You Should Read This
vii
would make a substantial contribution has been ignored. Often in the
original sources many phases of health instruction are treated together
in one paragraph. To give all the context in such cases would have
involved considerable repetition. Through the use of cross references
such repetition is minimized.
While the limitations of space and the effort to avoid repetition have
made it inadvisable to include every statement on the more general
phases of the diet question, a complete and comprehensive presentation
of the E. G. White teachings has been given.
Peril of Taking a Part for the Whole
The fact that this volume is constructed somewhat like an encyclo-
pedia, isolating the major presentations and grouping them by topic,
makes it a convenient reference work. But the encyclopedia design
also makes the book one that may easily be misused. To gain the
author’s intent and the full impact of all her teachings, it is imperative
that the book be studied as a whole.
The reader should bear in mind that a single Ellen White state-
ment on some phase of the subject of nutrition may come far short of
expressing her full intent and understanding of the nutritional needs
of the body. For example, in a sentence appearing on page 314 of
this book, taken from
Testimonies for the Church 2:352
, she says:
“Grains and fruits prepared free from grease, and in as natural a con-
dition as possible, should be the food for the tables of all who claim
to be preparing for translation.” In the light of other of her statements,
clearly it was not Mrs. White’s intent to teach that those preparing
for translation should reduce their diet to simply” grains and fruits.”
Penned in 1869 in the setting of counsel against the use of meat, this
statement seems to make “grains and fruits” stand for the nonmeat
diet. The
[5]
statement does not mention nuts, vegetables, or dairy products, all
of which Ellen White recognized as important to a balanced nutritional
program.
Another statement on the same page (314), written some twenty
years later, in delineating a diet intended to impart nourishment and
give endurance and vigor of intellect, mentions “fruit, grains, and
vegetables” prepared with “milk or cream.” Nuts are not mentioned.