Consider recent changes in U.S. eating patterns that have greatly affected the health of the LDS population . These changes have occurred since 1909.²

• Animal-Based Foods : average consumption has more than doubled from less than 20% caloric intake to 42%.
• Fat: has more than doubled.
• Sugar: has more than doubled.
• Cheese: is seven times greater.
• Soda Pop: is seven times greater.
• Salad Oil: is more than thirteen times greater.
• Fresh Garden Produce: reduced more than thirteen times.
• Grain: consumption reduced by 100 pounds per person per year, and shifted from whole grains to mostly refined and processed grain products.

Today's American food trends have led to the highest rates of disease in the world. By contrast, Asians consume ten times more garden foods and only one-fourth as many animal-based foods, which has resulted in the lowest rates of degenerative disease in the world.³ 

Furthermore, National Geographic reported the most people who live to be more than 100 years old come from Okinawa, Japan; Sardinia, Italy; and Loma Linda, California. Dietary trends in these populations are predominantly plant-based.⁴ 

Superior eating habits provide essential nutrients without creating undue burdens to the body. They strengthen the body and enable it to overcome the harmful effects of pollution, stress, pesticides, and even cigarettes and alcohol. Most adult Chinese smoke cigarettes and drink alcohol, yet because of their superior dietary habits they suffer just 1/17 the U.S. cancer rate and about 1/10 the LDS cancer rate.

When striving to increase health, the dietary foundation is one of the most critical factors. While temperance, exercise, fresh air, sunshine, and so forth are important, the dietary foundation is the cornerstone of good health.

Word of Wisdom History

Early Latter-day Saints struggled to learn how to adhere to the “Don'ts” of the Word of Wisdom. Brigham Young states in the Journal of Discourses that every bishop in the entire territory drank alcohol, coffee, or tea, or chewed tobacco.⁵ The traditions of the fathers were slow to die, and it took several generations to overcome the “Don'ts” of the Word of Wisdom. Fortunately, early Latter-day Saints adhered more closely to the Lord's dietary counsel due to the culture and times in which they lived.

By comparison, church members today do not struggle nearly so much with the “Don'ts” of the Word of Wisdom. Few, if any, bishops today drink alcohol, coffee, or tea, or use tobacco. However, President Ezra Taft Benson counseled that as far as we've come in learning to apply the “Don'ts” of the Word of Wisdom today, we still have some distance to go in learning to live the “Do's.”

As we've moved away from whole garden foods toward more processed and refined foods and animal-based foods, we have exceeded the limits and bounds of good health. Consequently, the rates of disease among LDS are increasing rapidly. Let's take a moment to consider prophetic counsel. If followed, it can restore former health prominence:

Daniel and his brethren fared best by drinking water instead of wine, and by consuming seasonal fruits and vegetables, and satisfying remaining energy needs with dates and pulse — a combination of legumes, grains, nuts, and seeds . Eating seasonal fruits and vegetables and satisfying remaining energy needs with legumes, grains, nuts, seeds, and dates is a healthful eating pattern.

Fruits and Herbs

Let's take a look at the food groups mentioned in the Word of Wisdom:

Fruits are foods that originate from a pollinated flower and become the fruit of a plant. They include sweet fruits, berries, nuts, legumes, and even fruiting vegetables such as zucchini, squashes, and green beans. Fruits produce seasonally and each has its own unique nutrient profile.

Among edible herbs are lettuce, spinach, other leafy greens and grasses. After these are harvested they continue to grow and can be harvested repeatedly until the season ends.

Fruits and herbs supply more pure water, fiber, minerals, vitamins, macro-nutrients, micro-nutrients, and phyto-nutrients than all other foods. They provide the perfect nutritional blend to meet all metabolic needs of the body. As we eat fresh fruits and herbs freely and abundantly in their seasons, we lay up stores of vital nutrients.

In the absence of thousands of essential nutrients that can be obtained only from fruits and herbs, vital reserves of nutrients become exhausted and myriad imbalances occur; disease then gains a foothold in the body. Refined and processed foods do not offer nature's balance of nutrients; these can be obtained only from whole seasonal foods from God's garden.

