Counsels on Diet and Foods (4th ed. 1976)

AUTHOR: White, Ellen Gould Harmon

SUMMARY (Ridvan Askin, edited Deborah Madsen)

This is a very useful compilation of many of White's writings on food and diet. For White, “the establishment and preservation of physical and mental health” is a “duty toward God and our fellow beings” (12). Conversely, “Satan is working with great power to lead men to indulge appetite, gratify inclination, and spend their days in heedless folly. He presents attractions in a life of selfish enjoyment and of sensual indulgence. Intemperance saps the energies of both mind and body” (19) and results in “slavery to the animal passions” (54). It is clear that “[a] close sympathy exists between the physical and the moral nature” (36). All of her advice with regard to food and diet, and health reform in general, has to be understood in this context. Hence her assertion that “[t]here is more religion in good cooking than you have any idea of” (205).

White advocates “temperance in all things,” particularly “temperance in labor, temperance in eating and drinking” (19). She repeatedly draws on the Bible to support her advocacy of a plain diet and the prohibition against flesh-meats (e.g., 24-27). “Grains, fruits, nuts, and vegetables,” she writes, “constitute the diet chosen for us by our Creator. These foods, prepared in as simple and natural a manner as possible, are the most healthful and nourishing. They impart a strength, a power of endurance, and a vigor of intellect, that are not afforded by a more complex and stimulating diet” (67). In contrast, meat breeds disease and immorality:

The moral evils of a flesh diet are not less marked than are the physical ills. Flesh food is injurious to health, and whatever affects the body has a corresponding effect on the mind and the soul. Think of the cruelty to animals that meat eating involves, and its effect on those who inflict and those who behold it. How it destroys the tenderness with which we should regard these creatures of God! (304).

White's specific recommendations, which are repeated throughout these writings, include:

• “A plain diet, free from spices, and flesh meats, and grease of all kinds” (69);
• “Grains and fruits prepared free from grease, and in as natural a condition as possible, should be the food for the tables of all who claim to be preparing for translation to heaven” (55).
• Abstention from “the use of such stimulants and narcotics as tea, coffee, tobacco, alcohol, and morphine” (54): “Condiments are injurious in their nature. Mustard, pepper, spices, pickles, and other things of a like character, irritate the stomach and make the blood feverish and impure” (270).
• “Discard rich pastries, cakes, desserts, and the other dishes prepared to tempt the appetite” (72). “Especially harmful are the custards and puddings in which milk, eggs, and sugar are the chief ingredients” (94).
• “Food should be prepared with simplicity, yet with a nicety which will invite the appetite” (91).
• “Cheese should never be introduced into the stomach” (293).
• Vegetable oil, particularly olive oil, should be used instead of butter or lard as it “is far preferable to animal oil or fat” (287).
• While overeating and gluttony are outright sins, one should also be careful not to “adopt an impoverished diet” (159).

She adopts a gradualist approach to health reform, explicitly warning against overzealous attempts at reform, advising “a noble, Christlike patience” instead. “When those who advocate hygienic reform carry the matter to extremes,” she writes, “people are not to blame if they become disgusted” (157). Otherwise, “health reform becomes health deform” (164). Any “change must be made gradually” (227). She is also sensitive to economic circumstance:

We are to be brought into connection with the masses. Should health reform be taught them in its most extreme form, harm would be done. We ask them to leave off eating meat and drinking tea and coffee. This is well. But some say that milk also should be given up. This is a subject that needs to be carefully handled. There are poor families whose diet consists of bread and milk, and, if they can get it, a little fruit. All flesh food should be discarded, but vegetables should be made palatable with a little milk or cream or something equivalent. The poor say, when health reform is presented to them, “What shall we eat? We cannot afford to buy the nut foods.” As I preach the gospel to the poor, I am instructed to tell them to eat that food which is most nourishing. I cannot say to them: You must not eat eggs, or milk, or cream; you must use no butter in the preparation of food. The gospel must be preached to the poor, and the time has not yet come to prescribe the strictest diet (166-167).

The book contains specific dietary recommendations for pregnancy and childhood (174-199) and White warns against improper use of medicines and drugs: “Pure air, sunlight, abstemiousness, rest, exercise, proper diet, the use of water, trust in divine power, – these are the true remedies” (240). She is convinced that both women and men should learn how to cook. The final chapter of the book concerns the importance of teaching health. White stresses emphatically that health education is the driving force behind the Seventh-Day Adventists' health institutions, such as the Battle Creek Sanitarium: "All who shall visit our health institutions are to be educated. The plan of redemption should be brought before all, high and low, rich and poor. Carefully prepared instruction is to be given, that indulgence in fashionable intemperance in eating and drinking may be seen as the cause of disease and suffering and of evil practices that follow as a result" (358).