4. Health Reform
Seventh-day Adventists who know anything about health reform know that the Spirit of Prophecy counsels us to have a vegetarian diet if at all possible. So, we will not be covering that here, but will rather cover other dietary concerns and then some non-dietary concerns.
Dietary Reforms
Our big concern is that there are many sick among us—people with chronic diseases, with cancer, or suffering with acid reflux or cognitive or other mental problems; some are dying young. Why? Because our understanding of health reform is being vegetarian. But that is just the beginning, and in some cases, people can get worse health by not knowing properly how to do a plant-based diet. There is so much more to diet than just abstaining from meats. So, we recommend reading the compilatory book Councils on Diet and Foods by Ellen G. White.
In that book, we find that there are some very important counsels that few are following, and their health is being impacted as a result. The following things should be addressed by every Seventh-day Adventist, and members should be educated on these things.
1 – Food should be eaten slowly, and in lesser quantities.
“In order to secure healthy digestion, food should be eaten slowly. Those who wish to avoid dyspepsia, and those who realize their obligation to keep all their powers in a condition which will enable them to render the best service to God, will do well to remember this. If your time to eat is limited, do not bolt your food, but eat less, and masticate slowly. The benefit derived from food does not depend so much on the quantity eaten, as on its thorough digestion; nor the gratification of taste so much on the amount of food swallowed, as on the length of time it remains in the mouth” (Christian Temperance and Bible Hygiene, p. 51).
If we chew more, keeping the food in the mouth longer, we will get much more benefit out of our food, since some of the digestion takes place in the mouth, and we will also be able to get down our grocery bill, freeing up money to use in the cause of God since we will not be eating as much.
Here is a testimony by Lori Dooley who significantly improved in health just by making one change: eating more slowly. She also gets into how the Adventist health retreats generally do not follow the counsels in the Spirit of Prophecy and how many Adventists are foolishly following fad diets, which can ultimately lead to worse health, even if there are initially favorable effects. We simply need to strictly follow all of the Spirit of Prophecy principles for health we have been given.
2 – No grease should be used; instead use whole foods, with the fat in the food.
The Greasy Reality of Consuming Free Fat
3 – No fermented foods should be eaten, including vinegar.
Fermented Foods: Are They Really Healthy?
4- No coarse vegetables should be eaten (raw).
This is mentioned several times by Sister White, but most people do not know what it means today. It means that no hard vegetables should be eaten without thorough cooking. According to Dr. Kellogg, this is due to the cellulose, which impedes digestion. More information on this is also in the testimony video above.
5 – Grains should be very thoroughly cooked.
According to the Spirit of Prophecy, we should not be following the standard cooking times given on boxes of hot cereals and pastas if we would have good health; they must be cooked much longer before the properties are fit for digestion.
6 – Let alone sweets and desserts.
It is better to let sweet things alone. Let alone those sweet dessert dishes that are placed on the table. You do not need them. You want a clear mind to think after God’s order. We should now come into line with health reform principles.
— E.G. White, Review and Herald, 1/7/1902
Sugars digest very quickly, and when combined with other foods, they will ferment in the stomach, causing similar problems to eating fermented foods. But also yeasts and cancers thrive on sugars and they can be hard on the liver, by causing fatty liver and high body lipids overall. The best practice is to not use white sugar but substitute with maple or honey, and only in small quantities, if any. The amount of honey or maple to make desserts is generally not healthful. Some people with chronic diseases may need to limit even whole fruits, but generally fruit juice is not healthful. It is better to focus on more properly prepared vegetables than fruits in the toxic world we live in today.
Dietary Reforms
The Spirit of Prophecy also addresses non-dietary health principles, which often get neglected because we only focus on diet. We may be familiar with the phrase ‘Eight
7 – Avoid Spices
Ellen White wrote extensively on this one, yet it is very common for spices to be added at Adventist potlucks. Our people need to be educated in the Spirit of Prophecy.
Spices actually have a direct impact on our moral nature, and the worst offenders are peppers, including, though to a lesser degree, even sweet peppers. The problem is that they lead to an excitability of the nervous system due to vanilloid compounds, which is similar to how cannabis works. They both affect TRPV1 receptor, as does garlic.
There are other spices that are irritating but less objectionable that should be used sparingly; see Page 2 of this document.
Here is another interesting article.
And here is a sermon/presentation on spices.
Closely related to spices is the usage of garlic, and even uncooked onions. Public medical research is starting to catch up with what the Spirit of Prophecy and our pioneers said about raw onions and garlic.
Here is a quote from a meta analysis study from PubMed:
“A literature search on garlic and its antioxidant potential churned up a surprisingly large amount of data, some of it good, some bad and some of its definitely ugly … higher doses have been shown to be toxic to the heart, liver and kidney” (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12601669).
In Sister White’s writings, she only referred to onions or garlic in a negative way – that they were lusted after – except in one circumstance where she recommended taking onion medicinally, but only that which was “well-cooked” (Letter 348, 1908), since cooking greatly reduces the poisonous aspect of it and makes it less injurious to the digestive system. Garlic can even contribute towards leaky gut syndrome since it can eat through the lining of the guts, thus causing or worsening autoimmune disorders such as Hashimoto’s hypothyroidism.
