Since the Bible records that the original diet God provided for humans was vegetarian, SDA dietitians had the fortitude to maintain their position when the larger profession did not see the importance.  In this climate, SDA dietitians felt the need to organize their efforts to get out the good nutrition word and to encourage SDA students to enter the dietetics profession.

Early in 1954, SDA dietitians, centered around the College of Medical Evangelists (CME)/ Loma Linda University and Glendale, CA, acted to meet this need.  They were able to convince the president of CME to write to the General Conference (GC) medical director requesting that dietitians be invited to attend the GC Medical Department pre-meetings before the San Francisco GC session.   The invitation did come, and in May, nine dietitians gathered at Glendale Sanitarium and Hospital to lay plans, forming recommendations to further the cause of nutrition and dietetics.  

Following the General Conference Session, the International Nutrition Research Foundation of the Loma Linda Food Company at La Sierra sponsored a Nutrition and Food Service Convention (June 7-10, 1954) and invited people from the world field to attend.  Room and board were free to attendees.  Each day dietitians from hospitals and schools met in what little time periods they could find between the scheduled meetings to discuss their mutual interest in promoting vegetarian nutrition and influencing SDA students to make dietetics their career choice.  These 15 dietetics leaders saw the need for an organized approach and voted the new organization into existence with officers (Clinton Wall as president, Ruth Little, Avis Dixson, Paul Damazo, Alice Marsh) and a committee to prepare a constitution and by-laws.

The constitution committee (Lydia Sonnenberg, Hennie Scagg-Hudson, Martha Miller, Zella Nixon) promptly set to work, and by December of 1954 they and others met in Jennie Stagg-Hudons's home for three days to go over the constitution, propose a name for the organization, finalize objectives and working policies, and settle other details of the organization.

That December,  the CME Nutrition and Dietetics Alumni Association met and voted to inactivate their group for a time to concentrate energies on the new organization which it was felt would mean more to the group in the future (Martha Miller, Chair for the committee to chronicle SDADA's first 25 years).

To be a member in SDADA, you first had to hold membership with the ADA by paying yearly dues of $5.00.  ADA was relatively simple: no RD or KD category, no specialty DPGs.  There was a real need for a professional group to champion the vegetarian cause, and SDADA dietitians took on the challenge which required funding.  Paul Damazo and Clinton Wall did such things as put up their own (old) cars as collateral for loans to get some of the fledgling organizations plans off the ground.

Everyone involved worked and the five committees Administration, Community Education, Diet Therapy, Professional Education, Publications produced.  In the first three years they published many educational materials including pamphlets, manuals, recruitment slides and script, posters, articles in denomination periodicals.  They began the Dietitian's Digest (SDADA official organ) and furnished the materials for the Food Service Director's Bulletin which the Medical Department of the GC published.  Vegetarian recipes went public.  They produced the first ever color motion picture (30 minutes) on ADA dietetics as a career, "Service of Love."  The American Dietetic Association showed this film twice during the national convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  It went on to many universities and state association meetings, not to mention SDA colleges and academies.  This motion picture had a major positive influence on the dietetic profession in favor of SDA dietitians.

In the next three years the SDADA's book Everyday Nutrition appeared on the market, followed later with About Nutrition.  The SDADA Diet Manual was published.  Many more educational pamphlets, nutrition correspondence lessons, lecture visual aides, career guidance material and articles were produced.  SDADA shared the GC Medical Department booth at the Atlantic City Youth Congress and distributed 8,000 items.  Early on, the regular communication with members occurred via the circulation of meeting minutes.  In 1962 SDADA News began, covering a much broader range of news and mutual interest.

Today a plant based diet is "open territory" for professional advancement.  We are on the verge of tremendous new strides as research proves the efficacy of the vegetarian diet.  But with the world of dietetics moving to our way of living, let us not think that our work is done.   Because of our background and experience, SDA dietitians are uniquely equipped to lead the move toward a plant based diet.  We must share our advantage.