18. I have not bought a penny’s worth of tea for years. Knowing its influence, I would not dare to use it, except in cases of severe vomiting when I take it as a medicine, but not as a beverage....
(CD 490.1)
MC
VC
I am not guilty of drinking any tea except red-clover-top tea, and if I liked wine, tea, and coffee, I would not use these health-destroying narcotics, for I prize health and I prize a healthful example in all these things. I want to be a pattern of temperance and of good works to others.—Letter 12, 1888
(CD 490.2)
MC
VC
[Statement Regarding Diet in 1902-522]
(CD 490)
MC
VC
19. My health is good. My appetite is excellent. I find that the simpler my food, and the fewer varieties I eat, the stronger I am.—Letter 150, 1903
(CD 490.3)
MC
VC
20. In our family we have breakfast at half past six o’clock, and dinner at half past one. We have no supper. We would change our times of eating a little, were it not for the fact that these are the most convenient hours for some of the members of the family.
(CD 490.4)
MC
VC
I eat but two meals a day, and still follow the light given me thirty-five years ago. I use no meat. As for myself, I have settled the butter question. I do not use it. This question should easily be settled in every place where the purest article cannot be obtained. We have two good milch cows, a Jersey and a Holstein. We use cream, and all are satisfied with this.—Letter 45, 1903
(CD 490.5)
MC
VC
21. I am seventy-five years old; but I do as much writing as I ever did. My digestion is good, and my brain is clear.
(CD 490.6)
MC
VC
It is many years since I have had meat on my table at home. We never use tea or coffee. Occasionally I have used red-clover-blossom tea for a warm drink, but few of my family drink any fluid at our meals. The table is provided with cream instead of butter, even though we have company present. I have not used butter for many years.
(CD 492.1)
MC
VC
Yet we do not have an impoverished diet. We have an abundance of dried and canned fruit. If our own fruit crop is short, we buy some in the market. Sister Gray sends me the seedless grapes, and these stewed make a very appetizing dish. We raise our own loganberries, and use them freely. Strawberries do not grow well in this locality, but from our neighbors we purchase blackberries, raspberries, apples, and pears. We have also an abundance of tomatoes. We also raise a fine variety of sweet corn, and dry a large amount for use during the winter months. Near by us is a food factory, where we can supply ourselves with the grain preparations.
(CD 492.2)
MC
VC
We endeavor to use good judgment in determining what combinations of food best agree with us. It is our duty to act wisely in regard to our habits of eating, to be temperate, and to learn to reason from cause to effect. If we will do our part, then the Lord will do His part in preserving our brain-nerve power.
(CD 492.3)
MC
VC
For more than forty years I have eaten but two meals a day. And if I have a specially important work to do, I limit the quantity of food that I take. I regard it as my duty to refuse to place in my stomach any food that I have reason to believe will create disorder. My mind must be sanctified to God, and I must guard carefully against any habit that would tend to lessen my powers of intellect.
(CD 492.4)
MC
VC
I am now in my eighty-first year, and I can bear testimony that we do not, as a family, hunger for the fleshpots of Egypt. I have known something of the benefits to be received by living up to the principles of health reform. I consider it a privilege as well as a duty to be a health reformer.
(CD 492.5)
MC
VC