What Ellen White has Meant to Me

Chapter 19—No Better Overall Guide to Nutrition ¹

For a quarter of a century the writer has taught a course for graduate students dealing with the history of foods and nutrition. In this course are presented original materials beginning with the early Greek work by Athenaeus who lived in Rome at the end of the second century a.d. In the middle of the thirteenth century Petrus Hispanus published much about diet. Shortly after the discovery of America one of the greatest books about nutrition and old age was written by Luigi Cornaro (1467?-1566). WEWMM 145.1

Among writers of the past century, however, those who are concerned with the betterment of human health must pay tribute to the writings of Ellen G. White because she understood the importance of the selection of proper foods and the relation of the rest of the regimen of living to proper nutrition and sound health. These notes have been prepared by a biochemist who specializes in nutrition in the hope that others outside of the Adventists may gain a broader appreciation of the genius of this pioneer nutritionist, Ellen G. White. Whatever may be the religious belief of a reader, he or she cannot help gaining much guidance in a better and healthier way of life from reading the major works of Ellen G. White. WEWMM 145.2

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. WEWMM 146.1

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 century. WEWMM 146.2

In the second place, everyone who attempts to teach nutrition can hardly conceive of a leadership such as that of Mrs. White that was able to induce a substantial number of people to improve their diets. WEWMM 146.3

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. WEWMM 146.4

Finally, one can wonder how to make her teachings more widely known in order to benefit the overcrowded earth that seems inevitable tomorrow unless the rate of increase of the world’s population is decreased. WEWMM 146.5

To appreciate the great need for dietary reform one can note the foods available to the average family during the first third of Mrs. White’s lifetime beginning in 1827 and ending with the outbreak of the War between the States. The typical farm family—and most families lived on a farm—from Maine to Indiana had some chickens, swine, sheep, and a few cows. A housewife looked after the garden and the chickens while the man labored in the field. The diet was reasonably satisfactory from the time rhubarb checked latent scurvy in April until most of the fresh foods had disappeared by Thanksgiving. WEWMM 146.6

From Thanksgiving until Easter the diet grew progressively worse, with outbreaks of disease in February and March. Although the French scientist Appert patented methods for canning food in 1810, the housewives had no containers for doing this until well after the great war. Therefore, the housewife had to depend upon drying apples, sweet corn, peas, and beans over her kitchen stove. Vinegar was available because the common fruit was apples. Salt was the other common preservative. Most meat was salted and smoked although pork was often fried and stored in earthenware jars with the meat sealed and sterilized by pouring hot lard over it. Pickles could be preserved and families of Germanic origin could make sauerkraut. WEWMM 146.7

Walnuts, hickory nuts, and in some areas chestnuts, were available. Salted fish were commonplace. Eggs were plentiful in summer and scarce in winter because there was no good way of preserving them except by storage in lime or sawdust. WEWMM 147.1

Cellars preserved the potatoes and apples although the potatoes were often exhausted by spring and the family had to eat the seed and plant the peelings. WEWMM 147.2

The Indiana children took corn bread for their lunch at school until well after the middle of the century. At home they had much corn meal mush and hominy. Highly refined white flour did not become common until after the middle of the century because the roller mills that could take out the germ and the vitamins from wheat flour were only invented about the middle of the nineteenth century. WEWMM 147.3

Butter could be stored in crocks but was usually quite rancid when the cream was skimmed and became worse in storage. WEWMM 147.4

Foods bought at the country stores usually consisted of salt fish or salt meat, some coffee or tea, some sugar, and a jug of thick molasses. Since the molasses came north from New Orleans, the supply was cut off during the sixties and areas like Indiana developed a taste for the sour sorghum molasses. WEWMM 147.5

In Life Sketches one learns much about both the bad food served in most homes and the toll of diseases that resulted. It is no wonder that the relationships between food and diseased people were deeply impressed upon the Whites as they traveled in New England and the Middle West more than a hundred years ago. The diet was a monotonous one of fat, salted meats, bread, potatoes, and butter. No wonder that Elder White developed dyspepsia.... WEWMM 147.6

