Reverend George Malkmus, Founder of Hallelujah Acres
Posts tagged obesity
The World’s Diet – Dangerously High In Refined Sugar
Nov 15th
Over the last several weeks, we have been learning about the shortcomings and dangers of the world’s diet.
In this Health Tip we are going to examine a substance that makes up a high percentage of the world’s diet — and discover why it is so dangerous to your health.
Refined Sugar Is A Dead, Fiberless Poison
Refined sugar is not a food substance at all. It is a dangerous poison that is consumed by almost every man, woman, and child, in large quantities, on a daily basis.
It is a dead (contains no enzymatic activity), fiberless, and good-for-nothing killer that creates monumental problems within the body.
Refined sugar is something God never intended our physical bodies to consume.
The only sugar God designed our physical bodies to ever have to deal with are the natural sugars found in the living (enzymatically alive), raw fruits and vegetables God created for us in the Garden!
Only 100 years ago, the average annual intake of refined sugar was approximately 5 pounds per person per year. Today, the average annual intake of refined sugar is around 172 pounds per person per year.
This means that if a person is consuming the Standard American Diet (SAD), that person is placing into their God-made physical bodies approximately 50 teaspoons of refined sugar, each and every day of their life.
If a person lives to the age of 80, they will have during their lifetime placed into their body some 13,760 pounds of refined sugar.
My friends that means that the average person on the “world’s diet” consumes nearly 7 tons of refined sugar in their lifetime.
That amount, 13,760 pounds, equals 2,752 five-pound bags of refined sugar.
Can you visualize what 2,752 five pound bags of refined sugar looks like when in the grocery store there are usually no more than ten 5-pound bags on the shelf?
Refined Sugar Is A Dead Food
All refined sugars originated as a natural, unrefined sugar in a living plant. As such, natural sugars contain a complete complement of enzymes, nutrients and fiber, just as God intended.
By the time natural sugar reaches its refined sugar stage, all nutrients have been removed, all enzymes destroyed, and all fiber removed.
As such, refined sugar is a very dead and toxic substance.
Let’s look for a moment at the process of taking sugar cane or sugar beet in its nutrient rich, fiber rich, enzymatically alive state as found in the plant, into a refined, fiberless, lifeless, nutrient-devoid product.
The following information was taken from a newsletter written by Charlotte Gerson of the world-famous Gerson Clinic:
“Sugar is a basic element in starchy food; however, processed sugar is a completely different matter. The sugar we purchase in the supermarket for personal consumption is processed sugar. This kind of sugar is heated up in chalk-milk, so that calcium and protein are extracted. After the process, it becomes alkaloid, destroying all vitamin content. In the second phase the sugar is mixed with acid chalk, carbonic gas, sulfur dioxide and finally with natrium bicarbonate. The mixture is cooked and cooled off several times and thereafter crystallized and centrifuged. The dead mass is then treated with strontium hydroxide. Subsequently it arrives at the refinery where it is passed over chalk carbon acid to clean it. Dark coloring is removed by adding sulfuric acid and then it is filtered with bone charcoal. Finally, it is colored with Indathrenblue or the highly toxic Ultramarine. This product’s chemical composition is C12H22O11, which you can buy in shops as ‘pure cane’ sugar.”
Refined Sugar Is Fragmented
Through heating and mechanical and chemical processing, all vitamins, proteins, fats, enzymes and fiber – indeed, every single nutrient is removed until nothing but pure white sugar, pure ‘naked calories,’ pure refined carbohydrate remains.
Sixty-four food elements are destroyed in the processing. Fragmented foods like these set up nutritional imbalances that precipitate health problems galore.
Refined Sugar Is Highly Acidic
Like animal source foods and refined grains, refined sugar is also extremely ‘acid forming.’
In fact, refined sugar is possibly the most acidic substance one can consume. Soft drinks, which usually contain at least 10 teaspoons of refined sugar, have a pH between 2.8 and 3.5, making it the greatest source of acid we can place into our bodies.
In an effort to neutralize all of this acid, the body takes vital alkaline minerals, calcium being the most plentiful, from the body’s bone structure in an effort to neutralize the acidity. The acidity found in all animal source foods and refined grains cause the body to lose calcium as well.
This highly refined acidic sugar intake, along with the consumption of acidic animal and acidic grain source foods, causes the body to remove so much calcium from the bones and teeth that the bones become osteoporotic (porous) and teeth decay.
Refined Sugar Creates Blood Sugar Disorders
One pound of apples contains 263 calories, whereas one pound of candy contains 1800 calories.
Refined sugar is concentrated far beyond what the God-created human body was designed to process at one time, while the body processes the much smaller amount of natural sugar found in apples just fine.
If a body is going to survive, it must find a way to somehow cope with the incredibly high amounts of sugar found in refined sugar. The body learns how to cope with it, but in so doing, often creates two new physical problems – diabetes and hypoglycemia.
Diabetes
The primary cause of diabetes is the fat contained in animal products which coats the cells and hinders the insulin from entering the cell.
But when a diabetic consumes refined sugar, the pancreas has difficulty producing adequate insulin when the blood sugar rises. Concentrated amounts of sugar cause a rapid rise in blood sugar.
Chronic intake of refined sugar eventually exhausts the pancreas as it tries to compensate. Thus the diabetic is condemned to having to take ever-increasing amounts of insulin to compensate.
Diabetes is the #3 killer disease in America, preceded only by cardiovascular related problems and cancer.
Hypoglycemia
Hypoglycemia is the flip side of diabetes. Hypoglycemia occurs when the body still has a fairly strong pancreas. The body overreacts to concentrated sugar intake and releases too much insulin from the pancreas. Blood sugar levels then plummet far below the normal stable level.
