Ellen White in Her Last Years

Prophetess of Health in closing its chapter “Whatsoever Ye Eat or Drink” on p. 177 pictures Ellen White in her last years as a health reformer “happily subsisting on a simple twice-a-day diet of vermicelli-tomato soup or thistle greens seasoned with sterilized cream and lemon juice.” This is a distorted description of the situation.CBPH 84.6

The demonstrable facts are found in the appendix to Counsels on Diet and Foods entitled “Personal Experience of Ellen G. White as a Health Reformer.” The easily obtained missing exhibits show that the dietary regime in Mrs. White’s Elmshaven home in her later years was liberal, nourishing and appetizing:CBPH 84.7

Our fare is simple and wholesome. We have on our table no butter, no meat, no cheese, no greasy mixtures of food. For some months a young man who was an unbeliever, and who had eaten meat all his life, boarded with us. We made no change in our diet on his account; and while he stayed with us he gained about twenty pounds.CBPH 84.8

The food which we provided for him was far better for him than that to which he had been accustomed. All who sit at my table express themselves as being well satisfied with the food provided.—Counsels on Diet and Foods, 491.CBPH 84.9

I use no meat. As for myself, I have settled the butter question. I do not use it... We have two good milk cows, a Jersey and a Holstein. We use cream, and all are satisfied with this.—Counsels on Diet and Foods, 490.CBPH 84.10

I eat the most simple food, prepared in the most simple way. For months my principle diet has been vermicelli and canned tomatoes, cooked together. This I eat with zwieback. Then I have also stewed fruit of some kind and sometimes lemon pie. Dried corn, cooked with milk or a little cream, is another dish that I sometimes use. Butter is never placed on my table, but if the members of my family choose to use a little butter away from the table, they are at liberty to do so. Our table is set twice a day, but if there are those who desire something to eat in the evening, there is no rule that forbids them from getting it. No one complains or goes from our table dissatisfied. A variety of food that is simple, wholesome, and palatable, is always provided.—Counsels on Diet and Foods, 491.CBPH 84.11

We do not have an impoverished diet. We have an abundance of dried and canned fruit. If our own fruit crop is short, we buy some in the market. Sister Gray sends me the seedless grapes, and these stewed make a very appetizing dish. We raise our own loganberries, and use them freely. Strawberries do not grow well in this locality, but from our neighbors we purchase blackberries, raspberries, apples, and pears. We have also an abundance of tomatoes. We also raise a fine variety of sweet corn, and dry a large amount for use during the winter months. Near by us is a food factory, where we can supply ourselves with grain preparations...CBPH 84.12

For more than forty years I have eaten but two meals a day. And If I have a specially important work to do, I limit the quantity of food that I take. I regard it as my duty to refuse to place in my stomach any food that I have reason to believe will create disorder. My mind must be sanctified to God, and I must guard carefully against any habits that would tend to lessen my powers of intellect.CBPH 84.13

I am now in my eighty-first year, and I can bear testimony that we do not, as a family, hunger for the fleshpots of Egypt. I have known something of the benefits to be received by living up to the principles of health reform. I consider it a privilege as well as a duty to be a health reformer.CBPH 84.14

Yet I am sorry that there are many of our people who do not strictly follow the light on health reform. Those who in their habit transgress the principles of health, and do not heed the light that the Lord has given them, will surely suffer the consequences.CBPH 84.15

I write you these details, that you may know how to answer any who may question my manner of eating....—Counsels on Diet and Foods, 492, 493.CBPH 84.16