Source
Rev. George M. Malkmus and his Hallelujah Diet
Stephen Barrett, M.D.
Reverend George M. Malkmus (1934- ) claims to have eliminated
his colon cancer and other serious health problems more than 25
years ago by "following biblical principles for a natural
diet and healthy lifestyle." He and his wife Rhonda Jean
operate
Hallelujah Acres,
where they hold seminars, sell products, and advocate a diet that
features raw fruits and vegetables. Malkmus and his followers
claim that his methods have helped people with obesity, cancer,
arthritis, and more than 100 other health problems. He is a very
eloquent speaker who is capable of inspiring people who trust
what he says. This article explains why I do not believe he is
trustworthy.
Background History
Malkmus describes his history in books, tapes, lectures, and
a newsletter called "Back to the Garden." After graduating
from high school in 1952, he began working for a railroad. Soon
afterward, however, he was drafted into the Army and served in
the Korean War. After fulfilling his military obligation, he married
for the first time and returned to work for the railroad. In 1957,
he attended a Billy Graham crusade rally in New York City, became
a Christian, and decided to become a gospel minister. He attended
the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, graduated from Elohin Bible
Institute in New York, and then pastored in various churches in
New York, North Carolina, and Florida. During this time he hosted
a radio program called "America Needs Christ." [1]
Malkmus states that by his late twenties, he says, he kept
needing stronger and stronger eyeglasses and his health "progressively
declined" and included problems with hemorrhoids, sinus trouble,
allergies, high blood pressure, fatigue, and acne. In 1976, at
age 42, he was told he had colon cancer. Instead of pursuing medical
treatment, he turned to "an old preacher friend,"
Lester
Roloff, who encouraged him to change from the standard American
diet to "the original diet God gave mankind in Genesis 1:29."
Within a year, he says, all of his physical problems (including
his "baseball-sized" tumor) disappeared [2]. In developing
his dietary approach, he studied under Ann Wigmore and
Carey
Reams, and was also influenced by the writings of Paul Bragg,
T.C. Fry, Michael Klaper,
John McDougall, Dean Ornish, Joel Robbins,
Herbert
Shelton, and Norman W. Walker [1]. He has also maintained
relationships with Charlotte Gerson (promoter of the Gerson diet,
Joel Robbins (a chiropractor who pretends to have a medical degree),
Mary Ruth Swope (a physician who claimed for years that Barley
Green can cure cancer), and the Contreras family (which operates
the Oasis of Hope Hospital (a dubious cancer clinic in Tijuana,
Mexico).
Malkmus states that he met Rhonda Jean when she attended a
seminar he gave in 1991. At that time, he says, she was very overweight
and suffered from severe symptoms of arthritis. Within a year
after changing her diet and adopting an exercise program, however,
she had lost 85 pounds and her arthritis problems were gone [1].
In 1992, they opened a small health food store and restaurant
in Rogersville, Tennessee. Finding that it was successful, they
moved to larger quarters in 1993. In 1994, they closed the store,
moved their base of operations to a 50-acre farm in Eidson, Tennessee,
and launched the Back to the Garden Ministries "to eliminate
sickness from the Christian Community in particular and the world
in general." [3] They estimate that more than a million people
worldwide have tried the Hallelujah Diet [3], more than 3,000
have taken their training [3], hundreds have become "Health
Ministers" [4], and more than 220,000 receive Malmus's free
newsletter. In 1995, Malkmus received an honorary doctorate degree
in literature from Louisiana Baptist Seminary.
In 1997, they relocated their base of operations to Shelby,
North Carolina [1]. That same year, Malkmus announced that he
had formed a "strategic alliance" under which the Oasis
of Hope Hospital would offer the Hallelujah Diet and report on
their results. He stated that "for the first time, the cause
and effect relationship between diet and disease will be put under
scientific scrutiny at a Christian cancer hospital." [5]
However, as far as I can tell, no report has been issued.
In 1999, Malkmus claimed that all of his physical problems
(including his "baseball-sized" tumor) had disappeared
within a year after his cancer was diagnosed and that he had "experienced
no sickness or physical breakdown of any kind" since that
time [2]. However, in July 2001, he suffered what he describes
as a hemorrhagic stroke, which he attributed to excessive stress.
Several months later, he wrote:
On July 12, 2001, my body, after 25 years of excellent health,
said: "ENOUGH!" Fortunately
it was only a mild blood spill on my brain, and I was back speaking
again within two weeks of the stroke, and never missed producing
my weekly Health Tip or even failing to get it out on time.