The suffering hypoglycemic often experiences fatigue, headaches; mental depression, and irritability.
Depression is often dealt with by the intake of more refined sugar, and so the hypoglycemic is caught in an endless cycle that causes the pancreas to wear out from constant over stimulation.
This often results in diabetes, because now the sufferer cannot produce sufficient insulin for normal metabolic activities.
Refined Sugar Promotes Emotional Instability
After a “sugarholic” has consumed a box of candy — or bag of cookies, or any large amount of refined sugar — they know how self-abused and depressed they feel.
Indeed, studies reveal a strong link between juvenile and adult criminal offenses and sugar addiction.
Similar research reveals a link between mental illness and sugar abuse. Hypoglycemic reactions, for the very sensitive consumer, promote extreme irrationality and emotional instability, which can lead to aggressiveness.
Studies reveal that sugar may be as involved in mental illness, divorce, and crime as alcohol has been found to be.
Refined sugar is one of the major contributing factors to depression!
ADD and ADHD are running rampant among our children and even some adults!
Isn’t it a paradox that these emotional problems, caused by a very toxic and poisonous addictive drug called refined sugar, are then treated with another poison — like Ritalin or Prozac!
How sad!
If your child is having a behavioral problem, why not consider removing all refined sugar in their diet instead?
Refined Sugar Contributes To Heart Disease
Animal fat is not the only contributing factor in heart disease.
Those on a highly refined sugar diet show significantly higher levels of fat in their blood than those who eat no refined sugar.
This high fat content in the blood is directly related to the development of plaque build-up within the arteries, then to hardening of the arteries, and ultimately to heart attacks and strokes.
Refined Sugar Leads To Addiction And Weight Gain
Refined sugar is highly caloric in its pure form.
But then it is often made worse by combining it with something containing high fat, like shortening, along with some salt.
This produces a tempting goodie like candy, cookies, cake, pie, fudge, a donut, or cinnamon bun.
Often these high sugar foods are consumed with a high calorie sugar drink, like soda pop.
All of this sugar contributes to weight gain.
If a person consumes just one 12-ounce can of soda pop a day for one year, that 10 teaspoons of sugar found in each can of soda could add 12 pounds to their weight in just one year.
When these excess calories are not burned for energy, they are stored as fat, contributing to the obesity epidemic we are seeing today among children and adults alike. Obesity is an underlying factor in not only cardiovascular disease but most other chronic diseases.
Furthermore, because of the way it plays havoc with emotions, refined sugar is highly addicting – it works exactly like a drug. This means that once a sugarholic sufferer has given into this crystalline sweetness, they can’t stop consuming.
Refined sugar is every bit as addictive as nicotine and alcohol and withdrawal from it can be as difficult as withdrawing from cocaine!
We have found that when a person decides to adopt The Hallelujah Diet, they usually do not have a great deal of difficulty eliminating the animal products, white flour products, table salt, or even caffeine (which is another addictive drug).
Many find that the most difficult substance to eliminate is refined sugar.
Sugar has a powerful addictive influence upon many people.
Have you ever noticed that children, who are allowed to have candy, are always asking for more?
They are never satisfied no matter how much you give them! This is because their little bodies have become addicted to sugar and their bodies are screaming for a fix.
NOTE – For those parents who would like to have a better understanding of how refined sugar is affecting their child’s behavior, I would like to recommend a book written by Barbara Reed Stitt titled: “Food and Behavior.”
Refined Sugar Compromises The Immune System
Let’s remember that the immune system is what God built into your body to protect you from the germs, viruses, and bacteria of this world.
The immune system is our first line of defense!
But refined sugar is an immune system suppressant — it knocks out this first line of defense.
That is why those who consume refined sugar find themselves susceptible to colds, the flu, and all sorts of other physical breakdowns, while those who consume The Hallelujah Diet, which contains no refined sugar, rarely if ever experiences a cold, the flu, or other physical breakdowns.
This editor hasn’t experienced a cold or the flu since eliminating refined sugar and adopting a primarily raw, plant-based diet over 35 years ago!
Don’t forget, God tells us we are going to reap what we sow…
“Be not deceived: God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.”
Sugar Contributes To Myriad Physical Problems
Refined sugar is associated with malnutrition and decreased resistance to disease.
Refined sugar impacts quality of life — it increases the severity of PMS; decreases cognitive or intellectual function, especially in children; contributes to heart disease and cancer; and so much more.
Following is just a partial list of other health problems related to the intake of refined sugar:
- Acne
- Addiction to drugs and caffeine
- Alcoholism
- Allergies
- Anxiety
- Behavioral problems
- Binge eating
- Bloating
- Bone loss
- Candida
- Depression
- Difficulty concentrating
- Eczema
- Edema
- Emotional problems
- Fatigue
- Food cravings
- Hormonal problems
- Hyperactivity
- Insomnia
- Menstrual difficulties
- Mental illness
- Mood swings
- Premature aging
- Psoriasis
- … and the list goes on and on.
Conclusion
Refined sugar and products made with it become the cause or contributing cause of many of the physical problems being experienced today.
Refined sugar products are all dead, fiberless, and following animal source foods, are the second most popular of the deadly, killer foods of our day.
No wonder God says in Hosea 4:6:
“My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.”
Is it not a sad commentary, that instead of dealing with our physical problems by eliminating their causes, we deal with symptoms?
We take a poisonous medication instead. It will never fix the problem — but rather exacerbate it!
Almost every physical problem we experience in a lifetime, other than accidents, is because we have failed to nourish our physical bodies the way God intended in Genesis 1:29!
“AND GOD SAID, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed (vegetable), which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat (food).”
