Shall We Use Flesh Foods?

Ellen G. White

Copyright © 2018, Ellen G. White Estate, Inc.

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A Selection of Spirit of Prophecy Counsels

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Ellen G. White (1827-1915) is considered the most widely translated American author, her works having been published in more than 160 languages. She wrote more than 100,000 pages on a wide variety of spiritual and practical topics. Guided by the Holy Spirit, she exalted Jesus and pointed to the Scriptures as the basis of one’s faith.

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1. A Selection of Spirit of Prophecy Counsels | 2
   Preparation for Christ’s Coming—God’s Design in Food Reform | 2
   Choose the Best Foods | 2
   Prepare Them in a Simple Appetizing Way | 2
   Appetite Not a Safe Guide | 3
   A Factor in Antediluvian Depravity | 3
   Why Use Secondhand Food? | 3
   Few Animals Free From Disease | 3
   Entire System Corrupted | 4
   Doubly Objectionable Now | 4
   Depreciates the Blood | 4
   Cancerous Tumors and Flesh Eating | 4
   Disease Planted in the System | 6
   The Real Cause Not Suspected | 6
   Mortality and Meat Eating | 6
   Fish Foods and Disease | 6
   If We Disregard Health Reform | 6
   Not the Right Food for God’s People | 6
   Character Building and Flesh Eating | 6
   Flesh Foods and Clear Thinking | 9
   Flesh Foods Hinder Development of All Our Powers | 9
   Other Considerations | 9
   Let Flesh Foods Alone | 9
   Not an ounce of Flesh Foods | 9
   Instruction Concerning a Change in Diet | 9
   Well-prepared Substitutes are Helpful | 9
   Guard Against a Poverty-Stricken Diet | 9
   Illogical Excuses | 9
   Responsibility of Physicians | 10
   Responsibility of Ministers | 11
   Flesh Foods and Sanitariums | 12
   Responsibility of Institutional Workers | 13
   Flesh Foods in Schools | 13
   Ellen G. White Reports on Benefits of Flesh-Free Diet | 14
   Made No Raid on Others or Their Tables | 14
   Tolerance of Others | 15
   No Precise Rules Can Be Laid Down | 15
   “I Have Been A Faithful Health Reformer” | 15
   Ellen C. White’s Appeal at the General Conference of 1909 | 16
   Health Reform a Duty | 16
   Is This Not the Time? | 16
   Before God’s People Stand Perfected | 16
   God is Bringing His People Back | 16

A Selection of Spirit of Prophecy Counsels¹

Preparation for Christ’s Coming—God’s Design in Food Reform

Again and again I have been shown that God is trying to lead us back, step by step, to His original design—that man should subsist upon the natural products of the earth. Among those who are waiting for the coming of the Lord, meat eating will eventually be done away; flesh will cease to form a part of their diet. We should ever keep this end in view, and endeavor to work steadily toward it.—Counsels on Health, 450.

Choose the Best Foods

In order to know what are the best foods, we must study God’s original plan for man’s diet. He who created man and who understands his needs appointed Adam his food.... Grains, fruits, nuts, and vegetables constitute the diet chosen for us by our Creator.—The Ministry of Healing, 295, 296.

Meat is not essential for health or strength, else the Lord made a mistake when He provided food for Adam and Eve before their fall. All the elements of nutrition are contained in the fruits, vegetables, and grains.—Counsels on Diet and Foods, 395.

Prepare Them in a Simple Appetizing Way

God has furnished man with abundant means for the gratification of an unperverted appetite. He has spread before him the products of the earth—a bountiful variety of food that is palatable to the taste and nutritious to the system. Of these our benevolent heavenly Father says we may freely eat. Fruits, grains, and vegetables, prepared in a simple way, free from spice and grease of all kinds, make,

¹Note. The quotation here presented are drawn largely from Ministry of Healing, Counsels on Diet and Foods, Counsels on Health and Testimonies for the Church, Volume 9. Permission has been granted for publication in this form. A reading of the fuller presentation in the outstanding volumes just referred to is urged strongly

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with milk or cream, the most healthful diet. They impart nourishment to the body, and give a power of endurance and vigor of intellect that are not produced by a stimulating diet.—Counsels on Diet and Foods, 92.

