The Daniel Diet: How to Lose 60 Pounds in a Year and Keep it Off

March 08, 2012

The Daniel Diet: How to Lose 60 Pounds in a Year and Keep it Off 


SourceRick Warren from Saddleback Churchwith Mehmet Oz and Mark Hyman Reference:  Book of Daniel, Chapter One 


 When King Nebuchadnezzar conquered Israel hauled the Jews off to Babylon, he wanted the 10 best and brightest young men to be advisors to his court.  His palace steward was instructed to give them “the king's food to eat” so that they would be fat and happy.  Daniel refused.  He insisted on just eating vegetables.  He asked the palace steward to compare the Jews, eating just vegetables, to the other men eating the “king’s food”.  Ten days later, voila!  Daniel looked better.  


What we have here in ancient Jewish text is the first randomized, controlled trial in history of vegetables versus “king’s fair”.   Awesome.  2600 years ago, clinical research in Iraq! Rick Warren, pastor of one of America’s most influential churches and author of “Purpose Driven Life” decided he was too fat when he hit 290 and noticed that most of his parishioners were on the chubby side too.  He collaborated with Dr Oz (TV fame) and Mark Hyman (leading Anti-Aging/functional medicine doctor) to devise a “Daniel Diet” based on the book of Daniel.  


It’s basically vegan but the recipes are delicious.  Check them out. What followed in Rick Warren’s church was remarkable.  Every Bible Study group in the whole church studied the first book of Daniel and many embarked on a diet they called the “Daniel Diet”.  Vegetables.  Rick Warren has trimmed down and lost 60 pounds.  His congregation has lost 250,000 pounds.  (BIG church) 


 How does the Daniel Diet work?  Easy.  You have abundant vegetables that fill you up with volume and fiber and very little “animal”.  What meat is in the diet is carefully picked omega fatty acid fish or white meat poultry.  And not so much of it.  There is plenty of protein in vegetables and the bacteria in your colon are experts at making all the branched-chain amino acids you need anyway.  


Most importantly, the Daniel Diet has very little sugar or processed wheat (bread, cookies, cake).  And they made a point of doing a detoxification fast to start the diet.  There is increasing evidence that our “toxic” burden in our industrialized world plays some role in our being unable to lose weight.  Starting a weight loss program with a detox kickoff was put into their plan.   Some folks just did the 10 day detox but many stuck with it for months after doing the kick off detox.  (The Biblical text refers to a 10 day period).


 To lose weight and keep it off, you need to go longer and learn new eating habits. The nugget of its success is that folks feel full.  At the molecular level, the whole foods are low glycemic and don’t induce insulin.  Without insulin around, your fat cells open up and share all the calories you have stored and can’t get to when you eat processed, high glycemic carbs.  It works. 


 WWW. What will Work for ME? The Daniel Plan?  I did this last year and in 6 weeks lost 9 pounds, never being hungry.  Instead of 9 servings of fruits and veges a day, I was at 18 servings of vegetables.  No sugar.  No wheat.  No meat.  My blood pressure dropped 20 points, my cholesterol dropped 30 points,  my glucose dropped 20 points.  You could do this too.  Get some friends.  Read the Book of Daniel.  2600 years of clinical research is still accurate today.  “Recent research” has confirmed it.      


This Column was written by Dr.John E. Whitcomb, MD, Brookfield Longevity, Brookfield, WI.

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