Trendsurfing: Biblical diets (The Times)
By David Rowan
Diet not going too well? Maybe you're putting your faith in the wrong book. It's taken a few thousand years, but suddenly diets based on biblical teachings are hot. With names like the Hallelujah Diet and the Maker's Diet, these scripture-inspired regimes are attracting a growing following among evangelical Christians and anyone else looking for miraculous ways to shed the pounds. In the US, this has led to a pile of best-selling books, with such delicious titles as What Would Jesus Eat?, Slim for Him, and - wait for it - Moses Wasn't Fat. Although after 40 years wandering around the desert, you too would get into a size eight.
The goal is to take true believers on a path of nutritional righteousness. Some begin with Genesis 1:29, in which God brings the Israelites their menu: "Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the Earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat." In other words, stick to fruit, vegetables, nuts and seeds. Others take a more carnivorous interpretation, noting that later in the book the Lord suggests that "every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you". Or, if the New Testament is more your scene, you might choose only food available in Jesus's time. Think goats' milk rather than double frappuccinos.
Sure enough, this emerging field has already produced its own gurus, offering not merely dietary advice, but also the nicely profitable supplements to accompany it. The Dr Atkins of biblical diets would probably be George Malkmus, a self-proclaimed "Reverend" whose Hallelujah Diet claims to be "biblically based, scientifically validated, personally evidenced".
Malkmus rejects all animal products apart from honey, advising that you stick to raw fruit and vegetables, which he claims healed his own colon cancer. Medical records testifying to this miracle cure have proved strangely elusive, but Malkmus carries on selling his supplements and seminars. After all, as he points out, raw foodists in the Bible could expect to live for 912 years - whereas after the flood, when they started cooking, that dropped to a mere 110. So who wouldn't want to munch a few raw sunflower seeds?
Equally controversial is another best-selling author, Jordan S Rubin, whose book, The Maker's Diet, requires a 40-day journey which includes regular fast days. Rubin takes his cue from Leviticus, warning against Malkmus's raw food, and instead urging meat and dairy. Honey is in (after all, the Promised Land was full of it along with the milk), and whereas wild salmon is fine, the farmed version is "contrary to the Maker's design". It goes without saying that Rubin underwent his own mystical experience, in his case finding the diet cured his Crohn's disease. Are you starting to see a pattern here?
It has not dented the vast profits of Rubin's business that US food regulators have condemned his supplements' unsubstantiated health claims, or that critics have questioned his non-accredited academic qualifications. Nor has Malkmus suffered from similar censure of "false statements" for the products he sells, or from nutritionists' claims that his Hallelujah Diet is unbalanced and can cause serious deficiencies. The faithful, after all, believe in a higher truth - even if they have to munch packs of Bible Granola to attain it.
(The Times Magazine, April 23 2005)
Diet not going too well? Maybe you're putting your faith in the wrong book. It's taken a few thousand years, but suddenly diets based on biblical teachings are hot. With names like the Hallelujah Diet and the Maker's Diet, these scripture-inspired regimes are attracting a growing following among evangelical Christians and anyone else looking for miraculous ways to shed the pounds. In the US, this has led to a pile of best-selling books, with such delicious titles as What Would Jesus Eat?, Slim for Him, and - wait for it - Moses Wasn't Fat. Although after 40 years wandering around the desert, you too would get into a size eight.
The goal is to take true believers on a path of nutritional righteousness. Some begin with Genesis 1:29, in which God brings the Israelites their menu: "Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the Earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat." In other words, stick to fruit, vegetables, nuts and seeds. Others take a more carnivorous interpretation, noting that later in the book the Lord suggests that "every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you". Or, if the New Testament is more your scene, you might choose only food available in Jesus's time. Think goats' milk rather than double frappuccinos.
Sure enough, this emerging field has already produced its own gurus, offering not merely dietary advice, but also the nicely profitable supplements to accompany it. The Dr Atkins of biblical diets would probably be George Malkmus, a self-proclaimed "Reverend" whose Hallelujah Diet claims to be "biblically based, scientifically validated, personally evidenced".
Malkmus rejects all animal products apart from honey, advising that you stick to raw fruit and vegetables, which he claims healed his own colon cancer. Medical records testifying to this miracle cure have proved strangely elusive, but Malkmus carries on selling his supplements and seminars. After all, as he points out, raw foodists in the Bible could expect to live for 912 years - whereas after the flood, when they started cooking, that dropped to a mere 110. So who wouldn't want to munch a few raw sunflower seeds?
Equally controversial is another best-selling author, Jordan S Rubin, whose book, The Maker's Diet, requires a 40-day journey which includes regular fast days. Rubin takes his cue from Leviticus, warning against Malkmus's raw food, and instead urging meat and dairy. Honey is in (after all, the Promised Land was full of it along with the milk), and whereas wild salmon is fine, the farmed version is "contrary to the Maker's design". It goes without saying that Rubin underwent his own mystical experience, in his case finding the diet cured his Crohn's disease. Are you starting to see a pattern here?
It has not dented the vast profits of Rubin's business that US food regulators have condemned his supplements' unsubstantiated health claims, or that critics have questioned his non-accredited academic qualifications. Nor has Malkmus suffered from similar censure of "false statements" for the products he sells, or from nutritionists' claims that his Hallelujah Diet is unbalanced and can cause serious deficiencies. The faithful, after all, believe in a higher truth - even if they have to munch packs of Bible Granola to attain it.
(The Times Magazine, April 23 2005)
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