"Truth about Ellen White Writings"

Principles of Diet

1. Need for simple diet

Ellen white (1827-1915): “If ever there was a time when the diet should be of the most simple kind, it is now” (Testimony Studies on Diet and Foods [TSDF], p. 142, Cir. 1864-1866).

Ellen White: “They are to be taught how to choose and prepare the simple food that is best suited to nourish the body and preserve the health” (TSDF, p. 142, 1926).

Ellen White: “To confine yourselves to a simple diet, which will preserve you in the best condition of health….” (TSDF, 141, 1926).

Ellen White: “Our food should be plain and simple” (Pacific Union Recorder, Jan 11, 1911).

Ellen White: “The mother should study to set simple yet nutritious diet before her family…They impart nourishment to the body and give power of intellect that are not produced by a stimulating diet” (CH, p.115, 1923).

L. B. Coles (1803-1856): “Food should be simple and nutritious – though not with stimulating ingredients – as to be palatable – inviting to the appetite” (The Philosophy of Health, p. 36, 1848).

L. B. Coles (1803-1856): “Simple diet; i.e., living on simple, plain food, is exceedingly important in securing good health and sound constitution” (The Philosophy of Health, p. 37, 1848).

2. Foods should not be washed down

Ellen White (1827-1915): “Foods should not be washed down. No drink is needed with the meals. Eat slowly, and allow saliva to mingle with food. Never take tea, coffee, beer, wine, or cider or any spurious liquors” (CD, 421, 1938).

William A. Alcott (1798-1859): “If the young are taught to eat slowly enough, the danger of evils in this line of direction would almost disappear” (The Laws of Health or Sequel to the House I live In, p. 103, 1855).

William A. Alcott (1798-1859): “If we do not wash down our food with cider or beer, we do so with tea or coffee; or, if with nothing else, with the tumbler of water….But all drinking with meals is but the substitution of an inferior liquid for nature’s own, and in too large a quantity. God in his providence has set six natural fountains in the face…” (The laws of health, or, Sequel to The house I live in, p. 119, 1855).

3.  Not to eat between meals

Ellen White (1827-1915): “Eating irregularly between meals is a pernicious violation of the laws of health” (MH, p. 385, 1905).

Ellen White: “No eating should be allowed between our meals” (16 MR, p. 173, 1889).

William A. Alcott (1798-1859): “Nothing containing nutriment, whether in solid or liquid condition, should go down our throats between our meals, except water” (The laws of health, or, Sequel to the House I live in, p. 126, 1855).

William A. Alcott (1798-1859): “Eating between our regular meals is a dietetic transgression of no ordinary magnitude” (Ibid., p. 126).

4. Two meals preferable to three

Ellen White (1827-1915): “The practice of eating but two meals a day is generally found of benefit to health; yet under some circumstances, persons may require a third meal” (MH, 321, 1905).

Ellen White: “Most people enjoy better health while eating two meals a day than three…” (CH, p. 156).

Ellen White: “I have eaten two meals each day for the last 25 years” (16 MR, p. 173, 1889).

William A. Alcott (1798-1859): “Many incline to the opinion that two meals a day for healthy adults are quite sufficient….Those who take but two meals a day….actually enjoy more, and find themselves in better general health” (The laws of Health, or, Sequel to the House I live in, p. 122, 124, 1855).

William A. Alcott (1798-1859): “I do not say positively, that three meals a day are incompatible with the maintenance of tolerable health; nor one a day is sufficient. But I do say that more than three are injurious; that two would for most persons be preferable to three” (Ibid., p. 125).