The Matter of Fasting

The following principles regarding the benefits of an occasional fast and the dangers of prolonged abstinence from food were pointed out in the testimony given for these extremists:SHM 192.4

“In cases of severe fever, abstinence from food for a short time will lessen the fever and make the use of water more effectual. But the acting physician needs to understand the real condition of the patient and not allow him to be restricted in diet for a great length of time until his system becomes enfeebled. While the fever is raging, food may irritate and excite the blood; but as soon as the strength of the fever is broken, nourishment should be given in a careful, judicious manner. If food is withheld too long, the stomach’s craving for it will create fever, which will be relieved by a proper allowance of food of a right quality.”—Ibid., 384, 385.SHM 192.5

The two persons addressed in this testimony were not the only ones who were bringing discredit upon the cause of health reform by the advocacy of extreme views, or by rigorously adopting and urging certain principles perhaps right in themselves, while at the same time ignoring or violating other equally vital laws of health. Some who had been unsuccessful in other lines of work were, with a smattering of knowledge gained by reading, posing as “health reform physicians.” They were experimenting upon others whom they might dupe into giving them their confidence. Mrs. White vigorously protested against such practices. In a lecture on Christian temperance, given about five months after the vision at Adams Center, New York, she said:SHM 193.1

“My voice shall be raised against novices undertaking to treat disease professedly according to the principles of health reform. God forbid that we should be the subjects for them to experiment upon! We are too few. It is altogether too inglorious a warfare for us to die in. God deliver us from such danger! We do not need such teachers and physicians. Let those try to treat disease who know something about the human system.”—Ibid., 375.SHM 193.2

Not alone by novices was the cause of health reform imperiled by the advocacy of extreme views. A more subtle danger lay in the acceptance of erroneous principles advocated by some of the very reformers to whom great credit is due for the leadership which in the main was correct. We have already noted the fact that some questionable principles taken over from the Dansville health home had been adopted by the institution at Battle Creek. These had been pointed out by the Spirit of prophecy and had been corrected. Now there was a danger that through a still closer affiliation with Dr. R. T. Trall, one of the outstanding health reformers of the time, certain extreme views advocated by him would become identified with the health education carried on through The Health Reformer and at the Western Health Reform Institute.SHM 193.3