It has now been almost 5 months since my stroke and I am back
carrying on a full workload. During this time, I did give up
15 scheduled seminars, which were picked up by my personal assistant
Olin Idol (who is also a Health Minister), and pastor and Health
Minister Graeme Coad. I feel so blessed to have men of this caliber
to call upon during time of need, who were willing to stand in
the gap.
As of this writing, I am back doing my daily exercise routine,
personally fulfilling speaking obligations, and planning for
the future. Neither my mind nor my body appears to have any lingering
effects from the stroke, even though the doctor at the hospital
wanted to inject me with drugs and airlift me to Charlotte on
the day of the stroke. FORTUNATELY, MY FAMILY
REFUSED these medical treatments at a time when I was
unable to make the decision for myself! [In another newsletter
he stated that his family had taken him home and treated him
with extra Barley Green and carrot juice.]
I did take some herbs for a while to bring down the high blood
pressure which followed my stroke, but none of them had any effect
on reducing my high blood pressure levels, and so I had to reluctantly
resort to some very mild blood pressure medication. Currently,
I am slowly weaning myself off these medications, while closely
monitoring my blood pressure, and trying to monitor more carefully
my stress levels. My blood pressure is currently running in the
low normal range! . . . [6]
In January 2002, Idol took over as director of the Back to
the Garden Health Ministry.
Whether Malkmus actually had cancer is not clear. In local
newspaper report that was published in 1998, Malkmus admitted
that he never consulted a cancer specialist for diagnosis but
had relied on nutritionists and chiropractors. "We never
had any biopsies to prove this," he said, "We don't
know it was malignant. We know there was a tumor. We know there
was bleeding." [7] The article also reported that Malkmus
drank 16 to 24 ounces of carrot juice daily, which is enough to
turn a person's skin orange (a condition called carotenemia).
But the article did not say whether Malkmus's skin looked orange.
Antagonism toward Standard Health Care
Malkmus asserts that his methods are better and safer than
standard health care. He states that his earliest memory is of
crying while being wheeled down a corridor into the operating
room where his tonsils were removed. He also vividly recollects
frequent dental visits in which he experienced "incredible"
pain when his teeth were drilled in preparation for fillings [1].
His newsletter dismisses the benefits of immunization, exaggerates
the risks, and claims that dietary measures are more effective
[8]. He also markets videotapes by
Lorraine
Day, M.D, a former surgeon who warns people that medical care
is "against God's will" and does far more harm than
good [9]. With respect to drugs he has written:
All drugs are toxic to the system and create new problems!
The solution to our physical problems is not more pollution!
Every drug is liver toxic, even an aspirin! Every drug causes
a new problem for which another drug is often necessary to relieve
the symptoms of the previous drug. The taking of drugs places
a person on a vicious downhill spiral that will create ever more
physical problems and ultimately end in an early demise. . .
.
The whole approach of the medical community is wrong when
it comes to using drugs and other harmful treatments (radiation,
chemotherapy, etc.) to deal with disease. They are always talking
about cures and treatments for specific symptoms but they will
never find a way to cure disease through the use of drugs! [10]
Elements of the Diet
For many years, the Hallelujah Diet consistrd primarily of
uncooked fruits and vegetables, supplemented by Barley Green (a
powder made from barley leaves), Herbal Fiberblend, Udo's Choice
Perfected Oil, vitamin B12, and at least two 8-ounce glasses of
carrot juice daily. Malkmus described Barley Green as containing
"the widest spectrum of nutrients from a single source"
that he was aware of and claimed that it was needed to ensure
that the body gets the nutrients it needs. Herbal Blend contains
17 herbs, including herb shavegrass and black walnut hulls (alleged
to kill egg of parasites and expel parasites), pumpkin seed (allegedly
good for prostate problems), licorice root (alleged to be a tonic
for the intestinal tract, stimulating enzymes and peristaltic
action); and slippery elm (alleged to coat the digestive tract
and aid in healing inflammation). The program also includes exercise.
Barley Green, Herbal Fiberblend, and several other products
Malkmus sold were made by
The
AIM Companies™ (formerly called American Image Marketing),
of Nampa, Idaho, a multilevel company in which Malkmus was a distributor.
In the late 1980s, AIM's distributor kit featured a videotape
claiming that the American food supply is lacking in nutrients
and filled with toxins. It also alleged that vegetables are "void
of nutrients " and that preservatives, artificial flavors,
dyes, emulsifiers, artificial sweeteners, and other "unnatural
chemicals may rob the body of energy and vitality. "Fortunately,
the tape said, a Japanese researcher named Yoshihide Hagiwara
had "produced a cell food to balance the lacking American
diet."
