We should never forget that the health reform was made for man, and not man for the health reform. Every time the care of our health becomes a way for us to prove something to God, it becomes an end in itself. To Jesus it’s not an end in itself. The purpose of living healthfully is that we can fully enjoy the benefits of salvation and thus glorify God more fully.

A new Adventist joined a church and was invited to a new visitor's pot luck. She asked if she could bring something. They said sure and she proudly announced she makes a mean broiled fish.

Oh no, they cried. We don't eat fish here.

But Jesus ate fish!

Yes, but that was before Ellen G. White.

This brings us to the ongoing Adventist Health Study-2. This is a very comprehensive study and it will produce a correspondingly large amount of data. ...

For the most part the changes endorsed by a scientific study of 96,000 SDAs will be non-controversial but there is the virtual certainty that some dietary changes will prove too difficult for some Adventists to stomach (sorry about that!).

...

The early, and still very preliminary returns from the health study suggest that a vegan diet is not as beneficial as a lacto-ovo-vegetarian one — vegans die earlier — in fact, they die at a rate that is only slightly less rapid that omnivore Adventists (who eat meat and seafood, etc).[1] Now I must stress that the data are not yet statistically valid — there are only about 4,000 vegans registered in the study so it will be a while yet before the data set is large enough for statistical validity — but these early returns at least raise the possibility that the full set of data may not confirm the confidently expected (by vegans) superiority of a vegan diet.

...

Obviously, this particular philosophical/dietary conundrum may never come to pass. Additional data, as it comes in over the next few years, may lower the all-cause mortality of vegans into the range of the lacto-ovo-vegetarians.[2] While this is certainly possible it is unlikely for two reasons.

First, if the data from earlier studies on Adventists and other vegetarians is examined closely, the same higher, all-cause mortality rates are associated with vegans in those studies also.[3] However, all of those studies had too few vegans registered to achieve statistical rigor on the relative death rates of vegans. This will not be a problem with the Adventist Health Study-2 as there are several thousand vegans registered.

Secondly, there is, at present, no reason to suspect that the early returns from the AHS-2 are skewed such that the average mortality rate will drop significantly as more data comes in. The usual behavior of this sort of data is that the average mortality stays approximately the same as the study matures and the confidence limits narrow down. ...

END NOTES

[1] From a platform presentation made by Dr. Gary Fraser, lead scientist on the Adventist Health Study-2 at the Adventist Nutrition Conference, 2008. DVDs of the presentation are available from Sigma Audio/Video Associates, P.O. Box 51, Loma Linda, CA 92354

[2] For those interested in the preliminary statistics, SDAs classified as lacto-ovo-vegetarians are showing an all-cause mortality (death-rate) that is only 75% that of the omnivores in the study. Lacto-ovo-vegetarians who also eat fish are doing even better at 72%. The all-cause mortality of vegans is essentially indistinguishable from that of omnivore SDAs (~95%).

[3] See “Risk Factors and Disease among Vegans”, chapter 13, in Diet, Life Expectancy, and Chronic Disease: Studies of Seventh-day Adventists and Other Vegetarians (New York: Oxford University Press), pp. 237, 238.

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. . . . {CD 204.1}
We appreciate your experience as a physician, and yet I say that milk and eggs should be included in your diet. These things cannot at present be dispensed with, and the doctrine of dispensing with them should not be taught. {CD 204.2}
You are in danger of taking too radical a view of health reform, and of prescribing for yourself a diet that will not sustain you. . . . {CD 204.3}
I do hope that you will heed the words I have spoken to you. It has been presented to me that you will not be able to exert the most successful influence in health reform unless in some things you become more liberal to yourself and to others. The time will come when milk cannot be used as freely as it is now used; but the present time is not the time to discard it. And eggs contain properties which are remedial agencies in counteracting poisons. And while warnings have been given against the use of these articles of diet in families where the children were addicted to, yes, steeped in, habits of self-abuse; yet we should not consider it a denial of principle to use eggs of hens which are well cared for and suitably fed. . . . {CD 204.4}
God calls upon those for whom Christ died to take proper care of themselves, and set a right example to others. My brother, you are not to make a test for the people of God, upon the question of diet; for they will lose confidence in teachings that are strained to the farthest point of extension. The Lord desires His people to be sound on every point in health reform, but we must not go to extremes. . . . {CD 205.1}
...
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. {CD 206.1}

The early, and still very preliminary returns from the health study suggest that a vegan diet is not as beneficial as a lacto-ovo-vegetarian one —

Green, that is as faulty a conclusion as if there is man-made global warming.

This is assuming a vegan diet is the equivalent of a healthy diet. While a healthy diet today does not include animal products, can vegans choose a harmful diet? That is, just because it is not from an animal, does that automatically mean it's healthful.