Wine, coffee and tea

[1smartdodog]

Now that all these have been somewhat proven to have some health benefit, I wonder if missionaries are still promoting the WofW like we did back in the day? We had these crazy notions of these products and would preach of the harmful nature. What is a missionary to say now? Is the WofW emphasized like it was when I taught the discussions?

I can imagine the raised eyebrows when a punk 18 year tells someone tea will kill you

[Red Ryder]

Tannic acid?

Use to tan leather belts?

I can't believe I actually told people that circa 1995.

[dogbite]

I don't know. The latest is that there is no safe level of alcohol consumption. It raises cancer risk on everything it touches in the body.

Coffee is threatened by global warming, has poor carbon impact because of the extensive transportation costs. Tea is similarly threatened to lose it's growing areas as is chocolate. You could make a warming of wisdom argument.

But it's really the dairy that pumps up the carbon cost if you add any.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... tea-coffee

[Corsair]

I served my mission in Canada and did not have any real problem with teaching the Word of Wisdom. Most people never got to the point in the discussions where concerns over the Word of Wisdom might make any difference. I cannot imagine the difficulty of trying to get Asian people to stop drinking tea. British people would be bad enough.

The Word of Wisdom is called the "Lord's Law of Health" in several different places. But it is increasingly just one more law of obedience. I would enjoy hearing an apologist explain why coffee and tea are bad but still allowing carbonated soft drinks. Decades of controversy over caffeine did not improve the arguments from the LDS church. It only made them thinner and thinner as time went on. The church is lucky that the Word of Wisdom is such a mainstay of LDS culture. The culture preserves this "doctrine" and it has become chief vehicle of in-group virtue signalling.

[FiveFingerMnemonic]

Tannic acid?

Use to tan leather belts?

I can't believe I actually told people that circa 1995.

Haha me too! That nasty tanic acid will melt your insides! Did you ever teach the stop smoking program?

[jfro18]

I really feel like on some level TBMs just assume that over time history will prove it correct.

They'll go "Look... no one knew that tobacco was bad for you, but Joseph did. And now we're seeing that alcohol can harm you with just small amounts... I'm sure in a few decades they'll be saying the same about coffee and tea."

It's stupid, but they really believe Joseph pulled this from revelation and not the temperance movement that was everywhere during his time. So there's no convincing them the WoW is stupid until they start to see the bigger picture.

[Culper Jr.]

Tannic acid?

Use to tan leather belts?

I can't believe I actually told people that circa 1995.

Haha me too! That nasty tanic acid will melt your insides! Did you ever teach the stop smoking program?

Oh God, I forgot about the tannic acid reasoning from my mission (1990) It will turn your stomach to leather! Oh yes, the stop smoking program. We'll cure you of your smoking addiction with Jesus' love and cinnamon gum!

They are still teaching that in our ward! I hadn't thought about the stop smoking program in years, and last Sunday the missionaries were talking about it and asking for donations of.... yup, cinnamon gum.

[wtfluff]

I don't know. The latest is that there is no safe level of alcohol consumption. It raises cancer risk on everything it touches in the body.

And now we're seeing that alcohol can harm you with just small amounts...

Just an FYI: There's been a bit of pushback from the scientific/research community on that recent article.

[jfro18]

Just an FYI: There's been a bit of pushback from the scientific/research community on that recent article.

Yes there are some compelling arguments as to why the study isn't nearly as accurate as has been reported, but the headlines were *everywhere* and I saw that article on many TBM twitter accounts/facebook/etc.

[Red Ryder]

Tannic acid?

Use to tan leather belts?

I can't believe I actually told people that circa 1995.

Haha me too! That nasty tanic acid will melt your insides! Did you ever teach the stop smoking program?

We also taught the stop smoking program. The version where the smoker tries to stop by drinking loads of grapefruit juice. So being the dumb uninformed Mormon missionaries that we were we would show up to discussion appointments with a gallon of grapefruit juice bought at the nearby grocery store. It never worked. I must have bought 4 or 5 gallons of the stuff one week to give to two different investigators and the cashier asked what it was for. When I told them it helped people stop smoking she just laughed and said she should try it.

[Dravin]

Tannic acid?

Use to tan leather belts?

I can't believe I actually told people that circa 1995.

I have a companion who used to share the urban legend with investigators about stomachs being found preserved in the wreck of the Titanic (due to the extreme toxicity of the tea and coffee preserving them being the implication). We had quite the discussion on that topic because I wasn't going to sit idly by while he did so since I knew it was a bunch of hogwash.

[Hagoth]

Tannic acid?

Use to tan leather belts?

I can't believe I actually told people that circa 1995.

Yeah, I think they had to overlook about a century of science and reach all the way back to the 19th century for that little gem.

[2bizE]

On my mission we used to tell people coffee was good to put in your plants. One family did this and the next visit the plant was covered in ants.

I wish I could apologize to all the people I taught and baptized.

[hiding in plain sight]

Just an FYI: There's been a bit of pushback from the scientific/research community on that recent article.

Yes there are some compelling arguments as to why the study isn't nearly as accurate as has been reported, but the headlines were *everywhere* and I saw that article on many TBM twitter accounts/facebook/etc.

I read this in the new york times. It is one more example of how people can say something that is factually true (the original claim that no level of alcohol is safe) but contextually really misleading (not that big a deal).

Enjoy!

"For each set of 100,000 people who have one drink a day per year, 918 can expect to experience one of the 23 alcohol-related problems in any year. Of those who drink nothing, 914 can expect to experience a problem. This means that 99,082 are unaffected, and 914 will have an issue no matter what. Only 4 in 100,000 people who consume a drink a day may have a problem caused by the drinking, according to this study."