Customer Reviews

God's Way to Ultimate Health: A Common Sense Guide for Eliminating Sickness Through Nutrition

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This started it all for me around January. A good friend recommended this book after she beat breast cancer by changing her diet! I knew then I had to understand the link between diet and health. I wasn't satisfied to read just this book but many of the others listed in the bibliography and others on biological medicine and others relating to the acid/alkaline balance within our bodies. I've been able to help my mother gain control of her arthritis and hopefully get her off methotrexate for good. I've been able to help my mother in law lower her cholesterol since prior strokes have made this an issue. And my wife and I have lost the weight we couldn't seem to shake and have been able to improve all aspects of our health and physical well being. If you have any loved ones who's quality of life you want help improve this book is a great start.

I am familiar with this book and read it at the invitation of my Father who had cancer and eventually went on to be an elite Health Minister with Hallelujah Acres.

My concerns with regard to this book are not with a vegan diet which I understand and observe many to be on and to do just fine.

My concerns are with the philosophy and teachings underpinning the book and how it is used to profit the author and the organization of Hallelujah Acres which seeks not just to have you change your diet, but to buy their products.

The entire premise of this book theologically is based upon George Malkmus' interpretation of Gen 1:29 which he takes to mean that God created mankind to eat only fruits and vegetables. Based upon this interpretation, which is not accepted by a majority of Biblical Scholars, Malkmus suggests that meat entered the human diet after the Noah's Flood. While he does not suggest necessarily that eating meat itself is sinful, he does strongly push the idea that this was God's original plan for diet and therefore anyone seeking to eat optimally should consider this as the first choice.

He goes further to teach that illness is caused and/or escalated by what he deems the Standard American Diet (conveniently acronymed as SAD for emphasis.)

Chielf culprits are any and all meat products, dairy products and then sugar, flour, salt.

It would be one thing if he left it here and invited you to join him with his diet plan.

He doesn't however.

Based on this rather shaky premise of questionable theology and some pretty questionable science and nutrition teaching that suggests there is an esoteric life giving quality to eating live food as opposed to "dead" food he goes on to teach that there are things he has come up with to go above and beyond eating natural raw food.

This is the real point of the book in my opinion.

He wants you to buy BarleyMax, a product he sells through his traditional multi-level marketing business for a profit.

This is important enough to repeat.

Hallelujah Acres is not a ministry in a formal sense at all. They are a business and they sell products. Malkmus, through his weekly newsletter often appeals to what he does and calls it a ministry. He justifies it and calls "ministry" such actions as giving free seminars, free electronic newsletters, counselors etc and holds that up as "proof" of his ministry. Other companies call this "marketing."

Nutritionally their featured product "BarleyMax" (before this they uses an AMA product names "BarleyGreen" which received warning from the FDA for excessive claims beyond what science could demonstrate) is sold by them and their "Health Ministers" often serve as financial marketing partners who in turn profit from their ministry.

Recent developments in their teachings include now supplimenting their diet with vitamin B12 which is a common deficiency in Vegans and can lead to irreversible nerve damage. They resisted this recommendation for years despite overwhelming evidence of the need for this suppliment and then conveniently began to offer the suppliment themselves; another cash flow.

Often supporters of this diet frame their support for this diet in spiritual terms implying or outright claiming that this is God's diet plan and any who oppose their teaching or question their claims are attacking God and supporting Satan.

The primary method of support are an overwhelming number of testimonies regularly put out from people who are on the diet. Consistent in these testimonies are that many are on the front end of the diet and very excited about the weight loss and energy they have. Updates on these people is rare. There are always new people coming on who are caught up in the excitement and willing to claim healings and health improvement.

Medical verification of these claims is not consistent.

George Malkmus' own personal testimony of healing from cancer is based upon examinations by chiropractors and there is no pathology or medical records to substantiate his claims.

Tied into this teaching is a very strong negative assessment of the medical profession and the outright implication that they are profiteers seeking to perpetuate illness for their own gain in many instances.

Ironically, in recent years, Malkmus has suffered a stroke and had high blood pressure which his diet and herb treatments could not control. He now sees a doctor and is on medications to control this condition. There is some question as to the nature of the stroke itself and whether it might not have been caused or exacerbated by his diet's deficiencies.

In closing let me tell you how the story of my father ended. He was diagnosed in October of 1999 with kidney cancer in the 4th stage. He went on the Hallelujah Diet when the medical prognosis offered little hope. He did make remarkable progress although it was never medically verified as he refused to see a doctor.

He dropped 70 pounds, exercised and did seem to do very well and went beyond the 2 year outside window he was given as an estimate by the doctors. He was convinced he was healed and gave a great deal of credit to the Hallelujah Diet for his progress.

In July of 2004 he travelled to Shelby, North Carolina to become an elite Health Minister to step up his promoting of this diet to the many people that were encouraged by his testimony.

He submitted a testimony to Hallelujah Acres and they published it in their Health Tips Newsletter in August of 2004 emphasising his claim of healing and his praise of their diet despite the fact that in the testimony itself he acknowledged it was not verified medically.

My dad finally began to go to see 2 doctors in Mexico where he retired to when he began to have serious health issues and pain. In October of 2004, just 3 months after his testimony of healing was published, it was confirmed that his cancer had furhter metasticized and spread to 6 other organs.

Dad refused further medical treatment even for pain management, and died on Christmas morning of 2004, 5 months after his testimony.

