The Word of Wisdom is the LDS scripture that gives Mormons their distinctive approach to diet. No coffee, no tea, no alcohol, no tobacco. It also happens to be one of the most concrete starting points for LDS ethical investing because it provides explicit, scriptural categories that translate directly to stock screens. Let me walk through how it actually works.

The Source Text

Doctrine and Covenants 89 was received by Joseph Smith on February 27, 1833. The section is titled "A Word of Wisdom, for the benefit of the council of high priests, assembled in Kirtland, and the church." It was originally given as advice rather than binding commandment, but by the early 20th century it had become a strict requirement for full church participation, including temple attendance.

The specific language matters for interpretation. Let me quote the relevant passages directly.

Verse 5: "That inasmuch as any man drinketh wine or strong drink among you, behold it is not good, neither meet in the sight of your Father, only in assembling yourselves together to offer up your sacraments before him."

Verse 7: "And, again, strong drinks are not for the belly, but for the washing of your bodies."

Verse 8: "And again, tobacco is not for the body, neither for the belly, and is not good for man, but is an herb for bruises and all sick cattle, to be used with judgment and skill."

Verse 9: "And again, hot drinks are not for the body or belly."

Verse 10: "And again, verily I say unto you, all wholesome herbs God hath ordained for the constitution, nature, and use of man."

The church has interpreted "strong drinks" as alcoholic beverages, "hot drinks" as coffee and tea specifically (based on early clarifications from church leaders), and "tobacco" as all forms of tobacco including cigarettes, cigars, chewing tobacco, and vaping products.

Modern practice also extends the Word of Wisdom to cover illegal drugs and, in some interpretations, caffeinated energy drinks and some forms of recreational substances, though the church's official position has been flexible on non-scriptural additions.

Translating Scripture to Stock Screens

For LDS investors who want to build a portfolio consistent with the Word of Wisdom, the basic categories are:

Alcohol producers and distributors
Tobacco producers and distributors
Coffee producers and retailers
Tea producers (though this is less commonly screened in practice)

Let me work through each category with real names.

Alcohol Stocks

The Word of Wisdom prohibition on alcohol is explicit. "Strong drinks are not for the belly." For LDS investors, alcohol stocks are the clearest exclusion category.

Major publicly traded alcohol producers that fail an LDS screen:

Diageo (DEO): world's largest spirits company. Johnnie Walker, Smirnoff, Tanqueray, Crown Royal, Guinness, Captain Morgan. Revenue roughly $20 billion, essentially 100% alcohol. Fails any LDS screen.

Anheuser-Busch InBev (BUD): world's largest brewer. Budweiser, Stella Artois, Corona (outside US), Michelob, Beck's, many others. Revenue roughly $57 billion, essentially 100% beer. Fails.

Constellation Brands (STZ): Modelo, Corona in US, Pacifico, plus wine and spirits. Revenue roughly $10 billion, essentially 100% alcohol despite the diverse category mix. Fails.

Molson Coors Beverage (TAP): Coors Light, Miller Lite, Blue Moon, plus several regional brands. Revenue roughly $11 billion, nearly all beer. Fails.

Heineken (HEINY): Dutch brewer, global scale. Fails.

Boston Beer Company (SAM): Samuel Adams beer, Truly hard seltzer, Twisted Tea. Fails.

Brown-Forman (BF.B): Jack Daniel's, Woodford Reserve, Gentleman Jack. Fails.

Pernod Ricard (PDRDY): Absolut, Chivas Regal, Jameson. Fails.

Treasury Wine Estates (TSRYY): Australian wine conglomerate. Fails.

Applying a strict LDS alcohol screen is simple: exclude all of the above. There's no threshold debate because these companies' entire business is alcohol. Any revenue-based threshold (even 1%) excludes them.

Tobacco Stocks

The Word of Wisdom's tobacco prohibition is verse 8: "tobacco is not for the body, neither for the belly." LDS practice strictly excludes tobacco. For investors, this means excluding the major tobacco companies.

