The Story of our Health Message

“An Appeal to Mothers”

In the pamphlet cited is found the first published statement from Mrs. White showing the relation of diet to the spiritual life and advocating a return to the Edenic diet. Mothers were urged to show their children that “we make a great account of health, and that they should not violate its laws.” Instead of wearing themselves out by cooking elaborate dishes and preparing food to tempt the appetite, they should rather adopt a “plain, nourishing diet,” which would not require so great an amount of labor. And it is significant to note that in making her first appeal for a return to God’s original plan for man’s diet, she laid down a principle of deeper import than the mere preservation of health. “In order to strengthen in them [the children] the moral perceptions, the love of spiritual things, we must regulate the manner of our living, dispense with animal food, and use grains, vegetables, and fruits as articles of food.”—Ibid., 19, 20. SHM 90.2

One month after the issuance of Mrs. White’s “An Appeal to Mothers,” the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists met in Battle Creek for its first annual session. One of the actions of the conference pertained to that booklet, deeming it a “work of great importance for general circulation,” and commending it “to the attention of our brethren everywhere.” Parents and guardians of children were urged to place it in the hands of the young. SHM 90.3

During the latter part of 1863 and the first months of 1864, Mrs. White was completing the third and fourth volumes of Spiritual Gifts. The latter came from the press in August, 1864, and contained a thirty-two-page article entitled “Health.” This was the first comprehensive treatise on the subject found in any Seventh-day Adventist publication. In the opening paragraph reference is again made to the view that had been presented to her, as related in “An Appeal to Mothers,” of the tragic condition of the human race today, with “disease, deformity, and imbecility” to be observed everywhere. “I inquired the cause of this wonderful degeneracy,” she wrote, “and was pointed back to Eden.”—Spiritual Gifts 4a:120. SHM 91.1

Since the fall of man, she stated, there has been a violation of the laws of health by the human family, with the result that “disease has been steadily increasing. The cause has been followed by the effect.” (Ibid.) SHM 91.2

The prevalence of perverted appetite was traced through Bible history, with reference to the antediluvians, to the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah, to the attempted diet reform when the children of Israel were in the wilderness, with their rebellion against it, and to the story of Nadab and Abihu as illustrating the results of intemperance. Emphasis was laid upon the express command against the use of swine’s flesh. The evils of present-day indulgence in liquor and tobacco were vividly portrayed, and the stimulating effects of tea and coffee were pointed out. SHM 91.3