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Testimony Studies on Diet and Foods
be reflected in the disposition of the child. Thus many children have
received as a birthright almost unconquerable tendencies to evil.
But if the mother unswervingly adheres to right principles, if she
is temperate and self-denying, if she is kind, gentle and unselfish,
she may give her child these same precious traits of character. Very
explicit was the command prohibiting the use of wine by the mother.
Every drop of strong drink taken by her to gratify appetite endangers
the physical, mental and moral health of her child, and is a direct sin
against her Creator.
Many advisers urge that every wish of the mother should be grati-
fied; that if she desires any article of food, however harmful, she should
freely indulge her appetite. Such advice is false and mischievous. The
mother’s physical needs should in no case be neglected. Two lives
are depending upon her, and her wishes should be tenderly regarded,
her needs generously supplied. But at this time above all others she
should avoid, in diet and in every other line, whatever would lessen
physical or mental strength. By the command of God Himself she is
placed under the most solemn obligation to exercise self-control.
How to Live, 2:39-40
The period in which the infant receives its nourishment from the
mother, is critical. Many mothers, while nursing their infants, have
been permitted to over labor, and to heat their blood in cooking, and the
nursling has been seriously affected, not only with fevered nourishment
from the mother’s breast, but its blood has been poisoned by the
unhealthy diet of the mother, which has fevered her whole system
thereby affecting the food of the infant. The infant will also be affected
by the condition of the mother’s mind. If she is unhappy, easily
agitated, irritable, giving vent to outbursts of passion, the nourishment
the infant receives from its mother, will be inflamed, often producing
colic, spasms, and, in some instances, causing convulsions and fits.
The character also of the child is more or less affected by the nature
of the nourishment received from the mother. How important then that
the mother, while nursing her infant, should preserve a happy state of
mind, having the perfect control of her own spirit. By thus doing, the
food of the child is not injured, and the calm, self-possessed course the
mother pursues in the treatment of her child has very much to do in