Well before the birth of Mrs. White there were a few Americans reacting against the bad diet, the smoking and the drinking.... Sylvester Graham who was born in 1794 stirred the young American nation with his lectures advocating vegetarianism, the improvement of bread, the abolishment of alcoholic beverages, and more healthful living. He had much influence during the first half of the nineteenth century but left no permanent group of followers. The vegetarian church was founded in Philadelphia in 1817 but it languished and perished. WEWMM 147.7

About 1840 the Shakers stopped the use of pork, strong drink, and tobacco. Many turned to vegetarianism and Elder F. Evans of New Lebanon laid down rules of health that included— WEWMM 148.1

1. Supply at least one kind of coarse grain bread per meal. Avoid cathartics. WEWMM 148.2

2. Have the sickly and weakly cease using animal foods, especially fats. WEWMM 148.3

3. Keep the skin clean by regular bathing. WEWMM 148.4

But the Shakers reached their peak about 1850 and have now almost perished. WEWMM 148.5

Mrs. White must have long weighed the problems of health as she saw those around dying from cholera, typhoid fever, dysentery, and tuberculosis. All of these have now been nearly eradicated by improved sanitation and better nutrition. WEWMM 148.6

At the time of Mrs. White’s birth, the chemists were beginning to establish the modern science of nutrition. Hundreds have now devoted their lives to creating this science. At this point it seems profitable to note a few of the teachings first expressed as early as 1848 and later developed in such books as The Ministry of Healing and Counsels on Diet and Foods in order to compare them with the accepted viewpoints of modern nutritionists. WEWMM 148.7

Today there is a widespread movement to reduce the intake of fats, especially animal fats, in order to reduce the blood cholesterol and the dangers of atherosclerosis. Mrs. White wrote: “Nut foods are coming largely into use to take the place of flesh meats.... When properly prepared, olives, like nuts, supply the place of butter and flesh meats. The oil, as eaten in the olive, is far preferable to animal oil or fat.”—The Ministry of Healing, 298. WEWMM 148.8

Near the end of Mrs. White’s life in 1915 men began to appreciate that the milling of white flour was removing most of the vitamins, part of the protein and the important trace minerals such as iron. Today nutritionists know that these vital constituents are lost when the bran and germ are taken from the wheat. Mrs. White wrote: “For use in bread-making, the superfine white flour is not the best. Its use is neither healthful nor economical. Fine-flour bread is lacking in nutritive elements to be found in bread made from the whole wheat.”—The Ministry of Healing, 300. WEWMM 148.9

In spite of her emphasis upon a given type of diet Mrs. White appreciated that there were some people who could not tolerate foods that were well suited to the majority. Today it is well recognized that there are a few people with very sensitive intestines that suffer if the diet has much fiber. Mrs. White wrote: “Foods that are palatable and wholesome to one person may be distasteful, and even harmful, to another. Some cannot use milk, while others thrive on it.... For some the coarser grain preparations are good food, while others cannot use them.”—The Ministry of Healing, 320. WEWMM 149.1

Today it is well recognized that overeating and overweight produce much ill health. This is one of the few areas in which all professional nutritionists agree. Mrs. White wrote: “There should not be a great variety at any one meal, for this encourages overeating and causes indigestion.”—The Ministry of Healing, 299. “Abstemiousness in diet is rewarded with mental and moral vigor.... At each meal take only two or three kinds of simple food, and eat no more than is required to satisfy hunger.”—The Ministry of Healing, 308-310. WEWMM 149.2

Throughout the whole life of Mrs. White it was customary to eat elaborate meals upon the weekly holy day. She wrote: “We should not provide for the Sabbath a more liberal supply or a greater variety of food than for other days. Instead of this the food should be more simple, and less should be eaten in order that the mind may be clear and vigorous to comprehend spiritual things.”—The Ministry of Healing, 307. All thinking people will agree with this today but some still fail to practice it. WEWMM 149.3

