As Mitt Romney begins to publicly embrace his Mormonism, Sue Spinale McCrory wants the religion's dietary dimension to get some attention:

According to church teaching, in the early 1830s, Smith received as revelation and dictated into lectures one of the primary texts of the Mormon faith, The Doctrine and Covenants (D&C). Section 89 of the D&C, known as the Word of Wisdom, is considered by Mormons as their law of health. In it, Smith addressed certain behaviors he wished his followers to avoid, including bans on alcohol, tobacco and "hot drinks." Mormons, therefore, do not drink alcohol or smoke, and many will not take coffee or tea.

But the diet Smith prescribed is probably less well known to non-Mormons. This includes the consumption of wheat, herbs and fruits in season, and meat "sparingly." To be clear, such a manner of eating — oracle-like for today's flexitarians — would have been logical for any people settling in the Western territories of 19th-century America. Followers of the early LDS church weren't the only ones relying predominantly on themselves for sustenance.

Previous Dish on Mormon cuisine here.

(Photo: US Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney eats ice cream at a campaign stop at Tom's Ice Cream Bowl in Zanesville, Ohio, on August 14, 2012. By Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images)