Vegetarian Myth

Some differences of opinion exist as to the relative value of foods of the same class. Albuminates, as has been seen, can be obtained from either the animal or vegetable kingdom ; they have a similar chemical composition, and they serve the same purposes in the body. It has, however, been suggested that they are probably utilised in a somewhat different manner, or with different degrees of rapidity, and that the man who feeds on meat, like carnivorous animals, "will be more active, and more able to exert a sudden violent effort, than the vegetarian or the herbivorous animal, whose food has an equal potential energy, but which is supposed to be less easily evolved." In support of this view it has been urged that the movements of carnivorous animals, especially in the pursuit of their prey, are far more active than those of herbivorous cattle ; that the form in which they take their food enables them to give out sudden spurts of energy of which the vegetable feeder is incapable. But this view has been questioned by others, who refer to the known activity and speed of the horse, the rapid movements of the wild antelope and cow, and even of the wild pig, all animals mostly herbivorous, as inconsistent with the conclusion that vegetable feeders cannot give forth energy as rapidly and continuously, or even more so, than the predaceous carnivora. It is further stated that with the human race also, the East Indian native, if well fed on corn, or even on rice and peas, shows, when in training, no inferiority in capacity for active physical exertion to the animal feeder. It has also been argued that the complicated alimentary canal of the herbivora pointed to a slower digestion and absorption of food; and with certain kinds of vegetable food this would certainly seem to be the case ; but it has again been contended that this is chiefly intended for the digestion of cellulose, and that the digestion and absorption of albuminates may be as rapid as in other animals. 

It must, we think, be admitted that all practical observations tend to prove that animal food is digested more rapidly than vegetable food, and it therefore seems highly probable that meat can replace the waste of the nitrogenous tissues more rapidly than meal of any kind, and it is probably true that there is a more active change of tissue in meat eaters than in vegetable feeders, and that the former require more frequent supplies of food. Apparent differences in nutritive value in different meals, as in wheatmeal and barley meal, probably depend on difference of digestibility. 

The difference in the nutritive value of different fats would seem to depend on the relative facility with which they are digested and absorbed. Animal fats appear to be more easily absorbed than vegetable. And even different animal fats differ much in digestibility, and, therefore, in nutritive value. This depends partly on chemical composition, and partly on mechanical aggregation or subdivision. Mutton-fat is generally found difficult of digestion, while pork-fat is easily digested. Butter can be readily digested by many persons who cannot digest other forms of fat and the ready digestibility of ccxl-liver oil is one of its chief advantages. 

The different carbohydrates are generally supposed to be of equal value in nutrition. Sugar, from its ready solubility, should be more easily absorbed and more quickly utilised than starch, but it is found that when both are procurable a mixture of the two is usually preferred.

Recent studies of the dietetics of diabetes have clearly demonstrated the great danger involved in the use of an exclusive meat diet. The rapid tissue disintegration taking place in severe cases of diabetes results in flooding the system with waste matters, which are, of course, toxic in character. When to these are added the toxic substances contained in the flesh of animals under the best conditions, together with the ptomains resulting from the decomposition which always takes place to a greater or less extent in flesh food before it is eaten, and still further by the urea and other excrementitious products resulting from the excess of nitrogenous material contained in the system when meat is largely used, it becomes apparent that the diabetic who makes use of an exclusive meat diet or a diet consisting largely of flesh foods, is in a state of chronic auto-intoxication. Such a person is constantly on the verge of diabetic coma; if he escapes, it is simply because his liver and kidneys are still able to do a sufficient amount of work in the destruction and elimination of poisons to save his life ; but sooner or later he will certainly reach a point at which a failure of these important organs to do the excessive amount of work demanded of them will result in the accumulation of toxic substances to such a degree as to produce the universal poisoning which is so graphically pictured in diabetic eoma.

