Ellen G. White and Her Critics

Discoveries Suggest Restraint in Passing Judgment

Most of the amazing discoveries as to the significance of diet in relation to all the bodily functions, and to health in general, have been made since Mrs. White wrote all these words. EGWC 382.1

Today medical men are attaching increasing significance to diet in relation to the functioning of body and mind. The presence or the absence, in almost microscopic quantities, of certain important ingredients, for example, vitamin B1 (thiamine), can change a normally cheerful, well-poised person into a nervous, irritable, moody creature. We refer to this unfolding marvel of the relation of food to the body and mind of man simply to suggest that the mere absence of supporting scientific proof for some particular statement on diet that Mrs. White has made provides no valid ground for dismissing it as irrational and fanciful. EGWC 382.2

Already scientific investigation in the field of nutrition has provided striking confirmation of many things that she wrote. For example, she declared that greasy foods, rich foods, pies, and gravies were unwholesome. Now note these words expressing current medical opinion as set forth in Hygeia, published by the American Medical Association: EGWC 382.3

“Recent medical opinion is that diet has much to do with the increase in coronary heart disease. People are more ‘civilized.’ They eat too much of animal fats; bacon, egg yolks, pie a la mode, gravy, cream, butter, fat meats. These foods produce an excess of cholesterol in the blood. Cholesterol is a fatty substance, a certain amount of which is normal in the blood. But when there is too much, plaques of cholesterol are laid down in the lining of the arteries, especially the coronary arteries. Practically all coronary thrombosis is due to deposits of cholesterol. On these deposits the blood clot forms, blocking the artery, and one has a thrombosis.”—IRENE E. SOEHREN in March, 1948, p. 183. EGWC 382.4

The Hygeia author observes, regarding this prevalent and often fatal malady, that probably one man in thirty, over forty years of age, “will suffer an attack of coronary thrombosis this year.” EGWC 382.5

Deposits of cholesterol, which may be found in any part of the arterial system, become impregnated with calcium. The result is hardening of the arteries, with too often fatal results. EGWC 383.1

When Mrs. White wrote, in the 1860’s and ‘70’s, repeatedly and emphatically about the unwholesome quality of animal fats and greasy foods in general, of rich pies and gravies, no one knew anything about the relationship of these to the formation of an excess of cholesterol in the blood. But we know it today. EGWC 383.2