Ellen White was one of the founders of the Seventh-Day
Adventist Church. She was a vegetarian health reformer, and vegetarianism and
other health teachings of the Adventists are due to her efforts. She believed
that the human body represented God`s temple and therefore it should not be abused.
She also denounced tobacco and alcohol.
About fifty percent of Adventists
today are lacto-ovo vegetarians. There are about 2 million Adventists throughout
the world, with about a quarter of them living in the United States. The Seventh-Day
Adventists are strong promoters of good health. They have their own publishing
company and produce many books and other publications. They also have many hospitals,
natural food stores, and vegetarian restaurants. In addition, they have an institution
of higher education, Loma Linda University.
Several studies have found that
Adventists are significantly healthier than the general population. Vegetarians
owe much to Seventh-Day Adventists, since much of what is now known about health
effects of vegetarianism comes from their studies.
- Richard Schwartz
(Note from a reader: concerning the number of Seventh-day Advetnists in the world
- we number over 10 million with only 11-12% in the United States.)
Quotes:
God gave our first parents the food He designed that the race should eat.
It was contrary to His plan to have the life of any creature taken. There was
to be no death in Eden. The fruit of the trees in the garden was the food man's
wants required. - 1864
The majority of the diseases which the human family
have been and still are suffering under, they have created by ignorance of their
own organic health, and work perseveringly to tear themselves to pieces, and when
broken down and debilitated in body and mind, send for the doctor and drug themselves
to death. - 1866
The diet of animals is vegetables and grains. Must the vegetables
be animalized, must they be incorporated into the system of animals, before we
get them? Must we obtain our vegetable diet by eating the flesh of dead creatures?
God provided fruit in its natural state for our first parents. He gave to Adam
charge over the garden, to dress it, and to care for it, saying, "To you
it shall be for meat." One animal was not to destroy another animal for food.
- 1896
Let our ministers and canvassers step under the banners of strict
temperance. Never be ashamed to say, "No thank you; I do not eat meat. I
have conscientious scruples against eating the flesh of dead animals. - 1901
Flesh was never the best food; but its use is now doubly objectionable, since
disease in animals is so rapidly increasing. - 1902
Animals are becoming
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. - 1902
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. - 1903
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 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 those creatures of God! - 1905
Animals are often transported
long distances and subjected to great suffering in reaching a market. Taken from
the green pastures and traveling for weary miles over the hot, dusty roads, or
crowded into filthy cars, feverish and exhausted, often for many hours deprived
of food and water, the poor creatures are driven to their death, that human beings
may feast on the carcasses. - 1905
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. - 1905
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 the 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! - 1905