Craig, Winston

Perry, Jay L.

English

Andrews University

Spring - Summer 1999 / SHABBAT SHALOM  9  S habbat Shalom*:Would you tell us alittle about why youagreed to be interviewed for ourissue on Food and Drink?Craig: In the American DieteticAssociation we have about 70,000members, and there are about 25different practice groups, one ofwhich is on vegetarian nutrition.The people who started those prac-tice groups are all Jewish, and comefrom the Boston and Maryland ar-eas.  I’ve been involved in the ex-ecutive committee now for about4 or 5 years, and it’s interesting tosee and hear their views on vegetar-ian nutrition.I don’t know what brand of Ju-daism I’m dealing with.  There aresome groups that are very religiousand strict, who write to companiesto find out whether their ingredi-ents have any animal origin.  Evenlike if it’s vitamin D, they want toknow if it’s from an animal or froma plant source.  But I think we sharemostly common ground.Shabbat Shalom: Eating anddrinking plays an important rolein Adventism.  Why?Craig: I think there are reallytwo reasons it is so important forAdventists.  First, Paul puts empha-sis in First Corinthians, chapter 10,on present lifestyle as a preparationfor the hereafter.  It is also neces-sary for work on this earth, to re-flect the image of God to othersWinston J. Craig is Professor of Nutrition and Director of the Dietetics Internship program at Andrews Universityin Berrien Springs, Michigan, where he has taught health and nutrition classes since 1987.  Dr. Craig received hisPh.D. in Organic Chemistry from the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia and a Master of PublicHealth degree in Nutrition from Loma Linda University, California.  He is a registered dietitian and holds member-ship in several professional societies.  Dr. Craig has authored more than eighty-five articles for scholarly journals andlay publications.  He has authored several books and is the associate editor of the Journal of Health and Healing andmanaging editor of the Vegetarian Nutrition Dietetics Practice Group Newsletter, Issues in Vegetarian Dietetics.Winston J. Craig10  SHABBAT SHALOM / Spring - Summer 1999around us.  Lifestyle must be con-nected to that, because you can’twitness to God very effectively ifyou’ve got a migraine or a stom-achache or a disk out of joint.  Eat-ing and drinking should make ourmental and physical health some-what stable, providing a strongundergirding for spiritual healthand development.Second, Ellen G. White wroteso much about tea and coffee andalcohol and a simple, balanced veg-etarian diet.  Her writings provideda great deal of cohesiveness forthinking about the unique lifestylecharacteristics of Seventh-dayAdventists.Shabbat Shalom: How wouldyou describe or define theAdventist philosophy of eatingand drinking?Craig: Whenever you talk aboutAdventist philosophy, the generalword that pops up is temperance.In the early days of Adventism tem-perance was the banner underwhich the movement rallied.  Ofcourse in those days it had specificconnotations with alcohol, but Ithink in the modern thinking itmeans abstaining from those thingswhich are detrimental to the spiri-tual life and physical health and be-ing judicious about those thingswhich are good: water, exercise,sexuality–everything in life whichis important is done on a regularbasis, but should be done withmoderation.  I wrote up this state-ment for one of my classes—“Godwants us to be healthy andwhole”—something I created fora class that gives some idea of whatI think the unique Adventist per-spective is on lifestyle.Shabbat Shalom: So temper-ance isn’t just about avoiding thebad things, but also includes mod-eration in all of the good things?Craig: Yes.  I grew up in an erawhen the current thinking in thechurch was “don’t do this, don’t eatthis, don’t go there.”  But today’semphasis on “wellness” as thebuzzword has made a lot ofyounger health educators andhealth directors to emphasize thepositive aspects of our lifestyle pro-gram—regular exercise, plant-based diet, moderation—instead of“don’t do this, don’t do that.”  The“don’t do’s” really run against thementality of basic human exist-ence.  We like to be told “if you dothis (instead), look how muchmore a successful, healthy life youcan have.  You can be rid of all the. . .  We’repushing moreselecting agood diet andregular exer-cise—all thepositive as-pects of thehealth mes-sage.We’ve reallykind of dropped the word “tem-perance” from our vocabulary.What used to be known as the“Department of Healthand Temperance” we now call“Adventist Health Ministries.”The name seems to convey moreof an attitude that health can be aministry to our souls, our commu-nities, and the world at large.In my new book, Nutrition andWellness: A vegetarian way to betterhealth, the first chapter starts off withthe acronym WELLNESS, basicallycovering the 8 natural remedies, donein such a way as to promote the posi-tive aspects of health: Water–used in-ternally and externally; Exerciseregularly; Life in proper balance;Loving relationships; Nutrition ofgood quality and proper quantity;Enjoy adequate rest; Sunlight andfresh air; Stress management.That’s part of the approach I thinka lot of us are taking today topresent that we have a happylifestyle—that God wants us to behappy.  And all of the restric-tions—alcohol, smoking, premari-tal sex, and all of that—are detri-mental to being.  I try to stress inmy classes the idea of a “whole per-son.”  And whenever you do some-thing bad to yourself physically, itdisrupts social relationships, men-tal abilities, peace of mind, andspirituality.  