Chapter 5—Combinations

Letter 135, 1902

Let those who advocate health reform strive earnestly to make it all that they claim it is. Let them discard everything detrimental to health. Use simple, wholesome food. Fruit is excellent, and saves much cooking. Discard rich pastries, cakes, desserts, and the other dishes prepared to tempt the appetite. Eat fewer kinds of food at one meal, and eat with thanksgiving.TSDF 16.5

Testimonies for the Church 7:133-134

In the use of foods, we should exercise good, sound common sense. When we find that a certain food does not agree with us, we need not write letters of inquiry to learn the cause of the disturbance. Change the diet; use less of some foods; try other preparations. Soon we shall know the effect that certain combinations have on us. As intelligent human beings, let us individually study the principles, and use our experience and judgment in deciding what foods are best for us.TSDF 16.6

Review and Herald, July 29, 1884 (Healthful Living, 82.2)

Do not have too great a variety at a meal; three or four dishes are a plenty. At the next meal you can have a change. The cook should tax her inventive powers to vary the dishes she prepares for the table, and the stomach should not be compelled to take the same kinds of food meal after meal.TSDF 16.7

Manuscript 93, 1901

Many eat too rapidly. Others eat at one meal food which does not agree. If men and women would only remember how greatly they afflict the soul when they afflict the stomach, and how deeply Christ is dishonored when the stomach is abused, they would be brave and self-denying, giving the stomach opportunity to recover its healthy action. While sitting at the table we may do medical missionary work by eating and drinking to the glory of God.TSDF 16.8

Unpublished Testimonies, October 29, 1894 (Healthful Living, 82.6)

I advise the people to give up sweet puddings or custards made with eggs and milk and sugar, and to eat the best home-made bread, both graham and white, with dried or green fruits, and let that be the only course for one meal; then let the next meal be of nicely prepared vegetables.TSDF 16.9

The Youth's Instructor, May 31, 1894 (Healthful Living, 83.1)

If we would preserve the best health, we should avoid eating vegetables and fruit at the same meal. If the stomach is feeble, there will be distress, and the brain will be confused, and unable to put forth mental effort. Have fruit at one meal and vegetables at the next.TSDF 17.1

Testimonies for the Church 2:63

There should not be many kinds at any one meal, but all meals should not be composed of the same kinds of food without variation. Food should be prepared with simplicity, yet with nicety which will invite the appetite.TSDF 17.2

Gospel Workers, 174

Another cause of ill health and of inefficiency in labor, is indigestion. It is impossible for the brain to do its best work when the digestive powers are abused. Many eat hurriedly of various kinds of food, which set up a war in the stomach, and thus confuse the brain.TSDF 17.3

Manuscript 3, 1897

It is not well to take a great variety of foods at one meal. When fruit and bread, together with a variety of other foods that do not agree are crowded into the stomach at one meal, what can we expect but that a disturbance will be created?TSDF 17.4

The Ministry of Healing, 299-300

There should not be a great variety at any one meal, for this encourages overeating, and causes indigestion.TSDF 17.5

It is not well to eat fruit and vegetables at the same meal. If the digestion is feeble, the use of both will often cause distress, and inability to put forth mental effort. It is better to have the fruit at one meal and the vegetables at another.TSDF 17.6

The Ministry of Healing, 302

Far too much sugar is ordinarily used in food. Cakes, sweet puddings, pastries, jellies, jams, are active causes of indigestion. Especially harmful are the custards and puddings in which milk, eggs and sugar are the chief ingredients. The free use of milk and sugar taken together should be avoided.TSDF 17.7

The Ministry of Healing, 310

Here is a suggestion for all whose work is sedentary or chiefly mental; let those who have sufficient moral courage and self-control try it. At each meal take only two or three kinds of simple food, and eat no more than is required to satisfy hunger.TSDF 17.8

Unpublished Testimonies, October 29, 1894 (Healthful Living, 82.6)

I advise the people to give up sweet puddings or custards made with eggs and milk and sugar, and to eat the best home-made bread, both graham and white, with dried or green fruits, and let that be the only course for one meal; then let the next meal be of nicely prepared vegetables.TSDF 17.9

Unpublished Testimonies, August 30, 1896 (Healthful Living, 81.5)

If your work is sedentary, take exercise every day, and at each meal eat only two or three kinds of simple food, taking no more of these than will satisfy the demands of hunger.TSDF 17.10

Testimonies for the Church 7:257

At bountiful tables, men often eat much more than can be easily digested. The overburdened stomach can not do its work properly. The result is a disagreeable feeling of dullness in the brain, and the mind does not act quickly. Disturbance is created by improper combinations of food; fermentation sets in; the blood is contaminated and the brain confused.TSDF 17.11

The habit of overeating, or of eating too many kinds of food at one meal, frequently causes dyspepsia. Serious injury is thus done to the delicate digestive organs. In vain the stomach protests, and appeals to the brain to reason from cause to effect. The excessive amount of food eaten, or the improper combination, does its injurious work. In vain do disagreeable premonitions give warning. Suffering is the consequence. Disease takes the place of health.TSDF 17.12

Unpublished Testimonies, August 25, 1897 (Healthful Living, 207.1)

Many are made sick by the indulgence of appetite.... So many varieties are introduced into the stomach that fermentation is the result. This condition brings on acute disease, and death frequently follows.TSDF 17.13

Unpublished Testimonies, November 5, 1896 (Healthful Living, 166.2)

The less that condiments and desserts are placed upon our tables, the better it will be for all who partake of the food. All mixed and complicated foods are injurious to the health of human beings. Dumb animals would never eat such a mixture as is often placed in the human stomach.... Rich and complicated mixtures of food are health destroying.TSDF 17.14

Christian Temperance and Bible Hygiene, 57

Some use milk and a large amount of sugar on mush, thinking that they are carrying out health reform. But the sugar and the milk combined are liable to cause fermentation in the stomach, and are thus harmful.TSDF 17.15

Unpublished Testimonies, August 30, 1896 (Healthful Living, 82.1)

It would be better to eat only two or three different kinds of food at each meal than to load the stomach with many varieties.TSDF 17.16