Genesis 1:29 Diet:

Killer Foods, Killer Attitudes

By Sarah Westbrook
Weigh of Wisdom Workshop

Killer foods lurk everywhere. We know what they are: sugar, white flour, hydrogenated fats, to name a few. But in my career of teaching nutrition, particularly the past year, I’ve become aware of another killer. This killer is just as insidious as the killer foods I’ve preached against. This killer is even worse than a diet of donuts, fatty pork chops and sodas, for this killer poisons the heart and thinking of man.

What am I speaking of?

A harsh, prideful and condemning attitude.

When we made the decision to add meat to our dietary teaching, some people were extremely grateful. However, we saw a whole new side of other people. These people can quote diet rhetoric like pros, they champion the idea of only keeping the purest of food in the diet, but they have allowed killer attitudes inside of their heart.

The truth is, some people get downright ugly about diet. I’ve seen many letters from vegans saying, “I’ve done the vegan diet for xx years, and I have perfect health. I can run for miles, and can do things people many years my junior can’t even do.” They proudly hold this up in the face of people who are struggling with a vegan diet and are considering adding animal products. But, does it ever occur to these proud souls that not everyone has the same metabolism as they do? That not everyone can thrive on a low protein, low fat diet? It’s an egotistical attitude to assume that what works for you will work for everyone else, and that there’s something wrong with a person if they can’t thrive on the same diet as you do.

When we came out of the vegan movement, I was appalled by the ugly attitudes it drew out in diet purists. Christian people automatically assumed we made changes to pad our pocketbooks, they accused us of not really doing the diet correctly, they whispered behind our backs about our eating meat, as if we had committed a mortal sin. People in the New Age movement, which is supposed to be about tolerance and acceptance, did the same thing. Our efforts and solid scientific research to help these people to understand why the diet doesn’t work for everybody were ignored or passed off as “bogus.”

Rather than seeking the truth with an open mind, and taking into consideration all the people who struggle on a vegan diet, these people chose to point fingers and put up a giant “closed” sign on the window of their minds.

What puzzles me is, how can someone be so focused on a pure diet to the point of steam rolling other people? To the point of only accepting people who agree with them and do well on their dietary principles? Is this anyway to uphold values and purity? Jesus said it is not what goes into a man that defiles him, but what comes out of a man (Mark 7:15). What good is it to do the best diet in the world if what comes out of us is pointing fingers, and having a “what’s wrong with you?” attitude toward people who are struggling? If we see a struggling person and only send them away with admonitions to do the diet more perfectly? If we have a harsh condemning attitude toward people who question our beliefs? If we are ignoring people’s struggles and blaming them for their failure, we have completely missed the boat and have no business “changing lives” with a diet “ministry.”

I would rather be a sick nobody on the Standard American Diet and have a loving and open attitude toward others than have a worldwide diet teaching ministry and a tyrannical attitude, ignoring the struggles of some honest people.

It doesn’t matter how many glowing testimonies I hear about the vegan diet, for every glowing report, I’ve heard many other stories of people who have struggled on the vegan diet. Jesus left the 99 to find the one lost sheep. Shouldn’t we do the same? Would a true shepherd “minister” to others by sharing a rigid, this-is-the-only-way diet, but ignore the lost sheep who are struggling? Would they ignore the fact that the diet they teach has caused harm to children? (See another recent letter we’ve received from a mother who experienced difficulties with the vegan diet at the end of this article).

I Corinthians 13 says, “and though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor (or all my time and resources to teaching a diet), and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity [love], it profiteth me nothing.”

The true shepherds who are willing to stand up, who are willing to leave the comfortable fold of their own ideas and go after the lost sheep, who are willing to admit the diet they are teaching isn’t working–these are the people who truly love and care for others. 

To this end, I would like to dedicate this article to brave shepherds like Chet Day and Andrew Foote who were willing to be open and share the truth, even though it has cost them dearly in income and in reputation. 

In our zeal to preach against killer foods, let us be equally zealous to avoid killer attitudes. When it comes time to stand before the Judgement seat, the attitudes that come out of us in our lives will matter far more than what we put in our bodies. 

A letter from a formerly “lost sheep”:

Pregnant and Nursing Mothers Take Note!

One of our primary concerns about the vegan diet is the severe health problems it can cause for pregnant and nursing mothers and their children. Below is a letter we received just this week from a mother who noticed a big difference in her health and her children’s health after switching from the Genesis 1:29 Diet to the Plan B Diet™.

“I was introduced to the information of the Plan B Diet in January, when I left my vegan ways.  Thank the Lord!!!  I haven't felt this good in 2 years!!!!  I praise GOD for showing me the truth.  I was pregnant or nursing for the two years that I was on the Hdiet and couldn't stay well.

“I was very strict and followed the rules pretty closely.  I was so tired when I was pregnant that I could hardly function.  Previously [before I started the Hallelujah Diet], I would walk 5 miles a day with babies in stroller everyday. 

“Anyway, thank you for getting the truth out.  . . .Oh, thankfully, my newest baby is very healthy, and my 2-year-old, [who was diagnosed with] failure to thrive, has been thriving now that we're drinking raw milk and eating our protein. :-)  Praise the Lord!”