A new 'bible' for dieting called the Daniel Diet helps encourage readers to eat healthier food variants, according to Yahoo! News.
This bible is inspired by the Biblical prophet Daniel and is based on two passages where it was mentioned that Daniel fasted twice. In his first fasting, Daniel only ate vegetables and drank water to set himself apart from God. In his second fasting as mentioned in a later chapter, Daniel stopped eating meat and other rich foods and also stopped drinking wine. Pastors across the United States are now encouraging their congregations to participate in similar fasts or diets inspired by passages from the bible to jumpstart their weight loss and also strengthen their faith.
Pastor Dan Chun, of the First Presbyterian Church of Honolulu wrote on his diet support website: "We hope the fast will help reset your spiritual compass, which can get rusty and out of whack because of every day cares and concerns."
Likewise, the Saddleback Church also launched a long term version of the diet which they called "The Daniel Plan" through their book and website. Head pastor, Rick Warren, was inspired to start the fast after performing 800 baptisms in one day and realizing that most of the people who he baptized were overweight. "I had this thought, it wasn't very spiritual, but it was 'We're all fat,'" he said.
Dietician Jessica Bennett of Vanderbilt Medical Center said she believes that trying a version of the Daniel diet can potentially kick start healthier habits or even weight loss for some people.
"I definitely think it makes people more aware of what they're eating and what they're putting in their body. I say more power to them," she said.
However, Bennett also cautioned that extremely strict versions of the diet may be frustrating to a lot of people.
