Ellen White's Warnings Against Eating Between Meals

Giving others food between meals is a serious mistake that harms their health and fosters habits of self-gratificationCG 389.3+1. It is a vital duty to ensure that no one, especially children, is allowed to eat anything—even fruit or nuts—between their regular, scheduled meals4T 502.1+2.

The Danger of Eating Between Meals

• Physical Harm: Eating between meals deranges the stomach and places a heavy tax on the digestive organs that will surely bring about diseaseCG 389.3+1.

• Mental and Moral Impact: These irregular habits enfeeble the intellect, cloud the mind, and blunt the conscienceCH 176.2+2.

• Digestive Exhaustion: The stomach must not be kept in continual operation; it requires quiet and rest to provide a sufficient supply of gastric juice for the next mealCD 173.1+1.

• Loss of Appetite for Good Food: When people eat irregularly, they lose their relish for wholesome food and instead crave things that are most hurtful to themCCh 223.11+1.

Guidelines for Regularity

• Strict Limits: Three meals a day and absolutely nothing between them—not even an apple—is the utmost limit of indulgenceTSDF 39.4+1.

• Proper Spacing: At least five hours should elapse between each meal to allow the stomach time to perform its task and restCD 173.1+1.

• Two-Meal Plan: For many, two meals a day are actually better than three and provide even greater benefits to the systemCD 229.1+1.

• Total Abstinence: Not a single morsel of food should pass the lips between the regular meal timesCD 180.1+1.

The Responsibility of Providers and Parents

• Maternal Influence: Mothers make a great mistake when they give children dainties or cake to quiet their worrying, as this only increases the evil and lays a foundation for future sufferingCG 389.3+1.

• Training and Education: Parents must patiently educate their children in habits of self-denial rather than allowing them to eat whenever they pleaseTSDF 40.2.

• Leading by Example: If parents move from principle and set a correct example of regularity, their children will soon follow their lead4T 502.1+1.

• Accountability: Parents are often accountable for the sicknesses and distress their children suffer because of improper eating habits4T 502.1+1.

Spiritual and Social Implications

• Dishonoring God: To crowd the stomach with an unreasonable load makes it impossible to seek God's help in our daily work effectively2T 373.2.

• Hospitality and Principle: When friends provide elaborate preparations, it is essential to remain practical health reformers by refusing to disregard principle for the sake of tasteTSDF 38.7.

• Self-Regard: Seeking for "extras" or eating between meals is a form of self-regard that has been repeatedly reproved2LtMs, Lt 41a, 1874, par. 35.