—an intelligent, skillful cook. I would pursue this course if
I were forty years old. It is your duty to know how to cook, and it is
your duty to teach your daughters to cook. When you are teaching
them the art of cookery, you are building around them a barrier that
will preserve them from the folly and vice which they may otherwise
be tempted to engage in. I prize my seamstress, I value my copyist;
but my cook, who knows well how to prepare the food to sustain life
and nourish brain, bone, and muscle, fills the most important place
among the helpers in my family.