Reverend George Malkmus, Founder of Hallelujah Acres
Posts tagged depression
My Wife Suffers With Depression
Aug 27th
“Dear Mr. Malkmus, my wife has suffered with depression for the past three years and is taking antidepressants which only help sometimes. After an episode in which the antidepressants will help for awhile and she seems to be overcoming the depression, she has a relapse and goes right back into depression. She eats mainly plant foods and has reduced dairy and sugar intake, and takes antidepressants, but still suffers with bouts of depression. Could you help us? Shalom.”
Craig M., Victoria, Australia
Editor Responds
Craig, many people have overcome depression issues after faithfully following The Hallelujah Diet. But if victory over depression is desired, there are some critical components that must not be neglected:
1. Refined sugar intake must be more than reduced, it must be eliminated! Refined sugar has a very negative effect upon the mind and contributes to depression.
2. Vitamin D insufficiency – Low levels of vitamin D are associated with depression as well as most chronic conditions. Seventy percent of children here in America are deficient in vitamin D and the percentage of adults deficient in vitamin D is even higher. I am sure these deficiencies are similar in Australia where you live. Optimal blood levels of vitamin D are 50 to 80 ng/ml.
3. Omega 3 fats – Low intake of Omega 3 fatty acids is a major underlying issue of depression. I would encourage you get a copy of the book “The Omega 3 Connection” by Andrew Stoll, MD. Dr. Stoll has found great success in treating depression with omega 3s. Pharmax Fish Oil provides the critical long-chain DHA component of omega 3s as well as the short-chain omega 3 itself.
4. Exercise – Aerobic exercise is an important component in overcoming depression. Increased oxygen intake occurs when the body is being aerobically exercised and increased oxygen helps control depression.
5. The Hallelujah Diet – Comprised of 85% raw and 15% cooked plant-based foods along with abundant raw vegetable juices, The Hallelujah Diet is really the starting place for all physical and psychological issues. However, what we stop placing into our bodies is as important; many of the toxic substances found in the Standard American (or Australian) Diet (SAD) can contribute to depression as well, and must be eliminated. You can read more about The Hallelujah Diet here.
Spreading The Message of Hope and Healing
Jan 6th
Thank you for all the wonderful letters and Christmas greetings I received in recent weeks! I read each one and share as many as possible in this Health Tip — please keep them coming!
“My husband and I have been enjoying The Hallelujah Diet for just over a year now and feel wonderful and encouraged at 70 years of age. Thanks for hearing from God and passing on this wonderful health restoring information to us.”
Margaret and Billy D.
“It has probably been 15 years since we first came to Hallelujah Acres, were inspired by your health message and passion, and took your Health Minister training. We continue to share the concept of a plant based diet (primarily raw) and the increasing of greens to our patients in our clinic here in the state of Washington.
We are happy and thankful this Christmas season for the wonderful work your organization continues to do and the information it continues to provide.”
Health Ministers Dr. Avery and Lisa M.
“Rev. George, I have been inspired by you over the years and want to thank you for sharing your testimony and for providing knowledge and a wealth of educational opportunities regarding health and wellness. I intend to do your Health Minister training in 2011 and am very interested in taking up residence in The Villages of Hallelujah Acres there in Shelby, North Carolina. I think The Villages is an awesome concept and am praying to be able to relocate there. Thank you and God Bless!”
Marlene M.
“Dr. Malkmus, before adopting The Hallelujah Diet I was sluggish and tired most of the time and was dealing with bouts of depression. Each month during my menstrual cycle both tiredness and depression were even worse along with headaches, irritability, pressure, bloating and cramps.
Since beginning The Hallelujah Diet most symptoms have either gone completely away or have decreased tremendously. I am now a much happier, easy going person, so much so that my husband stated recently that he has enjoyed being married to me more these past couple months since my diet change than he has all our 22 years of marriage. Isn’t it amazing what God can and will do in our lives if we will just listen and allow ourselves to learn and then apply what we have learned?
Since making the diet and lifestyle change I have also noticed that cuts and bruises heal much more rapidly, that my energy level is great, and I have lost 30 pounds.
“I first learned about Hallelujah Acres when a local church offered a ‘Bigger Loser’ program which my parents and I participated in. My motivation was to get my parents into the program because mother was almost 100 pounds overweight, and a diabetic with high blood pressure.
I was also interested in starting a similar program here at our Bible College. The program consisted of participants weighing in, attending a devotional and informative health class each week, which in addition to learning so much wonderful information about health, resulted in both my parents getting saved.