Appetite Not a Safe Guide

Those foods should be chosen that best supply the elements needed for building up the body. In this choice, appetite is not a safe guide. Through wrong habits of eating, the appetite has become perverted. Often it demands food that impairs health and causes weakness instead of strength.... The disease and suffering that everywhere prevail are largely due to popular errors in regard to diet.—The Ministry of Healing, 295.

A Factor in Antediluvian Depravity

The inhabitants of the Old World were intemperate in eating and drinking. They would have flesh meats, although God had given them no permission to eat animal food. They ate and drank to excess, and their depraved appetites knew no bounds. They gave themselves up to abominable idolatry. They became violent and ferocious, and so corrupt that God could bear with them no longer. Their cup of iniquity was full, and God cleansed the earth of its moral pollution by a flood.—Counsels on Diet and Foods, 373, 374.

Why Use Secondhand Food?

Those who eat flesh are but eating grains and vegetables at second hand; for the animal receives from these things the nutrition that produces growth. The life that was in the grains and vegetables passes into the eater. We receive it by eating the flesh of the animal. How much better to get it direct, by eating the food that God provided for our use!—The Ministry of Healing, 313.

Few Animals Free From Disease

The meat diet is the serious question. Shall human beings live on the flesh of dead animals? The answer, from the light that God has given is, No, decidedly No. Health reform institutions should educate on this question. Physicians who [3] claim to understand the human organism ought not to encourage their patients to subsist on the flesh of dead animals. They should point out the increase of disease in the animal kingdom. The testimony of examiners is that very few animals are free from disease.—Counsels on Diet and Foods, 388.

Entire System Corrupted

I have felt urged by the Spirit of God to set before several the fact that their suffering and ill health was caused by a disregard of the light given them upon health reform. I have shown them that their meat diet, which was supposed to be essential, was not necessary, and that, as they were composed of what they ate, brain, bone, and muscle were in an unwholesome condition, because they lived on the flesh of dead animals; that their blood was being corrupted by this improper diet; that the flesh which they ate was diseased, and their entire system was becoming gross and corrupted.—Counsels on Diet and Foods, 387.

Doubly Objectionable Now

Flesh was never the best food; but its use is now doubly objectionable, since disease in animals is so rapidly increasing. Those who use flesh foods little know what they are eating. Often if they could see the animals when living and know the quality of the meat they eat, they would turn from it with loathing. People are continually eating flesh that is filled with tuberculous and cancerous germs. Tuberculosis, cancer, and other fatal diseases are thus communicated.—The Ministry of Healing, 313.

Depreciates the Blood

Flesh meats will depreciate the blood.—Testimonies for the Church 2:368.

Cancerous Tumors and Flesh Eating

The tables of many professed Christian women are daily set with a variety of dishes which irritate the stomach and produce a feverish condition of the system. Flesh meats constitute the principal article of food upon the tables [4] of some families, until their blood is filled with cancerous and scrofulous tumors. Their bodies are composed of what they eat. But when suffering and disease come upon them, it is considered an affliction of Providence.—Testimonies for the Church 3:563.

If meat eating were ever healthful, it is not safe now. Cancers, tumors, and pulmonary disease are largely caused by meat eating.—Testimonies for the Church 9:159.

From the light God has given me, the prevalence of cancers and tumors is largely due to gross living on dead flesh.—Medical Ministry, 278. [5]

Disease Planted in the System

It is in eating meat so largely in this country that men and women are becoming demoralized, their blood corrupted, and disease planted in the system. Because of meat eating, many die, and they do not understand the cause.—Counsels on Diet and Foods, 412.

