The Standard American Diet is S.A.D.

The primary motivation that has led many people to find an alternative to the Standard American Diet (SAD) is that this way of eating and lifestyle has caused them or their loved ones a heart attack, cancer, diabetes, arthritis or some other major disease. So often, people fail to see the need to change their diet and lifestyle until a crisis arises. I acknowledge that change is often difficult unless we understand the reasons why, and so it is my prayer that as you study these pages, you will allow the Holy Spirit to guide you and show you why the Standard American Diet is doing such great harm to you and those you love.

At Hallelujah Acres, we have seen thousands of people's experiences with degenerative disease turn into a tremendous motivating force for them and others around them to adopt the Hallelujah Diet as a new way of living. For many of these people, this transformation has become a wonderful experience, giving them a whole new lease on life, along with a powerful testimony that has led dozens or hundreds of their friends, relatives and church members to make similar changes.

This is good, but the needless suffering is also often very sad. Our prayer is that you will use the information in this book to make necessary changes in your diet without this type of suffering and negative factors that force some people into a dietary change. There are many very positive reasons for returning to a diet based on the fresh fruits and vegetables offered to mankind in Genesis 1:29.

In the United States of America, we seem to feel that it is the responsibility of the government to provide health care for the American people. And yet approximately 50 percent of the American people die from heart attacks and strokes, while 33 percent die from cancer, and 8 percent die from diabetes. Obviously, the government doesn't have the answer and isn't taking very good care of its people.

Neither can we depend upon the medical establishment to maintain our health. Medical doctors are trained to look at the symptoms and give drugs that mask or hide these symptoms rather than teaching us how to change our diets and lifestyles so that the physical problem will go away. Every drug is liver toxic and for every drug given there are side effects. Is that God's way? Unfortunately, most medical doctors receive less than three hours or nutritional training in all their years of study to become a doctor. Therefore, how can they teach us to eat properly so that we can stay well?

The failure of our medical system to adequately deal with cancer has become apparent to practically everyone, even the medical establishment. Writing in the June 1997 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, Drs. John Bailar and Heather Gornick assert: "The effect of new treatments for cancer on mortality has been largely disappointing. The most promising approach to the control of cancer is a national commitment to prevention, with a re-balancing of the focus and funding of the research."

Obviously the reason billions of dollars have been spent researching and implementing technologies such as radiation, chemotherapy, drugs and surgery is that these procedures are where the profit comes from.

"The doctor of the future will give no medicine, but will interest his patients in the cure of the human frame, in diet and in the cause and prevention of disease."
---Thomas A. Edison, 1900

FACT: Most of the physical problems plaguing our country today can be directly attributed to the diet we eat.

"Today, a large part of our foods can rightfully be called foodless (produced totally in our big labs), drugged, embalmed, dead, coal-tarred, artificial, skeletonized, polished, processed, refined, sterilized, oiled, sprayed, waxed, degenerated, unclean, frozen, canned, dried, impure junk and now the threat of irradiated food.

(Is it logical to believe humans can tolerate food treated with atomic waste?! My answer is no!) All of the above foods can be put down the esophagus with varying degrees of ease and pleasure, but they do not feed the cells with the nutrients required to create and sustain healthful bodies. Those come only from a 'natural' food supply."

-Dr. Mary Ruth Swope from Green Leaves of Barley

"Although we think we are one, and we act as if we are one, human beings are not natural carnivores…

When we kill animals to eat them, they end up killing us because their flesh…was never intended for human beings, who are natural herbivores."

-William Roberts, editor in chief of the American Journal of Cardiology, 1991 editorial

"It takes sixteen pounds of grain to produce a pound of feedlot beef.
It takes only one pound of grain to produce a pound of bread."

