Diet Decisionsfor Latter-day Saints
by Joyce Kinmont
(from LDS-HEA newsletter #30)
Diet Decisions
for Latter-day Saints
by Joyce Kinmont
(from LDS-HEA
newsletter #30)
The great task of life is to learn the will of the Lord and then do it.
Nearly twenty years ago President Benson expressed, I assume, the will of the Lord when he asked us to raise a generation that eats more like Daniel. He didn't say it very loudly, so not many people hear it, but if we had done what was asked, what a missionary force we would have today!
Instead, our missionaries are frequently unhealthy, and many of them are on prescription drugs. Our home school families are dealing with all manner of learning disabilities, behavior problems, and major illnesses. There is so much suffering, much of it that could be corrected. Homeschooling just isn't much fun under these circumstances.
For the past several years we have had a speaker at our conference on a health-related subject. When it came time for this year's Conference, I had so much information to share that I decided to write a book. The book covers the Word of Wisdom and other scriptures that teach us about how we should eat, and the emotion attached to diet. It asks, "Are there early graves?" President Benson said there are. Are we responsible, then, to keep ourselves on earth as long as possible?
The book includes chapters on how you might design your own vaccine, what happens when you play around with hormones, and what to do about chemical imbalance. It covers quite a lot of territory, and you may not always be comfortable with what it says.
We did introduced the book at our Conference (June '99) and at a couple of other gatherings, and we've had an excellent response. Many have said it got them thinking, or talking. That was our hope. I didn't want to set myself up as an expert (Although I did get lots of help from other experts, especially Thomas Rodgers); I just wanted to stir the pot for everyone's benefit. There is so much we still don't know; the sooner the Saints get serious about eating like Daniel, the sooner more information will be revealed.
Three comments typical of what we've received are: "The book's really got me thinking;" "My husband and I are reading it & talking about it;" and "I want to order copies for my family/friends." Here is our favorite letter:
"Thanks for writing this book. It is so informative. I am only about half thru it, but I am really impressed. I have had so many emotions as I read: excited, depressed, enlightened, discouraged, saddened, but mostly inspired!
- Collette
softbound10.95
_________
President Ezra Taft Benson:
In general, the more food we eat in its natural state and the less it is
refined without additives, the healthier it will be for us. Food can affect the
mind, and deficiencies in certain elements in the body can promote mental
depression.
– Conference
Report, October 1974, p. 91-2
President Spencer W. Kimball
(singing):
That the children may live long,
And be beautiful and strong,
Tea and coffee and tobacco they despise,
Drink no liquor, and they eat
But a very little meat;
They are seeking to be great and good and wise.
I still don't eat very much meat.
- General
Conference,
President Joseph Fielding Smith:
(Jessie Evans Smith) My husband doesn't eat meat [but rather] lots of fruit
and vegetables.
– Gerald E. Jones,
Concern for Animals as Manifest in Five American Churches: Bible Chlristian,
Shaker, Latter-Day Saint, Christian Scientist, And Seventh-Day Adventist, PhD
Dissertation, BYU, 1972, p. 118
President George Albert Smith:
In the summer he eats no meat, and even in the winter months
he eats very little.
–
statement of his son-in-law, quoted in Gerald E. Jones, Concern for Animals
as Manifest in Five American Churches: Bible Christian, Shaker, Latter-Day Saint,
Christian Scientest, And Seventh-Day Adventist ,
PhD Dissertation, BYU, 1972, p.111
President Heber J. Grant:
...during the years we have had a cafeteria in the Utah Hotel I have not,
with the exception of not more than a dozen times, ordered meat of any kind...I
have endeavored to live the Word of Wisdom and that, in my opinion, is one
reason for my good health.
– Conference
Report, April 1937, p.15
President Joseph F. Smith:
I do not believe any man should kill animals or birds unless he
"needs" them for food....Love of nature is akin to the love of God.
–"The Destruction
of Animal Life," Juvenile Instructor, 48:309, 1913
President Lorenzo Snow:
In an 1897 meeting of the first presidency and the quorum of the twelve in
the Salt Lake Temple, Apostle Snow "…introduced the subject of the Word
of Wisdom, expressing the opinion that it was violated as much or more in the
improper use of meat as in other things, and thought the time was near at hand
when the Latter-day Saints should be taught to
refrain from meat eating and the
shedding of animal blood."
– Journal History, 11
March 1897, p.2, quoted in Mormon Wisdom and Health, Kenneth Johnson,
M.D., p. 14
Apostle George Q. Cannon:
We are told that flesh of any kind is not suitable to man in the summer time,
and ought to be eaten sparingly in the winter.
– Journal of
Discourses 12:221-224
President Brigham Young:
When men live to the age of a tree, their food will be fruit.
– Disc. of
Brigham Young, p. 190