The Real Cause Not Suspected

Many die of diseases wholly due to meat eating, while the real cause is not suspected by themselves or by others.—The Ministry of Healing, 315.

Mortality and Meat Eating

The mortality caused by meat eating is not discerned; if it were, we would hear no more arguments and excuses in favor of the indulgence of the appetite for dead flesh.—Medical Ministry, 270.

Fish Foods and Disease

In many places fish become so contaminated by the filth on which they feed as to be a cause of disease. This is especially the case where the fish come in contact with the sewage of large cities. The fish that are fed on the contents of the drains may pass into distant waters, and may be caught where the water is pure and fresh. Thus when used as food they bring disease and death on those who do not suspect the danger.—The Ministry of Healing, 314, 315.

If We Disregard Health Reform

If the light God has given in regard to health reform is disregarded, He will not work a miracle to keep in health those who pursue a course to make themselves sick.—Counsels on Diet and Foods, 401.

There are those among Seventh-day Adventists who will not heed the light given them in regard to this matter. They make flesh meat a part of their diet. Disease comes upon them. Sick and suffering as a result of their own wrong course, they ask for the prayers of the servants of God. But how can the Lord work in their behalf when they are not willing to do His will, when they refuse to heed His instruction in regard to health reform?

For thirty years the light on health reform has been coming to the people of God, but many have made it a subject of jest. They have continued to use tea, coffee, spices, and flesh meat. Their bodies are full of disease. How can we, I ask, present such ones to the Lord for healing?—Counsels on Diet and Foods, 400.

Not the Right Food for God’s People

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. I have been instructed that flesh food has a tendency to animalize the nature, to rob men and women of that love and sympathy which they should feel for everyone, and to give the lower passions control over the higher powers of the being.... We are not to make the use of flesh food a test of fellowship, but we should consider the influence that professed believers who use flesh foods have over others. As God’s messengers, shall we not say to the people: “Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God”?—Testimonies for the Church 9:159.

Character Building and Flesh Eating

We are built up from that which we eat. Shall we strengthen the animal passions by eating animal food?—Counsels on Diet and Foods, 322. [6]

O, if every one could discern these matters as they have been presented to me, those who are so careless, so indifferent in regard to their character building, those who plead for indulgence in a flesh-meat diet, would never open their lips in justification of an appetite for the flesh of dead animals.—Healthful Living, 102.

Flesh Foods and Clear Thinking

God wants the perceptive faculties of His people to be clear and capable of hard work. But if you are living on a flesh diet, you need not expect that your mind will be fruitful. The thoughts must be cleansed; then the blessing of God will rest upon his people.... We want them to understand that the flesh of animals is not the proper food for them to eat. Such a diet cultivates the animal passions in them and in their children. God wants us to educate our children in right habits of eating, dressing, and working.—Counsels on Dint and Foods, pp. 339, 390-391.

Flesh Foods Hinder Development of All Our Powers

Let the members of our churches deny every selfish appetite. Every penny expended for tea, coffee, and flesh meat is worse than wasted; for these things hinder the best development of the physical, mental, and spiritual powers.—Counsels on Diet and Foods, 430.

Other Considerations

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 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 the creatures of God:—The Ministry of Healing, 315.

We have the commandments of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ, which is the spirit of prophecy. Priceless gems are to be found in the Word of God. Those who search this Word should keep the mind clear. Never should they indulge perverted appetite in eating or drinking.

If they do this, the brain will be confused; they will be unable to bear the strain of digging deep to find out the meaning of those things which relate to the closing scenes of this earth’s history.—Testimonies to Ministers and Gospel Workers, 114. [7]

Let Flesh Foods Alone

Concerning flesh meat we can all say, let it alone.—Counsels on Diet and Foods, 430.

My position now is to let meat altogether alone. It will be hard for some to do this, as hard as for the rum-drinker to forsake his dram; but they will be better for the change.—Counsels on Diet and Foods, 410.

