Heritage Snapshot: Part 149

Mervyn Hardinge, MD, successfully defended his thesis at Harvard University, leading to the Doctor of Public Health degree in nutrition, and believes that the selection of his doctoral research project was indeed directed and blessed by God. Although significant members of his research committee at Harvard’s School of Public Health ridiculed vegetarians, he felt impressed and received approval by the committee to study the subject! His landmark research concluded that complete and lacto-ovo-vegetarian diets are not inferior to that of a non-vegetarian diet. His research was reported as, “the most comprehensive study of vegetarians that has yet been completed.” Dr. Hardinge eventually received a letter from Dr. Robert Harris, the professor and co-chair of the Department of Food Technology who had ridiculed vegetarians: “I had looked forward to being present at your defense of your dissertation, but at the last minute something came up and I had to be elsewhere. However, Dr. Stare called me to say that you had done very well in your examination. Congratulations for your good work.” Dr. Hardinge had established the nutritional adequacy of a vegetarian diet on a scientific basis for the first time. He was the first to report a relationship between the intake of animal fat, not total fat, and blood cholesterol. This led to the finding that saturated animal fats raise cholesterol levels, and that plant-based diets with low levels of saturated fats, but high levels of unsaturated fats tended to lower cholesterol levels. He found for the first time that dietary fiber influenced blood cholesterol levels and that high intakes of dietary fiber found in vegetarian diets are conducive to lower blood cholesterol levels. Animal foods contain no dietary fiber. The worldwide focus of nutritional research then shifted from protein requirements to dietary fat and fiber. Increasing numbers of research papers on various aspects of vegetarian diets led in subsequent years to changed attitudes towards a plant-based diet. Once ridiculed, they were later tolerated, then accepted, and finally eulogized. After Dr. Hardinge became chair of the CME Department of Pharmacology, he received an incredible offer from an officer of Lederle Laboratories, a major pharmaceutical company who wanted Hardinge to replace the organization’s soon-to-retire director of research. Because Hardinge was an MD with a PhD degree in pharmacology from Stanford University, he had the qualifications they were looking for. In addition to meeting their basic qualifications, he also had a doctorate in nutrition from Harvard University. Not knowing that Hardinge was earning $8,000 a year, he offered $57,000 as a starting point to negotiate a salary, and waited for Hardinge’s response. Dr. Hardinge had a conviction that he should never ask for a position, a promotion, or a pay raise. He believed that God calls us to work where He wants us to work. When as He sees best, He will advance us. Because he had studied to better serve the cause of God, he rejected the offer. When the Loma Linda University School of Public Health officially began in 1967, Dr. Hardinge not only became the founding dean but also chair of the Department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health in Loma Linda University School of Medicine. After retiring from the University on Jan. 31, 1980, Dr. Hardinge became director of the Department of Health and Temperance at the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists World Headquarters at that time in Takoma Park, Maryland. After he retired the second time, Pacific Press Publishing Association asked him to revise a book published with a new name, Family Medical Guide. When Dr. Hardinge was dean of the School of Public Health a local woman donated to him a box of books she thought he might want to keep. Because he was busy, he put the box in a closet. When he moved to another office, he moved the box with him. When he finally moved out of that office he opened the box for the first time and found a book entitled, The Vegetarian Cook Book. Wondering who published the book, he opened it and, to his amazement, read on the inside of the front cover “C. G. Hardinge,” with the date 15-12-09 in his mother’s own handwriting! Providentially, Dr. Hardinge believes, he received the very book that God had used to bring the Hardinge family into the Seventh-day Adventist Church. It also introduced them to vegetarianism, and through his research, vegetarianism into scientific acceptance.