“If coffee, tea and beer are so harmful to us why has the church not addressed obesity?” (Jim)
The Word of Wisdom does not specify that those things are forbidden because they are harmful. In fact, there are many studies that report tea is healthy for us.
Either way, it probably would be good for them to focus more on the positive aspects of the Word of Wisdom than they already do.
I think of the forbidden items in the W of W more as a discipline: something to show obedience, and something to set followers of Christ apart from the world. I know the Catholic Church, for example, sees the vow of celibacy for priests as a discipline, not a doctrine (something that’s absolute and can never be changed). The Catholic Church does not believe that getting married and having children is inherently bad, but if a man desires to be a priest he must follow a certain discipline. If LDS people desire to be saints, then they must follow a certain discipline. Also, the W of W is something that may someday be changed. In fact, there were many animals in the Old Testament that followers of God were not supposed to eat, but God later changed that. He seems to have different “Words of Wisdom” for different times.