Diet and Sex Drive

On pages 161 and 162 the book speaks of the “supposed” relationship between diet and sexuality.CBPH 76.3

It may be difficult to demonstrate the effects of meat eating on the passions. Ellen White was repeatedly shown that there was such a relationship. From her very first writings on health to the last she maintained the two basic points concerning the use of flesh foods:CBPH 76.4

1. The danger to health.CBPH 76.5

2. Their tendency to cultivate the lower passions.CBPH 76.6

Medical science has demonstrated that a high protein diet accelerates sexual development.CBPH 76.7

The book on page 161 declares that “the supposed relationship between diet and sexuality had been noted earlier by Sylvester Graham and others, but Ellen White seems to have learned it primarily from L. B. Coles’ Philosophy of Health, with which she was well acquainted.”CBPH 76.8

But Ellen White in her address at the General Conference session of 1909 repeated the point made again and again down through the years concerning the source of her information on the harmful effects of meat eating. She declares: “I have been instructed that flesh food has a tendency to animalize the nature” (Testimonies for the Church 9:159. Emphasis supplied). She had come out clearly on the point in her very first writings on health, Appeal to Mothers, (pp. 19, 20) published in April 1864 which she testified she had written before reading “any works upon health” (The Review and Herald, October 8, 1867). Graham and Coles may have said somewhat the same thing, but Ellen White ever maintained her source to be the visions God gave to her. Granted, some parallels of phrasing as noted on p. 162 can be found between Coles and Ellen G. White. These occur in a testimony published in 1868, several years after she had searched the various works on hygiene and was surprised to find them so nearly in harmony with what the Lord had revealed to her (The Review and Herald, October 8, 1867).CBPH 76.9