Today we teach home economics throughout our whole nation. Mrs. White wrote: “Cooking is no mean science, and it is one of the most essential in practical life. It is a science that all women should learn.... To make food appetizing and at the same time simple and nourishing, requires skill.”—The Ministry of Healing, 302, 303. WEWMM 149.4

Meals served in many courses have almost passed from the American home, due probably to the disappearance of maids rather than a comprehension of Mrs. White’s philosophy. “If all the food intended for a meal is placed on the table at the beginning, one has opportunity to make the best choice.”—The Ministry of Healing, 306. WEWMM 150.1

A problem of much concern in America today is that children insist upon watching television and eating snacks in the late evening. They then arise too late in the morning to eat breakfast. Before noon they are tempted to eat snacks and thus spoil their lunch. Mrs. White wrote: “Irregularities in eating destroy the healthful tone of the digestive organs, to the detriment of health and cheerfulness. And when the children come to the table, they do not relish wholesome food; their appetites crave that which is hurtful for them.”—The Ministry of Healing, 384. WEWMM 150.2

Every thinking person today would agree with some of the wise statements of Mrs. White such as, “Pure air, sunlight, abstemiousness, rest, exercise, proper diet, the use of water, trust in divine power—these are the true remedies.”—The Ministry of Healing, 127. “Parents should early seek to interest their children in the study of physiology and should teach them its simpler principles.... An education in the things that concern life and health is more important to them than a knowledge of many of the sciences taught in the schools.”—The Ministry of Healing, 385, 386. WEWMM 150.3

Mrs. White wrote: “There is a large class who will reject any reform movement, however reasonable, if it lays a restriction upon the appetite.... By this class, all who leave the beaten track of custom and advocate reform will be opposed, and accounted radical.”—Counsels on Diet and Foods, 195. Today this class is greatly strengthened in its opposition by the tremendous forces of advertising and the mass control of activities as described in such works as that of Vance Packard in Hidden Persuaders. Hence, improvement of the diet of people is probably far more difficult than it was in the time of Mrs. White. WEWMM 150.4

Today most of us tolerate the smoke blown in our faces as we travel by air and we try to avoid getting holes burned in our clothing as we ride with cigarette smokers on hotel elevators. Today the press is filled with stories relating to smoking—because they force increases in the advertising budgets of the tobacco companies—in an attempt to offset the truthful disclosures. A recent article (1958) by Dr. D. G. Steyn in the South African publication Lantern, states: “Reference should be made to the possible relationship between smoking and coronary thrombosis.” Mrs. White wrote: “Tobacco is a slow, insidious, but most malignant poison.... It is all the more dangerous because its effects are slow and at first hardly perceptible.”—The Ministry of Healing, 327, 328. WEWMM 150.5

In some respects it might be easier to write about the areas in which nutrition specialists and the writings of Mrs. White may seem to disagree because the area is much smaller. These areas are probably due to changes in food technology. The raw milk in the days of Mrs. White was a carrier for many contagious diseases such as tuberculosis, dysentery, and typhoid fever. She felt that cheese was not a satisfactory food. This may have been the result of observations that cheese was made under rather unsanitary conditions. WEWMM 151.1

Mrs. White did recognize the importance of mixing a variety of grains. She stated: “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. She recognized the truth from Ezekiel, “Take thou also unto thee wheat, and barley, and beans, and lentiles, and millet, and fitches, and put them in one vessel, and make thee bread thereof” (Ezekiel 4:9). Beans supplement the proteins of wheat bread as well as increase such essentials as calcium. WEWMM 151.2

All stimulants and narcotics were opposed by Mrs. White. Were she alive today she would certainly be disturbed with the extensive and foolish use of modern tranquilizers. WEWMM 151.3

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. The great need is for people to read fewer books and to devote their efforts to the good ones. WEWMM 151.4