| Author | Message | ||
| Dennis Registered user Username: Dennis Post Number: 911 Registered: 4-2000  |
This afternoon my wife was visiting with a very health-conscious, Adventist lady. On this occasion, as well as on countless other ones, the topic of diet and food selection dominated the conversation. This SDA lady was actually fond of Triscuits made by Nabisco (bless her heart). So, she was carefully reading the ingredient list on the box of whole-grain Triscuits. When she finally read "mono and diglycerides" my wife quietly mentioned that those are usually derived from animal sources--notably from pig fat. When mono and diglycerides are derived from vegetable fats, the label usually indicates this fact specifically. Chemically, they are identical. My wife just remembered all this stuff from our half century in Adventism. My wife really didn't intend to cause a major dilemma for this lady, but now she has committed herself to not eating her favorite crackers any longer. Amazingly, this dear lady, who has been an Adventist for more than sixty years, indicated that she would actually finish eating the current box of Triscuits before not buying them ever again. Yes, I was surprised that she even planned on eating the rest of the Triscuits in the box (smile). I presume such ingestive acts could adversely affect the outcome of the "investigative judgement" in her behalf. The Apostle Paul declared that all foods are clean (Rom. 14:20) and Mark reports that Jesus "declared all foods clean" (Mark 7:19). Furthermore, Jesus clearly stated that it was NOT what goes into your stomach that defiles you, but rather what proceeds out of your heart such as pride, foolishness, evil thinking, sensuality, envy, slander, adultery, fornication, deceit, theft, murder, coveting, etc. Praise God, neither our salvation nor our health is adversely-impacted by eating a nutritious, whole-grain Triscuit. Truly, Satan wants us to major in the minors to curtail the glory and majesty of Jesus Christ. Dennis Fischer | ||
| Susans Registered user Username: Susans Post Number: 252 Registered: 8-2006 |
Dennis, My best friend once stopped buying a certain brand of toothpaste because it had something in it like that. It's sad. I wonder how long that dear lady is going to be able to resist her favorite cracker since she would not immediately throw the box away. It could very much set her up for more guilt. Susan | ||
| River Registered user Username: River Post Number: 212 Registered: 9-2006  |
"mono and diglycerides" Lard, you got to watch that stuff, that and tobacco finally killed my great grandpa and both my grandpas and so young, great grandpa was only 92, both grandpas around 89, if they had of laid off that stuff they would have probably lived to a ripe old age. | ||
| Flyinglady Registered user Username: Flyinglady Post Number: 3138 Registered: 3-2004  |
How sad that is!! It is difficult to major in minors because there are so many minor things that come up. These things do get between us and Jesus. How thankful I am that I no longer have to major in minors. Jesus takes care of all that. He is so awesome. Diana | ||
| Melissa Registered user Username: Melissa Post Number: 1519 Registered: 7-2003 |
Very funny, River. My grandfather also smoked for 60 years (though he quit his last few years) and lived to be nearly 90. He also grew up on a pig farm where making sausage was a regular event. He ate eggs and bacon every day for years. He never had issues with his cholesterol either. What's up with that??  | ||
| Benevento Registered user Username: Benevento Post Number: 133 Registered: 4-2005 |
One of the saddest examples of dietary observance I observed was at a wedding reception on the campus of Weimer. The wedding cake was made with the most appropriate ingredients and looked something like a Mexican wedding cake, with lots of rolls stacked in the shape of a cake--the groom asked the blessing before we ate and he begged and pleaded with God to accept and bless the food they had given such careful consideration to in order to please Him. Not a word about the joyous occassion or the assembly of friends or even being thankful for the food.I was just beginning to question some of the doctrines, and this struck me that something here was drasticaly wrong. They were living in fear because of what they ate! | ||
| River Registered user Username: River Post Number: 214 Registered: 9-2006 |
Day before yesterday I taken my guitar and worked out the old tune ìGreen Sleevesî using the flat pick, I had heard the tune but never played it before and after about ten minutes of fooling around with the notes I began too play that beautiful old tune and I was carried away into a beautiful place of sun shine and sweet smelling honey suckle and it seemed that the dilemma of my Triscuit seemed to float way on the wind. River | ||
| Stevendi Registered user Username: Stevendi Post Number: 18 Registered: 10-2006 |