Altria Group (MO): formerly Philip Morris Companies in the US, now covers Marlboro (US), Black & Mild, NJOY vaping, and Ste Michelle wine (which adds an alcohol layer to the exclusion). Revenue roughly $20 billion, essentially all tobacco-related. Fails.

Philip Morris International (PM): Marlboro (international), IQOS heat-not-burn, Parliament, L&M. Revenue roughly $38 billion, all tobacco. Fails.

British American Tobacco (BTI): Lucky Strike, Camel (non-US), Vuse, Dunhill. Revenue roughly $32 billion, all tobacco. Fails.

Imperial Brands (IMBBY): Winston (non-US), Kool (non-US), Gauloises, JPS. Revenue roughly $35 billion, all tobacco. Fails.

Japan Tobacco (JAPAY): Mevius, Winston (Japan), Camel (Japan). Large international tobacco business. Fails.

LDS screening of tobacco is binary and clear. No thresholds needed. Any major tobacco company is excluded.

Coffee Stocks

Here's where it gets interesting. "Hot drinks are not for the body" has been interpreted by LDS leadership, going back to Hyrum Smith and Joseph F. Smith, as specifically referring to coffee and tea. This makes coffee a scriptural exclusion under strict LDS interpretation.

Starbucks (SBUX): revenue roughly $36 billion, essentially 100% coffee-based retail plus some food. Fails an LDS screen.

Keurig Dr Pepper (KDP): this one is mixed. Keurig is famous for K-Cups, which are predominantly coffee. Dr Pepper and other soft drinks are fine. Total revenue roughly $15 billion, with coffee (Keurig brewing systems, K-Cups, packaged coffee) representing maybe 40-50% of the business. Fails under strict screening but passes under lenient threshold-based screening.

JDE Peet's (JDEP.AS): Dutch-listed coffee company, owner of Jacobs, Douwe Egberts, Peet's Coffee, Senseo. Pure-play coffee. Fails.

Nestle (NSRGY): Nescafe, Nespresso, Starbucks packaged coffee (licensing agreement), Blue Bottle Coffee. Nestle is a huge diversified company, but coffee is a significant portion of revenue (roughly 20% or more). Fails a strict screen but passes a lenient threshold.

Coca-Cola (KO): Costa Coffee acquisition added coffee exposure. Costa is a significant coffee retail chain in UK and Europe. Coffee is maybe 5-8% of KO revenue. Passes a strict 10% threshold, fails a strict 5% threshold.

Dutch Bros (BROS): coffee drive-through chain, US-listed. Pure-play coffee. Fails.

Tea Is Less Commonly Screened

While the Word of Wisdom explicitly includes "hot drinks" and LDS tradition has applied this to both coffee and tea, modern practice is somewhat more relaxed on tea. Iced tea is generally considered acceptable by many observant LDS members (it's not "hot"), and green tea and herbal teas are often not considered to violate the Word of Wisdom.

For stock screening purposes, tea is rarely a binding exclusion. Companies like Unilever (which owns Lipton) aren't typically excluded from LDS portfolios purely for their tea exposure. The primary Word of Wisdom screens focus on coffee, alcohol, and tobacco.

If you want to apply a strict tea screen for personal reasons, you'd exclude:
- Unilever (UL): owns Lipton, Pukka Herbs, PG Tips
- JDE Peet's (JDEP.AS): tea brands
- Starbucks (SBUX): Teavana tea brand
- Celestial Seasonings (owned by Hain Celestial, HAIN): herbal teas

Caffeine as a Broader Question

There's a longstanding debate within LDS communities about whether caffeine more broadly falls under the Word of Wisdom. The official church position, clarified in 2012 and reaffirmed multiple times since, is that the Word of Wisdom does not specifically prohibit caffeine in non-coffee, non-tea forms. Cola drinks, energy drinks, and other caffeinated beverages are a personal choice, not a scriptural restriction.