Not an ounce of Flesh Foods

Vegetables, fruits, and grains should compose our diet. Not an ounce of flesh meat should enter our stomachs. The eating of flesh is unnatural. We are to return to God’s original purpose in the creation of man.—Counsels on Diet and Foods, 380.

Instruction Concerning a Change in Diet

It is a mistake to suppose that muscular strength depends on the use of animal food. The needs of the system can be better supplied, and more vigorous health can be enjoyed without its use. The grains, with fruits, nuts, and vegetables, contain all the nutritive properties necessary to make good blood. These elements are not so well or so fully supplied by a flesh diet. Had the use of flesh been essential to health and strength, animal food would have been included in the diet appointed man in the beginning.

When the use of flesh food is discontinued, there is often a sense of weakness, a lack of vigor. Many urge this as evidence that flesh food is essential; but it is because foods of this class are stimulating, because they fever the blood and excite the nerves, that they are so missed. Some will find it difficult to leave off flesh-eating as it is for the drunkard to give up his dram, but they will be better for the change.

When flesh is discarded, its place should be supplied with a variety of grains, nuts, vegetables, and fruits, that will be both nourishing and appetizing. This is especially necessary in the case of those who are weak, or who are taxed with continuous labor.—The Ministry of Healing, 316. [8]

Well-prepared Substitutes are Helpful

Especially where meat is not made a principal article of food is good cooking an essential requirement. Something must be prepared to take the place of meat, and these substitutes for meat must be well prepared, so that meat will not be desired.—Counsels on Diet and Foods, 398.

Guard Against a Poverty-Stricken Diet

I am acquainted with families who have changed from a meat diet to one that is impoverished. Their food is so poorly prepared that the stomach loathes it, and such have told me that the health reform did not agree with them; that they were decreasing in physical strength. Here is one reason why some have not been successful in their efforts to simplify their food. They have a poverty-stricken diet. Food is prepared without painstaking, and there is a continual sameness.

There should not be many kinds at any one meal, but all meals should not be composed of the same kinds of foods without variation. Food should be prepared with simplicity, yet with a nicety which will invite the appetite.—Testimonies for the Church 2:63.

There are many minds in many places to whom the Lord will surely give knowledge of how to prepare foods that are healthful and palatable, if He sees that they will use this knowledge righteously. Animals are becoming more and more diseased, and it will not be long until animal food will be discarded by many besides Seventh-day Adventists. Foods that are healthful and life-sustaining are to be prepared, so that men and women will not need to eat meat.—Testimonies for the Church 7:124.

Illogical Excuses

When Satan takes possession of the mind, how soon the light and instruction that the Lord as graciously given, fade away, and have no force! How many frame excuses and make necessities which have no existence, to bear them up in their course of wrong, in setting aside the light and trampling it underfoot! I [9] speak with assurance. The greatest objection to health reform is that this people do not live it out; and yet they will gravely say they cannot live the health reform and preserve their strength.

We find in every such instance a good reason why they cannot live out the health reform. They do not live it out, and have never followed it strictly, therefore they cannot be benefited by it. Some fall into the error that because they discard meat, they have no need to supply its place with the best fruits and vegetables, prepared in their most natural state, free from grease and spices. If they would only skillfully arrange the bounties with which the Creator has surrounded them, parents and children with a clear conscience unitedly engaging in the work, they would enjoy simple food, and would then be able to speak understandingly of health reform. Those who have not been converted to health reform, and have never fully adopted it, are not judges of its benefits. Those who digress occasionally to gratify the taste in eating a fattened turkey or other flesh meats, pervert their appetites, and are not the ones to judge the benefits of the system of health reform. They are controlled by taste, not by principle.—Testimonies for the Church 2:486, 487.

Responsibility of Physicians

The physician who uses and prescribes meat does not reason from cause to effect, and instead of acting as a restorer, he leads the patient by his own example to indulge perverted appetite.