The Greek idea of seg-menting andseparating onefrom the other re-ally has no basisin reality.  Whenpeople have prob-lems, they go topsychologists ornutritionists orpastors, and Ithink people getthe impression that life is fragmen-tary.  But I think the biblical ideaof Shalom integrates all of theseideas.  When you speak abouthealth, you can’t really separatephysical, mental, spiritual, and so-cial dimensions.  I really thinkthat’s the key to the Adventist viewof health.  Over 100 years ago, wehad the idea of  “holistic living,”but I think we really dropped theball somewhere and others pickedit up and ran with it.Shabbat Shalom: Is eating re-lated only to health issues?Craig: When you eat, it’s donein a social relationship and a cul-tural context.  You can’t changepeople’s eating habits withoutchanging  their very socioculturalheritage.  So, with that culture, ofcourse, come religious connota-tions—the mixing of certain foods,hot/cold principles.  It all becomesvery complex.  Food is not justeaten for strength; there’s so muchmore.  If you really want to get toEating and drinking should make our mentaland physical health somewhat stable,providing a strong undergirding for spiritualhealth and development.When you speak abouthealth, you can’t reallyseparate physical,mental, spiritual, andsocial dimensions.Spring - Summer 1999 / SHABBAT SHALOM  11know people, you have to eat withthem.  I would have to say that foodhas to do with everything in life, re-ally.Shabbat Shalom: What are yourreligious practices in regard to foodand drink?  Canyou justify yourposition?Craig: My re-ligious practiceand my eatinghabits consist offollowing theoriginal diet.Man was created to live on fruits, nuts,grains, and vegetables—and the leastprocessing of those foods as possible.It’s when we process foods, extractingcertain vitamins, sugars, oils—andthose things are used in heavyamounts—that we have all   thechronic diseases that we see today.  Ithink if we look at the Creator andhis manual, from Genesis 1, the prin-ciple seems to be simplicity, along withexercise, fresh air, sunlight—a natu-ral lifestyle as much as possible.Ofcourse, we live  in 1999, which ispretty far removed from the Gardenof Eden.I think another part of it is fromthe standpoint of ethics.  Do we re-ally have license to take another life,even one of an animal, just to satisfyour appetites, when a plant-based dietis better for us anyway?  We can alsolook at it from an ecological view.Plant-based eating conserves theworld’s resources.  That’s been welldocumented in many places.  The airwould be cleaner, the water would becleaner if we didn’t eat meat.  Thewaste from meat-processing plantsand “factory farming” is just a tremen-dous ecological disaster, a crisis we’vecreated.  So not only does a plant-based diet conserve the environment,and make more sense ethically, it’s alsobetter for you healthwise.The leading nutritionists in theworld, members of the World HealthOrganization,have made thestatement that theoptimal diet is lowin fat, especiallysaturated (animal)fat, and high incomplex carbohy-drates—with anabundance of fruits, grains, vegetables,and legumes.  This diet, as opposedto a meat- and dairy-based diet, is theirrecommendation for the whole world.It’s the consensus of all the leading nu-tritionists that a plant-based diet is thehealthiest.When it comes to drinking, it’sfairly obvious that drinking water andfruit juice is quite harmless.  But whenyou get into coffee, tea, and alcohol,things that Adventists have tradition-ally been warned against—I thinkthere’s good evidence that the stimu-latory effects of caffeine are not healthyfor our already-overstimulated society.Alcohol is one of the severest depres-sants around and is associated withabout 20 evil things.  In my bookthere’s a chapter called “Alcohol—ADragon in Disguise,” which includeshighway carnage, family dysfunction,high blood-pressure, and canceramong the many things that alcoholconsumption can cause.  Ifsomething’s dangerous, it’s smart tojust stay away from it.Shabbat Shalom: The Bible listssome animals as clean (fit for con-sumption) and others as unclean (un-fit for consumption).  Can you seeany reason for this scientifically?Craig: I have problems with it as anutritionist, because when you lookat all the epidemiological data aboutpork and beef, there’s really not muchdifference; they’re both high risk.  Iwas just teaching this morning on dietand cancer.  The latest book on thissubject, Food, Nutrition, and the Pre-vention of Cancer: A Global Perspec-tive, was published last year.  It con-tains about 800 pages of materialabout how what we eat relates to theproblem of cancer.  It goes throughall of the different cancers of the body.Continually you see meat and animalfat surfacing as two of the primaryfactors leading to cancer.  But there’sreally no distinction between differ-ent kinds of meats.  In fact, beef gets aworse write-up than pork in this book.So if you try to extrapolate the bibli-cal standpoint over to scientific data,you’re in trouble, because all the meatsare considered problematic.  Fishseems to be more on the safe side, butall the others seem to be equally dam-aging in terms of risk of chronic dis-ease.  So for me, it’s difficult to talkabout “clean” and “unclean” meats.The terms probably have more mean-ing than I am aware of as a nutrition-ist.  