CD 260, 296, 473
(Counsels on Diet and Foods 260, 296, 473)
Study and Practice VC
392. Many do not feel that this [Cooking] is a matter of duty, hence they do not try to prepare food properly. This can be done in a simple, healthful, and easy manner, without the use of lard, butter, or flesh meats. Skill must be united with simplicity. To do this, women must read, and then patiently reduce what they read to practice. Many are suffering because they will not take the trouble to do this. I say to such, It is time for you to rouse your dormant energies and read up. Learn how to cook with simplicity, and yet in a manner to secure the most palatable and healthful food. (CD 260.1) MC VC
Because it is wrong to cook merely to please the taste, or to suit the appetite, no one should entertain the idea that an impoverished diet is right. Many are debilitated with disease, and need a nourishing, plentiful, well-cooked diet....—Testimonies for the Church 1:681-685, 1868 (CD 260.2) MC VC
An Important Branch of Education VC
It is a religious duty for those who cook to learn how to prepare healthful food in different ways, so that it may be eaten with enjoyment. Mothers should teach their children how to cook. What branch of the education of a young lady can be so important as this? The eating has to do with the life. Scanty, impoverished, ill-cooked food is constantly depraving the blood, by weakening the blood-making organs. It is highly essential that the art of cookery be considered one of the most important branches of education. There are but few good cooks. Young ladies consider that it is stooping to a menial office to become a cook. This is not the case. They do not view the subject from a right stand-point. Knowledge of how to prepare food healthfully, especially bread, is no mean science.... (CD 260.3) MC VC
There is danger of providing too limited a diet for people who have come directly from a diet so abundant as to encourage gluttony. The fare should be liberal. But at the same time, it should be simple. I know that food can be prepared simply, and yet be so palatable as to be enjoyed even by those who have been accustomed to a richer fare. (CD 296.1) MC VC
Let fruit be placed on the table in abundance. I am glad that you are able to provide for the sanitarium table, fruit fresh from your own orchards. This is indeed a great advantage.—Letter 171, 1903 (CD 296.2) MC VC
[Not Every One Can Use Vegetables—516] (CD 296) MC VC
The Education of the Sanitarium Table VC
442. In the preparation of the food, the golden rays of light are to be kept shining, teaching those who sit at the table how to live. This education is also to be given to those who visit the Health Retreat, that they may carry from it reformatory principles.—Letter 71, 1896 (CD 296.3) MC VC
443. The preparation of food for sanitarium patients needs close and careful attention. Some of the patients come from homes in which the tables are daily loaded with rich food, and every effort should be made to set before them food that is both appetizing and wholesome.—Letter 73, 1905 (CD 296.4) MC VC
To Recommend Health Reform VC
The Lord would have the institution with which you are connected one of the most satisfying and enjoyable places in the world. I want you to show special care in providing for the patients a diet that will not endanger health, and at the same time will recommend our principles of health reform. This can be done, and being done, it will make a favorable impression on the minds of the patients. It will be an education to them, showing them the advantage of hygienic living above their own way of living. And when they leave the institution, they will carry with them a report that will influence others to go there. (CD 296.5) MC VC
Sometimes a short temperance lecture was given in connection with these entertainments, and thus people became acquainted with our principles of living. As far as we know, all were pleased and all were enlightened. We always had something to say about the necessity of providing wholesome food and of preparing it simply, and yet making it so palatable and appetizing that those eating it would be satisfied. (CD 473.1) MC VC
The world is full of the temptation to indulge appetite, and words of warning, earnest and right to the point, have made wonderful changes in families and in individuals.—Letter 166, 1903 (CD 473.2) MC VC
The Opportunities and Dangers of Our Restaurants VC
815. Light was also given that in the cities there would be opportunity to do a work similar to that which we did on the Battle Creek fairgrounds. In harmony with this light, hygienic restaurants have been established. But there is grave danger that our restaurant workers will become so imbued with the spirit of commercialism that they will fail to impart the light which the people need. Our restaurants bring us in contact with many people, but if we allow our minds to be engrossed with the thought of financial profit, we shall fail to fulfill the purpose of God. He would have us take advantage of every opportunity to present the truth that is to save men and women from eternal death. (CD 473.3) MC VC
I have tried to ascertain how many souls have been converted to the truth as a result of the restaurant work here in -----. Some may have been saved, but many more might be converted to God if every effort were made to conduct the work in God’s order, and to let light shine into the pathway of others. (CD 473.4) MC VC