The Story of our Health Message

Health Preservation and Diet

From cleanliness the vision turns to health preservation and diet: “I then saw that appetite must be denied,” she said, and added that all who wish to keep well “must take special care of the health that God has given us.” Then, without the reasons stated therefor, certain basic principles were enunciated: “Deny the unhealthy appetite; eat less fine food, eat coarse food, free from grease, and then as you sit at the table to eat you can from the heart ask God’s blessing upon the food and can derive strength from coarse, wholesome food.”—Ibid. SHM 71.3

Emphasis is further placed on the benefits of a simple diet. The readers were admonished to “get food that is plain, and that is essential to our health, free from grease.”—Ibid. SHM 71.4

Thus step by step the people were led along in progressive reforms of primary importance. Writing retrospectively in 1870, Elder James White spoke of the united and intelligent advance in the health reform in these courageous words: SHM 71.5

“The Lord also knew how to introduce to His waiting people the great subject of health reform, step by step, as they could bear it, and make a good use of it, without souring the public mind. It was twenty-two years ago the present autumn, that our minds were called to the injurious effects of tobacco, tea, and coffee, through the testimony of Mrs. White. God has wonderfully blessed the effort to put these things away from us, so that we as a denomination can rejoice in victory, with very few exceptions, over these pernicious indulgences of appetite. ... When we had gained a good victory over these things, and when the Lord saw that we were able to bear it, light was given relative to food and dress.”—The Review and Herald, November 8, 1870. Quoted in Counsels on Diet and Foods, 495, 496. SHM 72.1

At the close of the year 1870 Elder James White was able to report that at last the reforms inaugurated many years before had been adopted by practically all Seventh-day Adventists, and he thanked God “for such a glorious victory over perverted appetite.”—The Health Reformer, December, 1870. SHM 72.2

A few months later Elder White wrote again concerning the progressive nature of this reformatory movement, and added: “What a glorious victory our brethren have gained! Having left the use of tobacco in all its forms, thousands of reformed tobacco inebriates among us can now raise their hosannas. ... Those who have found freedom from the tyranny of tea, coffee, and tobacco, enjoy improved health, clearer brains, and more even and buoyant spirits.”—Ibid., April, 1871. SHM 72.3

With the gaining of the victory over the use of these stimulants and narcotics, the way was now prepared for further reforms. SHM 72.4