Hallelujah diet

The Hallelujah Diet, also known as The Hallelujah Diet and Lifestyle, was created as an attempt at a biblically based diet. The diet consists of predominantly raw food and is vegetarian.

The diet is promoted by Rev. George Malkmus through his company, the Hallelujah Acres Foundation, based in the USA.

History

Malkmus developed the diet while suffering from a number of physical ailments, including claimed colon cancer. Quackwatch reports that it is not clear whether in fact Malkmus ever had cancer, as "he never consulted a cancer specialist for diagnosis but had relied on nutritionists and chiropractors".

After a year of living a new lifestyle and following the Hallelujah diet, Rev. Malkmus claimed that his baseball-sized tumor had disappeared. This miracle encouraged him to share the message of hope and healing with the world. He started off by writing the book Why Christians Get Sick (1996) and then eventually it led to the start of Hallelujah Acres.

In 1986 Rev. Malkmus purchased a 50-acre farm in Eidson, TN, which eventually becomes the first home of Hallelujah Acres.

Hallelujah Acres

On February 12, 1992 Rev. Malkmus opened Hallelujah Acres restaurant and health-food store in Rogersville, Tennessee with his wife, Rhonda Jean.

In 2009 Hallelujah Acres expanded its health-food store to include a juice and smoothie bar, and opened a café.

Overview

The diet consists of raw fruits and vegetables, carrot juice, a dehydrated barley grass juice, raw nuts and seeds, olive oil, flax seed oil, cooked vegetables, whole grain products, tubers, and a vitamin B12 supplement. All animal products including eggs and dairy products are eliminated. Other foods that are excluded are refined flour, refined sugars, refined, bleached, and deodorized vegetable oils, hydrogenated fats, and table salt. Soy products and legumes are consumed very sparingly.

Fruits are the largest single source of energy followed by grain products, carrot juice, and salads and raw vegetables. Grain products are the largest source of protein, followed by salads and raw vegetables, fruits, and carrot juice. Salads provide the single largest source of calcium, followed by carrot juice, fruits, grain products, and dehydrated barley grass juice.

The main source of fat comes from oils and dressings, nuts and seeds, and grain products. The two main sources of sodium come from grain products and other foods that include a soy product used as an alternative salt product. The main sources of fiber are fruits, vegetables, grain products, and carrot juice.

The lifestyle associated with the diet promotes exercise, proper cleansing, adequate rest, spiritual well-being, sufficient amounts of sunshine, and the elimination of stress.

Reception

Stephen Barrett has written of the diet on Quackwatch: "Although low-fat, high-fiber diets can be healthful, the Hallelujah Diet is unbalanced and can lead to serious deficiencies."

Nutrition experts and researchers say that raw foods are not always the most beneficial to the body in terms of absorbing nutrients. Sometimes cooking the food can actually help the body absorb certain nutrients more effectively and enhance digestibility. For example cooking tomatoes makes the disease-fighting antioxidant lycopene more bioavailable to the body.

Nonetheless, many doctors, including Joel Fuhrman, Dean Ornish, John McDougall, and the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, support plant-based diets, which have been shown to reverse disease in epidemiological research, clinical trials, and patient studies.

The ethical implications of diet have been discussed from a conservative, Christian viewpoint by Matthew Scully.

See also

• Bible Diet
• Christian vegetarianism
• Edenic diet
• Forest gardening
• Veganism
• Vegetarianism and religion

External links

• Official Website