101 Questions - About Ellen White and Her Writings

Question 57: Has the time come for us to stop using dairy products? (“Ellen White and Her Writing on Cheese”)

There are some who have gone vegan in our church and very strongly discourage the use of dairy products, believing the day is here to make these changes. Are they correct? Counsels on Diet and Foods, page 206, says, “I wish to say that when the time comes that it is no longer safe to use milk, cream, butter, and eggs, God will reveal this. No extremes in health reform are to be advocated. The question of using milk and butter and eggs will work out its own problem. At present we have no burden on this line. Let your moderation be known unto all men.” 101Q 131.1

It is interesting to me that Mrs. White makes this a safety issue. Some Adventists have made it a health issue, which I do not see Mrs. White as having done. By this I mean that she did not claim that dairy products were inherently unhealthful, as some are doing today, but that one day they would become unsafe. You have cited one such statement from Counsels on Diet and Foods. Another is found on the same page, just above the one you quoted, in which Mrs. White equates abstaining from these things as bringing on oneself a time of trouble beforehand, and thus afflicting oneself with death. It is in this very context that she warns against advocating “extremes in health reform,” as you have quoted above. 101Q 131.2

See also the following question and answer. 101Q 131.3