One segment of the videotape stated that Barley Green contained
"16 organic vitamins, 11 major minerals, 18 amino acids,
12 trace minerals, and enzymes" and had "captured the
life essence." However, another segment of the tape stated
that barley leaf contained "25 kinds of vitamins, including
B15, K, and P." (Actually, there are only 13 vitamins for
humans, and B15 and P are not among them.) Barley Green was also
claimed to "fight pollutants in the body" and to contain
"live enzymes," including many that are found in white
blood cells. The fact that these enzymes would be destroyed during
digestion and therefore would fail to enter the body of Barley
Green users was not mentioned; nor was the fact that the amounts
of most nutrients in Barley Green were insignificant.
In 1988, the FDA ordered AIM to stop claiming that Barley Green
would make people more energetic and was effective against cancer,
arthritis, high blood pressure, obesity, depression, and many
other health problems. The FDA also told the company to stop making
false statements about the quality of the American food supply
[11]. In 1989, the FDA seized quantities of several AIM products
because their labeling or promotional material exaggerated the
dietary value of the products. The case was settled by a consent
decree ordering destruction of one product and the offending labeling
for the others [12]. However, some distributors continued to make
false claims, including claims that Barley Green is effective
against cancer.
In 2001, Malkmus's basic diet called for three daily tablespoons
of Barley Green, which he sold for $49.95 per 10.5 ounces (99
teaspoons) from his Web site. That amounted to more than $4 per
day. Udo's oil added another 60¢ per day. The B12 supplement
was 25¢ per day, which was about ten times as much as drugstore
brands. Herbal Fiberblend sold for about $2 per ounce, but I found
no recommended daily amount. In 2000, Malkmus stated that his
ministry had 27 employees and was supported by mail-order sales
[13].
In 2002, Malkmus terminated his association with AIM and began
selling a barley juice/alfalfa product (BarleyMax) from another
source. An AIM executive subsequently told me that he was pleased
to have their association end because "the Hallelujah Acres
membership was always claiming the healing of many major health
ailments, which is against The AIM Companies member/company agreement."
[14] BarleyMax costs much less than Barley Green, but I don't
have enough information to estimate the current total cost of
the supplements.
Far-Fetched Claims
Malkmus claims that "since 1992 . . . tens of thousands
of people who have applied the principles of the Hallelujah Diet
have written to tell us that their physical problems also went
away [2]. However, testimonials are not reliable evidence of effectiveness,
and there are good reasons to question his credibility. Consider,
for example, his basic story:
God handed down to us in Genesis 1:29 a diet composed of raw
fruits and vegetables, gathered by hand, as found fresh and untainted
in nature. This diet did not contain any animal products or even
any grains. On this 100% uncooked vegetarian diet man lived an
average of 912 years, without any recorded sickness for the first
almost two thousand years of recorded history. I estimate this
diet contained approximately 5% unsaturated fat, 90% complex
carbohydrates, and 5% protein.
After the flood, as we learn in Genesis 9:3, God allowed animal
flesh to be added to His original diet and the cooking of food
began. Revealingly, with the addition of flesh and cooked food,
physical problems began. Looking at Genesis 50:26, we see that
the life-span of man dropped from an average of 912 years on
God's original diet to 110 years, in ten generations, on God's
permissive diet . . . . approximately 20% fat, 70% carbohydrates,
and 10% protein [2].
How can Malkmus be correct that humans lived an average of
912 years "before the flood" or 110 years after adding
cooked food to their diet? These claims, of course, cannot be
scientifically tested. But there are good reasons to believe they
are false. First, no evidence has even been published showing
that the average life expectancy of raw food advocates is over
100 years. More important, the original diet Malkmus describes
would have a vitamin B-12 level of zero because fruits, vegetables
and grains do not contain B-12 [15]; and since B-12 is needed
to make DNA, protect the nervous syetem, and make blood cells,
the human race would have been quickly wiped out. Malkmus began
recommending and selling B-12 supplements in 1998 after his research
director found that people on his diet were at risk for deficency.
But rather than admitting that his Biblical fantasy is wrong,
he attempts to justify it with the ridiculous idea that in Biblical
times, plants contained B-12 absorbed from the soil [16]. Many
Christian writers regard him as an extremist and state that he
has misinterpreted the Biblical passages he cites [17].
Research Program
The key question about the Hallelujah Diet is whether there
is evidence that it works. In 1997, George and Rhonda created
the Hallelujah Acres Foundation, formulated a plan to "validate"
their diet, and hired a research director named Michael Donaldson
to do the job. Donaldson, who received his doctoral degree in
chemical engineering in 1998, describes himself as devoutly Christian
[18]. The foundation operated under the umbrella of the
National
Heritage Foundation, which means that it does not have to
issue public financial statements.