This means Coca-Cola, PepsiCo (which owns Mountain Dew), Monster Beverage (MNST), Celsius Holdings (CELH), and similar companies are generally not excluded from LDS portfolios purely for caffeine content. Individual members may choose to avoid them, but the scriptural basis for exclusion is weaker than for coffee, tea, alcohol, or tobacco.

Practical LDS Screen Configuration

Here's how FaithScreener's LDS Mormon screen is typically configured:

Strict exclusions (any revenue):
- Alcohol producers and distributors
- Tobacco producers and distributors
- Pure-play coffee companies (Starbucks, Dutch Bros, JDE Peet's)
- Adult entertainment
- Gambling (strict position)

Threshold-based exclusions (typically 5-10%):
- Companies with significant but not majority coffee revenue (Nestle, KDP, Coca-Cola)
- Companies with alcohol exposure under 5%

Permitted with monitoring:
- Caffeinated soft drinks (KO, PEP, MNST)
- Tea companies (unless strict personal choice)
- Payment processors that handle alcohol/tobacco transactions (Visa, Mastercard)
- Grocery retailers that sell alcohol (Kroger, Walmart)

The grocery and payment processor question is interesting. Walmart (WMT) sells alcohol and cigarettes in many stores. Does that make it a forbidden holding for LDS investors? Most LDS financial advisors say no, because the alcohol/tobacco revenue is a small fraction of Walmart's total business (under 5%), and the corporate-form separation logic applies. But strict investors may exclude Walmart as a matter of personal conscience.

Performance Implications

An LDS-screened portfolio that excludes alcohol, tobacco, and coffee companies misses about 2-3% of the S&P 500 market capitalization. That's a small bite. The performance impact over long periods has been close to neutral, with some studies showing the screens slightly underperforming during periods when tobacco or alcohol stocks rally (because they're high-yielding defensive stocks) and slightly outperforming during growth-oriented bull markets.

For most LDS investors, the performance differential isn't meaningful compared to the value of aligning investment with religious commitment.

Practical Substitutes

If you're excluding Starbucks but still want consumer discretionary exposure, consider:
- McDonald's (MCD): no coffee primary business despite the McCafe line
- Chipotle (CMG): food only, no coffee
- Domino's (DPZ): pizza, no coffee
- Costco (COST): bulk retail, some coffee sales but under threshold

If you're excluding Diageo and want global consumer staples, consider:
- Procter & Gamble (PG)
- Unilever (UL, though tea exposure)
- Colgate-Palmolive (CL)
- Kimberly-Clark (KMB)
- Church & Dwight (CHD)

If you're excluding tobacco companies but want defensive yield, consider:
- Johnson & Johnson (JNJ)
- Pfizer (PFE)
- AT&T (T)
- Verizon (VZ)
- Utilities sector (XLU)

Bottom Line

The Word of Wisdom gives LDS investors an unusually clear framework for ethical screening. Unlike many religious ethics questions that require complex interpretation, D&C 89 provides explicit categories that translate directly to stock exclusions. Alcohol out. Tobacco out. Coffee out. Tea generally out in stricter practice, less in modern applications.

The result is a portfolio that's cleaner to construct than many other faith-based screens because the categories are scripturally defined rather than interpretive. LDS investors who want Word of Wisdom compliance in their portfolios have a very clear path: exclude the obvious names, apply a small threshold for borderline cases like KDP and Nestle, and build from there with mainstream growth, value, and defensive names that don't touch the prohibited categories.

The deeper point is that Joseph Smith's 1833 revelation, intended as a health and spiritual teaching, turns out to be remarkably well-suited to modern portfolio screening. The categories hold up. The scripture provides the framework. The investor just needs to apply it consistently.

The Word of Wisdom and Stock Screening: Coffee, Tea, Tobacco, Alcohol