Well, I guess if I "compromise" with Triscuits, I may as well just feast on a lovely rack of BBQ ribs! One of my favorite movie quips is from Butch Cassiday and the Sundance Kid. They are getting ready to jump into a river - about 100 feet down, the Kid says he can't swim. Butch tells him "hell man, the fall will probably kill you." If this doesn't make sense, just ignore it, my wife tells me my sense of humor is a little twisted. Steve | ||
| River Registered user Username: River Post Number: 216 Registered: 9-2006 |
Ha, makes perfect sense to me Steve. One time there was an old woman died in a Chicago Apartment and one of her rooms was filled with box,s of matches, she had spent her whole life "fraid she would run outa matches" There was a guy named Fraid. Who was Fraid he was Daid. Until he got hit with a poker. The mind of River | ||
| Colleentinker Registered user Username: Colleentinker Post Number: 5080 Registered: 12-2003  |
Ha, Steve! YupóI understand. It's kind of funny; when Richard finally began eating chicken, ALL flesh foods became equally accessible to himóseafood, pig, beef, fishóall were equal in his mind. Once he acted on the fact that all meat is given for food, eating squid became as easy for him as eating turkey. Now, I grew up eating occasional CLEAN meatóand I still have to think twice before eating certain odd seafoods. Not all meat was created equal in my past. But Richard, for whom all meat was "unclean", can easily try most anything now. Yupóthe fall will probably kill you... Colleen | ||
| Loneviking Registered user Username: Loneviking Post Number: 528 Registered: 7-2000 |
Oh boy! Now the question is whether I should tell my still Adventist, and vegatarian wife? Hmmm, I do have fun helping to save 'em from their conscience and I get all sorts of good things to eat. Wifes' church is having a progressive dinner party tonight, I might have to be on a Triscuit patrol! | ||
| Lydell Registered user Username: Lydell Post Number: 755 Registered: 7-2000 |
Okay, this isn't about food, but fits with "straining at gnats" anyway. There was an article in the paper here about "the Institute for Science and Halacha" in Jerusalem. They are basically, well, my interpretation is their work is to try to help good little Jews find loopholes around such things as Sabbath laws. Ah....one of my favorites was they have come up with special pens that doctors can use to write prescriptions on the sabbath. You see, they are forbidden to make permanent marks on the sabbath. Sooo, they have come up with a special ink that disappears in a few days. Do ya love it?! Oh oh oh, here's my favorite....El Al was coming under threat of boycott by Orthodox Jews. The airline had been transporting corpses...this was a big problem for the members of the priestly cast, because they are supposed to avoid coming in close proximity to the dead. Well now, the institute found a solution. Now the airline can wrap a thick corrugated cardboard around the coffin in the shape of a house. That way, the body is considered enclosed and unable to "spread impurity" so the priests can still fly. I have got to remember to send this article to you Colleen! Ain't religion grand! | ||
| Raven Registered user Username: Raven Post Number: 665 Registered: 7-2004  |
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diglyceride
I was surprised to see margarine in the list. Think of all those vegan SDA's who refuse to consume real butter because it's a dairy product. Instead, they could very well be getting "unclean" lard from it! Does anyone have some margarine on hand to see what the label says? We only have butter in our house. Most labels don't bother stating the source of the diglycerides - I guess what one doesn't know can't hurt them... | ||
| Flyinglady Registered user Username: Flyinglady Post Number: 3144 Registered: 3-2004 |
Colleen, Give Richard my congratulations. Since I was raised eating "clean" meats it was not hard for me to make the transition to all meats. I saved the lobster and shrimp eating to do with my oldest sister when we went on our first cruise. The joy I have knowing that all food is food only. It is not what goes into our mouths that is bad. It is what come out. God is so awesome. Diana | ||
| 91steps Registered user Username: 91steps Post Number: 133 Registered: 8-2005  |
I still observe most of the health laws, NOT because EGW said such and such was bad, but from a practical standpoint. I grew up on the Eastern Shore of MD, used to crab and tong oysters for a living when I was in High School. God put certain animals on the earth to help cleanse it, and doesn't make sense to me to upset this balance. Case in point, oysters and clams are filters to the water, and when they are depleted the water becomes polluted. I knew of watermen who would take oysters/clams from polluted creeks/coves and sell them knowing that the shellfish was contaminated. These shellfish would end up on the market and be sold to unsuspecting customers. So just keep this in mind next time you buy some shellfish. As far as pork, I STILL remember watching our High School biology teacher slowly cook a chunk of pork and saw all the worms come out of the meat. That is enough for me. Now I do eat clean meats, and not that much anymore. | ||
