By Eleanor Hong

Divine Health & What Would Jesus Eat?
Based on a Mediterranean cuisine, the diet encourages eating fish, salads and lightly cooked vegetables, olive oil, fresh fruit, bread and wine.

In his book, "Divine Health and What Would Jesus Eat?: The Ultimate Program for Eating Well, Feeling Great, and Living Longer," Dr. Don Colbert, a family physician, provides a regimen inspired by an "all-natural diet from biblical times."

Colbert encourages eating whole and fresh foods that are not processed or treated with pesticides or additives. Foods to avoid include those high in sugar, fat, salt or chemical preservatives.

"Divine Health" has several cookbooks and plans where Colbert also discourages the excess consumption of meat, pork and refined white flour. He also encourages daily walking.

According to Gerbstadt, Colbert promotes a fairly well-balanced food plan and covers a different approach to the Mediterranean diet.

Maker's Diet
Jordan S. Rubin founded the diet based on his personal experience in battling Crohn's disease. His program is based on recovering from immune deficiency. Failed by modern day medicine, Rubin was advised to take a Biblical approach for recovery.

Drawn from the book of Leviticus, Rubin's food plan is based on Old Testament dietary laws. In his 40-day program and recent book, "The Great Physician’s Rx," Rubin provides a list of popular foods that are least nutritional for the body. The food plan is to avoid overly processed and chemically enhanced foods and biblical man-made altered or "biblically incorrect."

According to Rubin, he's laid out what are the healthiest foods in this day and age using a biblical perspective.

"Our diet has much more appeal than a vegetarian Genesis diet because the reality is that Americans consume a large amount of protein. And it would be very difficult for a person to go from that kind of American diet to a raw diet," says Rubin. "I do believe we are reaching an audience both evangelical and otherwise."

For example, meat including beef, lamb and goat are allowed, but pork is not. Fish with fins and scales are allowed, but most shellfish are not.

Rubin encourages eating certain meat and dairy products in their most organic and least-processed forms. Dairy, for instance, should not be pasteurized or homogenized with hormones but rather taken as a yogurt drink derived from raw, fermented milk.

His "dirty dozen" list includes pork products, artificial sweeteners, white flour and sugar, high fructose corn syrup and hydrolyzed soy protein.

And to comment on the growing trend of faith-based diets?

"If you look at some of the top health and wellness diets out there, they are promoting some kind of cultural or historical basis whether it be a New Age diet regimen based on Eastern religions. . . I think that when you are an evangelical Christian, you want to support anything coming from the Bible -- for financial advice or how to raise kids -- if you think the Bible is the authority of your life. That's why more Christians are more attracted to Biblical diets."

"With health plans in general, my suggestion when starting a diet is to make sure it is recommended from someone you trust and see if it worked, talk to your health professional to make sure the diet won't interact unfavorably with any individual medial problems," says Rubin. "You'll know if it works by common sense. I think there's value in each faith based diet but you're going to be judge."

Hallelujah and Body By God Diets