Holy Approach to Healthy Diet?

April 13, 2004 -- In the age of fad diet one-up-manship, The Maker's Diet puts forth what may be the boldest claim thus far — this weight-loss plan, claims author Jordan Rubin, was cooked up in God's own kitchen.

Rubin's new book, already in the top ten of the New York Times bestseller list for hardcover advice, maintains his approach reflects the very same lifestyle God instructed the Israelites to follow during Old Testament days.

Rubin's 40-day diet from on high takes a holistic approach to living well, putting forward as the keys to weight loss and improved physical, spiritual, and mental health a combination of Kosher eating, carbohydrate restriction, and prayer and meditation.

"Our children are obese. We need a change and the change needs to go back 4,000 years," Rubin told Diane Sawyer on ABCNEWS' Good Morning America. "The principles for food are to eat what God created for food and eat it in the form he created it in."

'Blend of Alternative Medicine, Religious Propaganda'

The diet has three phases. The first is most restrictive, forbidding carbohydrates and even encouraging one half-day fast each week. Meats are encouraged, but not shellfish or pork in accordance with Biblical times.

Phase two incorporates more fruits and dairy products. Phase three is basically the maintenance of a healthy, well-balanced diet with fewer rules to follow.

Along the way, Rubin encourages prayer and spiritual exploration, although his Web site (www.makersdiet.com) gives prospective followers little detail on how to pray or what to pray for.

Experts say much of Rubins's advice is what the public health community has been recommending for years, only repackaged with a spiritual wrapping.

"It is a blend of alternative medicine theory, religion, religious propaganda, and the very reasonable notion that taking good care of oneself leads to better health," says Dr. David Katz, director of Yale Prevention Research Center at Yale University in New Haven, Conn. "It is more good than bad, but not perfect, likely overemphasizing meat."But Katz noted that by stressing the importance of eating unprocessed foods, The Maker's Diet pushes readers towards the organic food section, which may put it out of the price range for the typical American family.

Scripture Over Science?

Rubin says he "discovered" this diet eight years ago when he was fighting Crohn's disease, an inflammatory condition of the intestines that caused him to drop from 180 pounds to 104. He says physicians offered him no hope and expected him to die from the disease.

Not wanting to give up, Rubin thought perhaps he was sick because he wasn't eating correctly. So he searched the scriptures and decided to try the diet of the Israelites, so-called "God's chosen people," whom Rubin believed to be the healthiest people that ever lived.

After two years, Rubin claims his symptoms completely disappeared, giving the credit to the diet. Now in his late twenties, Rubin has already written two previous books based on his experience: Patient Heal Thyself and Restoring Your Digestive Health.

Of the diet, Madelyn H. Fernstrom, director of University of Pittsburgh Medical Center's Weight Management Center, says, "At the very worst, it is not health damaging, which in these times is a good thing. … At best, it will be an additional resource for those who sense a spiritual connection of food with weight loss. Any tool — spiritual or other otherwise — which contributes to the weight loss toolbox is a plus."

But some experts don't believe others trying the Maker's Diet are likely to experience the same health benefits as Rubin.

"Avoiding food groups makes it more difficult to get all the nutrition needed for health," advises Connie Diekman, a nutritionist at Washington University in St. Louis.

Also a concern is the lack of scientific evidence Rubin offers to account for his strategy as the most optimal weight-loss method compared to others.

If you want to lose weight once and for all, experts believe, the key is to work around your existing food and lifestyle preferences. It doesn't make sense to adopt a completely unfamiliar strategy developed by someone else, even if it's the Almighty.

"We think of diets the way we think of dating," says Dr. Lisa Sanders of Yale's primary care residency program. "We shouldn't. A diet is like a successful marriage. A negotiation between what we want and what we need that gives us pleasure and satisfaction for the rest of our lives."

The Maker's Diet may be scoring points in the bookstore, but many experts warn it's just another attempt to play on America's desperation to lose weight.

"It wouldn't take much for a diet to be better than the typical American diet," Katz says. "But it is not optimal. It overemphasizes religious tradition, rather than science and what we know about health."