Genesis 1:29
If you are consuming the “world’s diet”…
And suffering the consequences with all those physical problems you keep asking God and the doctors to fix…
Isn’t it about time you considered changing your diet from the “world’s diet” to “GOD’s diet…
So that you can experience the abundant health God designed for you?
Next week, the good Lord willing and if the creeks don’t rise too high, we will explore another item that is consumed in large quantities by the average person on the world’s diet that is also devoid of fiber…
Trust you will join us!
Arthritis Can Be Beaten!
Jan 27th
It is the testimonies that flow in constantly from across America and around the world that have inspired me! And I know they inspire and motivate so many others to adopt The Hallelujah Diet. Please keep those letters and testimonies coming and remember I read them, every one.
“Dear Rev. Malkmus, I was so excited to learn that you were coming to Valdosta Georgia – that is until I learned the date you were to be here. I am going to be in Thailand on that date. I hope you have a great turn out and that you need to come back to Valdosta soon so that I can hear and meet you. May God continue to bless you and your ministry as you try and educate people as to how to be healthy! Thanks for all your hard work.”
Kim T., Valdosta, Georgia
“Dear Rev. Malkmus, I’m writing this note from Nigeria. I am a medical practitioner with a history of rheumatoid arthritis since I turned 40 years old in 1997. I have been on medications (steroids) for the past 13 years for this condition.
Three weeks ago I was privileged to learn about The Hallelujah Diet and adopted it. I purchased some BarleyMax, a juicer, and started drinking fresh glasses of carrot juice plus eating lots of salads each day. Results in just three weeks are that I haven’t had so much energy in a long time and I am tapering off my steroids.
I feel at the top of the world and want to say a big thank you to you and I pray God will continue to bless you as you bless others. I look forward to coming to America and becoming a Health Minister. Will keep you posted as my health continues to improve.”
Victoria S., Nigeria, Africa
“Hi George and Rhonda, I just want to say ‘hello’ from South Africa. I have now been on The Hallelujah Diet for seven years, my health is great, and am currently teaching children with Autism here in South Africa. George, do you remember our birthdays are on the same day? February 12. Have a wonderful birthday and a blessed New Year.”
Jeanette F., South Africa
“Dear Dr. Malkmus, Congratulations on your decision to slow down a little. I hope that my husband and I can come to Shelby soon and experience your seminar there at Hallelujah Acres headquarters. We first met you on the Jim Bakker television show when we adopted The Hallelujah Diet. Then we heard you again when you spoke in New Bern, North Carolina. We are most grateful for the information that you make available at no cost for all to hear. May God richly bless you, Rhonda and the Hallelujah Acres family in this New Year!”
Frances and Guy H., New Bern, North Carolina
“Hello George, In response to your Health Tip in which you asked ‘What is the Size of your Family’, I am sad to say that a part of our family is not sized well. My husband and I are now sized well thanks to The Hallelujah Diet. In fact, we are in the best shape of our lives! But it is my children, ages 22 and 25 that that I am concerned about, because they are both obese.
My daughter worries me the most – She is 5’2” tall and is carrying around almost 300 pounds. She is in college and with each passing year carries around more weight. When I try and talk to her about her weight, my efforts are met with resentment. She has everything to live for and is a very talented musician. I’m at my wit’s end and feel so helpless. Thank you for listening.”
Varian K, Kentucky
“Hello George, I just wanted to thank God that I have at last found your website I have been suffering from rheumatoid arthritis for seven years and for the first time in all those years have hope. My question is: ‘If I remain on my rheumatoid arthritis medications will the Hallelujah Diet still be effective?”
Kathleen A.
EDITOR RESPONDS – Kathleen, Congratulations on considering The Hallelujah Diet. Absolutely, the diet will work for those on medications. In fact, it is not uncommon for folks to find that after they have been on The Hallelujah Diet for even a short period of time, they have less need for medication and it is time to seek their doctor’s help in weaning off those medications. Many of those suffering with rheumatoid arthritis have written to tell how after making a diet change their condition has improved dramatically.
America: Overfed & Undernourished
Sep 21st
“We are the most overfed – undernourished country in the history of the world. The average person in the USA consumes 3,393 calories per day, which is phenomenal. It’s the highest in the world.”
USA Today, January 22, 1986
The reason Americans are overfed is because we consume the Standard American Diet (SAD). A person eating the SAD takes in almost double the number of USDA recommended calories each day.
The American people are also undernourished because of the SAD. This diet contains 37% fat, 24% refined sugar and 27% refined carbohydrates. It is mostly comprised of fattening foods that are devoid of nutrition.
The SAD is seriously unbalanced. It is lacking in vitamins, minerals, enzymes and antioxidants while being dangerously high in refined sugar, refined grains, toxic table salt, toxic protein, cholesterol and saturated fat.
Let’s take a look at some statistics:
Adult Obesity in America
68% of Americans over age 20 are considered overweight or obese.
(Source:Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), Vol. 303 No. 3, January 10, 2010)
5.9% of American adults are considered extremely obese.
(Source: CDC National Center for Health Statistics)
Only 32% of adults surveyed say they engage in regular leisure-time physical activity.
36% of adults surveyed say they engage in no leisure-time physical activity.
(Source: CDC: FastStats, Exercise of Physical Activity)
Obesity Related Diseases:
- Coronary heart disease
- Type 2 diabetes
- Cancers (endometrial, breast, and colon)
- Hypertension (high blood pressure)
- Dyslipidemia (for example, high total cholesterol or high levels of triglycerides)
- Stroke
- Liver and Gallbladder disease
- Sleep apnea and respiratory problems
- Osteoarthritis (a degeneration of cartilage and its underlying bone within a joint)
- Gynecological problems (abnormal menses, infertility)
(Source: CDC: Overweight and Obesity Health Consequences)
Childhood Obesity Running Out of Control
“Among preschool children aged 2-5, obesity increased from 5.0% to 10.4% between 1976-1980 and 2007-2008 and from 6.5% to 19.6% among those aged 6-11. Among adolescents aged 12-19, obesity increased from 5.0% to 18.1% during same period.”
