The rejection of the Testimonies is alive and well kland. As is written: God destroys no man. Everyone who is destroyed will have destroyed himself. {COL 84.4} I was shown that the judgments of God would not come directly out from the Lord upon them, but in this way: They place themselves beyond His protection. {14MR 3.1}

Oh that we would understand and proclaim the truth as it is in Jesus!

kland and APL,

Have you had your vitamin B12 levels checked recently? With veganism, the health effects on the mind and the accompanying impact to the diet and health as a result, become a self-perpetuating vicious cycle. A mind thus influenced frequently fails to grasp the statements of Mrs. White in their proper context, and I write this of a true concern for your salvation. God expects us to take care of our body temples, and when health is compromised, mental faculties are as well, including our judgment and discernment between right and wrong, truth and error. Insufficient B12 can cause loss of brain function that appears to cause loss of more than just memory. I have personally witnessed in several individuals the impact it had on understanding and reasoning ability, and the tendency for lack of B12 to push the individuals toward extreme views, of which veganism was only one.

I know this topic does not directly address veganism, but Mrs. White did, and she said we should not give up milk and eggs before God revealed it was time to do so. Many are rejecting her testimonies on this point, and it will eventually lead to rejection of more than this.

I recently witnessed with my own eyes the harmful impact of a vegan diet on a family with small children. One child was nearly the age of three, but still not talking. His hair, which should have been black, appeared reddish, and his belly was distended. His growth was stunted such that it appeared he should be barely a year old. He had all the signs of kwashiorkor--and this was NOT in a third-world country.

From the internet:

Kwashiorkor is a severe form of malnutrition, caused by a deficiency in dietary protein. The extreme lack of protein causes an osmotic imbalance in the gastro-intestinal system causing swelling of the gut diagnosed as an edema or retention of water.

Despite his condition, and that of the other child with severe problems as well, the parents brought out quote after quote from Mrs. White to support their imbalanced views which outlawed all forms of milk or eggs. Meanwhile, they rejected the clear statements from Mrs. White giving balance to those quotes, statements that say definitely we should not teach others to give up milk and eggs (they went about doing just that), and that we should not give them up prematurely.

Of course, milk and eggs provide easily digestible forms of protein, in addition to having other nutritive properties like B12 and sulfur. But the parents felt more righteous in eschewing all such animal products. Showing some of the imbalance in their thinking, the man of the house did no work. He spent his time studying and preparing to teach others about healthful living!

Any rejection of Mrs. White's testimonies will lead away from light and truth, happiness and health.

And some continue to ignore the signs of the times:

Eggs
Michael Greger M.D. · Last Updated on March 10, 2017

Despite the powerful egg industry’s best efforts to put a “healthy” spin on egg consumption, eggs contain high levels of cholesterol and may contain carcinogenic retroviruses, heterocyclic amines, toxic pollutants (such as arsenic, perfluorochemicals like PCB, phthalates, flame retardant chemicals, dioxins), and Salmonella (see here and here). Consuming just one egg per day may significantly shorten our lifespans, increase the levels of the cancer-promoting growth hormone IGF-1, and increase our risk of heart disease, kidney stones, stroke, type 2 diabetes, gestational diabetes, and some types of cancer (such as pancreatic, breast, and prostate).

Eating a plant-based diet may improve mood, lead to weight loss, lower the risk of cataracts, neurological diseases, food poisoning, heart disease, diabetes, asthma, help reverse rheumatoid arthritis, and may increase lifespan. This may be due in part to the arachidonic acid, cholesterol, sulfuric acid, choline, methionine, and sex hormones in eggs and the relative lack of antioxidant phytonutrients.

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Kwashiorkor - this disease is from starvation, not just lack of protein. Most people indeed eat an excess of protein, not a lack. To suggest that a person cannot get adequate protein on a plant based diet is to misinform and worse, liable to cause harm, and anything that causes one to shortens life by using that which is not necessary for life is a violation of the 6th commandment, and there is no excuse for suggesting such as has been done in your post. Why reject what God has told us to do? The people everywhere should be taught how to cook without milk and eggs, so far as possible, and yet have their food wholesome and palatable. {MH 320.2}

Where do you get your protein?

