The condition of the physical body can affect the spirit. That is why the Lord gave us the Word of Wisdom. He also said that we should retire to our beds early and arise early…that we should not run faster than we have strength, and that we should use moderation in all good things. 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. –Ezra Taft Benson
To a great extent we a physically what we eat. Most of us are acquainted with some of the prohibitions, such as no tea, coffee, tobacco, or alcohol. What needs additional emphasis are the positive aspects–the need for vegetables, fruits, and grains, particularly wheat. In most cases, the closer these can be, when eaten, to their natural state–without overrefinement and processing–the healthier we will be.
To a significant degree, we are an overfed and undernourished nation digging an early grave with our teeth, and lacking the energy that could be ours because we overindulge in junk foods. We need a generation of young people who, as Daniel, eat in a more healthy manner than to fare on the “king’s meat” and whose countenances show it (see Daniel 1). –Ezra Taft Benson
Many of the Saints do not seem to be alive to the importance of those laws which pertain to well-being and preservation of health and strength of the body. Their old traditions cling to them, and it appears to be difficult for them to shake them off.
Yet the day must come when the people of God will be superiors, phyically and mentally, to every other people upon the face of the earth. Before this day shall come, however, the ignorant and the neglectful will either have reformed or have passed away. –George Q. Cannon
The Word of Wisdom is not a rule of conduct: it is a law–the Lord’s law of health. It was promulgated by Him. The law existed before He told it to us; it would exist if the revelation were blotted out from the book. The Church authorities have nothing to do with the law. God, speaking through the forces of the physical world, has prescribed it, and so long as those forces exist the law will remain. — J. Reuben Clark, Jr.
The revealed Word of Wisdom embodies the most advanced principles of science in the condemnation of unclean or gluttonous appetites; and if it were implicitly obeyed by the human family, it would be a power to aid in a physical redemption for the race. –George Q. Cannon
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