In one of those early meetings in October, Judy P. gave testimony of how The Hallelujah Diet had changed her life in just the few months she had been on it. She had been diagnosed with fibromyalgia, which she had suffered with for some 20 years, taking many medications because of her inability to move and sleep. It was her testimony that motivated both my parents and I to try The Hallelujah Diet and we have all been hooked ever since.
“Working at a Bible College I have felt God leading me to learn more and more about health and nutrition so that I can teach others how to eat and live a healthier, more active lifestyle so that they will be better prepared to minister to others in their churches and on the mission field.
Now that I have completed Hallelujah Acres Health Minister training I can’t wait to get started sharing this information. When people ask me how I lost 30 pounds and why I look and feel so good, I love telling them how God has shown me a better way to eat and live my life, a life I have found to be more abundant both physically and spiritually. Hallelujah!”
Health Minister Sandra S., Pineville, Kentucky
Great Grain Robbery Worse Than Previously Thought
Jun 15th
We’re continuing our series on How we Contribute to our own Physical Problems.
Today we’ll learn more about grains, and continue to share why they become problematic when consumed in their refined form.
REFINED GRAINS CREATE BLOOD SUGAR DISORDERS
When whole grains are processed something very serious with potentially devastating health consequences happens to that grain. In order to understand this, we need to recall what refined grains are.
A refined grain is a whole grain that has been stripped of its outer shell (fiber) and its germ (nutrients), leaving only the endosperm (embryo sack).
During processing, refined grains go through a heating, mechanical, and chemical process, during which vitamins, proteins, fats, enzymes, (in fact, almost all nutrients) and the fiber are removed, leaving practically nothing but pure white, naked calories – pure refined carbohydrate.
When you read the word “enriched” on the label of a refined grain product, it means the manufacturer, after removing the germ from the whole grain which contained the nutrients, has attempted to replace some of the lost nutrients with chemical additives.
Also, when a person consumes a refined grain, because the fiber has been removed, a high percentage of the starch (which is practically all that is left after the fiber and germ have been removed) is very quickly broken down into simple sugars.
These simple sugars from refined grain hit the blood stream almost as rapidly as refined sugars do. Dealing with all of this sugar exhausts the pancreas and/or adrenals, and produces the same diabetic/hypoglycemic reactions we learned about in Health Tip #652 and #653.
The average lifetime consumption of refined sugar is approximately 10,000 pounds per person, and the lifetime intake of refined grains, which converts to sugar very rapidly, is approximately 13,000 pounds. Friends, can you now better understand why the people of today suffer with a multitude of blood sugar problems?
This incredibly high intake of refined sugar and refined grains is devastating and is causing a myriad of psychological problems, dealt with by guess what – drugs. No one has ever recovered from a psychological problem through the use of drugs. Rather these drugs only exacerbate the problem, often leading to new problems for which additional drugs are often prescribed.
Prior to the year 1900, practically no refined sugars or refined grains were consumed in America or any other place in the world. For sure there were no refined sugars, or refined grains in the diet God gave Adam and Eden in the Garden of Eden. Nor will you find any refined sugar or refined grains in The Hallelujah Acres Diet.
One of the reasons The Hallelujah Diet helps those with emotional, phychological, and depression problems recover is because these sugars are the primary cause of the problem. On The Hallelujah Diet the cause is eliminated.
We need to remember that every physical and psychological problem has a cause. If we want to recover from a problem the single most important thing we must do to affect a recovery is remove the cause. The Bible puts it this way in Proverbs 26:2:
“…the curse causeless shall not come.”
REFINED GRAINS PROMOTE EMOTIONAL INSTABLILTY
Sadly, studies reveal a strong link between juvenile and adult criminal offenses and not only refined sugar, but also refined grains. Similar research reveals a strong link between mental illness and sugar derived from these refined sources:
Hypoglycemic reactions, for the very sensitive consumer, promote extreme irrationality, emotional instability, and often time’s aggressiveness. Recent studies reveal that sugar, coming from both refined sugars and refined grains, may be as involved in mental illness, divorce, and crime as alcohol has been found to be.
These refined grains and sugars also play a significant role in the bad behavior of children. This bad behavior often leads to a child being diagnosed with ADD or ADHD. And the doctor, rather than telling the parent they need to remove the cause of the child’s problem, prescribes a drug that can have potentially devastating consequences.
