314
Testimony Studies on Diet and Foods
stomach, and causes a craving for still stronger stimulants. Not only
is the appetite tempted with unsuitable food, of which the children
are allowed to eat freely at their meals, but they are permitted to eat
between meals, and by the time they are twelve or fourteen years of
age they are often confirmed dyspeptics.
You have perhaps seen a picture of the stomach of one who is
addicted to strong drink. A similar condition is produced under the
irritating influence of fiery spices. With the stomach in such a state,
there is a craving for something more to meet the demands of the
appetite, something stronger, and still stronger.
Testimonies for the Church 3:563
Many mothers who deplore the intemperance which exists every-
where, do not look deep enough to see the cause. They are daily
preparing a variety of dishes and highly-seasoned food, which tempt
the appetite and encourage overeating. The tables of our American
people are generally prepared in a manner to make drunkards. Ap-
petite is the ruling principle with a large class. Whoever will indulge
appetite in eating too often, and food not of a healthful quality, is
weakening his power to resist the clamors of appetite and passion in
other respects in proportion as he has strengthened the propensity of
incorrect habits of eating. Mothers need to be impressed with their
obligation to God and to the world to furnish society with children
having well-developed characters. Men and women who come upon
the stage of action with firm principles will be fitted to stand unsullied
amid the moral pollutions of this corrupt age.... The tables of many
professed Christian women are daily set with a variety of dishes which
irritate the stomach and produce a feverish condition of the system.
Flesh-meats constitute the principle article of food upon the tables of
some families, until their blood is filled with cancerous and scrofulous
humors. Their bodies are composed of what they eat. But when suf-
fering and disease come upon them, it is considered an affliction of
Providence.
We repeat: Intemperance commences at our tables. The appetite is
indulged until its indulgence becomes second nature. By the use of
tea and coffee an appetite is formed for tobacco, and this encourages
the appetite for liquors.