The Ellen G. White Writings

Salt Provides an Illustration

The Whites had great respect for Dr. R. T. Trall, a physician in New Jersey who was leading out in reforms in the matter of diet, the care of the sick, and so forth. He was not a Seventh-day Adventist. John Kellogg went over in 1872 to take medical training at Dr. Trall’s. He spent six months there. In those days medical training was largely apprenticeship rather than study. Then Dr. Kellogg went on from there to New York, to Bellevue, at the expense of James and Ellen White, and got the best and most thorough medical education that could be had in North America. James and Ellen White were determined that if we were entering the medical field, our work must stand at the very top. They felt that a religious body of four or five thousand people could not afford to enter the field of medicine unless they had a work of high quality. It would have been natural, if Ellen White was influenced by those who were about her, to have been influenced by Dr. Trall, because of her high regard for him, but not so. EGWW 89.2

In the Health Reformer (our monthly health journal) of July, 1869, there is a page or two given over to questions and answers provided by Dr. Trall. One question was “Is it all right to eat a little salt?” Dr. Trall, a scientist, gave the answer: “Salt being a poison should not be used at all.” That was the counsel that went out in our medical journal. But what did Ellen White write? EGWW 89.3

I use some salt, and always have, because from the light given me by God, this article, in the place of being deleterious, is actually essential for the blood. The whys and wherefores of this I know not, but I give you the instruction as it is given me.—Counsels on Diet and Foods, 344. EGWW 90.1

Here Ellen White tells us that the Lord gave her instruction in regard to salt. It is essential to the blood. Of course anyone today who understands blood chemistry knows why it is essential for good health. This was not understood in Ellen White’s day, and she frankly acknowledged: “I don’t know why, but I am giving to you that which God has given to me.” That was the basis of the position she took in opposition to the view that was held by one who was influencing many Seventh-day Adventists. EGWW 90.2

Since salt is essential to good health, shall we eat a lot of it? No. In 1884 in the Review and Herald she wrote, “Do not eat largely of salt.” (See The Ministry of Healing, 305.) Why not? Probably the reason was not revealed to her. She simply sounded a caution. EGWW 90.3

Now note the scientific confirmation: EGWW 90.4

In 1956 at Brookhaven National Laboratory, scientists checked on fellow employees, and found that of 135 who never added salt to their food, only one had unexplained high blood pressure; of 630 who added salt sometimes after tasting food, 43 had the disease; among 581 who always added salt without bothering to taste, 61 had it.—The Signs of the Times, April 30, 1956. EGWW 90.5

Who told Ellen White about salt years and years in advance of the discoveries of nutritionists and physiologists? Was it Dr. Trall? Or was it the Lord? The answer seems evident—Ellen White was not influenced by the erroneous opinions of others. EGWW 90.6