Here’s what happened, as Monk used to say on the old TV show:
As I explained in the previous post, Rick Warren realized that he was fat and out of shape, as were many people in his congregation, in late 2010. According to the NYT article I linked to yesterday, he told his congregation the next Sunday that he needed to lose about 90 pounds (having gained weight at the rate of 2-3 pounds a year for the 30 years he’d been pastor of the church) and that others could join him if they wished. The article doesn’t say what the reaction was on that Sunday. Then we’re told that shortly after Warren’s announcement he was “in Lenox, Mass., for a personal medical visit with Dr. Mark Hyman, a prominent metabolism expert and author of several best-selling books on avoiding chronic disease through healthier living.” I’d like to get some clarification as to why Warren was seeing Hyman, traveling all the way across the country from his home in Lake Forest, California.
Before I go on, here’s a little info about Dr. Hyman: He’s a proponent of something that’s usually called “functional medicine,” although other labels are “integrative medicine” or “alternative medicine.” As far as I know he actually is a medical doctor, but he has veered into the much more lucrative world of books and supplements. He’s a proponent, for example, of the whole “detox” idea. I wonder: did Pastor Warren consult with Hyman because of a recommendation from someone in his church, another so-called medical expert listed as a consultant on the Daniel Diet, Dr. Daniel Amen? Possibly. Amen is a proponent of various dubious treatments for the health of the brain.
Anyway, according to Warren, he and Hyman came up with the idea of using the already-existing small groups in Saddleback Church as a vehicle for helping people keep their health commitments. This idea of using accountability as a tool for weight loss is nothing new, of course: Weight Watchers was founded on that very premise. The program was launched very quickly, picking up yet another celebrity doctor as a sponsor, Dr. Mehmet “Oz,” along the way. (Be sure to read this excellent article about these three men and follow the internal links if you’d like to learn more about them. While Dr. Oz is a Harvard-trained cardiologist, a group of his fellow specialists recently issued a letter recommending that he be removed from the roster of their organization since he now pushes all sorts of loony ideas on his TV show. He is not listed as a co-author on the Daniel Diet book, but Hyman and Amen are.) Two months after Warren’s and Hyman’s get-together the program was launched at Saddleback; 14,000 people signed up the first week. The book followed in 2013 and has been a huge success. Whose idea it was to write a book is not clear, but since Warren, Hyman and Amen were all successful authors I would assume that publication was probably a joint decision.
Time for another “before I go on” segment: Rick Warren has made it a matter of principle that he does not live a wealthy lifestyle. When his previous book, The Purpose-Driven Life, became a publishing phenomenon, he stopped taking a salary from his church and even gave back all of his salary from the previous 25 years. Talk about putting your money where your mouth is! He and his wife Kay have donated much of their money to charities. He says that “I drive a 12 year old Ford, have lived in the same house for the last 22 years, bought my watch at Wal-Mart, and I don’t own a boat or a jet.” This quotation is from a 2013 article in Forbes, so I can’t speak to his lifestyle today, but I think his record is clear.
I also think that his three collaborators knew a good thing when they saw it. There’s no hint that any of them are failing to profit from the Daniel Diet. And I’d love to know who came up with the “Daniel” tag. As I will discuss in the next post, the actual story of the biblical Daniel’s food choices, in both chapter one and chapter ten of the Old Testament book, has nothing to do with health and weight loss and everything to do with spiritual faithfulness. Can I see into the hearts of these three medical “experts”? No, as I said in my last post, I can’t and I don’t try to do so. But I can certainly comment on outward actions. I can’t help but feel that Pastor Warren has been played by these guys. They’re piggybacking on the enormous success of his church to push their own ideas.
As I said yesterday, the first chapter of the diet book, which seems to be completely authored by Warren, is straightforward and clear. But the problem with a nice, simple, short philosophy is that you won’t make any money from it and you can’t fill up a book with it. So you have to come up with a lot of bangs and curlicues along the way. Let me reference an excellent post from 2014 about the “Foods to Lose” chapter by Hyman, who’s one of those evils-of-gluten people. (The author of this blog is very positive about Rick Warren’s earlier book and also clearly says that she’s a Christian.)
So what does Hyman say? Here’s a representative gem, as quoted in the post: “The dwarf wheat grown in the United States has changed the quality and type of gluten protein in wheat, creating much higher gluten content, and creating a super-gluten that causes celiac disease and autoimmune antibodies.”
Let me ask you something: Do peanuts cause peanut allergies?
No.
Hyman is totally wrong about the whole “super gluten” hoo-ha, but let’s just say for the sake of argument that he’s somehow right. So what? It is still true that (to quote the article and so therefore justify my use of all caps):
GLUTEN DOESN’T CAUSE CELIAC DISEASE!
You have to have the underlying genetic predisposition in order to develop the condition. And since only 1% of the population is known to suffer from CD, there is no need for everyone to stay off of it. (Some sources say as high as 3%–so that leaves 97% of us who are celiac free. Add to that perhaps 1% who have some type of wheat allergy and 6% who have some sort of “gluten sensitivity”—a term some doctors disallow—and you still have 9 out of 10 people being perfectly able to consume wheat, barley, rye and triticale, all grains that contain gluten.) As I’ve said before and will say again: it’s not the grains or carbs in and of themselves that are contributing to our obesity epidemic; it’s refined and processed grains/carbs.
Maybe I’ll get really ambitious at some point and at least skim the entire DD book, but, as the Bible says, “a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump” (Galatians 5:9 KJV). If the chapter on forbidden food has so much nonsense in it, the whole book is tainted by association. But that’s enough for today.