Here are some things that our pioneer publication “Health Reformer” had to say about uncooked onions and garlic:
December 1898:
Garlic. — F. R., Wisconsin :
I. Is garlic a healthful vegetable?
2. Is it not true that there is very little sickness among the Hebrews who consume large quantities of it?
3. Is not their fair complexion due to its use?
Ans.— 1. No.
2. The Hebrews do not eat pork and have many other healthful practises.
3. No
November, 1891:
OBJECTIONABLE ARTICLES OF FOOD.— A lady subscriber wishes to know in relation to the following articles of food, whether any of the list are objectionable: “Lettuce, raw onions, green peas, stringbeans, green-corn, sauer-kraut, gooseberries, pieplant, and red raspberries?”
Ans.— We should recommend raw onions and pieplant as unfit for consumption by human beings, and of doubtful utility for consumption by either man or beast. […]
May, 1900:
Onions are not a very wholesome vegetable, but if cooked long enough to remove the onion flavor, they may be rendered comparatively wholesome.
Also in the realm of food flavorings, if you are eating “nutritional” yeast and most other processed foods, YOU MAY BE KILLING YOUR BRAIN CELLS AND SLOWLY DEVELOPING SERIOUS BRAIN DISEASES! This is due to the naturally produced MSG by the fermenting and heating process required to inactivate the yeast. This flavor-enhancing, money-making, multi-billion dollar industry is full of deception!
Glutamic acid is an amino acid naturally present in most foods, but it is bound to other amino acids; thus, the body can properly deal with it. But not so with MSG and the many other ingredients containing FREE glutamic acid added to processed foods (anything hydrolyzed, isolated proteins, yeast extracts, etc.). The bottom line: Stop eating most processed foods and eat the foods that God created.
And one more thing in the realm of food flavorings. Did you know that there is not much difference between “natural” and artificial flavors, which are in most processed foods now? Did you know that “natural flavors” may have 50 to 100 ingredients and that the majority of the content is artificial (synthetic) solvents, and the rest of it is a wide array of chemicals—identical to the artificial flavors? Did you know that one of the “natural flavors” for strawberry and vanilla is beaver sex glands? Unfortunately, the flavor industry is all about secrecy and addiction.
This is another realm where we need to come out of the things of this world. Let us eat the food that God created us to have instead of unhealthy chemicals that make you feel good (drugs, pharmakeia, sorcery).
“Natural and artificial flavors are the exact same molecules,” says Pia Sorensen, PhD. (The Truth About Natural and Artificial Flavors)
Non-Dietary Reforms
Other health principles in the Spirit of Prophecy advocated are daily sunlight and exercise outside (especially each meal for proper digestion), indoor fresh air, getting plenty of sleep, starting well before midnight, drinking a lot of water, and from abstaining from anything unhealthful. In Sister White’s day, the main things to abstain from were alcohol, tobacco, tea, coffee, and drugs. But today we have other things that we should avoid, like genetically modified foods, pesticides, heavy metals (including gadolinium, which is in MRI contrast/dye, which can cause very long-lasting debilitating effects), fake food or supplement products (most of honey is fake, for example), microwaves, and other radiation sources (as much as possible).
For the latter—a very important subject—please see the following two webpages:
The utmost care should be taken to avoid tick bites in prone areas. Lyme Disease (as well as other tick-borne diseases) is very serious and is often not cured by antibiotics; it is most likely man-made. It is best to not be off a paved path in the woods during tick season (when it is above freezing in prone areas) and to do frequent tick checks if there is any potential for ticks. Yards should be mowed frequently and short.
Another thing to completely avoid is mold. Plumbing should be checked regularly and precautions should be taken to prevent any indoor water damage. Also, people should avoid living in humid, low-lying areas. Mold toxicity is another very serious disease. If there is any mold in the home, it should be immediately eradicated in the right way, but do your research first, because you can be exposed to unhealthful levels of toxins by removing it. Mold is a more prevalent issue than it used to be due to the way houses are built now, so everyone should be educated on this subject.
I (Ricky Bokovoy) have had Lyme Disease, mold toxicity, and gadolinium poisoning from MRI, and my health has greatly suffered. Please do not subject yourself to these things. There is nothing more valuable than your health (see 3 Jn. 1:2). You may not value it now as you ought, but you will value it if you get chronic disease or cancer. Avoiding toxicities and radiation cannot be stressed enough; many are needlessly suffering today who would not have to had they had a proper education. Always check things about. Avoid drugs if at all possible, and if you must take one, do diligent research first to make sure it is worth it.
If you or a loved one already has chronic disease, with symptoms like brain fog, pains, twitches, or autoimmune or neurological conditions, it is very likely that the root biological cause is inflammation induced by pathogens and would be greatly benefited by watching this video.
For many informative posts we have made on health, please join our Facebook group ‘Bright Beams Mission for Health’.
For for Spirit of Prophecy material on principles of health, you can read Healthful Living.