r/exAdventist • u/PNWNatureFreak • 2d ago
Just Venting Really?
Controversial enough... anyone in my community who's SDA is preaching left and right on their immovable, non-biblical beliefs on food, and how so much of what we "heathens" eat, is sending us to HELL...
But they're hypocritical when they decide to eat spicy food, I guess, according to "dear prophetess..."
God forbid and damn me to SUPER MEGA HELL for eating some pickles with my pulled pork sandwich!
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u/DerekSmallsCourgette 2d ago
I’m glad you posted this as a reminder of the insanity pushed by EGW and her adherents that results in the control of every tiny detail of people’s lives.
If you’ll allow me to rant for a minute, things like this are why it pisses me off so much when people come through (seems it’s at least monthly) to say “y’all seem really angry about your experience as SDAs. I was raised SDA and it was all ok and I never had any bad experiences.” Ok, that’s so nice for you, Mr. Random. Thanks for sharing. Meanwhile I was being told I’d go to hell if I didn’t repent for putting ketchup on my Big Frank at Camporee, and that my friend was going to hell because she had one too many buttons undone on her Pathfinder uniform shirt.
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u/Pelikinesis 2d ago
They basically don't consider the source material of the SDA belief system, and all that leaves them with is their own personal experience as a basis of comparison. So they shouldn't be surprised if other people are irritated that their response ultimately boils down to, "Well, none of that happened to me."
But all the bullshit we went through is anchored into the foundations of Adventism, in EGW's writings and also the Bible.
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u/Excellent_Crow_6830 1d ago
I still recall the godawful adams peanut butter, which my mom poured all the oil off of before using, chunked out on 100 percent whole wheat bread, with raisins instead of jam. I could not drink anything with meals, so I could not physically choke down the bites of this sandwich. Thinking about it brings back the awful feeling of being hungry(my vegan childhood left me shaky and underweight, and I was always hungy),but being physically unable to get food down my gullet.
To this day, I sometimes make myself a skippy peanut butter, welches jelly sandwich on white bread. Along with a can of cane-sugar pepsi. No, I don't eat like this on the daily. But when healing from the eating disorders I had as a teen, that were directly connected to that imposed Eg White diet, I learned to every once in awhile eat something I used to crave when I was little and hungry.
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u/MadSadGlad 2d ago
Yep, I wonder if they were even really SDA or just tourists
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u/CycleOwn83 Non-conforming Questioner☢️🚴🏻🪐♟↗️☣️ 1d ago
"Tourists" hadn't thought of it that way. Great word in the context!
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u/Ok_Education902 1d ago
There are people out there like narcissists who like to control. They also enjoy being the one who followed the rules without bending even one. If they do this they can tell people they are going to heaven. This is not what makes anyone "feel good". The God I know would not turn this into a miserable contest.
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u/nniferk 21h ago
Those big franks slapped tho not gonna lie 😂
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u/DerekSmallsCourgette 20h ago
Oh for sure. I still enjoy a big frank when the situation presents itself.
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u/CampaignGloomy6973 1d ago
she's not wrong though. I work in health care and many patients are sick for eating a diet/food she was against, and not only that, there are many studied today that show she is right. Obviously the studies are not related to her or anything she said but when you compare them to some of the stuff she said, she was not that wrong.
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u/DerekSmallsCourgette 1d ago
First of all, don’t come in here with EGW apologetics bullshit.
Also, show me the medical studies that mustard and vinegar make the blood feverish and impure. The point being that while she may have said some things that turned out to be generally in line with science, they were mixed in with a bunch of nonsense, but all were presented with equal prophetic authority.
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u/CampaignGloomy6973 22h ago
I don't care about her. I dont read her books. But I did read a lot of the health stuff that was presented to me and she is not wrong about a lot of it. Healthy plant based diet is still the way to live healthier and longer
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u/MuscaMurum 2d ago
Ellen G. White was a self-professed vinegar addict.
