Though George Albert Smith entered the First Presidency in his eighth decade, he was insistent that his age not be a handicap. One of his favorite sayings was, “I would rather be 78 years young than 50 years old.”
In his efforts to maintain a youthful energy while serving as the president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, President Smith kept a rigid dietary routine. He typically ate a light breakfast, consisting generally of prunes and a dish of steamed wheat with cream. One time when he saw his secretary, Arthur Haycock, eating cold, shredded-wheat cereal, President Smith said, “You might as well cut the end off the broom or gather the shavings off the carpenter’s floor as eat that. Why don’t you have some of mine?” When his secretary did, he found that “the more he chewed, the bigger the wheat grew until he nearly choked.”
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