The physicians employed in our institutions should be reformers in this respect and in every other. Many of the patients are suffering because of errors in diet. They need to be shown the better way. But how can a meat-eating physician do this? By his wrong habits he trammels his work and cripples his usefulness.—Counsels on Diet and Foods, 290, 291.

I do hope that you, as a physician, will not by precept and example counter-work that which the Lord has given me to enlighten minds and bring in thorough reforms. I am working earnestly along these lines, and shall never cease working [10] against the practice of meat eating.—(Leaflet) Unpublished Testimonies in Regard to Flesh Foods, p. 8

I have had opened before me the stumblingblock which this diet question has been to your own spiritual advancement, and what a stumblingblock you have placed in the pathway of others, and all because your own sensibilities were blunted through the selfish gratification of appetite. For Christ’s sake look deeper, study deeper, and act in accordance with the light God has been pleased to give you and others on this subject.—Medical Ministry, 278.

The Lord would bring His people into a position where they will not touch or taste the flesh of dead animals. Then let not these things be prescribed by any physicians who have a knowledge of the truth for this time. There is no safety in the eating of the flesh of dead animals, and in a short time the milk of the cows will also be excluded from the diet of God’s commandment-keeping people. In a short time it will not be safe to use anything that comes from the animal creation. Those who take God at His word, and obey His commandments with the whole heart, will be blessed. He will be their shield of protection. But the Lord will not be trifled with. Distrust, disobedience, alienation from God’s will and way, will place the sinner in a position where the Lord cannot give him His divine favor.—Counsels on Diet and Foods, 411.

Responsibility of Ministers

Our ministers, who know the truth, should arouse the people from their paralyzed condition, and lead them to put away those things that create an appetite for flesh meat. If they neglect to reform, they will lose spiritual power, and become more and more debased by sinful indulgence. Habits that disgust the heavenly universe, habits that degrade human beings lower than the beasts, are practiced in many homes. Let all those who know the truth, say, “Flee fleshly lusts that war against the soul.”

Let not any of our ministers set an evil example in the eating of flesh meat. Let them and their families live up to the light of health reform. Let not our ministers animalize their own nature and the nature of their children.—Counsels on Diet and Foods, 399.

God has provided an abundance of fruits and grains, which may be healthfully prepared and used in proper quantities. Why, then, do men continue to choose flesh meats? Can we possibly have confidence in ministers who at tables where flesh is served join with others in eating it?.... [11]

“Ye shall diligently keep the commandments of the Lord our God” Every one who transgresses the laws of health will surely be visited with God’s displeasure. Oh, how much of the Holy Spirit we might have day by day, if we would walk circumspectly, denying self, and practicing the virtues of Christ’s character.—Counsels on Diet and Foods, 401, 402.

Shall we not bear a decided testimony against the indulgence of perverted appetite? Will any who are ministers of the gospel, proclaiming the most solemn truth ever given to mortals, set an example in returning to the flesh-pots of Egypt? Will those who are supported by the tithe from God’s storehouse permit themselves by self-indulgence to poison the life-giving current flowing through their veins? Will they disregard the light and warnings that God has given them? The health of the body is to be regarded as essential for growth in grace and the acquirement of an even temper. If the stomach is not properly cared for, the formation of an upright, moral character will be hindered. The brain and nerves are in sympathy with the stomach. Erroneous eating and drinking result in erroneous thinking and acting.—Testimonies for the Church 9:159, 160.

Flesh Foods and Sanitariums

I cannot think that in the practice of flesh eating we are in harmony with the light which God has been pleased to give us. All who are connected with our health institutions especially should be educating themselves to subsist on fruits, grains, and vegetables. If we move from principle in these things, if we as Christian reformers educate our own taste, and bring our diet to God’s plan, then we may exert an influence upon others in this matter, which will be pleasing to God.—Counsels on Diet and Foods, 381.