“Since 1980, the prevalence of BMI for age at or above the 95th percentile (sometimes termed ‘obese’) has tripled among school-age children and adolescents, and it remains high at approximately 17%.”
(Source: JAMA Vol.303 No. 3, January 2010)
“Obese children and teens have been found to have risk factors for cardiovascular disease (CVD), including high cholesterol levels, high blood pressure, and abnormal glucose tolerance. In a population-based sample of 5- to 17-year-olds, 70% of obese children had at least one CVD risk factor while 39% of obese children had two or more CVD risk factors.”
“Type 2 diabetes is increasingly being reported among children and adolescents who are obese. While diabetes and glucose intolerance, a precursor of diabetes, are common health effects of adult obesity, only in recent years has Type 2 diabetes begun to emerge as a health-related problem among children and adolescents.”
Almost 325,000 deaths in America each year can be attributed to obesity.
(Source: JAMA, 1999 Oct. 27; 282(16):1530-8)
The Health Seekers Yearbook, written 20 years ago by Victoria Bidwell, has a very fitting commentary describing the average Christian in 1990.
“We live in a rat race where compulsiveness, competitiveness, and craziness have ‘short-circuited’ the neuro-anatomy of nearly all The American People. The result is a ‘hyped-up’ state of being that – unfortunately – nearly ALL of us have learned to sedate with the drug of our choice. For the vast majority trapped in The Suffering Class of America, this chosen drug is FOOD!
“And those not suffering from the SAD food addiction are hooked on alcohol, tobacco, and/or recreational drugs. Others still are slaves to killing emotions and leave a trail of shattered lives wherever they go. Our society even caters to this sort of thing. Indeed, fortunes are made on our pitiable-short-circuitry. The television screen flashes food commercials into the average American home. The supermarket fronts The Disease Industry’s conspiracy to keep us chemically addicted and overfed. The fast-food eateries and steak houses are as dangerous to the ‘foodaholic’ as bars are to the alcoholic.
“The custom of mixing social affairs with food so confuses us that we connect eating with love, friendship, and happiness – and then we turn desperately to food when socially isolated to provide what it simply never can provide. The result is a Nation rampant with ‘eating disorders,’ teeming with unconnected, misdirected citizens, continually taking in more food than needed. We are consumed by ‘The American Dream unfulfilled!’ Regrettably, we have become diseased… demoralized…decadent. America is the fattest nation in the world!”
What is The Church Doing About This?
Instead of being soldiers for Jesus, we have become slaves to our appetite and self-gratification. Instead of looking to Jesus, “the author and finisher of our faith,” we have turned inward. Instead of spending our lives trying to help others, we spend most of our time trying to gratify and satisfy ourselves.
Most in the Christian Community have never learned self-discipline.
The church of Jesus Christ has become so decadent it has lost its way and its testimony in a world that desperately needs Godly examples to lead the way back to sanity.
Where Do We Begin?
We must start in our personal Jerusalem – in our own physical body! The Bible challenges us with these words:
“What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which ye have of God and that ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s” (I Corinthians 6:19-20)
“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing [reprogramming] of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” (Romans 12:1-2)
The original mission statement of Hallelujah Acres read:
“Our mission at Hallelujah Acres is to teach people the world over about God’s natural laws for healing and health; to show them how to attain and maintain optimal health while eliminating sickness and disease; and to encourage them to adopt a healthier lifestyle.”
We are in the business of reprogramming the minds of Christians (Romans 12:2) so that they can “be in health!” (III John 1:2)
Hallelujah Acres is engaged in a huge uphill battle against great odds. The Christian community has adopted the Standard American Diet (SAD), the modern-day diet of Egypt.
This fat and sickness-producing diet is now consumed by almost every Christian and promoted in almost every church in our land.
Hallelujah Acres is trying to bring God’s people (as well as anyone else who will listen) into the Promised Land of good health.
Sadly, most Christians do not realize the diet they consume is the very cause of their excess weight as well as almost every physical problem they then ask God, in prayer, to rescue them from.
Does the Christian Community appreciate the efforts of Hallelujah Acres? Not very much! Sadly, many, including leaders, still criticize and attempt to discredit Hallelujah Acres.
Biblical history reveals that the Hallelujah Acres message is being received in a similar manner to the way the Israelites reacted when God tried to change their diet as he brought them out of Egypt.
“And the children of Israel said unto them, Would to God we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh pots and when we did eat bread to the full; for ye have brought us forth into the wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with hunger.” (Exodus 16:3)
“And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, It is manna: for they wist not what it was. And Moses said unto them, This is the bread which the Lord hath given you to eat.” (Exodus 16:15) “. . . the people complained . . . Who shall give us flesh to eat? (Numbers 11: 1 & 18)
When God was the dietician, He gave the Israelites Manna, a pure vegan loaf “made like unto coriander seed.” But the Israelites rebelled and complained and demanded God give them flesh.
So God gave them what they were asking for, sending so many quail that they gorged themselves on it and the Scripture says:
“And while the flesh was yet between their teeth, ere it was chewed, the wrath of the Lord was kindled against the people, and the Lord smote the people with a very great plague. (Numbers 11:33)
Hallelujah Acres Wants To Help the Christian Community
The Standard American Diet, has produced a plague of monumental proportions. The Christian Community is just as sick as the non-Christian Community, while prayer requests for sickness dominate our mid-week prayer services.