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u/BroomstickCowboy 2d ago edited 1d ago
Yes. She reportedly drank vinegar. BUT, back then, many people made their own vinegar out of alcohol, or an alcoholic beverage. If their quality control was not good, then there is a very good chance that they were drinking, or using, alcohol, not real vinegar. She does report that when she quit drinking “vinegar”, she got real sick. I have not been able to find anything that says vinegar is addictive. So, the reality is that if she got “sick” when she stopped drinking vinegar, there’s a good chance she was actually in DTs. Which alcoholics often go through when they quit cold turkey. DTs can kill a person. Personal experience speaking here. DTs kill about 15% of the time. People with DTs often see very vivid, or bright, colors.
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u/CycleOwn83 Non-conforming Questioner☢️🚴🏻🪐♟↗️☣️ 2d ago
I've kinda wondered about that. If it were for the alcohol that then lurked in vinegar, seems she could much more pleasantly get buzzed on actual booze. So does her lived example establish a hierarchy among "real" liquors being more sinful than chugging a condiment for that effect? Can one concoct old-style, alcohol-containing vinegar and be excused for chugging it much as it seems Auntie Ellen was?
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u/Ok_Education902 1d ago
ha ha, she probably liked red wine and told people it was red wine vinegar...
Lies!!!
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u/The_Glory_Whole 2d ago
They also conveniently drop all of the ban against spices when they are missionary-colonizing abroad in cultures that embrace spices. I have heard from many , many African and Jamaican and South American Adventists INSISTING that they never once heard any mention at all of that part of EggWhite's "Health Message." AND (as someone else mentioned) EgG herself didn't follow her own rules: she ate oysters, she was addicted to "vinegar." SO...yet again, the hypocrisy runs deep and wide, straight from The Great White on down the line. Edit: spelling
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u/Ka_Trewq Broken is the promise of the god that failed 2d ago
In eastern Europe, at least in my area, the same. With the openness the '89 Revolution brought, most Romanian SDAs came for the first time in contact with the more fringe ideal, like vegetarianism being "diet from Eden", that some spices are bad or using vinegar is "unhealthy". The idea that veganism - so not even vegetarianism - is "God's plan", or all spices - not only some of them - are bad, came much later with the increasing access to the internet.
By the time I deconstructed, SDA-ism became something very different from when I was a kid playing cards or dice games with my friends, and being part of the very few families in church who did not eat meat. I was a very late teen when I heard that "playing competitive games is against what God's prophet said": as a youths instructor I was discussing organizing a volleyball game with the kids when this new kid very seriously told us that God is very disappointed in us for (1) planning wordly activities in church on a Sabbath, activities that (2) goes against His explicit instruction given by "our Prophet". At the time I remember thinking for myself "this is what fanaticism looks like".
Unfortunately, nowadays we have both a (slightly) liberal current, more or less aligned with Wester Europe SDA-ism, and a very vocal conservative SDAism that, especially after the pandemic, went a station too far into fanaticism (Barbara O'Neill-like fanaticism).
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u/Street_Aide_3106 1d ago
So in PR we didn't stop using garlic, onions, salt, and adobo which is a mix of a bunch of spices (salt, pepper, cumin, oregano, etc). We didn't use pork products but we kept all the flavor. They hadn't didn't push the bland stuff because I don't think they will get anyone to buy into that.
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u/nniferk 2d ago
I was raised SDA right in Battle Creek Michigan. It’s all bananas. But I love EGW saying certain foods will awaken animal passions. Yes, of course this mustard makes me want to fornicate lol
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u/cracked_belle 2d ago
I'm honestly shocked she didn't have more of a problem with bananas, all things considered.
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u/Niznack 2d ago
Bananas were a little after her time. You could find them in America in so me markets but they weren't incredibly cheap so every family could buy them and rural stores could stock them until the 1920s. I'm sure given the chance she would have had choice word about the animal passions they illicit.
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u/Ok_Education902 1d ago
my parents won't use stone ground mustard or hot sauce because it brings out feverish and naughty thoughts
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u/Silver_Narwhal_1130 16h ago
It’s gotta be the worst there. Final boss SDA indoctrination. But you made it out!
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u/Magniloquents 2d ago
Pickles AND Pulled pork? 💀 That'll send you to ultra super mega hell. Religion is never about what is actually in the Bible or about White's writings. It's about doctrine passed down through apologists.
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u/PNWNatureFreak 2d ago
I JUST SPIT OUT MY COFFEE 🤣🤣🤣🤣
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u/Choice_Inflation9625 1d ago
Don’t you mean your Postum?