Through the years, I have received some wonderful testimonies from mothers reporting that after removing refined grains and sugar from their child’s diet and placing them on a basically raw plant diet, the child became a totally different and well-behaved person.
Depression is also one of the most rapidly growing problems in our society, and refined sugars, along with refined grains, are a major contributing factor!
REFINED GRAINS ARE EXCESSIVELY STARCHY
Refined grains are one of the starchiest foods consumed by humans and present an overwhelmingly difficult task for the digestive system. Refined grains also cause mucus formation. Since 1965, scientists have repeatedly linked high gluten consumption, coming from refined grains, to learning disorders and schizophrenia. (Those with gluten intolerance usually cannot handle whole grains either.)
REFINED GRAINS CONTAIN HIGH AMOUNTS OF GLUTEN
Gluten is the “grayish, sticky component of wheat flour and some of the other grain flours, composed mainly of the proteins gladin and glutenin.” (Webster)
Not all grains contain gluten. Examples of those that do not contain gluten include millet, amaranth, quinoa and oats.
“Refined grains such as wheat, which is exceptionally high in gluten, can produce many physical and mental problems, in addition to celiac disease. Problems linked to high gluten intake can include: asthma, allergies, gluten intolerance, digestive disturbances, yeast infections, various mucus and congestive disturbances, several types of arthritis, and even chronic overeating.” (Source: “Grain Damage” by Douglas Graham, D.C.)
REFINED GRAINS LEAD TO ADDICTION AND WEIGHT GAIN
Refined grains are addictive! We have found that when a person decides to adopt The Hallelujah Diet, refined sugar and refined grains are the two most difficult items to eliminate from the diet – much more difficult than eliminating animal source foods. Why? Because these sugars have a very powerful addictive influence upon the body – as powerful as nicotine and alcohol.
Another thing we need to remember concerning refined grains is that whenever a food has been fragmented, it is nutrient-deficient and always results in lower levels of nutrition and health. This is the case concerning refined grain products.
Because refined grains do not provide satisfaction at the cellular level, the body continues to be hungry – continuing to seek adequate nutrients to satisfy nutritional needs. This leads to overeating.
Sadly, all these refined foods have produced a nation of overfed, undernourished, predominantly overweight people.
The Hallelujah Diet, by comparison, produces a people who are properly nourished while at the same time consuming a much lower volume of food. The Hallelujah Diet contributes to a person being of ideal weight along with possessing a healthy, strong physical body, a sound mind, and an uncompromised immune system.
REFINED GRAINS COMPROMISE THE IMMUNE SYSTEM
We need to remember that the immune system was built into each of our physical bodies by God to protect us from the germs, viruses, and bacteria of this world. Our immune system is our first line of defense!
Refined grains, which convert very rapidly to sugar, along with refined sugar suppress the immune system, keeping it from being able to perform its God-given tasks.
Does this give us a clue as to why so many people experience infections, colds, the flu, along with other flu like symptoms and more? Since this editor adopted a predominantly raw, plant-based diet, free of refined grains or refined sugars, over thirty-four years ago, I have not experienced any infections, the flu, or even a cold. Not even one time.
Does not the Bible tell us that we will reap what we sow in Galatians 6:7?
“Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man [or woman] soweth, that shall he [or she] also reap.”
REFINED GRAINS CAUSE MANY OTHER PHYSICAL PROBLEMS
Finally, refined grains are associated with not only malnutrition, decreased resistance to disease, mental instability, and being overweight. Refined grains impact our quality of life.
Refined grains cause or increase the severity of PMS symptoms. They decrease cognitive or intellectual function, especially in children. Refined grains, along with refined sugar, also contribute to our current epidemic of heart disease and so much more.
Following is just a partial list of other health problems related to the intake of refined grains: acne, addiction to drugs (including caffeine and alcohol) anxiety, behavioral problems, binge eating, bloating, bone loss, Candidiasis, depression, difficulty concentrating, eczema, edema, emotional problems, fatigue, food cravings, hormonal imbalances, hyperactivity, insomnia, mental illness, mood swings, premature aging, psoriasis, and the list goes on.
IN CONCLUSION:
For almost every negative influence refined sugar has upon the body refined grains offer an equally negative influence. If we want to have a strong healthy body and mind, we must eliminate not only refined sugars from our diet, but also refined grains!
After spending three Health Tips on the subject of refined grains, sharing all the physical and mental problems refined grains can create within not only our own bodies, but especially the bodies of our children, don’t you think it is time we all removed refined grains, along with refined sugars from our homes?
Will you say “Amen” to that?
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