The topic of health in the Seventh-day Adventist Church is a strongly contested one. With hardcore defenders on both sides, all professing faith in God’s Word and the Spirit of Prophecy, we still can’t agree on one key point: Is the SDA Health Message still relevant today? With the advancements in modern medicine is it safe to assume that what we eat no longer has an effect on our life expectancy? Has science once and for all disproven Ellen White’s bold claim that meat-eating causes cancer? And has the Health Message given over 160 years ago been embraced by our Church members?
The average life expectancy in the US is at an all-time high of 78 years and 9 ½ months. Medicine plays a role with more than 131 million people in the US (66% of all the adults) take prescription drugs for diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, arthritis, and or cancer. But the question begs, are there any adults who are pushing past the 78-year mortality barrier? Seventh-day Adventist residents of Loma Linda, California shine as beacons of hope adding on average ten years to their life expectancy compared to the general population. Interestingly “…more than 250 members of its church on the Loma Linda University campus are 90 or older; another 425 are 80 to 89...typically don’t drink alcohol or smoke; they’re frequently vegan… often energetic, upbeat and social.” What makes the difference? Those residents who lived for at least 100 years ate the following diet for most of their lives - vegetables (33%), fruits (27%), whole grains (7%), nuts and seeds (2%), legumes and soy (12%), 5% of meat, poultry, and fish, and 10% of dairy products. Notably, cases of obesity, diabetes, cancer and heart disease are also significantly lower in Loma Linda than the average population. Clearly medical advancements do play a role in sustaining our lives, but what we eat plays a more significant one.
Back in 1905, Ellen White’s Ministry of Healing was published. She wrote the following:
“…People are continually eating flesh that is filled with tuberculous and cancerous germs. Tuberculosis, cancer, and other fatal diseases are thus communicated.” - Ministry of Healing, 313.
Now, over 115 years later, does the scientific evidence support this claim that meat-eating causes cancer? The second greatest cause of mortality in the USA is cancer. Dr Greger’s How Not to Die From Cancer video summarises a 2019 study into protein and cancer as follows:
"Middle-aged men and women with high [animal] protein intakes had a 75% increase in overall mortality, and a four-fold increase in the risk of dying specifically from cancer…a mortality risk factor comparable to smoking cigarettes."
Far from being disproven, her claim has been undeniably substantiated.
Is it safe then to assume that the members of the SDA Church have embraced the Health Message? In 2018 members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church were surveyed (2018 Global Church Member Survey) about their diet. This graphic illustrates the study’s findings. Of the 63,756 members surveyed the vegans made up the smallest percentage (5%) compared with a whopping 38% who ate meat a few times a week or on most days. Another 43% ate fish (the frequency was not noted) or ate meat once a week or less. This means that 81% of our Church members eat fish or meat as a regular part of their diet, yet our prophet tells us clearly:
“The grains, with fruits, nuts, and vegetables, contain all the nutritive properties necessary to make good blood…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.” – Ministry of Healing, 316
Does what we eat really make that much of a difference though? In Thousands of Vegans Studied Dr Michael Greger shares some eye-opening facts from a 2009 study which compared the average weights of omnivores (people who eat a variety of foods including animal products), vegetarians, flexitarians (mostly vegetarian but with some meat) and vegans.
Dr Greger notes that vegans are, on average, a healthy weight but vegetarians, flexitarians and omnivores are all on average overweight or obese. Meat-eaters are carrying around an average of 40 pounds (approximately 18kg) more weight than the vegans, but is their health significantly impacted? The answer is a resounding yes. In fact, it is likely that obesity is the main preventable cause of premature death. A pooled analysis of waist circumference and mortality in 650,000 adults revealed that “…Each 5cm increment in waist circumference was associated with a 7% increased mortality risk for men…and a 9% increased mortality risk for women…”
The evidence is clear. There is a direct correlation between obesity and diet and increased likelihood of premature death. The overwhelming majority of our Church members have not embraced the Health Message by choosing instead to eat a diet which includes meat, fish and animal products.
The science could not be clearer. The consumption of meat, eggs and dairy is risky, and with what the Spirit of Prophecy has revealed to us as a Church, dare I say presumptuous.
“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.”—Manuscript 73, 1908
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." 9T 156
So, is the SDA Health Message still relevant today? The answer is a resounding yes. Let us embrace the life-giving blessing of the Health Message.
The author of this article is Leah Jones. Wife of Ben Jones, mother of two girls, Tamar and Eden, author of the vegan cookbook ‘No, We Don’t Only Eat Carrots! Plant-Based Food For Humans’ and host of the Not Only Carrots vegan cooking show on youtube. See her in action here cooking some creamy, vegan lasagne. You may also enjoy singing along with her and her girls here at Musical Memory Verses where her husband and family put KJV Bible verses to song.