Animal-Based Foods

Early leaders of the Church had their own ideas about why it was okay to drink alcohol, coffee, or tea, or chew tobacco. Similarly, many today have their reasons for consuming more meat than the human body can safely metabolize. Let's consider why it is prudent when we choose not to eat meat, or to limit its intake to a sparing amount.

The great designer of the human body set forth limits when it comes to eating meat: “And wo be unto man that sheddeth blood or that wasteth flesh and hath no need ” (D&C 49:21). A “woe” comes upon the human body whenever animal protein is consumed beyond its metabolic needs, resulting in the release of harmful compounds that damage the body.

Science has demonstrated that nearly everyone can consume up to 10% of their caloric intake from animal-based foods without producing detrimental effects, but as caloric intake percentage exceeds the mid-teens, degenerative conditions begin to occur.

Why is consuming more than 10–15% of our calories from animal-based foods problematic? The human body requires about 5% protein from its food supply for growth, repair, and maintenance. When more protein is consumed than the body can utilize, the excess is broken down and excreted from the body.

The breakdown of animal-based protein produces harmful by-products — which does not occur when excess plant protein is broken down. The harmful by-products of too much animal protein lead to diseases such as osteoporosis, autoimmune disorders, cancer, premature aging, and arthritis.

Jewish scholars suggest the laws of kashrut teach man's first eating preference should be plant-based — and through various means, including healthful limits placed upon the human body, God is attempting to keep alive our sense of respect for life. Latter-day prophets have taught that as the pure knowledge of the Lord floods the earth man will choose to eat in a way that fulfills Isaiah's prophetic utterance … all will dwell safely together and none shall hurt or make afraid.

Grains

When it comes to supplying the vast array of vital nutrients needed for metabolism, the nutrient profile of grain does not compare with the nutrient profile of fruits and herbs. What then is the strength of grain and how can it best serve us?

Grains of all kinds are best used to satisfy energy needs not met by fruits and vegetables. Grains most readily supply calories when overt energy needs exist, such as occurs during athletics or heavy labor or cold weather. Carbohydrates are the body's preferred energy source. Per pound, grains provide more healthful carbohydrates than any other whole food.

Grains are the staff of life for man and animals, but consuming too much grain is problematic for both. To illustrate, let's consider what happens when horses consume too much grain. Grasses are the primary food for horses 365 days a year. Grain is best used to supplement a horse's energy needs in times of hard work or cold. When grain is over-consumed by horses it produces an over-abundance of internal heat, which leads to permanent arthritic symptoms and allergies.

Similar symptoms occur in man as fruits and herbs are under-consumed and grain is over-consumed. While grain does not provide the essential nutrients offered by fruits and vegetables, it can be leaned upon, as a staff, to meet energy needs not satisfied by them.

Go Forward with Promise…

To day's common U.S. dietary habit is to fill up on animal-based foods, refined and processed foods, oils, and sugars. Such choices fill us with foods that taste good but lack required nutrients.

As foods lacking essential n utrients digest, our body's nutrient receptors recognize essential nutrients are not present. Nutrient receptors then send a signal to the brain that nutrients are still needed, and the brain subsequently reactivates the hunger drive.

No matter how many calories we consume, when essential nutrients are lacking, we will be driven to eat again and again without ever becoming truly satisfied at the cellular level . Such dietary habits initiate a cycle of eating that lead to obesity, disease, and shorter lives. The cycle can be reversed by shifting caloric choices away from foods of low nutrient density to foods highest in nutrient density — namely fruits, vegetables, legumes, and grains.

To overcome the adverse effects of modern food trends, cultivate the following habits:

Habit 1: Enjoy whole fruits and vegetables freely and abundantly; satisfy remaining energy needs with legumes and grains.

Habit 2: Limit the total combined caloric intake of animal-based foods and overt fats such as oil, avocados, olives, nuts, and seeds to only 10–15% daily caloric intake.

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