Dr Don Colbert, MD and Divine Health dieting updated 5/2/2016

back to healthread                               back to diet page
Like some other folks in the Evangelical Christian Church, Dr Don Colbert, a family practice physician, has written several books, many of which are about his take on healthy eating.  He sells them on his website.  Some of the titles are "What would Jesus have eaten", The Bible series, and the latest is the "I can do this diet".

There isn't really anything new in his diet, but it seems to appeal to Evangelical Christians because he intersperses religion and Bible with his dietary suggestions which include dropping all foods with "white sugar" and exercising regularly.

"I have had people with cancer who have taken God's Word and been healed." says Dr Colbert in a video on youtube, but he admitted that's the exception.  However he did claim that his Bible based diet can stop 80 percent of most diseases.

"A lot of people have emotional problems" continued Dr Colbert,  "They use food as their valium."

"I used to prescribe drugs for years and then, I thought if people would simply eat better food, exercise and laugh more, they can prevent a lot of disease!" concludes Colbert suggesting disease is where the body is telling you that you are doing something wrong.  He calls the Bible, the "owner's manual".

On his website, some of the statistics Dr Colbert quotes in a short video are incorrect. For example, obesity is not, as he claims, the cause of 80 percent of disease.

In one review of the "I Can Do This Diet", which is sold using the usual buzz words of "easy" and "quick", one blogger stated the pro's of the diet as being probably a healthy lifestyle but the "con's" of it as "nothing new" and also as pushing supplements for fiber, which as the blogger pointed out that some experts say not very healthy for the long term.

If there are a lot of success stories of folks following his program, they cannot be found on his website.  They only have 2 - one started at 400 lbs and now weighs 270 (which even at 5'9" is still a BMI of 40 - i.e. clinically obese).  In the other success story, she doesn't mention how much weight she lost and the link to her blog is not working.

Conclusion - Colbert seems to be riding on his charm and the fact that he's a medical doctor as well as a Christian, to push what seems like a re-hash of already existent diet programs.  I guess going on this diet won't hurt a person (am not sure about the supplements, however) but like many other programs which restrict a lot of foods, it probably won't be something folks can stay on for very long.