Counsels on Health - Ellen G. White

[Testimonies for the Church 2:412-414 (1868).]
It is sin to be intemperate in the quantity of food
eaten, even if the quality is unobjectionable. Many
feel that if they do not eat meat and the grosser
articles of food, they may eat of simple food until
they cannot well eat more. This is a mistake. Many
professed health reformers are nothing less than
gluttons. They lay upon the digestive organs so
great a burden that the vitality of the system is
exhausted in the effort to dispose of it. It also has a
depressing influence upon the intellect, for the
brain nerve power is called upon to assist the
stomach in its work. Overeating, even of the
simplest food, benumbs the sensitive nerves of the
brain and weakens its vitality. Overeating has a
worse effect upon the system than overworking;
the energies of the soul are more effectually
prostrated by intemperate eating than by
intemperate working.
The digestive organs should never be burdened
with a quantity or quality of food which it will tax
the system to appropriate. All that is taken into the
stomach, above what the system can use to convert
250