Overeating and Control of Appetite
381
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 can not 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 at regular periods.
My brother, your brain is benumbed. A man who disposes of the
quantity of food that you do, should be a laboring man. Exercise is
important to digestion, and to a healthy condition of body and mind.
You need physical exercise. You move and act as if you were wooden,
as though you had no elasticity. Healthy, active exercise is what you
need
You need to exercise temperance in all things. Cultivate the higher
powers of the mind, and there will be less strength of growth of the
animal. It is impossible for you to increase in spiritual strength while
your appetite and passions are not under perfect control. Says the
inspired apostle, “I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection;
lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should
be a castaway.”
Testimonies for the Church 2:432
Sister R is in poor health. She indulges her appetite and places
too heavy a burden upon her stomach. She burdens it by overeating,
and by placing in it a quality of food not best calculated to nourish her
system. Her food is taken in immoderate quantities and she takes but
little exercise; thus the system is severely taxed. According to the light