109 of 124 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
A Lot to Sift Through to Find a Little Benefit, June 2, 2006
This is a workbook to accompany the "The Hallelujah Diet." See my review of that book as well.
My father was an elite "Health Minister" of this organization which he sought out after he was diagnosed with 4th Stage Kidney Cancer in October of 1999.
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 more importantly from their perspective, 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 at the fall of Adam and Eve. While he does not suggest that eating meat itself is necessarily 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 and reject any meat or animal products in their diet.
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 (witness, for example, his discourses on Glucose and Fructose that refers to them as "complex" carbohydrates) 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 as a "ministry." He justifies that title 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 used an AMA product named "BarleyGreen" which received a warning from the FDA for excessive claims beyond what science could substantiate) 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 often is a common deficiency in Vegans, the lack of which 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 it for sale themselves; another cash flow.
Followers often frame their support of this diet in spiritual terms, implying or outright claiming that this is "God's diet plan" and any who oppose their teaching or question theirs and Malmus' claims are thereby attacking God.
The primary method of support relied upon are an overwhelming number of testimonies regularly put out from people who are on the diet. A consistent theme that even a casual observer can note in these testimonies is 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 regardless of the medical substantiation of the claim, which is usually lacking or general in nature.
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 claim.
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. This is unless, of course, a doctor gives a person a frame of time to live due to cancer or some other illness. Then if that time frame is exceeded, the doctor was right and the diet is responsible for a "miracle." They will pick and chose what to accept and what to reject from the medical community based upon whatever is needed to promote the diet.
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, this is the 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 for almost 5 years after his initial diagnosis.
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 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 refusing to go to the hospital and resiting as strongly as he could anything for pain management. He died on Christmas morning of 2004, 5 months after his testimony was published in Hallelujah Acre's Health Tips proclaiming his healing.
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 as well as the extent of the spread of the cancer 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'm grateful they had the integrity to print something. Their manipulation of the material in this manner is indicative of their general mode of operation in masking the whole truth when it does not generate praise for their diet plan and marketing their products.
I think there are many good elements to a vegan diet and that managed carefully it leads to weight loss, a correction of some medical conditions and a sense of energy and well-being for many people. There is no question in my mind that short-term, a diet of this nature can accomplish positive things as a change in lifestyle and bring amazing results.
Long term, there are serious questions as to the benefits versus the risks and there is a cadre of former adherants to this diet plan who often times are afraid to speak up for fear they will be personally criticized for their lack of will-power to remain upon this rigid diet plan that was equated with their spiritual commitment.
I am not against veganism or diet in the pursuit of homeopathic healing.
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 all the while manapulating their 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 teachings and science from other sources as well. You can learn a lot by Googling and reading the material that activity will yield.
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132 of 152 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Not A Biblically Balanced View, June 24, 2006
This review is from: The Hallelujah Diet : Experience the Optimal Health You Were Meant to Have (Paperback)
I am an N.D. and have a practice here in Pennsylvania. I have owned this book for many years and for 5 years, I followed this diet "religiously". One of the reasons this diet is helpful, and to it's credit, is that is makes you aware of processed foods, and by avoiding them, you can improve your health and stabilize your weight. The real benefit comes not from the theology, but rather in making wiser food choices. I agree in avoiding packaged, processed foods, and the return to eating organic whole foods. To the book's credit is the fact that it warns it's readers to avoid chemicals in food, our households, and environment. I believe the healthiest diet in one that is based predominantly on plant foods (fruits, veggies, nuts, seeds, beans, whole-grains, and minimal organic animal products such as eggs, lean meat, raw cultured dairy, etc.) While I do agree with some of the thological points presented, there is one that is truly unbiblical. Rev. Malkmus teaches and believes that God allowed meat into our diets as a means of shortening our lifespan. When Noah exited the ark God repeated the blessing given to Adam in Genesis, of eating plant foods, but now included animal products in that blessing, and instructed Noah to be fruitful and multiply. It would not be the character of God to give man meat in the guise of a blessing, while really intending to offer man someting that would cause an earlier death. God does not offer a curse in disguise as a blessing. This is theologically opposed to the character and nature of God. If you want to purchase a book as a guide to a biblically based diet, one of the best is, "What The Bible Says About Healthy Living" by Rex Russell. Rex is a Christian M.D. and offers a balanced view. I have read just about every book on this subject, and this is the most balanced and easy to understand presentation I have found. Hope this review helps. Blessings. Dr. Dan
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