Nearly 50% of American Christians die way before their time from heart attack and stroke. Over 40% die of Cancer. Arthritis debilitates multitudes and diabetes is epidemic. Fatigue and mental fog exhausts a great number of our people. Nearly 70% of the Christian Community is carrying so much extra weight, they could be considered handicapped.
I believe God has raised up Hallelujah Acres for such a time as this! The Hallelujah Diet we proclaim is based on God’s original Genesis 1:29 diet. It is the lifeline being offered God’s people today. Available to “Whosoever will, may come,” this lifeline will restore the health of almost anyone who will grab hold of it.
If a person will embrace it, they can usually rid themselves of most physical problems, plus the excess weight that so easily besets and hinders them. Once health has been restored, we can at last become strong, physically active, and healthy soldiers in God’s army. Yes we can be fit for the Master’s use.
Hopefully this will help motivate those who are carrying extra weight to do something about getting rid of those debilitating extra pounds.
The good Lord willing and if the creeks don’t rise too high, we will give you a plan for losing weight next week.
How Many Bowling Balls Are You Carrying In Your Body?
Sep 14th
A regulation bowling ball weighs 16 pounds.
If you have ever gone bowling, you know what it’s like to lug that big awkward ball around. Yet some people are carrying one, two, three, four, and sometimes many more around in their body.
This extra weight puts a tremendous strain on all the organs of the body, especially the knees and back. It is also the cause of a multitude of problems people suffer with today.
Grim Statistics on Obesity
More than 60% of the American population is overweight! That means that over 180 million Americans are carrying at least 10 pounds more than they should be carrying for their height and bone structure.
An estimated 30%, or 54 million, are defined as clinically obese. This means they weigh 20% more than their recommended ideal weight. A smaller, yet significant number are considered morbidly obese. Their symptoms are putting such strain on the body they could die at any moment.
Sadly, an ever-increasing percentage of our children are overweight, with a rapidly increasing number of these children being diagnosed as clinically obese.
The sad truth is that obesity has reached epidemic proportions. This obesity precipitates or aggravates almost every acute and chronic disease being experienced today. Many of the seriously obese suffer with cardiovascular disease and/or diabetes, along with a multitude of other symptoms.
The good news is that diet and exercise will usually fix this problem. Simply change what we eat and start a simple exercise program.
Sadly, the prognosis for ever being able to leave the slavery of obesity and obtain the trim physical body God designed for each of His human creations is very bleak.
Statistics reveal that only about five percent of those who seriously attempt to lose weight are able to take off the desired amount of weight and keep it off. Some studies show the success rate to be even lower.
These sad statistics reveal the ineffectiveness of most of the expensive weight-loss diet programs being offered and adopted by an ever-increasing number of Americans.
According to the F.D.A, Americans spent an estimated $30 billion on all types of diet programs in 1992.
In 2007, Marketdata reported that figure has reached $60 billion. The firm has been tracking sales of diet products and programs since 1989. (Source: “The U.S. Weight Loss & Diet Market”, 2007)
Hallelujah Diet and Lifestyle Best Weight Loss Program
I want to share right up front that The Hallelujah Diet is the very best weight loss program available today.
We will later talk more about why this is true. But for now I would like to encourage our readers by sharing the weight loss results others have obtained on this lifestyle.
A few years ago the pastor of our church asked me to teach a series of lessons titled Biblical Nutrition 101. Thirty-two adults in our church adopted The Hallelujah Diet and completed the course. At the end of 6 months, the total weight lost was over 700 pounds, for an average of over 22 pounds per person.
On January 7, 2010, Hallelujah Acres launched 60 Days to a Hallelujah Waistline on the internet. Over 7,200 people worldwide signed up for the course – including 26 of our own staff at Hallelujah Acres. In just 60 days, those 26 individuals lost a total of 456 pounds, for an average weight loss of over 17 pounds.
Cause of Excess Weight and Obesity
In Proverbs 26:2, the Bible tells us that “the curse causeless shall not come.”
We need to realize that the curse of obesity will not occur without a cause!
In most instances, the cause of excess weight is not genes or glands, but rather food choices and lack of exercise.
Following are the five major factors contributing to excess weight.
1. The Refined Sugar Factor
Refined sugar is an addictive, weight-producing drug! The average adult in America consumes some 172 pounds of it each year. For adults, that breaks down to 50 teaspoons or more of refined sugar every day. Most children consume even more sugar than adults.
Refined sugar is very high in caloric value and causes the body to gain weight. Consuming just one 12-ounce can of soft drink a day for one year can increase your weight by 15 pounds or more. Yet there are people who consume liter bottles of it every day.
Consider also that sugar is invariably baked or cooked into irresistibly tempting goodies like ice cream, cakes, cookies, cinnamon buns, etc. These foods contain additional ingredients that cause the body to gain ever more weight.
Refined sugar is an addictive drug. Even though a person wants to lose weight, they continue consuming products containing it to feed their addiction.
The USDA recommends that the average adult should consume no more than 40 grams of sugar per day from all sources.
It might startle you to learn that just one teaspoon of refined sugar contains 4 grams of sugar and 16 calories. One 12oz soft drink, contains 11 teaspoons of sugar, or 44 grams, and about 176 calories.
If the average person consumes 50 teaspoons, that person received 200 grams, or 800 calories, just from sugar.