-John Robbins from May all be Fed

When we look at the way God created man, we find the anatomy of man was not designed to consume flesh foods. Carnivores (meat eaters) have teeth and claws designed by God to rip and tear animal flesh. The human body has teeth designed for grinding, not tearing. Our jaws move up and down as well as side to side, which a flesh-eater's jaw cannot do. Flesh-eaters also have a high hydrochloric acid content in their stomachs to break down and digest flesh, while humans do not. The digestive tract of the flesh-eater is short and designed to get the flesh out of the system before it has a chance to putrefy. The digestive tract of the humans is long (about 26' long or about four times longer than that of flesh-eaters) with many twists and bends, which produce monumental problems for the colon when flesh foods are consumed.

The flavor in meat is derived from the blood and uric acid (nitrogenous waste) within its flesh and other tissues. The uric acid causes tremendous problems for the body, burdening the liver and kidneys as these organs try to deal with all of the toxins contained in meat. The increased consumption of flesh foods can be directly related to the deterioration of the health of the American People. Sadly, we in America have been taught that eating flesh foods is required to receive our protein and for proper nourishment.

For a Biblical account of the benefits of a vegetarian diet, see Daniel 1:11-20.

Contrary to popular opinion, a vegetarian diet provides sufficient and complete protein. As Dr. Malkmus often asks in his lectures, "If man has to eat the flesh of the cow for protein, what does the cow eat to produce that protein?" And of course, the answer is grass! The protein by which God designed our bodies to be sustained is the living protein found in plants. Protein is found in all green leafy vegetables and, in fact, in all living plants. At one time it was thought that to obtain complete protein, foods would have to be carefully combined. Francis Moore Lappe, the woman who helped popularize the myth that vegetables must be properly combined in order to obtain complete protein in her 1971 book, Diet for a Small Planet, has admitted this premise was incorrect. Even the American Dietetic Association now says you get more than enough protein by simply eating a variety of plant foods. Although public opinion may take a long time to change, there is practically no controversy on this subject among the experts with the most up-to-date information. Nearly all of these experts now agree it is not necessary to "complement your proteins," neither do you have to consume foods from all the food groups at each meal, and you certainly don't have to eat meat to obtain sufficient amounts of protein.

Not only is meat a consumption unnecessary for protein, this meat-eating habit is killing us! It should be noted that animal products are the only source of bad cholesterol (LDL) in the diet. The main reason, that approximately 50 percent of all Americans die of heart disease and strokes is that their arteries are clogged up with cholesterol. People, who do not eat animal products, practically never have a cholesterol problem.

Neal Barnard, M.D., President of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, reports:

"The beef industry has contributed to more American deaths than all the wars of this century, all natural disasters and all automobile accidents combined."

And consider the unclean nature of dead animals. When meat is butchered at the slaughterhouse, meat inspectors only have 12 seconds to check inside the dead animal for grubs, parasites, abscesses and disease. A meat inspector is required to check approximately 300 carcasses per hour!

Many people are unaware of the cancer growths in animals, which must be cut out prior to being sold to the consumer in the supermarket. As these diseases in cattle and poultry become immune to the drugs being used to control them, it is necessary to develop even stronger and more deadly poisons.

Some who have been convinced of the need to avoid red meat unfortunately believe poultry and fish are a healthier choice. Not so! Chicken contains the same cholesterol pound for pound as beef. Plus, it is often contaminated with salmonella and loaded with growth hormones. Is this what we want to feed our precious families?

Recent tests have shown that over 50 percent of marketable codfish have been found to have cancer. Fish has been shown to have twice the cholesterol of pork or beef, to say nothing of the pollution in our lakes, ponds, streams, rivers, and oceans where they swim.

Another serious problem with all animal products is that they contain zero fibers. The lack of fiber in meat, dairy and eggs leads them to rot in the colon, causing constipation, body-odor and colon problems. It is the fiber, which can only be found in plant life, that acts as an "intestinal broom" to keep our colons clean. Green leafy vegetables and succulent fruits are the primary foods needed to feed the human body.

They are also the most healing foods God has given us. Watch an animal when it is sick and you will find that the only thing it will eat is grass. Why? The grass contains enzymes, vitamins, proteins, organic minerals, chlorophyll, anti-oxidants, and much more. Dr. Malkmus and I use a product called Barleygreen with amazing and exciting results. (I personally think it tastes a lot better than grass.)