Recently a medical doctor who has greatly influenced my life powerfully stirred a whole nation. Dr. Sang Lee's concepts involve the entire spectrum of lifestyle practices, including a strong dose of the healing effectiveness of positive attitudes.
Lee, born in Korea, graduated from the Yongsei University College of Medicine. He did postgraduate work at Wayne State University in Michigan and the University of California School of Medicine, Irvine, California, specializing in internal medicine with an emphasis on allergies.
About eight years ago Lee became a Seventh-day Adventist. His remarkable understanding of the integrated nature of human beings stems from the book Counsels on Diet and Foods, written in the nineteenth century by Ellen G. White—whose grasp of the relationship between mind and body was nothing short of phenomenal.
I witnessed Lee's impressive grasp of the totality of man's being while I at tended the NEWSTART program at the Weimar Institute, Weimar, California (see Ministry, November 1986 and January 1987). His portrayal of the chemical links between the brain and the immune system changed the direction of my thinking, living, and preaching.
A few months before the 1988 Summer Olympics were held in Korea, Dr. Lee gave a talk on the Adventist concept of total health to the Korean Seventh-day Adventist church in San Jose, California. His videotaped talk circulated widely in the Korean-American community, eventually reaching some officials of the Korean Broadcasting System (KBS). They invited Lee to return to Korea and present his material over KBS.
The Olympic Games stirred interest in health and fitness, and Lee's presentation on Korean TV received tremendously high ratings. Consequently, KBS decided to send a crew to film the lifestyle-change program at Weimar Institute. Dr. Vernon Foster, former director of Weimar Institute's NEWSTART program, says that the KBS crew spent 40 days in the United States. In addition to filming the Weimar program, they inter viewed prominent U.S. authorities on health at such institutions as Harvard, Stanford, UCLA, and the National Institutes of Health.
From the hundreds of hours of video tape, KBS prepared 13 hours of documentary programming, which was aired during prime time in January and February of 1989. Foster reports that this health documentary had an explosive impact. The concepts Dr. Lee communicated became the topic of conversation of millions of Koreans. And the press commented extensively on this phenomenon, coining the phrase "the Sang Lee syndrome."
Lee's programs ax meat sales
Lee's advocacy of a low-fat, high-fiber, high-complex-carbohydrate diet was credited with a drop of 25 percent in Korean meat sales. The February 23, 1989 Korea Herald headlined: "Dr. Lee's Health Lectures Stir Up 'Vegetarian Boom.'" Another headline in that paper proclaimed "Pork, Chicken Prices Fall After Lee's Support for Vegetarianism," and the paper went on to say that Lee's campaign affected the price of cattle as well. The newspaper spoke of Lee "holding his audience rapt for two hours while explaining the medical principles he has culled from a study of the Bible."
Alarmed by Lee's boom, livestock raisers and food-processing companies demanded suspension of KBS coverage of Dr. Lee and his health program—and KBS caved in to the pressure, canceling a return appearance scheduled for March 1989. But after several influential Korean organizations supported Lee's approach, KBS reversed its decision and brought him back for more appearances. And so millions of TV screens in South Korea will again convey Lee's message that "you are of infinite value. Your wonderful body and mind are evidences of meticulous creative purpose. The healing power of life itself is available to you if you take the time to learn how your body and mind were made to function. With your cooperation in lifestyle change, you can live longer and more joyfully. With this beginning, there is no telling where a more abundant life will lead you!"
Ministry has attempted to emphasize in a balanced way the relationship of the mind, body, and spirit. Sin has brought a disintegration not only of the spiritual nature, but of the whole human being. We believe that sin's cure, the gospel of Jesus Christ, also affects every part of a person's being. Our Lord wants us to enjoy the best of physical health so that we may have strong minds and bodies to witness powerfully to the world of God's plan for humanity. — J. Robert Spangler.
Vernon W. Foster's book New Start! contains the principles that Dr. Sang Lee advocates. I highly recommend this book to all of our readers who wish to stay healthy as long as they can. We've persuaded the publishers to make it available to Ministry readers at a special price. See page 31 for the details. —JRS.
