Bible-based Diets Are Not Perfect
The latest Bible-based diet to make headlines and the New York Times best-selling list is taken from the book, “The Maker’s Diet,” authored by Jordan S. Rubin, who encourages foods to be eaten in their organic or least processed form. Although it follows a suit of Bible diets, some following the vegan regime, none of them are without contestation.
"The healthiest diet is to consume meats, poultry, dairy, fruits and vegetables and to consume them in a form the body was designed for," Rubin said. He also encourages eating certain meat and dairy products and warns against an all-raw, vegan regimen, basing his plan on the Book of Leviticus.
“Hallelujah Diet” is an alternative Bible-based diet devised by Rev. George Malkmus, who bases his vegan plan on Genesis 1:29.
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"The Lord gave us everything we need in the Garden of Eden: fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds," Malkmus told the Associated Press. "That's why we call the way we eat the 'Hallelujah Diet.' We celebrate its true creator."
No animal products, except honey, are consumed in Mulkmus’ plan. His plan also involves a raw diet, which he justifies by saying that people who followed such an approach in Biblical times lived an average of 912 years.
“It can't be scientifically tested or proven," said Stephen Barrett, a Columbia University-trained psychologist and founder of the Internet site "Quackwatch."
Although the diet plans were construed from the Bible, it does not hold the same inerrancy.
Even Malkmus has found glitch in his diet plan – it was deficient of vitamin B-12 as his employed researcher found.
"This shocked me, that God's perfect eating plan could have a flaw," Malkmus said but then agreed to the findings by concluding that “fruits and vegetables back then were more nutritious because of the topsoil."
A nutritionist questioned the safety of having unprocessed dairy products in Rubin’s plan which encourages diet observers to drink raw milk.
"It's an extreme going back to an agriculture society that we are no longer,” said Elisabetta Politi, nutrition manager at Duke University's Diet and Fitness Center in Durham, who hopes people don’t take the diets too seriously.
