The Hallelujah Diet

What It Is

A heavily supplemented, low-calorie vegan diet, consisting of 85% raw organic foods and 15% cooked foods, is the core of the faith-based Hallelujah Diet program. The Rev. George Malkmus and his wife, Rhonda, developed the diet and recipe books at their Hallelujah Acres farm to educate their followers on what they say is "God's way to optimal health."

"Our bodies are designed by God to receive raw or living foods, where the life force and nutrition are available to nourish our bodies and prevent disease," says Malkmus, who based the plan on his personal experience. "The Hallelujah Diet is our way of taking people back to the original diet, designed to be the best weight loss program on the planet Earth."

It's safe to assume dieters will lose weight on the plan, since the allowed foods are limited, low in calories, and bulky in nature. Indeed, it would be almost impossible to consume enough calories to cause weight gain on this diet. The problem could be getting enough calories and satisfying hunger with such limited food choices. 

Juicing vegetables and plant foods is a major part of the diet plan. Malkmus believes that juicing is the most efficient way to get nutrients into our bodies.

"Your digestive system only extracts 35% of nutrients in food, whereas when you juice the food, it is like an intravenous shot of nutrients, and you will absorb 92% of available nutrients," he says.

Most nutrition and health experts, however, do not embrace this theory.

"Juicing pulverizes foods, reducing the fiber, but it does not increase the absorption of the nutrients," says Christine Gerbstadt, MD, RD, a spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association. "That occurs at the cellular level, after the enzymes in your stomach prepare the food for absorption."

The Hallelujah Diet also calls for a variety of supplements, including B12, oils, digestive enzymes, a "cleansing" product, and barley powder -- all sold through The Hallelujah Diet web site. 

The plan also strongly recommends 30 minutes per day of regular exercise, strength training, and stretching, along with a daily dose of sunshine.

What You Can Eat

The Hallelujah Diet menu consists of raw organic fruits and vegetables, three daily servings of the supplement called "barleymax," and one meal of cooked grains and vegetables and a little oil -- and that's pretty much all that is allowed. Two meals and snacks are raw foods; dinner is the only meal where cooked foods are allowed. Fruits are supposed to make up 15% of the daily food allowance.

Raw foods make up the majority of allowed foods because nutrients are destroyed in cooking and man is the only animal that eats cooked food, says Malkmus.

Here's a typical day on The Hallelujah Diet:

• Breakfast: 1 serving barley supplement (made from organic barley and alfalfa grass juices in powder form)
• Mid-morning snack: 1 cup vegetable juice or 1 piece fresh fruit or 1 vegetable supplement
• Lunch: 1 serving barley supplement, followed by a raw vegetable salad or raw fruit
• Mid-afternoon snack: 1 cup vegetable juice, carrot or celery sticks, or 1 vegetable supplement
• Dinner: 1 serving barley supplement, a large green salad with vegetables, and your choice of a cooked whole-grain or vegetable food from baked potato, brown rice, baked sweet potato, legumes, steamed veggies, whole-grain pasta, veggie sandwich on whole- grain bread, or squash
• Evening snack: Fresh fruit or a glass of apple or pear juice