I have been plainly instructed by the Lord that flesh meat should not be placed before the patients in our sanitarium dining rooms. Light was given me that the patients could have flesh meat, if, after hearing the parlor lectures, they still urged us to give it to them; but that, in such cases, it must be eaten in their own rooms. All the helpers are to discard flesh meat. But, as stated [12] before, if, after knowing that the flesh of animals cannot be placed on the dining room tables, a few patients urge that they must have meat, cheerfully give it to them in their rooms.

Accustomed, as many are, to the use of flesh meat, it is not surprising that they should expect to see it on the sanitarium table. You may find it inadvisable to publish the bill of fare, giving a list of the foods supplied at the table; for the absence of flesh meat from the dietary may seem a formidable obstacle to those who are thinking of becoming patrons of the sanitarium.

Let the food be palatably prepared and nicely served. More dishes will have to be prepared than would be necessary if flesh meat were served. Other things can be provided, so that meats can be discarded. Milk and cream can be used by some.—Counsels on Diet and Foods, 290.

Responsibility of Institutional Workers

There are some in our institutions who claim to believe the principles of health reform, and yet who indulge in the use of flesh meats and other foods which they know to be injurious to health. I say to such in the name of the Lord, do not accept positions in our institutions while you refuse to live the principles for which our institutions stand; for by doing this, you make doubly hard the work of teachers and leaders who are striving to carry the work on right lines. Clear the King’s highway. Cease to block the way of the message He sends.

I have been shown that the principles that were given us in the early days of the message are to be regarded as just as important by our people today as they were then. There are some who have never followed the light given us on the question of diet. It is time now to take the light from under the bushel, and let it shine forth in clear, bright rays.—Counsels on Diet and Foods, 415, 416.

Flesh Foods in Schools

I have been instructed that the students in our schools are not to be served with flesh foods or with food preparations that are known to be unhealthful.—Testimonies for the Church 9:157. [13]

Students would accomplish much more in their studies if they never tasted meat. When the animal part of the human agent is strengthened by meat eating, the intellectual powers diminish proportionately. A religious life can be more successfully gained and maintained if meat is discarded, for this diet stimulates into intense activities, lustful propensities, and enfeebles the moral and spiritual nature. “The flesh warreth against the sipirit, and the spirit against the flesh.”—Medical Ministry, 277, 278.

Ellen G. White Reports on Benefits of Flesh-Free Diet

I am now in my eighty-first year, and I can bear testimony that we do not, as a family, hunger for the fleshpots of Egypt. I have known something of the benefits to be received by living up to the principles of health reform. I consider it a privilege as well as a duty to be a health reformer.

Yet I am sorry that there are many of our people who do not strictly follow the light on health reform. Those who in their habit transgress the principles of health, and do not heed the light that the Lord has given them, will surely suffer the consequences....

I consider that one reason why I have been able to do so much work both in speaking and in writing, is because I am strictly temperate in my eating. If several varieties of food are placed before me, I endeavor to choose only those that I know will agree. Thus I am enabled to preserve clear mental faculties. I refuse to place in my stomach knowingly anything that will set up fermentation. This is the duty of all health reformers. We must reason from cause to effect. It is our duty to be temperate in all things.—Counsels on Diet and Foods, 492, 493.

Made No Raid on Others or Their Tables

I have had great light from the Lord upon the subject of health reform. I did not seek this light; I did not study to obtain it; it was given to me by the Lord to give to others. I present these matters before the people, dwelling upon general principles, and sometimes, if questions are asked me at the table to which [14] I have been invited, I answer according to the truth. But I have never made a raid upon any one in regard to the table or its contents. I would not consider such a course at all courteous or proper.—Counsels on Diet and Foods, 493.

