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PaperclipPerfector  1mo ago (text post)   1630 thread views

Wellness Wednesday for October 8, 2025

The Wednesday Wellness threads are meant to encourage users to ask for and provide advice and motivation to improve their lives. It isn't intended as a 'containment thread' and any content which could go here could instead be posted in its own thread. You could post:

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I have successfully given up coffee (not caffeine entirely, although I’m actively working to reduce my daily caffeine consumption and dependence)

I know a number of devout LDS members, and they're all over the place on the caffeine issue. Coffee is a clear no, but opinions diverge widely on caffeinated sodas and energy drinks. I'd say that's a lower priority than the big steps you've made in other areas.

And the Jews get a bad rep for being rules-lawyers. What exactly is so condemnable in coffee or tea that isn't caffeine? Is it all the tannin? I sincerely doubt that John Smith would have given chugging Monsters a pass if they'd been a thing back then.

As I understand it, the prohibition comes from Words of Wisdom from Joseph Smith, not the Book of Mormon. It wasn't until 1921 that following it because a prerequisite for temple admission, so the history of following it is different than the history of following the Book of Mormon, hence some divergence on the issue.

The specific prohibition is against “hot drinks”. Coffee and tea are brewed hot. Monster (as far as I know) isn’t.

Cold coffee? Soup?

What kind of soup are you brewing?

I'd hope most soup would count as hot, and preferably a drink.

I think the point was that soup is cooked, not brewed.

You can make a soup by frying, say, various raw ingredients and then pouring water over them in a big pot and bringing it to the boil and then eventually after some time consuming it. There are ways of making coffee that are mechanically extremely similar.

This is starting to read like a Python skit.

Every person in the church with whom I’ve discussed it has been very clear that caffeinated drinks, other than coffee and tea, are unambiguously permitted. They believe that eliminating addiction from your life is pretty much always an unalloyed good, since it allows a fuller use of your agency and self-control, but that to a certain extent the church is willing to meet people where they’re at and to allow some leeway, particularly for things like caffeine which have clear benefits alongside their drawbacks.

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