Eating Instructions
By carefully heeding the following instructions you may avoid illnesses:
1. Eat largely of fruits and vegetables prepared in a natural yet tasty way.
- Vary your diet from meal to meal but do not eat too many varieties at one meal. Keep both the meals and the dishes simple.
- Use the whole grains, such as whole wheat bread, rye bread and oatmeal. Cooked cereals are better than the boxed dry cereals.
- Limit salt to 1/2 teaspoon or less daily, even sea salt, or substitute salt intake with Bio-Salt. Fruit juice and rich, concentrated food, even the more concentrated whole foods, such as dried fruits, sweeter fresh fruits (like bananas, figs, watermelon, etc.), nuts, seeds, avocados, olives, etc. usually should be taken in small quantities. Avoid spices, grease of all kinds, fried foods, baking powder, baking soda and vinegar.
- Eat at the same mealtime daily and allow at least five hours from the end of one meal to the beginning of the next. The digestive functions are accurately timed and do the most efficient work when kept on a regular schedule.
- Do not eat even a bite of food or drink of juice between meals. Eating between meals slows stomach emptying, giving time for the partially digested food already in the stomach to ferment.
- Eat a substantial breakfast which should more nearly correspond to the largest meal of the day. If eaten at all, supper should be light (fruit and whole grains, such as an apple, rye crisps, or zwieback) and this four hours or more before retiring.
- Eat all you need to maintain health, and enjoy your food, but do not overeat. Too much food dulls and depresses the mind, causes disease and fatigue, helps bring on senility and shortens life.
- Eating slowly and chewing your food thoroughly will increase the enjoyment as well as the nutritional benefits derived from it. Mealtime should be pleasant and unhurried.
- Drink enough water daily to keep the urine quite pale, (at least eight glasses) but do not drink with your meals or immediately before or after them. It is best not to drink sooner than a half-hour before a meal and wait 2 hours after a meal to drink more water. "Water is the best liquid possible to cleanse the tissues." ("How To Live", p. 226.,White)
Causes Of Digestive Disturbances
Eating Between Meals --"Food ... should be partaken of only at regular periods, not oftener than three times a day and two meals would be better than three ... Irregularities in eating destroy the healthy tone of the digestive organs." (from Ellen G. White’s book "How To Live", p. 228-229)
"A second meal should never be eaten until the stomach has had time to rest from the labor of digesting the preceding meal." ("Selected Messages", Vol.2, p. 415, White)
"Five hours at least should be given between each meal, and always bear in mind that if you give it a trial, you would find two meals better than three." ("How To Live", p. 83, White)
There should be time for the stomach to digest the food and then have a rest period before taking on more work. A tired stomach cannot digest more food even if it is the best of quality. The gastric glands will not begin to produce again until after at least five hours. They must rest to prepare for further activity. It is actually better for you to be hungry for a short while; then you know your stomach is ready for more food. But don’t confuse this with a false hunger feeling that may be actually a distress signal coming from a tired stomach that is getting too much food and too often. If you are eating natural foods in balanced combinations you will obtain enough energy from the food that you eat to sustain you the five or more hours. However, with junk food, you are getting concentrated food with little nutritional value, and you will get hungry before the five or more hours expire.
"After disposing of one meal, the digestive organs need rest. At least five or six hours should intervene between meals; and most persons who give the plan a trial, will find that two meals a day are better than three." ("Ministry Of Healing", p. 30, White)
"You should never let a morsel pass your lips between your regular meals. Eat what you ought, but eat it at one meal, and then wait until the next." ("How To Live", p. 85, White)
Many X-ray studies have been conducted showing that if even one bite of food - even of the best quality - is eaten before the five hours are up, food can stay trapped in the stomach possibly longer than 72 hours. (In this particular study, X-rays were stopped at that point, so it could have become even longer.)
REMEMBER that this is one of the most important rules of health.
Chewing Gum: -- Dr. J. H. Kellogg says,"The habit of chewing gum is likely to produce sour stomach by interfering with the digestion of starch through lessening the activity of saliva." The mouth produces the enzyme, ptyalin, which breaks down starch. When the salivary glands are constantly at work in the process of gum chewing, then they will eventually lose their tone and not work efficiently to break down starch when you eat a regular meal.
Combining fruits and vegetables: -- "Fruits and vegetables taken at one meal produce acidity of the stomach; then impurity of the blood results, and the mind is not clear because the digestion is imperfect."
