The Word of Wisdom is a health code of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a set of dietary laws that its members observe as a commandment and a mark of their faith. Originating in a revelation received by the church's founder Joseph Smith in 1833, it counsels against the consumption of certain substances and commends others, and in its present observance it is understood to prohibit alcohol, tobacco, coffee and tea, the last two identified with the "hot drinks" the text forbids, while encouraging the eating of grains, fruits and vegetables and the sparing use of meat. Adherence to the Word of Wisdom is a requirement for full participation in the church, including entry to its temples, and abstinence from alcohol, tobacco, coffee and tea is one of the most visible outward markers distinguishing Latter-day Saints in daily life.
Originally given, the text states, "not by commandment or constraint" but as counsel and a "principle with promise", promising health and hidden knowledge to those who keep it, the Word of Wisdom came over time to be treated as a binding obligation, its observance increasingly required through the later nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It exemplifies the way a number of religious traditions regulate the body and its appetites as part of the life of faith, treating the care of health and abstention from harmful substances as a religious duty and a form of obedience, and it has often been noted for its apparent anticipation, decades in advance, of modern medical warnings against tobacco and excessive alcohol. For Latter-day Saints its keeping is both a discipline of the body and a sign of covenant faithfulness and communal identity.