Ellen G. White and Her Critics

Appeals to Avoid Extremes

Though Mrs. White set forth the ideal diet program for the Christian, she presented it with repeated appeals to avoid extremes, to be sure that in discarding certain foods and drinks the diet is not impoverished. Nothing could more sharply distinguish her from the fanatic than this fact that she did not present these dietary teachings in a sweepingly unqualified way, with no notice taken of the specific needs of the body, the dietary limitations of different countries, the degree of knowledge of food preparation possessed by different people, and the speed with which some can adapt themselves to a changed diet. For example, she wrote: EGWC 367.8

“We do not mark out any precise line to be followed in diet; but we do say that in countries where there are fruits, grains, and nuts in abundance, flesh food is not the right food for God’s people.”—Testimonies for the Church 9:159. EGWC 368.1

Then she adds almost immediately: “We are not to make the use of flesh food a test of fellowship.” EGWC 368.2

The substance of her whole teaching regarding the subject of diet might be summed up thus: We should eat the most nutritious, most wholesome food available, seeking ever to walk in all the light revealed, that in our physical life we may ever more fully come into harmony with the divine laws that should govern us physically, even as we seek, by God’s enabling grace, to come ever more fully into harmony with the divine laws that should govern us spiritually. The true Christian never loses sight of the fact that physical law and moral law are alike expressions of the mind and the will of God. He “giveth to all life, and breath, and all things,” for “in him we live, and move, and have our being.” EGWC 368.3