DATE OF PUBLICATION: Aug 2007

On this Sabbath day Saturday enjoyed by Seventh-day Adventists and Jews of all denominations, I offer today's column as food for thought.

Using sports colloquialisms to state my position, I am using the Notmilk forum to urge members of the
SDA faith to STEP UP TO THE PLATE, because many of you have FUMBLED THE BALL.

There was a time that Loma Linda University published a large number of peer-reviewed scientific papers indicating that Seventh-day Adventists lived longer and healthier than most non-SDA Americans as a result of the "clean" foods they ate. Sadly, many members of that SDA faith have stumbled.

The spiritual founder of the SDA church, Ellen G. White, wrote the following:

"Cheese should never be introduced into the stomach." Testimonies, vol. 2, p. 68

"Cheese is still more objectionable; it is wholly unfit for food." Ministry of Healing, p. 302

When lecturing at SDA churches and meetings and witnessing the vast amounts of cheese being consumed, I never forget to ask: "What part of the word 'never' do you have trouble understanding?"

In her "Ministry of Healing," Ellen G. White wrote (page 271):

"In order to have good health, we must have good blood; for the blood is the current of life. It repairs waste
and nourishes the body. When supplied with the proper food elements and when cleansed and vitalized by contact with pure air, it carries life and vigor to every part of the system."

In 1893, a caramel candy maker visited the Chicago World's Fair and was much impressed upon seeing German-built chocolate making machinery. He purchased that equipment, and his investment became our loss. America's health would never be the same. The man's name was Milton Hershey. In that same year, Aunt Jemima's powdered-milk pancake mix was also brought to market. In 1893, an American physician, John Kellogg, identified the allergic cause and effect reactions which resulted from cheese consumption. Ellen G. White related a fascinating anecdote of this vegetarian doctor who invented Kellogg's Corn Flakes in her 1893 letter to a friend:

"It was decided that at a certain camp meeting, cheese should not be sold to those on the ground; but on coming to the ground, Doctor Kellogg found to his surprise that a large quantity of cheese had been purchased for sale at the grocery. He and some others objected to this, but those in charge of the grocery said that they could not afford to lose the money invested in it. Upon this, Doctor Kellogg asked the price of the cheese, and bought the whole of it from them. He had traced the matter from cause to effect, and knew that some foods generally thought to be wholesome, were very injurious." "God's Nutritionist", Quote #386, page 129

Seventh-day Adventists are ready to scale a mountain, so far as I am concerned. They are a potential army of vegetarians who are ready to teach the world the healthiest way to live one's life. If only they were as inspired by Ellen White's sage advice as I.

Robert Cohen
i4crob@earthlink.net