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Adventist Advantage

A number of investigations conducted painstakingly by scientists reveal that the incidence of several serious diseases is less frequent among Seventh-day Adventists than among the population as a whole; also that Adventists, on an average, live longer.CD-SG 4.1

“Adventist advantage” is the way Time magazine designated this phenomenon, as it reported on a five-year survey.CD-SG 4.2

How different from the beginning days of Adventist history, when members of our church lived and ate very much as did their neighbors, and suffered likewise. They shared in the statistics that marked off an average life expectancy of some thirty-two years. One child in four died before the age of 7. Night air was considered poisonous. If a person was burning up with fever the attending physician, concluding that his patient had too much blood, might relieve him of a pint or two. Germs were unknown. People lived from winter to winter, fearful lest an epidemic of smallpox, diphtheria, or cholera would decimate the population. Except for the process of salting and drying, the science of food preservation was unknown. Meals were heavy with various and sundry meats, fried foods, and rich pastries. Milk was often supplied by cows poorly cared for and often tuberculous, for testing was unknown, and pasteurization was still years away. The farm worker with his long days of toil was seldom satisfied with three meals a day.CD-SG 4.3