The Maker's Diet: A fad diet sent from above?

The Maker's Diet is a relatively new health/weight loss diet that is gaining a lot of popularity in the US. Overall, it seems very similar to most of the other 'anti-fad' fad diets... in other words it advocates a lot of healthy, 'common-sense' diet rules (just like the South Beach Diet). These rules include:

• organic foods.... check!
• lean meats.... check!
• healthy fats.... check!
• good carbs.... check!
  

The Maker's Diet does have a few differences though. For one thing, there is an entire line of Maker's Diet supplements called Garden of Life. For another thing, the diet has a strong religious element - the author, Jordan Rubin, includes regular fasting and prayer in the weight loss plan.

Personally, I get real nervous when people try to use religion to sell anything at all, much less a weight loss plan and diet supplements. But, nevertheless, our job is to keep you up-to-date in the fitness world. So here's a pretty good overview of the popular Maker's Diet from MSN Diet & Fitness:

Eating Right by God

Every diet approach that hits the hungry U.S. consumer market makes a bold claim or two. The Maker’s Diet, written by Jordan S. Rubin, is no exception.

“Dr. Jordan Rubin is on a mission from God to change the health of this nation,” reads the first sentence of the book, a New York Times bestseller for the past 18 weeks.

Rubin, a lifelong Messianic Jew, isn’t kidding. He credits God for healing him after Crohn’s disease (an inflammatory bowel disorder) and related complications that struck him in 1996, at age 19, and nearly killed him. At 6’1” Rubin weighed only 100 pounds at the worst point of his disease. Now, he says, his lifework is to share the method that saved him.

“I don’t claim to do it all,” says Rubin, now 29 and living in West Palm Beach, Fla. “It’s not about [me] reaching the masses. It’s about reaching people who are going to reach other people.”

The Maker’s Diet promises to transform the life of the devotee in 40 days, a timeframe that mimics the physical and spiritual transformations of several biblical characters, Rubin explains. Like other popular diets (Atkins, The South Beach Diet), it consists of three phases. During the first 14 days, many foods (particularly carbohydrates) are limited or eliminated. The next two-week phase permits greater food variety. Phase three, the “maintenance phase,” takes you through days 20 to 40 and is designed for life.

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