| Mwh Registered user Username: Mwh Post Number: 401 Registered: 4-2006  |
91steps, wow that sounds horrible. Where the heck did your teacher get that piece of pork? | ||
| River Registered user Username: River Post Number: 221 Registered: 9-2006 |
Nowadays we have a selection of foods to eat, I remember when I was growing up we killed hogs each fall and smoked and salt cured the meat, it wasnít because of preference, but because it would keep through the winter, it was a matter of survival, cattle were too valuable too kill because they gave milk to drink and the bulls had to be sold to buy staples with such as flour and corn meal and even the cloth from the 50 pound sacks were used to make clothing and for straining milk and so on. Every move made in spring, summer, and fall was with an eye toward making it through another winter, the work started at sunup, not eight AM. All that was purchased from a grocery store was staples such as beans, lard, flour and cornmeal, everything else had to come off that farm. If a chicken ever got on the plate it was for some special occasion such as a family gathering or the preacher came to dinner and then it was usually some old hen that had quit laying. As the winter would wear on and the food began to be depleted we would hunt for wild game, I have eat squirrel, possum, coon and was glad to get it. A long toward the middle of February things got mighty skimpy, the potatoes would run out and the onions were just a memory. We didnít know we were poor so it didnít matter, life did matter. Sunday truly was a day of rest from the long hours put into survival from one year to the next. Cash was not much of a known commodity. So when you go to the grocery with the cash to buy to feed your preferences of meat and or vegetables and you can buy what you want, it was not always that way. For EGW to lay that kind of load on people is inexcusable too many of the people of her day in my own opinion. Those dairy products and meat products allowed many to survive many long hard winters where other wise survival would have been nigh onto impossible. There are many in this world today who donít even have what we had back then to eat. Too lay any additional burden so as to take away the little they have on them would be downright criminal in my own opinion. There is still food on the grocery store shelves but it may not always be that way and then you may have too eat that old cat that has been making paw marks on your shiny car. They say there is never enough food in the grocery store to last more that one or two days. All it would take is a break in the food supply or oil supply to put us back a 100 years. And that my friends is the dilemma of the Triscuitt.IMO. River | ||
| Melissa Registered user Username: Melissa Post Number: 1520 Registered: 7-2003 |
Great observations, River. My opinion as well. I still remember my grandmother telling the story of having to cook her son's pet rabbit, because that was the only option. food "laws" or starvation....hummmm ... which WOULD God choose! | ||
| Dennis Registered user Username: Dennis Post Number: 913 Registered: 4-2000 |
Recently, I discussed this pig/pork issue with a SDA minister. I pointed out to him that in Leviticus 11:7,8 it says that one is not to eat nor to touch a pig. Yet Adventists love those expensive athletic shoes made with light-weight, breathable leather. Furthermore, since they use soap with hog fat, eat margarine with hog fat, and even brush their teeth with hog fat tooth paste, why then can't SDA farmers raise hogs? They wouldn't need to eat them necessarily, just raise them and sell them for important uses that would include shoe leather, belts, baskets, burn center oasis skin, clothing, and insulin. Interestingly, they never show any appreciation to hog farmers and processing plant employees. The SDA minister was trying to tell me that touching their carcasses was no concern on his part. They conveniently ignore the Lev. 11:8 prohibition against touching the carcasses of pigs. Yet I don't know of Adventist farmers who feel comfortable to raise hogs. I remember, as a SDA teenager, that I discarded a wallet my public school teacher gave me as a Christmas gift because it was labeled as "Genuine Pigskin." Our SDA friends "pick and choose" their favorite ceremonial laws. It is mind-boggling that I once wholeheartedly subscribed and promoted Jewish ritual laws. Dennis Fischer | ||
| Susans Registered user Username: Susans Post Number: 256 Registered: 8-2006 |
I refused to touch the fetal pig I dissected with a lab partner in my anatomy class. Looking back, I realize how silly it was, but because I had read where one was not even to touch a pig carcass, I informed my instructor on religious reasons I could not. He let me do everything on the project except the actual dissecting and mounting. It is mind-boggling  Susan |