Quite interesting, Green.

Kwashiorker = It is a form of malnutrition caused by a lack of protein in the diet.

That definition is from healthline.com. It surprised me as the symptoms are normally associated with starvation, but the root cause is actually lack of protein.

The family you saw must have really gone off the deep end as there are so many good sources of protein in a vegetarian diet that the removal of eggs and milk would not seem sufficient to me to cause this. A cup of cooked lentils, split peas, black beans, and many nuts, have the same amount, or more, of protein as a cup of chopped hard boiled eggs, and the amino acid scores of the protein say the proteins are very high quality proteins. For confirmation of this a good resource is nutritiondata.self.com. This is a great resource for diabetics, or anyone who chooses to research nutritional info, as it shows the glycemic load of all the foods the site covers as well as total carbs, fats--with types of fats in each food, proteins, vitamins, minerals, amino acids, overall nutritive value, and more.
I haven't given up eggs yet, but I do think commercial eggs are of such a low quality that we eat eggs from local people who raise their own chickens and feed them good quality seeds and grains. I don't know if you have compared the yolks of commercial eggs to those of a free range chicken, but the difference in color and texture is quite striking. The privately raised chickens who get to run around, not sit in a small cage all day and do nothing but be an egg manufacturing machine, lay a much higher quality, and healthier, egg than the commercial systems allow.

Good advice. Please follow it.

While this is the definition, the reality is that protein deficiency is most often association with starvation, and lack of adequate calories. WHO studies show that people getting adequate calories, usually get adequate protein. Isolated protein deficiency is rare. If one only ate potatoes, you would get adequate protein. See the quote below which shows that using just potatoes, malnourished children regained health. Green's example does not show the effects of lack of eggs, but the lack of total calories. Quote:

White potatoes are 10% protein with all of the essential amino acids provided in generous amounts.  These tubers have 2.5 grams of dietary fiber per potato.  That translates into 50 grams for an active man and 37 grams for an active woman.  Potatoes are very high in vitamin C, B vitamins, potassium and other minerals.  In animal experiments potatoes have been shown to have a particularly potent cholesterol-lowering effect.4 Feeding rats a potato-enriched diet for 3 weeks led to a 30% decrease in cholesterol and a 36% decrease in triglyceride levels.5

The potato even meets the needs of growing infants. Eleven Peruvian children, ages 8 months to 35 months, recovering from malnutrition, were fed diets where all of the protein and 75% of the calories came from potatoes.6,7 Their growth patterns were normal.  (Soybean-cottonseed oils and pure simple sugars provided some of the extra calories—neither of these sources—oil or sugar—contains protein, vitamins, or minerals.) 

People in New Guinea who live on diets consisting almost entirely of sweet potato tubers and leaves have cholesterol levels, on the average, of 108 mg/dl.8  Heart disease, obesity, inflammatory arthritis, colon cancer, and type-2 diabetes are unknown in these people on their sweet potato diet. 

5)  Robert L, Narcy A, Rock E, Demigne C, Mazur A, Remesy C.  Entire potato consumption improves lipid metabolism and antioxidant status in cholesterol-fed rat.  Eur J Nutr. 2006 Apr 3; [Epub ahead of print. 

6) Lopez de Romana G.  Fasting and postprandial plasma free amino acids of infants and children consuming exclusively potato protein. J Nutr. 1981 Oct;111(10):1766-71.

7) Lopez de Romana G, Graham GC, Madrid S, MacLean WC Jr.  Prolonged consumption of potato-based diets by infants and small children.  J Nutr. 1981 Aug;111(8):1430-6.

8) Luyken R. Nutrition studies in New Guinea.  Am J Clin Nutr. 1964; 14:13-27.

