Eating for the Wrong Reasons

Some of us, when stressed or depressed, tend to eat too much, even though we see the results in unwanted weight gain. Others happily indulge at potlucks, holiday feasts, social get-togethers, and the like. The positive or negative interplay of food, family and friends is a potent one. Again the counsel stresses digestion and its profound effect on health. “The stomach suffers when so many kinds of food are placed in it at one meal.” Counsels on Diet, 275.

“What influence does overeating have upon the stomach? It becomes debilitated, the digestive organs are weakened, and disease, with all its train of evils, is brought on as the result. If persons were diseased before, they thus increase the difficulties upon them, and lessen their vitality every day they live. They call their vital powers into unnecessary action to take care of the food that they place in their stomachs.” Counsels on Diet and Foods, 112.

Furthermore, “the system receives less nourishment from too great a quantity of food, even of the right quality, than from a moderate quantity taken at regular periods.” Testimonies to the Church, Vol. 2, 412.