We know the Matthew 14 story of Jesus feeding the 5,000 with five barley loaves and two fish. John 21 describes Jesus cooking fish over a fire and serving it with bread to the disciples for breakfast. In the 1800’s, fish was generally not considered to be the same as meat, and earlier in her ministry, Ellen White did not put fish in the same food category as meat. In 1866 she wrote a letter stating, “For about two years… we have not used meats of any kind; neither have we used tea or coffee, nor any highly seasoned food, and but a very small quantity of fish; we have used grains, fruits and vegetables.” In 1895, she wrote that she seldom had any fish upon her family’s table [10LtMs, Lt 76] and in 1904, she wrote that fish was becoming more harmful to eat and began to see it as one of the many “flesh (or animal) foods” that people would be better off avoiding. She understood that fish would become ever less healthy as time progressed, and she eventually stopped eating it altogether.
In a February 2025 Jerusalem Post newsletter, author Alan Freishtat explains how fish eat microplastics, toxins like mercury, and other by-products of industrial waste that are regularly dumped into our rivers, lakes, and oceans. As we consume fish, our bodies take in these toxic “forever” contaminants that damage our immune, nervous, and endocrine systems while increasing our cancer risks. As time progresses, more hazardous waste pours into our waterways and oceans, making fish ever less safe to eat. Even farm raised fish have toxic levels of PCBs, dioxin, and other industrial chemicals harmful to people.
Ellen White knew that the time would come when we’d be better off avoiding fish altogether, and it seems that time has come.