Just one quick thing to point out from your post. The New Guinea people are getting greens in their diets from the leaves. A green is pretty much a must for many greens have high levels of vitamin C and most greens are also high in fiber. And, they are most likely not farming land which has had the minerals leached out of it like most US-based farms have.

Sweet potato leaves score pretty high in completeness of nutrients. They, by themselves, score an 85 out of 100. So, to say just potatoes alone are a good enough source of food is misleading when a highly nutritious green is being consumed along with the sweet potato.

I would think that in a tropical region like New Guinea the natives also have access to native tropical fruits in their diet too. They wouldn't necessarily be raising the fruit themselves but living in a jungle would have access to them. Breadfruit is native there and it is a really good source of both magnesium and potassium as well has vitamin C, B6, thiamin, niacin, and pantothenic acid. So, I would say a person living in the wilds of New Guinea has access to a pretty good diet, and a diet that is pretty varied.

You only addressed the New Guinea people on sweet potatoes. Could you also comment on regular potatoes with the rats and the Peruvian infants?

Sure.


From what I can see the Peruvian infants received nutrients vital to their development in the soybean oils they received as soybean oil contains both the essential fatty acids, omega-3 and omega-6. I don't have enough info to comment on the simple sugars they received but simple sugars are almost always plant-based and sources often contain vital nutrients too, vs refined sugars from which all nutrition has been removed. So, it's once again misleading to say potatoes alone were enough to give these children normal growth and development.

I'm no expert in these areas but I am self-educated as I became a diabetic about 10 years ago due to an injury that left me unable to exercise so that I have gained weight, and I have a family history in which a lot of my predecessors have be diabetic too. After becoming diabetic I have studied foods and nutrition quite a bit. Still don't know as much as I would like to, but I learn daily.

WHO is not a source I really trust as they are as corrupt as the UN.

Gary,

It's good to see people with balanced views on this who have not rejected what Mrs. White says. She tells us plainly not to give up milk and eggs until God reveals that it is time. Seeing evidences of that time's approaching does not mean it is already here. Yes, we see all of nature becoming more toxic and diseased--including our beloved fruits and vegetables (GMO, pesticides, e-coli, etc.). But, with the increase of these poisons in our food, eggs may be becoming all the more vital, for Mrs. White said they have properties in them to counteract poisons.

Regarding the case of the family I mentioned, the child was getting plenty of calories. However, the child had food sensitivities that did not permit the free use of beans and nuts. Small children are not usually expected to eat large quantities of beans and nuts in any case. Grains provide insufficient lysine, an important amino acid. Thus, though living in America, the child, whose imbalanced parents refused to allow the use of milk or eggs that would have supplied the lack, developed kwashiorkor. Yes, it comes from a lack of protein, not calories as APL has suggested. The child was given plenty of calories, but in unsuitable forms. I watched the mother painstakingly prepare vegan meals for him, thinking it was for his best good. He had a strong appetite--as if he could never get enough to eat. Truly, he was starving--not for food, but for the right kind of food. In actual fact, the doctor handling the case had been forced to tell the mother to limit the amount of food the child could eat, for he did not have sufficient enzymes and/or ability to handle it--just as starving children in Africa cannot be given a large meal or they might die. Unfortunately, his mental capacities were already affected, and a loss in mental acuity has been incurred which will not be reversible. The baby may still have a chance.

After multiple discussions with the parents on the topic, several going late into the night and at times getting heated (another adult present actually wanted to turn them in to CPS over it), I left and did not see them again. In reports received recently, I have heard that they finally decided to accept their doctor's advice to allow their children some dairy products. Being very picky about it, they chose goat's milk. The children have both gained weight and made good progress since.

One more victory for God. If only people would listen to Mrs. White, there would be no need of such trials. God has given us sound counsel, and we ignore it at our peril.

As for them having "gone off the deep end," that is exactly what veganism is. It is the "deep end." Mrs. White uses the term "extremist" to refer to vegans, for the word "vegan" was not in use her day.

Blessings,

Green Cochoa.