George Malkmus was diagnosed with colon cancer in 1976.[i] His mother just died of cancer after following standard medical treatment. Malkmus decided to combat his cancer with a method “…that did not contradict the teaching of the Bible, as did the administering of drugs.”[ii] He changed his diet. This was the beginning of what he now calls the Hallelujah Diet.
The Hallelujah Diet entails eating certain foods at certain times. Breakfast consists of one tablespoon of Barleygreen and a piece of fresh fruit later in the morning, if you get hungry. At lunch another tablespoon of Barleygreen, a freshly extracted 8 oz. glass of carrot juice and thirty minutes later some fresh fruit or vegetables. Supper again begins with a tablespoon of Barleygreen and another 8 oz. glass of freshly extracted carrot juice. Thirty minutes later you can eat a large green leafy vegetable salad and then the only cooked food of the day. Some choices for this cooked food can be a baked potato, brown rice, whole-grain pasta or steamed vegetables. The ideal diet will be 85% raw food and 15% cooked food.[iii]
What can’t be eaten on the Hallelujah Diet is meat of any kind, dairy products, salt, sugar, white flour and caffeine. Malkmus claims “Eighteen years of research has revealed meat as it is produced today to be the single most dangerous food that we put into our body.”[iv] The reason he believes meat is dangerous is because he claims it is the main cause of colon cancer, breast cancer, prostrate cancer and adult-onset diabetes.[v] Dairy products are taboo because they too come from an animal source. Malkmus states that “The only source of bad cholesterol (LDL) is animal products! Animal products are not good food!!!”(emphasis in original)[vi] Salt is excluded from the diet because it “is an inorganic sodium compound formed by the union of sodium and chlorine that is extremely toxic to the body, causing it to retain fluid in an effort to keep this protoplasmic poison in suspension and out of the cells.”[vii] According to Malkmus white flour “…clogs up your intestines, creates excess mucus in your sinus passages and white flour depletes your nutrient levels as your body works to digest it.”[viii] Finally, he calls caffeine an “extremely dangerous substance” and something we should completely eliminate from our diet.[ix]
These claims made by Malkmus are serious charges against the standard food groups that most of us grew up with. I would certainly agree with Malkmus that most Americans need more raw fruits and vegetables in our diet and less hamburgers and fries. However, Malkmus does not back up his dogmatic claims about the ills of such food with hard evidence. Rather, he uses the testimonies of himself and others as his field of research.
Several scientific and dietary responses have been given to the Hallelujah diet. Dietary experts Ellen Coleman and Rebecca Long have this to say about the Hallelujah Diet: “Although a vegetarian diet can be healthful, the extreme diet advocated by Malkmus may result in malnutrition, especially in children and adolescents. The National Council Against Health Fraud has received reports of individuals not suffering any particular illness who adopted this diet only to become thin and gaunt looking, lacking energy and vitality, but claiming that they feel the best they have at any time previously.”[x]
[i] George H. Malkmus, Why Christians Get Sick, 15th printing (Shippensburg, PA: Destiny Image Publishers, 2001), 5.
[ii] Ibid.
[iii] George H. Malkmus, God’s Way to Ultimate Health, 17th printing (Shelby, NC: Hallelujah Acres Publishing, 1995), 92.
[iv] Ibid., 88-89.
[v] Ibid., 88.
[vi] Ibid., 89.
[vii] Ibid.
[viii] Ibid.
[ix] Ibid.
[x] http://www.hcrc.org/faqs/malkmus.html on-line as of July 16, 2002