Regarding artificial sweeteners, Dr. Neal Nedley, in his book Proof Positive says, “Do the low calorie soft drinks really work?… Those who drink the most diet drinks have the most problems with their weight… One study of over 75,000 women ages 50 to 69 found that users of artificial sweeteners were significantly more likely than non-users to gain weight over time.” (Page 187)
Researcher Michael Tardoff reported that artificial sweeteners increase the appetite. “We found that hunger increases after drinking just a liter of aspartame sweetened soda. In our country, an average of over 20 pounds of artificial sweeteners is consumed per person per year, but despite this increase in consumption of artificial sweeteners, actual sugar consumption continues to increase.”
2. The Animal Fat Factor
The average American consumes some 100 pounds of animal fat per year. This becomes important when we recognize that weight gain is often related to getting too many calories from fat rather than getting them from complex carbohydrates as God designed.
In the research lab, animals on a high fat diet gain more weight than their peers on a low-fat regimen—even when both groups ate the same number of calories.
Animal source foods are the primary source of fat in the average diet. Each of the following foods provide the body with 10 grams of saturated fat: 2 cups of whole milk; 1 double hamburger; 2/3 serving of macaroni & cheese; 1 cup ice cream; 2 cups plain yogurt; 2 slices of American processed cheese. (Source: Proof Positive, page 24)
Cheese has the honor of being one of the most fat-laden foods being consumed today! Often people will consume a salad, which is a healthy food, but then load it up with cheese, a very unhealthy and fattening food!
Fat contains 9 calories per gram. There are 454 grams as well as 4086 calories in each pound of fat. If the average person consumes 100 pounds of animal fat per year they consume 408,600 calories per year. That equals 1,119 calories from animal fat alone every day. This amounts to half of our daily caloric intake.
According to the USDA, our nation’s daily fat intake has steadily increased from 107 grams in the 1970’s, 110 grams in the 1980’s, to 116 grams in 1999. So according to these figures, if we multiply 116 grams times 9 calories per gram, we arrive at the figure of 1044 calories per day. If we increase to today at the same rate of growth, we get approximately the same as the previous figure.
Add the 800 calories from refined sugar to over 1,000 calories from animal fat. Most of the calories eaten by the average American each day originate in the two most fattening foods one can consume. Is it any wonder America is overweight?
3. The Refined Carbohydrate Factor
Refined carbs, such as white flour, white rice and sugar make you fat. Unrefined carbs, such as whole grains, beans, legumes, fruits and vegetables help keep you lean.
Unrefined carbs contain fiber, which packs a powerful punch when it comes to fighting fat.
Scientists at the University Hospital of London, Ontario compared the fiber intake of different individuals. They found that those individuals who had a healthy weight ate 30% more fiber than the overweight individuals.
Why is fiber important? High fiber foods help people lose weight for several reasons. First, high-fiber food requires more chewing time, slowing food intake. Second, fiber has more bulk, filling you up with fewer calories. Third, fiber stabilizes blood sugar levels and stimulates less insulin secretion, which translates into weight loss. Finally, since we can’t digest fiber, we can’t absorb any calories from it.
In his book Carbohydrates from Hell, Carbohydrates from Heaven, author James Krystosik says, “anyone trying to improve their health and lose weight should take advantage of fiber, one of nature’s best appetite suppressants. Remember fiber is a non-digestible form of carbohydrate, which passes through the digestive system without ever adding one single calorie. Fiber absorbs water, swells inside your stomach, and creates a sense of fullness. Now your brain gets the message that your hunger has been satisfied. High fiber foods also satisfy the sensation of hunger longer than refined food, which means you end up eating fewer calories and you lose weight”
Refined grains also upset normal blood sugar levels, causing mental and/or physical imbalances. When refined starches are eaten, a high percentage is quickly broken down into a glut of simple sugars hitting the bloodstream and causing alarm to an exhausted pancreas and/or adrenals. This amounts to the same objectionable diabetic/hypoglycemic reactions initiated by refined sugars.
4. The Table Salt Factor
Table salt is a protoplasmic poison. Besides being totally devoid of fiber, it causes the body to retain fluid. In reality, it is not the table salt that retains the water. Instead the body retains more water so that the salt concentration is reduced, thus causing less irritating and less caustic concentrations.
In other words, the body recognizes table salt as a poison and acts to protect itself by diluting the highly irritating crystals. This adds water weight to the body.
It is not unusual for a person to lose 6 to 12 pounds or more within a few days of going on The Hallelujah Diet. Why? Because when a person stops consuming table salt, the body releases the water being retained to keep all that toxic sodium chloride from doing damage.
5. The Lack of Exercise Factor
Calories in vs. calories burned is a huge factor in how much a person weighs.
If a person takes in more calories than the body is burning, weight will increase.
The amount of calories burned depends on how much exercise a person receives. If a person wants to lose weight, they must exercise enough to burn more calories than they are consuming.
A sedentary couch potato lifestyle and high caloric intake is a prescription for obesity. An active lifestyle and low caloric intake is a prescription for a slim, trim and healthy body.
Obesity Is a Matter of Choice
The Hallelujah Diet and Lifestyle eliminates all 5 of the above fat-producing items found in the Standard American Diet (SAD). These items are responsible for most of the excess weight and obesity plaguing over 60% of our population today.
The Hallelujah Diet replaces these with predominantly raw foods that are highly nutritious and high in fiber and complex carbohydrates. We couple this with regular exercise.
This lifestyle was not my idea. It came from God and can be found in the Bible in Genesis 1:29.
That’s right. The Hallelujah Acres diet is 100% plant-based and very similar to the one God gave the first humans, Adam and Eve, immediately after creation.
The Hallelujah Diet is totally comprised of plant-sourced foods. It contains no refined sugar, refined carbohydrates, refined table salt, or animal fat. This diet, which we have been proclaiming for almost 20 years, and the ones promoted by Dr. Neal Nedley and Dr. Krystosik are all similar to the Genesis 1:29 diet.