Tolerance of Others

I make myself a criterion for no one else. There are things that I cannot eat without suffering great distress. I try to learn that which is best for me, and then saying nothing to any one, I partake of the things that I can eat, which often are simply two or three varieties that will not create a disturbance in the stomach.—Counsels on Diet and Foods, 493, 494.

No Precise Rules Can Be Laid Down

There is a wide difference in constitutions and temperaments, and the demands of the system differ greatly in different persons. What would be food for one, might be poison for another; so precise rules cannot be laid down to fit every case. I cannot eat beans, for they are poison to me; but for me to say that for this reason no one must eat them would be simply ridiculous. I cannot eat a spoonful of milk gravy, or milk toast, without suffering in consequence; but other members of my family can eat these things, and realize no such effect; therefore I take that which suits my stomach best, and they do the same. We have no words, no contention; all moves along harmoniously in my large family, for I do not attempt to dictate what they shall or shall not eat.—Counsels on Diet and Foods, 494.

“I Have Been A Faithful Health Reformer”²

When the message of health reform first came to me, I was weak and feeble, subject to frequent fainting spells. I was pleading with God for help, and He opened before me the great subject of health reform. He instructed me that those who are keeping His commandments must be brought into sacred relation to Himself, and that by temperance in eating and drinking they must keep mind and body in

²Note. For Mrs. White’s detailed account of her experience in diet reform see Counsels on Diet and Foods, 481-494

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the most favorable condition for service. This light has been a great blessing to me. I took my stand as a health reformer, knowing that the Lord would strengthen me. I have better health today, notwithstanding my age, than I had in my younger days.

It is reported by some that I have not followed the principles of health reform as I have advocated them with my pen; but I can say that I have been a faithful health reformer. Those who have been members of my family know that this is true.—Testimonies for the Church 9:158, 159.

Ellen C. White’s Appeal at the General Conference of 1909

If we could be benefited by indulging the desire for flesh foods, I would not make this appeal to you;³ but I know we cannot. Flesh foods are injurious to the physical well-being, and we should learn to do without them. Those who are in a position where it is possible to secure a vegetarian diet, but who choose to follow their own preferences in this matter, eating and drinking as they please, will gradually grow careless of the instruction the Lord has given regarding other phases of the present truth and will lose their perception of what is truth; they will surely reap as they have sown.—Testimonies for the Church 9:156, 157.

Health Reform a Duty

As a people, we should make advancement proportionate to the light received. It is our duty to understand and respect the principles of health reform.—Testimonies for the Church 9:158.

Is This Not the Time?

Is it not time that all should aim to dispense with flesh foods? How can those who are seeking to become pure, refined, and holy, that they may have the

³Note: See the full address in Testimonies for the Church 9:153-166

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companionship of heavenly angels, continue to use as food anything that has so harmful an effect on soul and body? How can they take the life of God’s creatures that they may consume the flesh as a luxury? Let them, rather, return to the wholesome and delicious food given to man in the beginning, and themselves practice, and teach their children to practice, mercy toward the dumb creatures that God has made and has placed under our dominion.—The Ministry of Healing, 317.

Before God’s People Stand Perfected

Those who have received instruction regarding the evils of the use of flesh foods, tea and coffee, and rich and unhealthful food preparations, and who are determined to make a covenant with God by sacrifice, will not continue to indulge their appetite for food that they know to be unhealthful. God demands that the appetites be cleansed, and that self-denial be practiced in regard to those things which are not good. This is a work that will have to be done before His people can stand before Him a perfected people.—Testimonies for the Church 9:153, 154.

God is Bringing His People Back

Again and again I have been shown that God is bringing His people back to His original design, that is, not to subsist on the flesh of dead animals. He would have us teach people a better way.... If meat is discarded, if the taste is not educated in that direction, if a liking for fruits and grains is encouraged, it will soon be as God in the beginning designed it should be. No meat will be used by His people.—Counsels on Diet and Foods, 82.

Compiled by Request

By Ellen G. White Estate

General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists Washington, D. C.

October 5, 1960