In 1960 Paul Harvey, American Broadcasting Company news commentator and United Features syndicated columnist, wrote a 16-paragraph article featuring Ellen White. It began:
“Once upon a time, a hundred years ago, there lived a young lady named Ellen White. She was frail as a child, completed only grammar school [actually, she never really finished the third grade], and had no technical training, and yet she lived to write scores of articles and many books on the subject of ‘healthful living.’ “Remember, this was in the days when doctors were still bloodletting and performing surgery with unwashed hands. This was in an era of medical ignorance bordering on barbarism. Yet Ellen White wrote with such profound understanding of the subject of nutrition that all but two of the many principles she espoused have been scientifically established.” Harvey then pointed out how she was correct about the preference for olive oil over animal fat in the diet. We recognize now her wisdom in scoring refined white flour as lacking in nutritive value. Her warnings concerning the dangers of overuse of salt and irregularity in eating have proved correct.
In 1960 there were two unverified statements from her pen: the use of multigrains instead of merely whole wheat in breadmaking, and vegetarianism.
Nine years later columnist Harvey did an update on Mrs. White for his newspaper readers across America. After citing the low incidence of strokes, respiratory diseases, and cancer among Adventists, he continued: “It has tended to reaffirm the faith of the faithful to discover that the most advanced scientific findings support what was written and taught by this amazing little lady, Ellen White, more than a century ago. If future scientific findings continue to support hers, let’s see what tomorrow’s doctors will be prescribing: “Ellen White advised against overeating. Also against crash dieting. (‘Do not go to extremes.’) Minimal sweets. (She said that sugar is not good for the stomach.) “She recommended grains, vegetables, fruits—especially apples. (‘Apples are superior to any fruit.’) “She recommended against meat. Coffee, and tea. And, sorry, no hot biscuits. “If some of her recommendations sound extreme, imagine how they must have sounded in 1863. Yet modern science continues more and more to say, ‘She was right’!”