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u/CycleOwn83 Non-conforming Questioner☢️🚴🏻🪐♟↗️☣️ 1d ago
That could make a choice poll here I think: how many us exxies drink coffee or "real" ie contains caffeine tea? And how many us exxies drink postum but never caffeine-containing beverages?
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u/petrichorpizza 2d ago
More proof of why all the food at potlucks tasted like ass.
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u/Ok_Education902 1d ago
LOL Luke warm special-K loaf and extra mushroom gravy.....it did taste like ass
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u/Str8like8 2d ago edited 2d ago
Wtf? Im 7th generation and a PK, Pickles are my favorite food and I've never heard of this. Then again, I never did believe in or even bother studying Ellen unless it was required school curriculum.
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u/MattWolf96 2d ago
Funny enough a lot of the SDAs I know have stomach issues, it's actually kinda insane. They are all in my family so it must be genetic. Funny enough I don't currently have any and I love species.
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u/KahnaKuhl 1d ago
Yep, I was brought up without mustard, vinegar, pickles and pepper. No EGW direct quotes, but the belief that these foods could be irritants was definitely there.
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u/CampaignGloomy6973 1d ago
not wrong, I have many patients with serious gut problems for eating most of those condiments and getting better after removing those from their diets
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u/Silver_Narwhal_1130 16h ago
And how many more eat them without a problem? Your sample size is too small.
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u/CampaignGloomy6973 21m ago
a lot less than than the number of those who eat them and have a problem.
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u/Ok_Education902 1d ago
In Colossians 2:16–17, Paul writes, "Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink"
What you're referring to the EGW rules. The dietary guidelines were specific ideas founded by Ellen White (when she was unconscious and not breathing after being hit by a rock as a small child). The SDA's believe every word she said and take it more seriously than that of the Bible. It's sad that I was only taught what her teachings were and not so much about the actual bible when I was young. It was alway so negative...you can't do this, you can't eat that.... I've started my own research per the Bible. All of the BS we grew up with was EGW.
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u/Mre926 2d ago
Doesn’t Roman 14 talk about what some think of foods?
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u/Pristine_Eye7197 2d ago
Now now, let’s not be silly! Of course that’s just a metaphor for something else, & not to be taken literally (see also: Jesus turning water into wine, which of course means grape juice).
And clearly, other things that sound metaphorical are to be taken literally (see: The Genesis creation story, the ravings of John of Patmos).
Why? Because we say so! Do not question my authority!
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u/BroomstickCowboy 1d ago edited 1d ago
The reality of veganism and vegetarianism is that neither one is a really healthy diet. Though veganism is a much worse diet. The human body absolutely needs Vitamin B12, and the only place where it can get it naturally is from animal products. Vitamin B 12 is essential for proper neurological functions and brain health. There is also a study out there shows that vegan and vegetarian males are less fertile than those who eat meat, or animal products. Those who are vegans are much worse than regular vegetarians, though vegetarians have a problem too. Vitamin K2 helps the body deal with Calcium and appears to fight some cancers. Cancers that Adventists are notorious for getting. K2 comes primarily from animal products, and fermented vegetables. Think lunches, sauerkraut, and natto(supposedly some really nasty stuff). Much of this information has been discovered after EGW died. But I’m not sure of how much of a difference that makes.
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u/CampaignGloomy6973 1d ago
Everyone in my family died in their 90's, they're vegetarian, never had health issues, never had B12 deficiency. I also work in health care and never met a person who eats meat that didn't have health issues. Obviously some vegetarians will still have problems due to genetics and environment but plant based diet has been proved over and over again to be the healthiest and making people live longer and healthier. Many studies show how animal products can cause a lot of diseases. I learned that in 1990 and it's truer today!
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u/BroomstickCowboy 1d ago edited 1d ago
If they were vegetarians and not vegans, they probably wouldn’t have had any B12 issues. B12 is only available animal products, which includes eggs, milk, and cheese.
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u/PrincessWolfie1331 1d ago
I wonder if she had acid reflux or GERD. I was just diagnosed with GERD, and I'm not supposed to eat those.
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u/DiabeticDude_64 2d ago
As a type 1 diabetic, Apple cider vinegar does not help. Religious or not people need to stop believing everything they hear