Cooking in aluminum wares using aluminum in any form: -- Aluminum is a soft metal which will rub off into your food. To test to see if your ware is aluminum, rub vigorously over the surface with a piece of white tissue. The aluminum will rub off on the tissue, turning the white tissue to a silver gray color. Ingesting aluminum has been documented to be toxic to the body. Those who wish to pursue the documentation may write to Health Research,
Drinking with meals, liquid foods: -- "Taken with meals, water diminishes the flow of saliva: and the colder the water, the greater the injury to the stomach...No drink is needed with meals. Eat slowly, and allow the saliva to mingle with the food." (2) Counsels on Diet and Foods (CD) pg. 420. "The more liquid there is taken into the stomach with the meals, the more difficult it is for the food to digest: for the liquid must first be absorbed." (3) Counsels on Diet and Foods (CD) pg. 106. "Taken in a liquid state, your food would not give healthful vigor or tone to the system...Dry food that requires mastication is far preferable to porridges." (4) How to Live (HL) pg. 90. "If anything is needed to quench thirst, pure water, drunk some little time before or after the meal, is all that nature requires. Never take tea, coffee, beer, wine, or any spirituous liquors. Water is the best liquid possible to cleanse the tissues." (5) Counsels on Diet and Foods (CD) pg. 420.
Eating just before going to bed: -- "Another pernicious habit that of eating just before bedtime...The sleep is often disturbed with unpleasant dreams, and in the morning the person awakes unrefreshed and with little relish for breakfast. When we lie down to rest, the stomach should have its work done, that it, as well as the other organs of the body, may enjoy rest." (11) Ministry of Healing (MH) pi. 303-304. "If you feel that you must eat at night, take a drink of cold water, and in the morning you will feel much better for not having eaten." (12) How to Live (HL) pg. 85. The goal is to have the stomach empty by the time you are ready for bed. For this to happen, solid food must be eaten several hours before going to bed, as well as at least 5 hours after the preceding meal. At night when you are sleeping, your body processes slow down and the digestion proceeds to only half,pace, so your stomach has to work all night if it has food in it when you go to bed, and even after working all night the food still will not be digested.
Eating too fast: -- In this violation, we are undermining the process of digestion in the mouth. "Food should be eaten slowly and should be thoroughly masticated. This is necessary in order that the saliva may be properly mixed with the food and the digestive fluids be called into action." (13) Gospel Workers (GW) pg. 241. "Do not be hurried, but eat slowly and with cheerfulness, your heart filled with gratitude to God for all His blessings." (14) How to Live (HL) pg. 86. "In order to have good digestion, food should be eaten slowly."(l5) "If your time to eat is limited, do not bolt your food, but eat less, and eat slowly."(l6) "The benefit you derive from your food does not depend so much on the quantity eaten, as on its thorough digestion: not the gratification of the taste so much on the amount of food swallowed as on the length of time it remains in the mouth."(17)
Eating too great a variety at one meal: -- "Rich and complicated mixtures are health destroying."(l8) How to Live (HL) pg. 91. "So many varieties are introduced into the stomach that fermentation is the result. This condition brings on acute disease, and death frequently follows."(l9) Counsels on Diet and Foods (CD) pg. 110.
Eating when tired, excited or nervous: -- "Another serious evil is eating at improper times, as after violent or excessive exercise, when one is much exhausted or heated. Immediately after eating there is a strong draft upon the nervous energies: and when mind and body is heavily taxed just before or just after eating, digestion is hindered. When one is excited, anxious, or hurried, it is better not to eat until rest or relief is found."(20) Ministry of Healing (MH) pi. 305, 306. When the body is exhausted, the stomach is in no condition to receive food. It is better-to rest 10 to 15 minutes before eating and then digestion can proceed normally. If you have lost considerable sleep, it is more important to get sleep than food at that point.
Grease: -- "Grease cooked in the food renders it difficult of digestion."(21) How to Live (HL) pg. 95. "You should keep grease out of your food. It defiles any preparation of food you may make."(22) Ibid, p. 95. "Butter and meat stimulate. They have injured the stomach and perverted the taste. "(23) Ibid, p. 95. Grease coated food cannot be digested in the stomach, but the stomach keeps trying and eventually kicks it out into the intestines in a putrefied state. Natural oils in the context of the food are digested when they reach the small intestine, avoiding interference with the digestive process of the stomach.
Improper dress: -- "When the extremities [arms and legs], which are remote from the vital organs are not properly clad, the blood is driven to the head, causing headache or nosebleed; or there is a sense of fullness about the chest producing cough or palpitation of the heart, on account of too much blood in that locality: or the stomach has too much blood, causing indigestion. "(24) How to Live (HL) pg. 125. We need equalized circulation to have good digestion. "In order to maintain equal circulation, there should be an equal distribution of clothing, which will bring equal warmth to all parts of the body."(25) Ibid., p. 69. Try feeling your chest area, then feel your legs and/or arms. They should all be of the same warmth if an equalized circulation is to be maintained. Most of us wear clothing enough, but many fail to give every part of the body its due proportion.
