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Counsels on Diet and Foods
Progessive Dietic Reform in Seventh-day Adventist Institutions
The counsel on the subject of flesh meat is not complete without the
picture of the struggle for its nonuse in our institutions as brought to
view in several communications from Mrs. White, and the instruction
urging a progressive reform in diet. It is essential that the reader keep
these facts and the time of writing of the several statements in mind as
he gives study to this phase of the flesh-meat question.—Compilers.
]
Appeals for a Nonflesh Diet in Our Early Medical Institutions
(1884)
720. I have arisen this morning at four o’clock to write you a few
lines. I have been thinking much of late how the institution over which
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you preside could be made all God would have it, and I have a few
thoughts to suggest.
We are health reformers, seeking to come back, as far as possible,
to the Lord’s original plan of temperance. Temperance does not consist
merely in abstaining from intoxicating liquors and tobacco; it extends
farther than this. It must regulate what we eat.
You are all acquainted with the light upon the subject of health
reform. But when I visit the Retreat, I see that there is a very marked
departure from health reform on the matter of meat eating, and I am
convinced that there must be a change, and at once. Your diet is
largely composed of meat. God is not leading in this direction; the
enemy is seeking to establish the diet question upon a wrong basis by
leading those in charge of the institution to accommodate the diet to
the appetite of the patients.
When the Lord led the children of Israel from Egypt, He purposed
to establish them in Canaan a pure, happy, healthy people. Let us study
the plan of God, and see how this was accomplished. He restricted
their diet. To a large degree, He took flesh food from them. But they
hankered after the fleshpots of Egypt, and God gave them flesh, and
with it the sure result.
The Health Retreat was established at a great cost to treat the sick
without drugs. It should be conducted on hygienic principles. Drug
medication should be worked away from as fast as possible, until
entirely discarded. Education should be given on proper diet, dress,
and exercise. Not only should our own people be educated, but those