I know whereof I speak.

Mrs. White did tell us to teach others how to cook without milk and eggs. That is so that they will be able to cook without them when this step is required. However, she never required dispensing with them.

doctrine of dispensing with milk and eggs should not be taught.

The diet reform should be progressive. As disease in animals increases, the use of milk and eggs will become more and more unsafe. An effort should be made to supply their place with other things that are healthful and inexpensive. 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}

Mrs. White did tell us to teach others how to cook without milk and eggs. That is so that they will be able to cook without them when this step is required.

Good for you! Now, let's say you move back to the U.S. What would you recommend the city dweller to do?

You do acknowledge that EGW said that there are certain people that should not eat eggs, right? Of course, this whole line of talk have been covered before.

Yeah?

How about the title you gave this thread?
Brain-damaged from Veganism, why vegans have cognitive impairment

Realizing you aren't one for facts or accuracy, did you really intend to make that statement or was that another err?

That is, you are stating all vegans do have cognitive impairment. Can you support that? Or will you admit you erred when you put that title?


That is over the top.

Here you are saying that Ellen White instructed us to teach others how to cook without milk and eggs because it would be required for some future time. Which hasn't got here in over 100 years!

If you wish to support such an idea, you need to show elsewhere where Ellen White has told people to teach others how to do something, and definitely not that they were to do that something, but just in case they would need it at some future time.

Can you?

Since you highlighted that, would you mean that eggs are to be used medicinally? How often are you poisoned?

While working against gluttony and intemperance, we are to remember the means and appliances of gospel truth, which commend themselves to sound judgment. In order to do our work in straight, simple lines, we must recognize the conditions to which the human family are subjected. God has made provisions for those who live in the different countries of the world. Those who desire to be co-workers with God must consider carefully how they teach health reform in God's great vineyard. They must move carefully in specifying just what food should and should not be eaten. ...{TSDF 49.6}

We are to be brought into connection with the masses. Should health reform be taught them in its most extreme form, harm would be done. We ask them to leave off eating meat and drinking tea and coffee. That is well. But some say that milk also should be given up. This is a subject that needs to be carefully handled. There are poor families whose diet consists of bread and milk, and, if they can get it, a little fruit. All flesh food should be discarded, but vegetables should be made palatable with a little milk or cream or something equivalent. The poor say, when health reform is presented to them. "What shall we eat? We cannot afford to buy the nut foods." As I preach the gospel to the poor, I am instructed to tell them to eat that food which is most nourishing. I cannot say to them: You must not eat eggs or milk, or cream; you must use no butter in the preparation of food. The gospel must be preached to the poor, and the time has not yet come to prescribe the strictest diet. {TSDF 49.7}

The time will come when we may have to discard some of the articles of diet we now use, such as milk and cream and eggs; but my message is that you must not bring yourself to a time of trouble beforehand, and thus afflict yourself with death. Wait till the Lord prepares the way before you. {TSDF 49.8}

Anyone seriously questioning the place of eggs in their diet should visit a cage-laying poultry farm and see for themselves if they really want to eat eggs coming from this source in order to get adequate Vitamine B12. If they can't raise their own healthy hens and can't locate a source of free-range eggs near where they live, then the time may have actually come where we need to learn how to prepare food that does not include eggs, as Ellen White said would become a necessity.

Do not go to extremes in regard to the health reform. Some of our people are very careless in regard to health reform. But because some are far behind, you must not, in order to be an example to them, be an extremist. You must not deprive yourself of that class of food which makes good blood. Your devotion to true principles is leading you to submit yourself to a diet which is giving you an experience that will not recommend health reform. This is your danger. When you see that you are becoming weak physically, it is essential for you to make changes, and at once. Put into your diet something you have left out. It is your duty to do this. Get eggs of healthy fowls. Use these eggs cooked or raw. Drop them uncooked into the best unfermented wine you can find. This will supply that which is necessary to your system. Do not for a moment suppose that it will not be right to do this. . . . {TSDF 40.4}

On Saturday, August 21, NaturalNews.com published an article by Cindy Jones-Shoeman, Vegan Vitamin B12 Deficiency is a Myth.

The article starts out by saying that “nothing could be further from the truth” than the idea that vegans can suffer a B12 deficiency from their diet.

The article by Jones-Shoeman appears to be a rehashing of an old article (apparently from 2004 or earlier) by Vivian Vetrano, “Rethinking & Clarifying the Vitamin B12 Issue” which appears on the Rest of Your Life Retreat website: roylretreat.com/articles/b12.html.

Although Vetrano’s article is one of the most fanciful stories I’ve ever read about vitamin B12, it is rather detailed and I will only respond to the excerpts from the Jones-Shoeman article:

“According to Dr. Vivian V. Vetrano, vitamin B12 actually comes from coenzymes, which are already present in bacteria found on the human body (in and around the mouth, for example).”

Vitamin B12 does not come from co-enzymes, it is a co-enzyme. Bacteria do produce vitamin B12, but there is no proof that bacteria living in most people’s mouths produce active vitamin B12 or produce it in amounts large enough that it could prevent B12 deficiency. This is underlined by the fact that many vegans develop full-blown vitamin B12 deficiency, and in some cases permanent neurological damage, as can be seen here: VeganHealth.org/b12/cases. In addition to those cases in the scientific journals, I have known many people who have suffered from B12 deficiency and cured it by supplementing with cyanocobalamin (the most stable form of vitamin B12).

About a dozen studies have correlated low vitamin B12 levels in vegans with elevated homocysteine levels. Elevated homocysteine levels have been linked to early death, primarily from cardiovascular disease, and Alzheimer’s Disease. More details on that are at VeganHealth.org/b12/hcy.

“In fact, vitamin B12 deficiency is often, according to Dr. Vetrano, a symptom of a larger problem; that is, it’s not caused from a poor diet but rather from deficiency diseases…”

While it is true that about 2% of the population has trouble absorbing vitamin B12, the vast majority of problems that have been seen in vegans have been caused by a low B12 intake, not from absorption problems.

“Vitamin B12 deficiency due to a vegan diet is simply a lie that finally needs to be put to rest.”

Unfortunately, this could not be further from the truth. The most common, serious damage that results from vitamin B12 deficiency is when a pregnant vegan who does not supplement has a baby who also does not get any B12 supplementation. Typically, around 6 months of age, the infant’s growth and neurological development ceases and then begins to regress. In many cases, such infants have sustained permanent brain damage.

Vitamin B12 deficiency among vegans is real and is not something to be flippant about. It is so important that a number of vegan health professionals and organizations have endorsed an open letter to the vegan community, What Every Vegan Should Know about Vitamin B12 (VeganHealth.org/articles/everyvegan). This letter has been signed by The Vegan Society (UK), Vegan Outreach, and many members of the International Vegetarian Union science group.

Jack Norris is a Registered Dietitian and President and co-founder of Vegan Outreach. Vegan Outreach produces Why Vegan and other booklets and their Adopt a College program hands booklets to over 750,000 students every semester. In 2005, Jack was elected to the Animal Rights Hall of Fame.

Along with Ginny Messina, MS RD, Jack has written the book Vegan For Life: Everything You Need to Know to Be Healthy and Fit on a Plant-Based Diet.

Jack writes a nutrition blog at JackNorrisRD.com. He is the author of Vitamin B12: Are You Getting It? and maintains VeganHealth.org. Jack earned a degree in Nutrition and Dietetics from Life University (Marietta, GA) in 2000 and finished his dietetic internship at Georgia State University in 2001.