Lack of physical exercise, combined with constant brain labor: -- "The stomach is closely related to the brain: and when the stomach is diseased, the nerve power is called from the brain to the aid of the weakened digestive organs. When these demands are too frequent, the brain becomes congested. When the brain is constantly taxed, and there is lack of physical exercise, even plain food should be eaten sparingly."(26) Ministry of Healing (MH) pi. 306
Newly raised breads: -- "The use of soda or baking powder in breadmaking is harmful and unnecessary. Soda causes inflammation of the stomach, and often poisons the entire system."(27) Counsels on Diet and Foods (CD) pg. 342. "Hot biscuits raised with soda or baking powder should never appear upon our tables. Such compounds are unfit to enter the stomach. Hot raised bread of any kind is difficult of digestion."(28) Ibid., p. 343. "When hot, or new/ raised bread of any kind is difficult of digestion. It should never appear on the table. This rule, does not, however, apply to unleavened bread."(29) Ibid., p. 316. "Zwieback, or twice-baked bread, is one of the most easily digested and most palatable of foods."(30) Ibid., p. 317. "Bread which is two or three days old is more healthful than new bread. Bread dried in the oven is one of the most wholesome articles of diet."(31) Ibid., p. 317. Science has discovered that yeast has a volatile action, which is not eliminated until after 2-3 days.
Overeating: -- "Excessive eating of even the best of food will produce a morbid condition of the moral feelings . ..Everything that conflicts with natural law creates a diseased condition of the soul."(32) How to Live (HL) pg. 41. "If we overeat, the brain power is taxed to take care of a large quantity of food that the system does not demand, the mind is clouded, and the perception enfeebled."(33) Ibid., p. 88. "Some make themselves sick by overwork. For these: rest, freedom from care, and a spare diet, are essential to restoration of health."(34) Ministry of Healing (MH) p. 236. "Overeating, even of the most wholesome food, is to be guarded against. Nature can use no more than is required for building up the various organs of the body, and excess clogs the system. Many a student is supposed to have broken down from overstudy, when the real cause was overeating. While proper attention is given to the laws of health, there is little danger from mental taxation; but in many cases of so-called mental failure it is the overcrowding of the stomach that wearies the body and weakens the mind."(35) Education (Ed) p. 205.
Soft Drinks: -- Containing at least 25 natural and synthetic flavorings: colorings, sweeteners, in addition to anti-foaming agents, color fixatives, sequestrants, buffers, preservatives, anti-oxidants, oils, sugar, etc., one would wonder why they are even ingested. Many of the harmful additives and ingredients contained in soft drinks are hurtful to the digestive organs.
Spices, Irritants: -- "Mustard, pepper/ spices, pickles, and other things of a like character, irritate the stomach and make the blood feverish and impure. The inflamed condition of the drunkard’s stomach is often pictured as illustrating the effect of the alcoholic liquors. A similarly inflamed condition is produced by the use of irritating condiments."(36) Counsels on Diet and Foods (CD) pg. 339. "Our tables should bear only the most wholesome food, free from every irritating substance. The appetite for liquor is encouraged by the preparation of food with condiments and spices. These cause a feverish state of the system and drink is demanded to allay the irritation."(37) Counsels on Diet and Foods (CD) pp. 339, 340. "Spices at first irritate the tender coating of the stomach, but finally destroy the natural sensitiveness of this delicate membrane."(38) Counsels on Diet and Foods (CD) pg. 341. "Persons who have indulged their appetite to eat freely of meat, highly seasoned gravies, and various kinds of rich cakes and preserves! cannot immediately relish a plain, wholesome, nutritious diet. Their taste is so perverted they have not appetite for a wholesome diet of fruits, plain bread, and vegetables. They need not expect to relish at first food so different from that in which they have been indulging."(39) Ibid, p. 341. "Do not eat largely of salt,(Bio-Salt is a nutrient and in the same category as herbs), avoid the use of pickles and spiced foods, eat an abundance of fruit, and the irritation that calls for so much drink at mealtime will largely disappear."(40) Ibid, p. 344. "The salads are prepared with oil and vinegar, fermentation takes place in the stomach, and the food does not digest, but decays or putrefies; as a consequence, the blood is not nourished, but becomes filled with impurities, and liver and kidney difficulties appear."(41) Ibid, p. 345.
Eating too great a variety at one meal: -- "Rich and complicated mixtures are health destroying."(l8) How to Live (HL) pg. 91. "So many varieties are introduced into the stomach that fermentation is the result. This condition brings on acute disease, and death frequently follows."(l9) Counsels on Diet and Foods (CD) pg. 110.
Unripe, spoiled or overripe food: -- All are difficult of digestion and will cause digestive problems.
Very cold food or drink: -- "Food should not be eaten...very cold. If food is cold, the vital force of the stomach is drawn upon in order to warm it before digestion can take place. Cold drinks are injurious for the same reason."(42) Counsels on Diet and Foods (CD) pg. 106. "Vitality must be drawn from the system to warm the food until it becomes of the same temperature as the stomach before the work of digestion can be carried on."(43) How to Live (HL) pg. 91. Cold food and drink act as an excitant, suspending digestion and drawing blood to the stomach to equalize the circulation.
Very hot food: -- "Very hot food ought not to be taken into the stomach. Soups, puddings, and other articles of the kind, are often eaten too hot, and as a consequence the stomach is debilitated. Let them become partly cooled before they are eaten."(44) Ibid, p. 91. Hot foods tend to have a sedating influence on the stomach, which would slow down digestion.
From The Whole Kernel, Book II, pp. 20-21, by Dr. Ede Koenig, Ph.D.
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