“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.” (Source: CDC National Center for Health Statistics)
“Since 1980, the prevalence of BMI for ageat or above the 95th percentile (sometimes termed ‘obese’) hastripled among school-age children and adolescents, and it remainshigh 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.” (Source: CDC Website: Overweight and Obesity Consequences)
“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.” (Source: CDC Website: Overweight and Obesity Consequences)
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 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. Hopefully this will help motivate those who are carrying extra weight to do something about getting rid of those debilitating extra pounds.
