A Gift of Light
Chapter 4—A Scientist Looks at Ellen G. White
The university professor was thoroughly dumbfounded! “Where did this book come from?” he asked the 20-year-old Chinese-American graduate student. Helen Chen had come to Cornell University to earn an M.S. degree in foods and nutrition on a National Science Foundation Fellowship. She had enrolled in Clive McCay’s popular History of Nutrition course. AGOL 44.1
“It’s a compilation of writings by Ellen G. White, one of the founders of my church,” Helen replied. “Counsels on Diet and Foods was published posthumously, in 1938, and covers nutritional counsels from Mrs. White’s pen from the time of the American Civil War to her death at the outbreak of the First World War.” AGOL 44.2
What absolutely stunned the professor was the historical milieu in which Ellen White had originally made each of her statements. The volume that McCay held in his hand in his laboratory that autumn afternoon was unique among Mrs. White’s books. At the beginning of each statement the date and facts of original publication are given. AGOL 44.3
McCay’s field of special interest was the history of nutrition. Challenge him with a date, and computer like he would almost instantly respond by citing names of writers in nutrition. He would then go on to explain what they had contributed. During Ellen White’s lifetime many, if not most, of contemporary nutritional “experts” were writing arrant nonsense. That a comparatively uneducated layperson was advocating such advanced ideas totally astonished him. He wanted to know more. AGOL 44.4
Clive McCay earned his Ph.D. in 1925 at the University of California at Berkeley. He then spent two years at Yale as a National Research Council Fellow in biochemistry. He next moved to Cornell, where he spent the next 35 years in developing a progressively distinguished academic career. McCay’s professional stature is attested to in many ways. For one, he published more than 150 scientific papers on various aspects of nutrition, especially in the aging process. Among many other achievements, he served as president of the American Gerontological Society (1949) and the American Institute of Nutrition (1951). AGOL 44.5
After his death in 1967, the Journal of Nutrition devoted 10 full pages to a retrospective look at his life and contribution to science and humanity, 39 and the Journal of the American Dietetic Association published a comprehensive life sketch. McCay was recognized as an international pioneer and authority in the field of nutritional theory, research, and history. AGOL 45.1
Ellen White’s Counsels on Diet and Foods created in McCay a strong desire to learn more about its remarkable author. He entered into a lively correspondence with Helen Chen’s father (a scientist who had published a book on soybeans, a subject close to McCay’s professional heart), and the senior Chen lent him a number of Ellen White’s books. AGOL 45.2
Following a lecture on April 9, 1958, before the men’s club of the Ithaca Unitarian Church (of which he was a member) on the remarkable life and teachings of Mrs. White, McCay came to the attention of Francis D. Nichol, then editor of the Seventh-day Adventists’ international weekly, the Review and Herald (now Adventist Review). Editor Nichol immediately drove to Ithaca, New York, to meet McCay in person. Almost the first question the scientist asked the clergyman was: “How did Mrs. White, with virtually no education, set forth health teachings so far in advance of her time?” AGOL 45.3
Nichol figured that this Unitarian scientist might have difficulty understanding the nature and function of “inspiration” as Adventists and many other Christians hold this doctrine. So he parried by saying that some of her enemies dismissed the question by alleging that she simply copied her contemporaries. “Nonsense,” retorted McCay. “That only creates a bigger problem than it resolves!” “How so?” “If she merely copied her contemporaries, how did she know which ideas to borrow and which to reject out of the bewildering array of theories and health teachings current in the nineteenth century? Most were quite irrational and have now been repudiated! She would have had to be a most amazing person with knowledge beyond her times in order to do this successfully!” 40 AGOL 45.4
What was Mrs. White’s counsel that this authority in nutrition found so advanced for her day? We present here a summary of some of Ellen White’s counsels. 41 AGOL 46.1
Alcohol, Tobacco, and Drug Abuse: AGOL 46.2
1871—“Alcohol and tobacco pollute the blood of men, and thousands of lives are yearly sacrificed to these poisons” (Temperance, 57). AGOL 46.3
1905—“Tobacco is a slow, insidious, but most malignant poison” (The Ministry of Healing, 327). Fats: AGOL 46.4
1869—“Grains and fruits prepared free from grease, and in as natural condition as possible, should be the food for the tables of all who claim to be preparing for translation to heaven” (Testimonies for the Church 2:352). AGOL 46.5