Diet is not the only vitally important fact to maintaining and ideal weight. The body must also be exercised daily.
Might it be that God is far wiser than we humans when he placed man in a garden and told him he would have to earn his bread by the “sweat of thy face” (Genesis 3:19)?
My daily exercise routine includes gardening in season, stretching, resistance and aerobic exercise, with at least two miles of power walking most every day.
I personally listened to God thirty-five years ago and adopted a diet similar to the one He gave Adam in Genesis 1:29.
Today I have a lean, muscular physical body capable of doing almost anything physically I could do at the age of 20. Just three years short of my 80th birthday, my height is 5’ 9”, my weight is 142 pounds, my waist is 31/32 inches and my abs are rock hard.
Because I know Jesus I know that there are even better days ahead! Amen!
Obesity – A Preventable And Reversible Epidemic
Jun 21st
Right now, right here in America, we are experiencing an obesity problem of epidemic proportions.
Two out of every three American adults are either overweight or obese – and this epidemic also affects children. Today, one out of every three children ages 2-19 is overweight or obese, and most of these children, because of this overweight condition will become diabetic. Diabetes is already epidemic among the children of America.
“The generation of children born in 2000 will likely live shorter life spans than their parents. Economic productivity of this generation will probably be less than their parents as well. Indeed, an obese adult adds $1,400 excess health care costs annually compared with his or her non-obese peers.”
ABC News Report; May 13, 2010
The very future of our nation is at stake if this exploding waistline problem isn’t halted. On January 3, 2010, Hallelujah Acres, in an attempt to slow down this rapid expansion of obesity, launched a 60-Day Challenge titled “60 Days to a Hallelujah Waistline.”
This 60-Day Challenge has been a tremendous success as over 7,200 people, from over 100 different countries around the world, signed up for the Challenge. And the testimonies of lost weight have been pouring in from around the world as a result of accepting this challenge.
SHORTENED LIFESPAN
This obesity epidemic is occurring at ever younger ages. Already one-third of all American children between the ages of 2-19 years are overweight or obese, which puts them at ever increasing risk of developing serious diseases that will shorten their lives. And the number of obese and overweight children is expected to continue to increase.
Researchers tell us that by mid-century children will be living shorter lives than their parents because obesity will bring increased risk of obesity-related illnesses like diabetes, heart disease and cancer – lowering the average life expectancy by at least five years.
Friends, we have a problem and rather than trying to treat the problem with doctor visits and drugs as is currently being done, let’s look for the cause. If the cause is sought, found, and eliminated, then we can stop this scourge. And there is a cause, and we here at Hallelujah Acres know what that cause is.
WHAT IS MAKING AMERICA FAT
The cause of obesity and overweight individuals, both adults and children, can be traced to their diet and lifestyle. If you will compare the number of obese and overweight individuals today with the number of obese and overweight people of yesteryear, you will see there has been an ever increasing explosion of expanding waistlines.
LET’S EXAMINE TODAY’S DIET & LIFESTYLE OF THE AVERAGE PERSON…
When I was a boy, we did not have fast-food restaurants, or the availability of potato chips, corn chips, and the vast array of sugar loaded soft drinks and snack foods (or even vending machines where they could be readily purchased).
Nor did we have televisions or computers. And even when junk food items started to become available, children did not have the money to purchase them or the cars to drive to stores where they were available. Rather we were active on the sandlot playing stick-ball after school and going on hikes and playing sports on weekends. Why even in school, gym class was a part of every day’s schooling.
But today, children have cars and money to buy junk food and sodas. Fast food restaurants abound and vending machines are everywhere. Instead of playing ball on the sandlot or going on hikes in the woods, today’s children have televisions and computers and video games to occupy their time where all they do is sit. And in many of our schools gym classes have been sharply curtailed or eliminated
All of this sedentary lifestyle and easily available sugar and fat laden junk food is creating a generation of overweight and obese children who are becoming overweight and obese adults. If you haven’t seen the video “Supersize Me” you need to see what just a month on fast foods will do to a person’s physical body and health.
WHAT IS THE SOLUTION
The solution is a simple one, but its implementation is not so easy. If parents do not want their children to be overweight or obese, they must teach their children the importance of proper diet and an active lifestyle. But parents must go beyond instruction; they must set the example in both a healthy diet and active lifestyle. Children become what parents do more than what parents say.
“Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” (Proverbs 22:6)
SUGGESTIONS TO PREVENT AND REVERSE OBESITY
- Eliminate all sugar laden drinks and foods. Soft drinks and all beverages containing sugar should be eliminated and replaced with pure water or occasional lemonade sweetened with maple syrup, honey, stevia, or Agave Nectar (use all concentrated sugars sparingly). Just the sugar contained in one 12-oz soft drink, if consumed daily for one year, will add 15-pounds of weight to the consumer and diet sodas create hunger.
- Eliminate sugar laden candy, deserts, and snacks. Sugar and refined flour products create overweight and obese people. Replace these sugar and refined flour desserts and treats with fresh fruit and healthy snacks and desserts.
- Eliminate or set strict limits or television time and monitor what they are watching. Also, set strict limits on how much time they can sit at a computer or play video games. Television sets and computers in a child’s room ought to be forbidden.
- Do not allow your child to become a couch potato. Make sure that your child has at least an hour of vigorous exercise every day. If they resist, make it mandatory or they lose a privilege.
- Parents need to set the example in both diet and lifestyle. Prepare only healthy, non-fattening meals for not only your children but also yourself and make sure they see you getting daily and vigorous exercise. How about making exercise a family affair.