The research plan includes several studies to see whether followers
of the diet improve their health. The first such study was a survey
of followers of the diet who were asked to submit 1-week dietary
records and fill out questionnaires about their health before
and after their dietary change. A total of 870 surveys were mailed
to households of potential subjects. There were 174 surveys returned,
of which 114 came from people with contact information listed
on the Hallelujah Acres Web site. However, only 141 were judged
to have adequate data for dietary analysis and a few of the senders
did not complete the health assessment questionnaires. Using data
from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's nutrient tables, Donaldson
calculated that:
- The average (mean) daily intake was 6.6 servings of fruits
and 11.4 servings of vegetables.
- The average (mean) daily caloric intake was 1,460 calories
for women and 1,830 for men.
- The caloric consumption averaged about 24% from fat, 72%
from carbohydrate, and 5% from protein.
- The daily fiber content averaged about 47 for men and 37
for women, which is several times higher than in the average
American diet.
- Most participants did not get enough vitamin B12, vitamin
D, calcium, or protein, and about half had less than recommended
levels of selenium and zinc [19].
It is well established that low-fat eating lowers blood cholesterol
levels and that high intakes of fruits and vegetables are associated
with lower incidence of cardiovascular disease and certain cancers.
The exercise component and high bulk-to-calories ratio might also
help people lose weight. For these reasons, the risk of these
conditions is lower for users of Hallelujah Diet than it is for
the average American diet. However, the difference for most people
is probably not great, and the Hallelujah diet has several possible
drawbacks:
- Most people would not enjoy eating that way.
- The high fiber content would greatly increase stool volume
and might cause abdominal discomfort and bloating.
- The diet is widely promoted as a cancer treatment, for which
it has no proven value. In fact, cancer patients who have little
appetite to begin with, or who have complications due to a cancer
located in their digestive tract, might find that the high-fiber
content makes them feel too full to meet their caloric requirements.
- Barley Green contains large amounts of beta carotene, which
may be unwise to ingest because beta-carotene supplements have
been associated with increased cancer rates [19-21].
- Even with supplementation, some users of the diet will not
get enough of one or more essential nutrients.
Donaldson's report included scores from two surveys that take
less than ten minutes to complete: the
Quality
of Life Scale and the
SF-36
Health Survey. The Quality of Life Scale consists of 15 or
16 questions, one of which asks whether the person feels "physically
fit and vigorous"). The SF-36 contains 36 questions that
ask about mood, whether symptoms interfere with activities, and
how the person perceives his or her health status. Neither of
these tests asks about specific illnesses or any measurable data.
Donaldson's report summarizes the SF-36 scores in a table which
states that for general health, the average responder scored "61"
before starting the diet and "90" while on it. This
change might appear to be evidence that the diet is good for people's
general health. However, a close look at the scoring system shows
that much of this number depends on questions like "I am
as healthy as anybody I know" and "I expect my health
to get worse," which measure expectations rather than health
status. In addition , the experimental design has two serious
flaws. One is that the questionnaire about previous health status
was retrospective (scored from memory), which is not nearly as
accurate as a contemporaneous survey. The other is that the percentage
of questionnaires returned by people known to be advocating the
diet was about five times as high as the percentage not known
to be advocating it. In other words, most of the respondents were
true believers who presumably were satisfied with the diet, and
no effort was made to examine whether the nonresponders felt better
or worse. The proper way to determine effectiveness would be to
conduct before-and-after studies that provide quantitative data
and reflect a representative sample of all people on the diet.
Malkmus claims that 99% of the people who wrote to him about
their results with his program have been positive [22]. However,
such testimonials are not valid evidence of effectiveness [23]
or that the Hallelujah diet can cure serious diseases. The appropriate
way to tabulate self-reported results would be to obtain feedback
from a cross-section of former clients, not just from those who
feel inspired to write. Remember, too, that people who feel well
when they write might not report if they later become ill, so
that follow-up should continue for several years. A proper assessment
would also have to examine the extent to which people with a treatable
disease decide to diet rather than to utilize appropriate medical
care. This is particularly important for people with early cancers.
Dr. Donaldson has announced that he is setting up a registry [24],
but whether it will yield meaningful data remains to be seen.
The Bottom Line
Although low-fat, high-fiber diets can be healthful, the Hallelujah
Diet is unbalanced and can lead to serious deficiencies. The overall
program is expensive because the recommended supplements cost
over $2,000 a year. Reverend Malkmus' sales pitch includes beliefs
that are historically and nutritionally senseless, as well as
health claims for which he lacks appropriate substantiation. Using
his diet instead of appropriate medical care is very foolish.
References
