The Salt Lake Tribune
If losing weight is one of your New Year’s resolutions, why not look to religion as a guide?
That’s what Michelle Snow did — and it worked.
By drawing on the dietary teachings of Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, Islam, Seventh-day Adventism and Mormonism, the Kaysville mother, nurse and author lost nearly 40 pounds and dramatically reduced her lifelong digestive problems.
“God has told his people how to eat,” Snow says in an interview. “It’s our choice what consequences we want for our bodies. Why should we choose what man has made over what God made? He knows our bodies best. He made them.”
Snow, a Mormon, has assembled those teachings and her own insights into a just-published book, The W.O.W. Diet: Words of Wisdom and Dietary Enlightenment From Leading World Religions and Scientific Study.
It all began in 2006, Snow says, when she despaired about ever solving her indigestion problems.
Through the years, she had ingested a variety of fiber supplements. She tried a vegan diet on three separate occasions for about six months each time. She took strong laxatives. Nothing worked. Her abdomen was chronically distended and her stomach hurt incessantly.
Then Snow, who has two master’s degrees (in public health and human resources), sought medical advice. Doctors first thought she could have celiac disease, so she went on a gluten-free diet. But she didn’t have most of the gluten-intolerance symptoms, and the diet did nothing for the problems she did have.
Next, they believed she might have irritable bowel syndrome, but, again, that did not match her symptoms. The proposed solution — get adequate sleep, eliminate emotional stressors, reduce the consumption of stimulants and increase the intake of dietary fiber — made no sense for her.
“I didn’t take stimulants. I wasn’t stressed. And as far as fiber intake went, I was drinking fiber, taking fiber tablets and eating fiber-rich foods,” Snow writes in her book. “There was no way I could add even more fiber to my diet unless I chopped down a tree and started gnawing it like a beaver.”
A last resort: prayer
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Her husband, Trent, wondered if she had tried asking God about her condition.
Snow balked at the suggestion. Why would God want to hear about something so physical or even disgusting? Still, it was worth a try. So Snow found a quiet, secluded place and poured out her heart to the heavens.
“To say the least, I felt awkward,” she writes. “In my mind, my prayer seemed improper. I prefaced my prayer by apologizing in an attempt not to offend.”
She then described her ailments and her efforts and concluded with these words, “Heavenly Father, whatever I need to do, I will do it. Just tell me what it is.”
As she pondered the prayer and the problem, the clear thought came to her: Explore the dietary observances and restraints offered by various faiths as well as scientific studies of the overall health of members from these religious groups.
The Bible, for example, especially Leviticus and Deuteronomy, forbids the eating of animal blood and animal fat, fish without fins and scales, and birds of prey such as eagles. But it encourages the consumption of animals with parted hoofs and cloven feet, along with those that chew their cud such as oxen, sheep and goats. It also approves eating all fowl, and fish with fins and scales such as trout, salmon, bass and halibut.
Buddhism and Hinduism encourage plant-based diets, mostly free of meat and some spices (though not all of these believers are vegetarians).
The Muslim dietary code approves of milk, honey, fish with scales and plants that are nonaddictive and contain no intoxicants. It also encourages the faithful to eat grains, vegetables and fruits, legumes, nuts, seeds and beans, while avoiding alcohol.
Snow’s own LDS tradition also bars alcohol, tobacco and “hot drinks,” which the Utah-based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints interprets to mean “coffee and tea.”
But its health code, known as the Word of Wisdom, also encourages members to eat meat “sparingly” and herbs and fruits in their “season” with “prudence and thanksgiving.”
From these studies, Snow combined the various religious principles and practices into 10 dietary guidelines, which emphasize grains, lentils, beans, vegetables and fruit, some meat, some dairy and egg products, but discourage refined carbohydrates, concentrated sugars and fat-fried or processed foods.
Foods, fads and faith
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Snow is hardly the first, of course, to draw on faith for a healthy eating plan.
In 2004, Jordan Rubin published The Maker’s Diet, which became a New York Times best-seller.
A decade earlier, Rubin was diagnosed with Crohn’s colitis, a sometimes-fatal “wasting disease” characterized by long-term inflammation of the bowel, according to his website. The once-healthy college student dropped more than 75 pounds as he sought help from medical professionals in 70 countries.
After two years, Rubin created a diet for himself based on biblical teachings. It emphasizes whole grains and opposes overly processed food. Some carbohydrates are allowed, as long as they are in their natural, unrefined form such as brown rice, oats, barley and fermented whole-grain sourdough bread. He then founded Garden of Life, a health and wellness company in West Palm Beach, Fla.
“I don’t know of any data that suggests that organic is better than other produce, but it’s more expensive,” Ruth Kava, director of nutrition at the American Council on Science and Health in New York, told Brunilda Nazario of MedicineNet.com. “ ‘Organic’ and ‘natural’ have that ‘good-for-you buzz,’ but there are a lot of natural poisons and carcinogens, so that part of this marketing ploy does not get me too excited.”
Kava added that, in the distant past, people were unaware of vitamins. “We have come a long way in terms of our knowledge, and I don’t think that should be ignored,” she told the MedicineNet reviewer.
Rachel Jones, who teaches a wildly popular “Food and Culture” class at the University of Utah, sees much innate wisdom in religious traditions. But she is wary of any “one size fits all” diet.
“If there are components that work for an individual,” Jones says, “that’s worth pursuing for them.”
But Americans are moving away from collective answers and instead embracing different eating patterns that make sense to each person.
“I know people who thrive on hamburgers and french fries, rather than a primarily vegetarian diet,” she says. “I get my students to try on different approaches and see what feels better, gives them more energy and seems to fit them best.”
For Snow, the results of her W.O.W. Diet have been so positive and the effort to follow the plan so painless that she plans to live this way for the rest of her life.
“Once you realize how well and healthy you feel, you’ll never go back,” she says. “Your taste buds have changed forever.”
Her view of God also has shifted permanently. Snow now prays to a deity who is less distant, more personal.
Nothing is off-limits, no matter how physical, trivial or repugnant, she says. God is open to it all.
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