It’s probably more of a theologi-cal issue which I can’t relate to as well.When it comes down to the wire, itIf you really want toget to know people,you have to eat withthem.People who are committed to God willeventually ask themselves, what can I do, orwhat should I avoid that will make me abetter servant of God or a better reflector ofHis love?“More people die from eating too much than fromeating too little . . . eat a third, drink a third, and leavea third of the capacity of the stomach empty.”Talmud b. Gittin 70a12  SHABBAT SHALOM / Spring - Summer 1999really comes down to the animal’sbackground, what it was fed, howit was medicated, its living condi-tions.  It seems, at least today, thatthe safety of animal products de-pends on how we are producingthose products.Shabbat Shalom: Why does theBible tell us not to eat the blood ofan animal?Craig: The only thing I can re-ally designate is that the blood is thelife current that connects the cellstogether.  So it supplies glucose andoxygen, but it also receives all thetoxic and waste products from thecells.  It’s also where all the infec-tious agents are carried.  So there’sjust danger, in the sense that it con-tains all the toxic elements.  Iwouldn’t really call it the sewer, butit’s kind of like the canal that traf-fics around the body, picking up allof the waste products.  If there isdisease in one part of the body, thenit is going to get transmitted to theother parts of the body through theblood.  I would think that gettingrid of the blood would get rid of alot of the risk of contamination.  It’smore a physiological or biologicalquestion than it is a nutrition ques-tion, I think.Shabbat Shalom: Do you havea special meal that characterizesAdventist cuisine?Craig: That’s really a culturalquestion, more than anything else.Even if they’re all Adventists, if youwere to ask an American or an Afri-can American, or a European, or anAfrican, or a Hispanic, you’d getvery different answers as to what istypical cuisine.  I can tell you whatI associate in my life, but even I amnot fully representative of my cul-ture within Adventism.  Tradition-ally Adventists do eat a lot of veg-etables, a lot of salad—more thanthe general population.  But I thinkthat maybe the general populationhas caught up with us, with morepeople realizing the benefits of freshfruits and vegetables against chronicdisease.  But the question is reallytoo cultural to give a broad answer.Shabbat Shalom: Is it a reli-gious value to be a gourmet?Craig: The idea of simplicity istypical to Adventist thinking.  Andusually the word gourmet is asso-ciated with richness and complex-ity.  But if you take the real mean-ing of a gourmet, someone who iscontinually experimenting andtesting and trying new frontiers, Idon’t think there is necessarily anyreligious connotation to that.Some people are just that way andlike to try new things.  Otherpeople like the status quo, likemore traditional foods, and don’tparticularly want to try anythingnew.  But I don’t think there’s any-thing wrong with either position.Shabbat Shalom: What hap-pens if an Adventist does not fol-low these health rules?  Does thatperson still remain an Adventist?Is that person “lost” to God?Craig: I guess my first reactionis that we don’t really have rules, assuch.  But we do have principlesand guidelines that help us tochoose.  Basically the principle isthat our bodies are the temples ofthe Holy Spirit.  So we want tokeep our bodies, minds and spiritsin the best shape possible.  Peoplewho are committed to God willeventually ask themselves, whatcan I do, orwhat should I avoidthat will make me a better servantof God or a better reflector of Hislove?  Sometime or other they willcome upon lifestyle—how youdress, how you spend your time,what you watch, what you read,whom you associate with, whatyou eat, what you drink.  So thereis a connection between spiritual-ity and lifestyle, but there are mil-lions of people out there who don’tknow about Adventist lifestyle, andwho are close to God.  The healthmessage can help us to be betterpeople.  It doesn’t make us betterpeople—only God can do that.  Itmay help us to maintain a betterconnection with God.  Is a personwho doesn’t do those things lost?No.  I believe that those who arereckless in eating and drinking areoften reckless in morals.  I think ithas to do with choices, discrimi-nation, and carefulness.Shabbat Shalom: Are Adventistsmore healthy, better people, closerto God because of their eating anddrinking?Craig: I’d like to believe so.There are many elements whichfactor into spirituality, so I don’tknow about that.  Certainly, thequestion about better healthshould receive an affirmative re-sponse.  It’s been well documentedthat, as a whole, Adventist menlive about seven years longer (andAdventist Women about threeyears longer) than their non-Adventist neighbors.   There aremore than 265 research papers inthe literature about Adventistlifestyle and its effects on health.But it’s not just what we eat anddrink; there are many more fac-tors in lifestyle than just what weeat and drink.But when it comes to spiritu-ality, I don’t really know thatthere’s any measuring stick we canuse to measure one person’s spiri-tuality against another’s.  So I’mnot even going to go down thatpath.Shabbat Shalom: Thank youvery much for doing the inter-view.Craig: It’s been my pleasure.* Interview conducted by Jay L. Perry.It’s when we process foods, extracting certainvitamins, sugars, oils–and those things areused in heavy amounts–that we have all thechronic diseases that we

Winston J. Craig

https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1180&context=shabbat-shalom

Winston J. Craig

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