Signs of the Times, Book 1 - Ellen G. White

and of health, they will realize the blessed results of an entire health reform.
But many make a mistake at the very commencement of their reform. They
go to extremes. They carry their ideas too far. Their views in regard to
healthful diet are too narrow. They have the same articles of food upon their
tables, with scarcely a variation, from week to week, and from month to
month. They take no pains to prepare fruits and grains in an inviting as well
as healthful manner, and, after this course has been rigidly followed for a
while, they decide that they cannot follow out the principles of health reform,
and go back to their former manner of living.
Those who set out from impulse and pursue a radical course for a time
and then go back, do great injury to the cause. Many make too great and
sudden changes in their diet. As the light of health reform comes to them,
conscience is aroused in regard to their eating and drinking, and in their
effort to change their habits of living they do not preserve a safe medium, but
go to an extreme at once. They reduce the quantity and quality of their food.
This abstemiousness reduces their strength, and really injures their health.
They finally conclude that they cannot live the health reform. The real facts
in the case are, they never did carry out its principles. Health reform as we
understand it, does not consist in an impoverished diet. The table should be
well provided with fruits and grains prepared in such a manner that they are
not only nutritious but inviting.
Some get the idea that to adopt the health reform is to subsist upon the
very cheapest food prepared with the least labor. This is not true. It is a libel
on the principles of health reform. The human system must have
nourishment, and all cannot relish the same dishes. So when the table is
spread with the same article of food, prepared in the same way, meal after
meal and day after day, some members of the family may be well satisfied
and enjoying their food very much, while others may be only able to eat
sparingly of one dish and the wants of the system will not be met; for it is a
fact that some persons cannot relish, or be nourished by articles of food
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