Ellen G. White and Her Critics

An Even More Important Question

But there is an even more important question that demands answer. How would Mrs. White know to choose from among the varied views of reformers that which was good and discard that which was bad? The reformers presented no simon-pure health counsel. For example, Sylvester Graham, who gave his name to graham bread, and who set forth several worth-while health ideas, made the great and grave dietary blunder of discounting, heavily, green, leafy vegetables. Some others held extreme views about milk. They declared that quite apart from its being a possible carrier of disease, milk was essentially a bad food for any but small children and infants. There were those who viewed salt as really a poison. And there were those who overemphasized rest and derogated physical exercise in the daily regimen of patients recuperating from various maladies. These are samples of mistaken views. It is no discredit to these early reformers that they did not have a full and wholly correct understanding of health principles, particularly dietary laws. We could not expect them to. That is the history of all reform. EGWC 393.5

What if Mrs. White, who agreed with some of Graham’s views, had come out vigorously against green, leafy vegetables? What if she had declared that milk is essentially a bad food for any but small children and infants? What if she had declared that salt is a poison to the body and ought not to be used at all? EGWC 394.1

But Mrs. White did not take these positions. Constantly she warned against the danger of extremes in health reform. Where the Lord had not revealed some specific point definitely to her she frankly stated that the future might provide support for some current health view but that no one should run ahead to set up such a view as a standard for the church. She spoke of a “Bro. B” who was connected with the publishing house at Battle Greek and whose advocacy of certain extreme positions in The Health Reformer—the monthly health journal of the denomination—were open to censure: EGWC 394.2

“Bro. B. had urged the extreme positions of Dr. Trall. This had influenced the doctor to come out in the Reformer stronger than he otherwise would have done, in discarding milk, sugar, and salt. The position to entirely discontinue the use of these things may be right in its order; but the time has not come to take a general stand upon these points.”—Testimonies for the Church 3:19. EGWC 394.3

Note that Mrs. White refers to the “extreme positions of Dr. Trall,” who was one of the prominent reforming doctors of the time, and who conducted a department in The Health Reformer. ^* She was not prepared at the time of writing to make any clear statement as to whether they should “entirely discontinue the use of these things.” But if she was controlled in her thinking and writing by what these health reforming doctors were teaching, why did she not feel clear to speak out dogmatically and in behalf of what Dr. Trall was advocating? He was not the only one who advocated what she declared were “extreme positions” on “discarding milk, sugar, and salt.” It would be safe to say that he rather represented the general sentiment of the reforming doctors. The only dogmatic speaking Mrs. White did in that connection was to brand the views as “extreme positions,” which they were. But when she did ultimately speak with definiteness regarding these articles of diet it was to urge, not abstinence, but moderation, as to salt and sugar, and to give caution as to the dangers of disease in milk. For example, in a letter she wrote in 1901 she declared: EGWC 395.1

“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. EGWC 395.2