Ask Ellen

Question:

Dear Ellen,

I am on a special diet, and I recently started eating whole grapefruit. Shortly afterward I started experiencing this fist-sized lump in the left side of my neck. At about the same time, I started experiencing severe neck aches. I think I may need to go see a doctor, but I wanted to consult with you first. I can’t wait much longer!

Signed, Sister Neck Ache

Answer:

Dear Sister Neck Ache,

You came to the right place! You most likely will need to go and see a doctor. First some questions. Are the grapefruit going through whole, or are they just disappearing? Something is definitely obstructing their normal passage through your digestive tract. Are you perhaps wearing a corset?

By lacing, the internal organs of women are crowded out of their positions. There is scarcely a woman that is thoroughly healthy. The majority of women have numerous ailments. . . .Some women have naturally small waists. But rather than regard such forms as beautiful, they should be viewed as defective. These wasp waists may have been transmitted to them from their mothers, as the result of their indulgence in the sinful practice of tight-lacing, and in consequence of imperfect breathing. (The Health Reformer, Nov. 1871.)

I wrote about a case similar to yours in the Health Reformer.

At the hotel ‘Dieu,’ the great hospital at Paris, a young girl of eighteen lately presented herself to Breschet for his advice. On the right side of her throat, she had a tumor of variable size, but never larger than one’s fist. It reached from the collar-bone as high as the thyroid cartilage. When pressed downward, it wholly disappeared; but as soon as the pressure was removed, it was indolent, soft, and elastic. It was observed to be largest when the chest was tightly laced with corsets. In short, by placing the ear on it, the murmur of respiration could be heard in the tumor which proves that a protrusion of the lungs had taken place, or, in other words, that the poor girl had been laced so tightly that her lungs, having no longer sufficient space in their natural position, were squeezed out of it, and were forcing their way up along the neck. (The Health Reformer, Dec. 1871)

It sounds like you may be suffering from a similar affliction. It sounds like the grapefruit, unable to move downward through your wasp waist, are causing your lungs to force their way up along your neck. If left untreated they could erupt out of the top of your head — not the grapefruit, but your lungs. This would be serious indeed, and could end in death! I would recommend immediate corrective surgery to increase the size of your waist. Another way to increase your waist size is with the world-renown McDonald’s SuperSize diet. In the mean time don’t eat any more grapefruit until the lump in your neck disappears!

Ellen White

Question:

Dear Ellen,

Someone told me that you got addicted to vinegar, and it almost killed you. How can that be? I told them I did not believe it, and that they must have read that rumor at one of those anti-Ellen White websites. If you did have an addiction, how many letters and testimonies were written while you were "under the influence" of vinegar? Could the alcohol content of your vinegar have affected your judgment and discernment? I need to know the truth.

Signed, Shocked

Answer:

Dear Shocked,

Well, first of all we are each human. That is why I wrote:

I do not say that I am perfect, but I am trying to be perfect. I do not expect others to be perfect; and if I could not associate with my brothers and sisters who are not perfect, I do not know what I should do. No one is perfect. If one were perfect, he would be prepared for heaven. As long as we are not perfect, we have a work to do to get ready to be perfect. (Pacific Union Recorder, April 29, 1915, paragraph 7-8)

Those who accept the Saviour, however sincere their conversion, should never be taught to say or to feel that they are saved. This is misleading. (Christ Object Lessons, page 155)

As long as man is full of weakness–for of himself he cannot save his soul–he should never dare to say, "I am saved." (Selected Messages, vol 1, page 314)

It could have happened to you, too! I am just happy to be alive.

I had indulged the desire for vinegar. But I resolved with the help of God to overcome this appetite. I fought the temptation, determined not to be mastered by this habit. For weeks I was very sick; but I kept saying over and over, The Lord knows all about it. If I die, I die; but I will not yield to this desire. The struggle continued, and I was sorely afflicted for many weeks. All thought that it was impossible for me to live. You may be sure we sought the Lord very earnestly. The most fervent prayers were offered for my recovery. I continued to resist the desire for vinegar, and at last I conquered. Now I have no inclination to taste anything of the kind. This experience has been of great value to me in many ways. I obtained a complete victory." (Letter 70, 1911, reproduced in Counsels on Diet and Foods, p. 485)

Those were hard times. You have to understand how we made vinegar in the mid-1800s. Here are two recipes for homemade vinegar taken from Miss Leslie’s Directions for Cookery, published in 1851:

CIDER VINEGAR: Take six quarts of rye meal; stir and mix it well into a barrel of strong hard cider of the best kind; and then add a gallon of whiskey. Cover the cask, (leaving the bung loosely in it,) set it in the part of your yard that is most exposed to the air; and in the course of four weeks (if the weather is warm and dry) you will have good vinegar fit for use.

WHITE VINEGAR: Put into a cask a mixture composed of five gallons of water, two gallons of whiskey, and a quart of strong yeast, stirring in two pounds of powdered charcoal. Place it where it will ferment properly, leaving the bung loose till the fermentation is over.

As you can see from these recipes, vinegar in the mid-1800s was made with ingredients such as "strong hard cider" and "whiskey." In your grocery stores today the alcohol content of vinegar is much lower — around .5% alcohol, which is quite small. The vinegar addiction I had almost killed me. I don’t like to dwell on these "human imperfections". In regard to my judgment and discernment while writing, I have been instructed to say the following:

In these letters which I write, in the testimonies I bear, I am presenting to you that which the Lord has presented to me. I do not write one article in the paper expressing merely my own ideas. They are what God has opened before me in vision–the precious rays of light shining from the throne. (Testimonies, vol 5, page 67)

The Spirit of God works upon my mind and gives me appropriate words with which to express the truth. I am also greatly strengthened when I stand before large congregations.– (Selected Messages, vol 3, page 51, Letter 90, 1907)

I am trying to catch the very words and expressions that were made in reference to this matter, and as my pen hesitates a moment, the appropriate words come to my mind. (Selected Messages, vol 3, page 51, Letter 123, 1904)

Although I am dependent upon the Spirit of the Lord in writing my views as I am in receiving them, yet the words I employ in describing what I have seen are my own. (Review and Herald, Oct. 8, 1867)

Believe me. Stick with Soy Milk, Fri-Chik and Big Franks. I have been shown that you will be much better off!

Ellen White