Based on Ellen White's writings, the question of whether eating animal products is sin is nuanced and depends on circumstances and conscience:
**When Ellen White Called It Sin:**
She did refer to meat eating as sin in specific contexts:
"You have never felt that it was a great sin on your part. Many things of like character have taken place in your life, which you will find that the recording angel has faithfully chronicled, and which you will meet again, unless by repentance and confession you make these wrongs right" (
2T 153.2).
**The Moral Dimension:**
"The moral evils of a flesh diet are not less marked than are the physical ills. Flesh food is injurious to health, and whatever affects the body has a corresponding effect on the mind and the soul. Think of the cruelty to animals that meat eating involves, and its effect on those who inflict and those who behold it. How it destroys the tenderness with which we should regard these creatures of God!" (
MH 315.2).
**Circumstances Matter:**
However, she acknowledged that circumstances can make a difference:
"In certain cases of illness or exhaustion it may be thought best to use some meat, but great care should be taken to secure the flesh of healthy animals" (
CTBH 117.3).
She also wrote: "When I could not obtain the food I needed, I have sometimes eaten a little meat; but I am becoming more and more afraid of it" (
CTBH 117.3).
**The Key Principle - Available Alternatives:**
"Those who are in a position where it is possible to secure a vegetarian diet, but who choose to follow their own preferences in this matter, eating and drinking as they please, will gradually grow careless of the instruction the Lord has given regarding other phases of the present truth and will lose their perception of what is truth; they will surely reap as they have sown" (9T 156).
**Conscience and Light:**
"I cannot think that in the practice of flesh-eating we are in harmony with the light which God has been pleased to give us" (
CTBH 119.1).
**Summary:**
Ellen White taught that eating animal products becomes sin when:
1. Healthy alternatives are readily available
2. It's done purely for taste preference rather than necessity
3. One has received light on the subject but chooses to ignore it
4. It violates one's conscience
She emphasized that "those who have lived upon a meat diet all their lives do not see the evil of continuing the practice, and they must be treated tenderly" (
HL 97.3), suggesting that sin involves knowledge and willful choice rather than ignorance.