"This morning my mind is anxious and troubled in regard to my duty. Can it be the will of God that I go to Australia? This involves a great deal with me. I have not special light to leave America for this far-off country. Nevertheless, if I knew it was the voice of God, I would go. But I cannot understand this matter." 4BIO 15.3 -Ellen G White's Diary

Ellen G White came to Australia to set up not only the Seventh-day Adventist Church's Printing Press, Hospital (Sydney Adventist Hospital) schools and College (Avondale) but also a Health Food business - Sanitarium, based on Kellogg's model but this time have the Church own it, and the profits... Sanitarium is the Church's most successful food industry world-wide and has either factories or distribution centres in 40+ countries. (Can check and substantiate) Sanitarium comes under the Church's charity status and as such pays no tax on the sale of any of its products, services or investments!! Her quote

In 1901, Lenna graduated in nursing from the Battle Creek Sanitarium (a Seventh-day Adventist health institution) in Battle Creek, Michigan. It was there that she became a protégé of the famed vegetarian physician, Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, superintendent, and medical director of the sanitarium. During the early part of the twentieth century, the Battle Creek Sanitarium became world-famous as a leading medical center, spa-like wellness institute, and grand hotel that attracted thousands of patients actively pursuing health and well-being. The sanitarium served only vegetarian meals to its patients and visitors. People of all social classes from around the world flocked to the Sanitarium to personally experience its unique vegetarian diet and wellness program, which Dr. Kellogg called “biologic living”. The Sanitarium’s notable guests included Mary Todd Lincoln, Amelia Earhart, Booker T. Washington, Johnny Weissmuller, Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, John D. Rockefeller Jr., George Bernard Shaw, and J.C. Penney. Dr. Kellogg and his team of dietitians even worked with presidents such as William Howard Taft, Warren G. Harding, Herbert Hoover, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

Under the tutelage and inspiration of Dr. Kellogg and his wife, Ella Eaton Kellogg, Lenna first developed her love for the study of foods and their scientific preparation. Dr. Kellogg encouraged Lenna to go to the Drexel Institute in Philadelphia to study foods and food chemistry where she excelled in her studies. She later received her bachelor’s (1916) and master’s (1927) degrees from Columbia University.

Eating by the Book?

SDA vegetarianism is rooted in the Bible, according to which for food God gave humans "all plants that bear seed everywhere on earth, and every tree bearing fruit that yields seed" (Genesis 1:29). Meat is said to have become a part of the human diet after the Flood, when all plant life had been destroyed: "Every creature that lives and moves shall be food for you" (Genesis 9:3). Adventists are taught that the introduction of meat into the human diet at that time decreased the human life span from the more than 900 years of the first humans to today's "three-score and ten."

However, the Bible warns against confusing dietary practices with moral behavior:

For the kingdom of God is not food and drink but righteousness and peace. (Romans 14:17)Let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink. (Colossians 2:16)One believes he may eat anything, while the weak man eats only vegetables, let not him who eats despise him who abstains, and let not him who abstains pass judgment on him who eats. (Romans 14:2-4)

It also seems to condemn vegetarianism:

The Holy Spirit tells us clearly that in the last times some in the church will turn away from Christ and become eager followers of teachers with devil inspired ideas. These teachers will tell lies with straight faces and do it so often that their consciences won't even bother them. They will say that it is wrong to be married and wrong to eat meat, even though God gave these things to well-taught Christians to enjoy and be thankful for. For everything God made is good, and we may eat it gladly if we are thankful for it. ( I Timothy 4:1-4, Living Bible)

SDA Church pioneer Ellen G. White (1827-1915) was a proponent of vegetarianism even though she did not practice it herself. Like the Grahamites of her time, she taught that gradually the earth would become more corrupted, diseases and calamities worse, and the food particularly animal foods unsafe. In 1902 she wrote that the time might come when the use of milk should be discontinued. Although White was an advocate of science and chiefly responsible for making SDA healthcare a science-based enterprise, clearly she did not anticipate twentieth-century advances in public health and medical science. Despite the record longevity now enjoyed by people in the developed nations, vegetarian zealots within the church caught up in the doomsday hysteria of the 1990s have decided that the time has come to give up all animal foods and are fervidly preaching veganism.