In fairness to Hallelujah Acres, I sent them an update of his story recently asking them to publish the update in their newsletter. They did so, but only after considerable pressure on my part to get an answer from them and when they did publish the e-mail they edited out the date of death and allowed people to think by implcation that Dad lived longer than he did. They also stated, without any medical support that Dad was in remission and then inferred that he came out of "remission" due to some actions of his own, rather than any shortcomings of the diet.

I think there are many good elements to a vegan diet and than managed carefully it leads to weight loss, a correction of some medical conditions and a sense of energy and well-being for many people.

I am not against veganism or diet.

I am skeptical of the Hallelujah Diet's inner teachings, workings and their personal profiting from their diet plan which they entwine with questionable theology, questionable science and less than honest representations of their for-profit status and manipulation of testimonies and claims.

Please read this book with this in mind, do some additional research on your own. Don't accept the claims of this organization without checking their claims, teachings and science from other sources as well.

If I could recommend just one book to introduce someone to the rawfood approach to eating this would be it. It is a well written, bible based book but with plenty of scientific evidence demonstarting why it is best to eat this way and why cooking destroys most of the nutritonal value of food. It also has hundreds of personal testimonials of those who have improved their overall health and many who have overcome so called "incureable" diseases using this method. Since adopting this approach to eating along with juicing a few months ago, I have lost almost 15 pounds and have experienced a wonderful surge in energy. Without reservation I will suggest this book to anyone looking to improve their health and quality of life. An excellent companion book to this is "The Juiceman's Power of Juicing" by Jay Kordich which does a great job presenting the benefits of juicing and has many good juice recepies

Malkmus and Dye base natural healing on the premise that a diet rich in raw fruits and vegetables, and the elimination of processed "dead" foods, will result in the ultimate health. As an engineer by trade, I was critical of the basic cause and effect relationship that such a recommended diet may have. However, Malkmus and Dye have accumulated scientific test results and cataloged various studies used as supporting evidence of their theories. Having read this book and filtering through the religous overtones, may wife and I decided to implement this change to our lifestyle.

I am in month number 12 of the dietary change. My weight has reduced from 177 lbs to 156 lbs. More strength, better nightly rest, no more prostate problems, no more heart murmur, clear complexion, more relaxed in daily actions. At 44 years of age I wished that I had read this book long ago! My wife has had even better results.

I urge every person who desires to live on with ultimate hea! lth to read this book!

I borrowed this book as a courteous jester (not wanting to offend, from a lady in our church) and it's changed my life. The resounding message was one of health and welfare at a pretty simple price - eating mostly raw fruit's and vegetables and getting daily invigorating exercise. The simple and straight forward writing style of these men coupled with the many testimony's to the fact that it worked for others, was enough to inspire me to try it and get results from it like many others have experienced. I lost over 50# and feel better physically, emotionally and mentally than since I can remember. Since purchasing my own first copy I have purchased and given away more than 15 copy's to others, hoping it would provoke them as it has me to take a simpler approach to health by eating simply GOD'S best!!

After being told about this book by my daughter, my wife and I read it and decided to incorporate the eating and lifestyle changes recommeded by Dr. Malkmus. What a difference in our lives. I have lost almost 15 pounds and my wife has had similar results. More important however, we both are feeling so much better with more energy. Not bad for only 25 days on the new eating plan. This book should be considered by anyone with health problems.

This is really a book filled with Biblical wisdom on nutritional patterns to get you well and make you feel great. Someone loaned me this book and I was so impressed, I had to buy one for myself and family. Ordering Recipes for Life by Dr. Malkmus wife, Rhonda, is a must. Dr. Malkmus has me convinced and I am not easy to drag away from fast food places.

We have read many books about health in the past. But this summer, looking for alternatives for my mother's condition we came across this book. After reading through it and looking more into Malkmus' organization, we discovered some straight forward truth about restoring health. The thing that really stuck out to us was the testimonies of people who had been healed and the lack of any type of product sales. We have had incredible results using the guidelines set out in this book ourselves. We feel like we have finally cut through all the hype to something that will work for just about everybody.

I initially read Dr. Malkmus's book two months ago. I am always wary when an author uses a lot of testamonials to support a concept. However, the actual plan is GOD's plan and when all the testamonial and Scriptural references are erased you still have a practical workable nutrition plan. I, as well as my wife, son and mother-in-law have been on the "Hallelujah Diet" for 2 months. It works. We all have experienced safe gradual weight loss, increased stamina and satisfaction with our range of restricted menu choices. Just this week,after an examination of a pre-existing condition, my wife was asked by her physician if she had done anything different recently because there was no evidence of the previously diagnosed problem. We directed him to "GOD's Way" to discover it for himself.

In summary, the book is well written. Some may have a problem with testamonials and the fact that it is Bible-based. If they allow that to turn them off, they will miss an incredible opportunity to become and stay healthy...this is from a former (definately not any longer)skeptic.

THIS BOOK IS VERY INFORMATIVE AND USER FRIENDLY, ACTUALLY IT WAS VERY DIFFICULT FOR ME TO PUT THIS BOOK DOWN. THERE IS A WORLD OF KNOWLEDGE IN THIS BOOK. DEFINATELY A MUST READ BOOK IF YOU WANT TO IMPROVE ON YOUR HEALTH OR OBTAIN KNOWLEDGE OF A HEALTHY LIFESTYLE.