Overload the Stomach Brigham Young, 1867

You get up in the morning and have your cup of tea, your fried ham, and cold beef and mince pies, and everything you can possibly cram into the stomach, until you surfeit the system and lay the foundation for disease and early death. Says the mother—“Do eat, my little daughter, you are sick; take a piece of pie, toast, or meat, or drink a little tea or coffee; you must take something or other.” Mothers in Israel, such a course engenders disease, and you are laying a foundation that will cut off one-half or two-thirds of the lives of your children. . . .

You may think that these things are not of much importance; no more they are, unless they are observed, but let the people observe them and they lay the foundation for longevity, and they will begin to live out their days, not only a hundred years, but, by and bye, hundreds of years on the earth. Do you think they will stuff themselves then with tea and coffee, and perhaps with a little brandy sling before breakfast and a little before going to bed, and then beef, pork, mutton, sweet-meats, and pastry, morning, noon, and night? No; you will find they will live as our first parents did, on fruits and on a little simple food, and they will never overload the stomach. [“General Instructions to the Missionaries Going Abroad,” reported by David W. Evans, Journal of Discourses, vol. 12 (Liverpool: Albert Carrington, 1869), p. 37.]

Brigham Young, Brigham Young, President of the Church, 14 April 1867

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