1890—“The grease cooked in the food renders it difficult of digestion” (Counsels on Diet and Foods, 354). AGOL 46.6
1896—“Both the blood and the fat of animals are consumed as a luxury. But the Lord gave special directions that these should not be eaten. Why? Because their use would make a diseased current of blood in the human system. The disregard of the Lord’s special directions has brought a variety of difficulties and diseases upon human beings” (Counsels on Diet and Foods, 393, 394). AGOL 46.7
Salt: 1883—“Food should be prepared in as simple a manner as possible, free from condiments and spices, and even from an undue amount of salt” (Counsels on Diet and Foods, 340). 1884—“Do not eat largely of salt; give up bottled pickles; keep fiery spiced food out of your stomach; eat fruit with your meals, and the irritation which calls for so much drink [water, milk, etc.] will cease to exist” (Counsels on Diet and Foods, 420). AGOL 47.1
Fluids with Meals: 1884—“Many make a mistake in drinking cold water with their meals. Taken with meals, water diminishes the flow of the salivary glands.... Food should not be washed down; no drink is needed with meals. Eat slowly, and allow the saliva to mingle with the food. The more liquid there is taken into the stomach with the meals, the more difficult it is for the food to digest; for the liquid must first be absorbed” (Ibid.). AGOL 47.2
Sugar, and in Combination with Milk: 1870—“Large quantities of milk and sugar eaten together are injurious” (Testimonies for the Church 2:369). 1890—“The free use of sugar in any form tends to clog the system and is not unfrequently a cause of disease” (Counsels on Health, 154). AGOL 47.3
Meat (Including Poultry and Fish): 1864—“Many die of disease caused wholly by meat-eating, yet the world does not seem to be the wiser” (Spiritual Gifts 4a:147). AGOL 47.4
1868—“The liability to take disease is increased tenfold by meat eating” (Testimonies for the Church 2:64). Breadmaking and Nutrition: AGOL 47.5
1898—“All wheat flour is not best for a continuous diet. A mixture of wheat, oatmeal, and rye would be more nutritious than the wheat with the nutrifying properties separated from it” (Counsels on Diet and Foods, 321). 1905—“Fine-flour bread is lacking in nutritive elements to be found in bread made from the whole wheat” (The Ministry of Healing, 300). AGOL 47.6
The Ideal Diet: 1868—“Eat largely of fruits and vegetables” (Counsels on Diet and Foods, 200). AGOL 48.1
1890—“Fruits, grains, and vegetables, prepared in a simple way, free from spice and grease of all kinds, make, with milk or cream, the most healthful diet” (Counsels on Diet and Foods, 314). AGOL 48.2
What was Clive McCay’s evaluation of Mrs. White’s views? At the conclusion of a three-article series in the Review and Herald, written at the request of Editor Nichol and based upon talks that McCay was giving to various professional and learned societies, the professor of nutrition drew four conclusions: AGOL 48.3
“To sum up the discussion: Every modern specialist in nutrition whose life is dedicated to human welfare must be impressed in four respects by the writings and leadership of Ellen G. White. AGOL 48.4
“In the first place, her basic concepts about the relation between diet and health have been verified to an unusual degree by scientific advances of the past decades.... AGOL 48.5
“In the second place, everyone who attempts to teach nutrition can hardly conceive of leadership such as that of Mrs. White that was able to induce a substantial number of people to improve their diets. AGOL 48.6
“In the third place, one can only speculate about the large number of sufferers during the past century who could have had improved health if they had accepted the teachings of Mrs. White. AGOL 48.7
“Finally, one can wonder how to make her teachings more widely known to benefit the overcrowded earth that seems inevitable tomorrow unless the present rate of increase of the world’s population is decreased. AGOL 48.8
“In spite of the fact that the works of Mrs. White were written long before the advent of modern scientific nutrition, no better overall guide is available today.” 42 AGOL 48.9
Three decades after Clive McCay’s decease (1967), the scientific nutrition community in the United States seems finally to have gotten around to “catching up” to Ellen White’s counsels given in the past four decades of the nineteenth century. In 1992 the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) introduced its “Food Guide Pyramid—A Guide to Daily Food Choices” a visual aid that “captured the imagination of nutrition educators, teachers, the media, and the food industry. It now appears widely in curricula, articles, food packaging, and advertising designed to show the composition of a healthy diet and the contribution of specific food products to such diets.” 43 The foundational level 1 base of the pyramid consists of whole grains, cereals, and breads. AGOL 49.1