- Explain to your children the risks involved to their health by making poor diet and lifestyle choices. Do they really want to be fat and have to stick themselves every day with insulin or lose their eyesight? Point out to them possibly friends or family members who have experienced heart attacks or strokes or cancer or are diabetic and tie their health problems to bad diet and lifestyle. Teach them that bad diet and lifestyle choices have bad consequences.
- Make sure your child receives adequate sleep each night.
- Always have on hand healthy foods for snacks and rewards.
CREATING HEALTH & PREVENTING OVERWEIGHT PEOPLE IS NOT DIFFICULT
We face a growing obesity problem among the youth of America, and sugar and white flour products along with lack of exercise are the primary cause. Let’s love our children and grandchildren enough to protect them the best we can from those who in ignorance, are attempting to do great harm to our children by providing them with unhealthy items.
On The Hallelujah Acres diet, instead of providing these sugary and addictive substances, we offer alternatives such as fresh fruit. Instead of sugary ice cream we offer frozen banana and fruit crèmes; Instead of soda we offer an occasional honey sweetened real lemonade and green smoothies. Yes friend, for every sugary “treat” the world tempts our children with; we here at Hallelujah Acres offer a healthy substitute.
Study Finds Junk Food As Addictive As Drugs
Jun 12th
According to a new study in the Journal Nature Neuroscience, binging on high-calorie foods may be as addictive as cocaine or nicotine and could cause compulsive eating and obesity.
The study, using rats, found that the over-consumption of high-calorie foods can trigger addiction-like responses in the brain and that these high-calorie foods can turn rats into compulsive eaters in a laboratory setting.
“Obesity may be a form of compulsive eating,” researcher Paul Kenny of the Scripps Research Institute in Florida said.
In order to conduct the study, Kenny and colleagues went to the grocery store.
“We basically bought all the stuff that people really like – Ding Dongs, cheesecake, bacon, sausage, the stuff that you enjoy, but you shouldn’t eat too often.”
They also bought some healthy foods and came up with a diet plan for three different groups of rats.
One group ate a healthy balanced diet. A second group was given healthy food, but allowed access to high-calorie food for one hour a day. The third group of rats were fed healthy meals, but given unlimited access to high-calorie foods.
“Rats in the third group developed a preference for high-calorie food, binged on it all day, and rapidly became obese.”
“Interestingly, all rats in the experiment had been trained to expect a minor shock when exposed to a light. But when the rats on the unlimited access to high-calorie foods were shown the light, they did not respond to the potential danger,” Kenny said. Instead, they continued to eat their high-calorie foods.
“What we’re seeing in our animals is very similar to what you’d see in humans who overindulge,” Kenny said. “It seemed that it was okay, from what we could tell, to enjoy snack foods, but if you repeatedly overindulge, that’s where the problem comes in.”
Editors Note:
If an alcoholic had never taken that first drink, they would never have become addicted to alcohol. If the cigarette smoker had never taken that first puff, they would never have become addicted to nicotine. The same is true for the marijuana addict, cocaine addict, heroin addict, etc. Without that first exposure they would never have become addicted.
Dear friends, the same is true of the soda-pop addict, chocoholic, candy addict, sugary dessert addict, and we could go on and on with this line of thinking – Without that first exposure they would never have become addicted.
I found Kenny’s closing comment above to be most interesting: “It seemed that it was okay, from what we could tell, to enjoy snack foods, but if you repeatedly overindulge, that’s where the problem comes in.”
But there is another problem here – The rats that were limited to junk foods only one hour a day were denied any further access. This doesn’t work with most children today, because access to junk food is often easily available throughout the day, in school lunch programs, in stores if they have some money, and even in the fridge and pantry at home.
Here is a very interesting experiment. Give a child a banana or apple, and they will enjoy its sweet natural taste (if their taste buds haven’t already been corrupted) and will probably be satisfied with just that one banana or apple, and not ask for more.
Give them a piece of candy or cookie and then note their satisfaction level. Most children will not be satisfied with just one piece of candy or cookie, but will rather want more. Some will possibly demand more – even cry for more! Some will even go into a temper tantrum if denied more.
I am proud of those parents who attempt to protect their children from these addictive substances which are sometimes called “treats.” Sadly it sometimes becomes difficult to protect these same children from their own grandparents who want to gain favor with a child by giving them a sugary treat, and who think parents are wrong by not allowing their children to have these sugary treats.
It’s also upsetting to me that in many of our churches candy, cookies, cup-cakes, etc. are given to children in their Sunday School classes when parents are not there to protect them.
Grand Parent or Sunday School teacher, wouldn’t it be sad if what you thought was a treat for the children was actually the beginning of an addiction for a child?
Right now, right here in these United States of America, we are experiencing an epidemic of obesity. Two-thirds of American adults are either overweight or obese.
This epidemic also affects children. Today, one-third of all children ages two to nineteen are overweight or obese. Most of these children will become diabetic because of this weight problem. Diabetes is already epidemic among the children of America.
We face a growing obesity problem among the youth of America. Sugar and white flour products are the primary cause. Let’s love our children, grandchildren and the children God places under our care enough to protect them the best we can from those who in (hopefully) ignorance, are harming our children. Grandparents, Sunday School teachers and bus workers, are you listening?
On The Hallelujah Acres diet, instead of endorsing these sugary and addictive substances, we offer alternatives such as fresh, healthy, fruit. Instead of sugary ice cream we offer frozen banana and fruit creams. Instead of soft drinks we offer honey sweetened real lemonade and green, fruit-sweetened smoothies.
Yes friend, for every sugary treat the world tempts our children there is a healthy substitute.
Most obese adults got their start to obesity as children!
“Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” (Proverbs 22:6)
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