Next, level 2 emphasizes the need for substantial daily servings of vegetables and fruits. (Ellen White couldn’t have agreed more!) AGOL 49.2
Level 3 calls for adequate daily intake of protein, recommending dairy products on the one hand and meat/poultry/fish products, dry beans, eggs, and nuts on the other. (Ellen White would totally support the principle of the imperative necessity of an adequate daily protein intake, but in looking ahead to the end of the twentieth century, and recognizing the steadily increasing incidence of disease throughout the entire animal kingdom, she would urge the substitution of non-animal products to meet this legitimate need for protein.) AGOL 49.3
Level 4—the apex and narrowest part of the pyramid—provides for a sparing use of fats and oils (preferably naturally occurring), and dessert sweets, with ingestion of sugars to be kept to a minimum. (And again, Mrs. White, while not totally banning sugar in its varied forms—her own Gravenstein applesauce was artificially sweetened before being brought to her table, and her favorite dessert reportedly was lemon meringue pie—she repeatedly cautioned against overdoing a good thing. 44 AGOL 49.4
On January 2, 1996, at a joint news conference, Agriculture secretary Dan Glickman and Health and Human Services secretary Donna E. Shalala introduced the fourth edition of Nutrition and Your Health: Dietary Guidelines for Americans, providing easily understood, sound, no-nonsense, science-based information on how Americans can choose diets that promote good health. AGOL 50.1
“Moderation and variety in food choices are essential to healthy diets,” Secretary Glickman stated. AGOL 50.2
“For most Americans, who do not smoke or engage in substance abuse, a good balanced diet is the most important thing we can do for ourselves to promote health and long life,” Secretary Shalala added. AGOL 51.1
Little from the first edition’s dietary guidelines had changed in the current version, which now places increased emphasis on physical exercise (30 minutes recommended daily); and the seven guidelines continue to call for balance, moderation, and variety in food choices, with special emphasis on grain products, fruits, and vegetables. AGOL 51.2
1. Eat a variety of foods. AGOL 51.3
2. Balance the food you eat with physical activity—maintain or improve your weight. AGOL 51.4
3. Choose a diet with plenty of grain products, vegetables, and fruits. AGOL 51.5
4. Choose a diet low in fat, saturated fat, and cholesterol. AGOL 51.6
5. Choose a diet moderate in sugars. AGOL 51.7
6. Choose a diet moderate in salt and sodium. AGOL 51.8
7. If you drink alcoholic beverages, do so in moderation. 45 AGOL 51.9
Except for this last recommendation (Ellen White called for total abstinence of alcoholic beverages), this government report does not depart in any significant detail from the counsels given by Mrs. White nearly a century ago. AGOL 51.10
Ellen White, while acknowledging certain problems in the Scriptures, 46 as well as in her own writings, 47 nevertheless appealed to her readers to “decide from the weight of evidence.” 48 No one was perhaps better qualified to judge from “the weight of evidence,” at least as far as her counsels on diet were concerned, than Clive M. McCay. AGOL 51.11
Four years before his retirement, recognizing the value of Ellen White’s dietary program for optimum healthful living, he began to share his discoveries and convictions with a number of professional and scholarly circles. In a printed newsletter, which served as a Christmas greeting for the McCays to their many colleagues and friends in December 1958, Mrs. McCay reported that “Clive continues his reading and discussion in religion, and new and interesting friends have been gained thereby.” AGOL 51.12
On the reverse side of the newsletter, left blank for personal messages to individual recipients, McCay wrote a personal note to Helen Chen: AGOL 52.1
“Ithaca, New York AGOL 52.2
“December 18, 1958 “ AGOL 52.3
Dear Helen: AGOL 52.4
“You added to my interest in the Adventist program, and your father helped me by lending me books about Ellen G. White. Cornell libraries are very poor in this respect. AGOL 52.5
“If I were to start life again I would like to be an Adventist. I believe their philosophy has the best solution of the problems of living amidst the strains of the American culture. I have only made a slight beginning of discovering the wisdom of Mrs. White. I am sorry the former Adventist minister has been transferred. He was Mr. [Carlyle A.] Nelson and a very fine person. He and his wife as well as some of the other local Adventists were our guests at the Unitarian church the night I discussed Mrs. White. AGOL 52.6
“Sincerely, “[signed] Clive McCay” 49 Clive McCay judged from the “weight of evidence,” and his verdict was favorable. AGOL 52.7