Health
Bible-based diet could unlock the secret to lasting wellness, experts say
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Many people turn to the Bible for guidance in times of both triumph and hardship — but some say it can also serve as a guide for physical health.
Dr. Josh Axe and Jordan Rubin, co-authors of the book “The Biblio Diet,” believe that ancient foods of the Bible can be transformed into a modern dietary plan to enhance health and even help reverse life-threatening conditions.
“I think the Bible is the greatest health book ever written,” Axe, a doctor of natural medicine in Tennessee, told Fox News Digital in an interview. “If somebody’s dealing with any health condition, whether it’s depression, anxiety, cancer, heart disease, diabetes, PCOS, infertility, hypothyroidism or low testosterone, the Bible has a solution. If you follow a diet based on the Bible, you can be made well.”
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Here are more details.
Faith and healing through biblical principles
Both Axe and Rubin have faced serious health challenges that deepened their faith and inspired their work, they said.
Dr. Josh Axe and Jordan Rubin are co-authors of the book “The Biblio Diet.” (Hannah Corwin; courtesy of Dr. Josh Axe.)
Rubin was diagnosed with Crohn’s colitis as a teenager, and later with severe cancer.
After visiting dozens of doctors with no success, he met a man who told him that if he were to follow a diet based on the Bible — proven through history and confirmed by science — he could be well.
“After another 40-day period of an upgraded diet — plus detoxification, and emotional and spiritual therapy — I overcame cancer that was referred to as terminal and did not undergo chemotherapy, radiation or additional surgeries,” Rubin told Fox News Digital.
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Dr. Axe’s own journey began while he was helping his mother overcome breast cancer.
“I put together a program for my mom that included certain foods in the Bible, like pomegranate and olive oil — and also prayer, faith, praise and worship,” he said.
“I think the Bible is the greatest health book ever written.”
Later, when a medical procedure left Axe with a spinal infection, he again turned to a Bible-based diet and prayer, combining them with regenerative treatments to heal.
“I listened to the diagnosis of my great physician, not my ordinary physician,” the doctor said. “The great physician tells you to live with hope in all things and believe in the miraculous — and I did. Now I’m 100% healed.”
What a Bible-based diet looks like
Food is mentioned repeatedly in the Bible, and both authors believe the core foods discussed can form the foundation of a healthy modern diet.
Key examples include red meat, whole-grain sourdough bread, olive oil, dairy, fruits like pomegranates and figs, and natural sweeteners, such as raw local honey.
A Bible-based diet includes foods like red meat and dairy, which some have argued should be foods to avoid. (iStock)
Red meat, the authors say, is a “superfood” that provides protein, creatine, glutamine, carnitine, zinc, iron and B6.
“If you look at the Bible’s longest-lived heroes, anytime they could afford red meat, they would consume it,” Rubin said.
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Bread, often demonized in modern diets, also plays a key role when prepared correctly.
“Properly sourced and properly prepared grains can be a part of a healthy diet,” Rubin said. “With Jesus being called the bread of life, it wouldn’t make sense if bread was bad for everyone. The way it’s processed and preserved matters.”
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Olive oil, frequently referenced in scripture, supports skin, metabolism and cardiovascular health. Dairy — particularly from sheep, goats or certain dairy cows — can also be beneficial.
“The land of milk and honey was not just a euphemism,” Rubin noted. “Dairy can be very healthy if it’s whole, raw and grass-fed.”
Raw, local honey serves as a natural sweetener and immune system booster, while unprocessed whole salt provides essential minerals. Avocados, figs and fresh fruits are other staples.
“Eat foods that God created and in a form that’s healthy for the body,” Rubin advised. “You can take red meat or an apple and make it unhealthy by how you grow, raise, process and prepare it.”
Foods to consider avoiding
The authors argued that people should avoid foods labeled “unclean” in Leviticus — such as pork, shellfish and shrimp.
“Pigs, shrimp and other scavengers don’t have the system to properly process toxins,” Rubin said.
Axe believes that living a healthy life is one important factor to living faithfully. (Courtesy of Dr. Josh Axe.)
They also warned against modern processed foods, including those with high-fructose corn syrup, food dyes and refined sugars.
Even foods considered healthy can become harmful when overly processed.
“If Moses were here today, what would the food laws look like?” they ask in “The Biblio Diet” — encouraging readers to apply biblical principles to modern nutrition.
Fasting and other biblical health practices
Beyond food, Axe and Rubin highlight spiritual disciplines that impact both body and soul — particularly fasting.
“There’s no doubt that fasting is one of the greatest healing breakthroughs someone can experience,” Dr. Axe said.
Fasting can begin simply by avoiding food for a 10-hour window overnight, allowing the body to “clean up damaged cells, cancer cells, parasites and infections.”
“Fasting is one of the greatest healing breakthroughs someone can experience.”
He added, “There’s a lot of medical literature on it being the greatest thing you can do to reverse the aging process and activate longevity.”
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For some, fasting can also bring spiritual clarity.
“I can tell you personally [that] spiritual growth [brings a] deeper connection to God [and] clearer thinking — the ability to hear God’s voice,” Dr. Axe said.
Olive oil is a key food noted in the Bible, and can be used in a variety of recipes. (iStock.)
Rubin agreed, emphasizing the importance of emotional healing as well.
“During my successful battle with cancer, I made spiritual health a priority,” he said. “I wrote out a prayer from the Bible and quoted it out loud three times a day — it was medicine to me.”
He also focused on forgiveness, calling it “essential” to his recovery.
Best to consult multiple sources
The authors stressed that “The Biblio Diet” isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution.
“It’s a great diet for everyone, but due to the number of health problems people have today, there is a level of customization that people can benefit from,” Dr. Axe said.
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The diet, they noted, isn’t restrictive — it can even include waffles, pizza, cookies and ice cream made with wholesome, Bible-approved ingredients.
Rubin advises anyone facing health challenges to stay calm, seek peace and consult multiple sources.
Jordan Rubin still eats delicious foods while following a Bible-based diet, but he does so in a healthy way. (Sarah Partain Tran.)
“Take a deep breath. Believe that God has provided for your healing. Seek a second opinion, and most of all, do what you have peace about.”
Axe and Rubin view health as a form of worship, they said — a way to honor God through the body.
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“I think God wants us to be excellent in everything we do,” Dr. Axe said.
“One of the greatest things we can do to influence others and let them see the truth of the Bible and what Jesus teaches is by being physically healthy.”
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Colorectal cancer, once considered a disease of older age, is becoming a crisis for younger adults. New research shows one group getting hit the hardest – those without a college degree.
A recent study from the American Cancer Society analyzed data from over 101,000 adults aged 25 to 49 who died from colorectal cancer between 1994 and 2023.
While death rates remained stable for college graduates, they climbed significantly for those without a bachelor’s degree, the findings showed.
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For young adults with a high school education or less, the mortality rate rose from 4.0 to 5.2 per 100,000 people, while the rate for those with at least a bachelor’s degree stayed flat, at approximately 2.7 per 100,000.
This does not mean that a degree offers some kind of biological protection, researchers cautioned.
Colorectal cancer, once considered a disease of older age, is becoming a crisis for younger adults. (iStock)
The difference is likely driven by the conditions in which people live and work, which often correlate with education levels, the researchers noted.
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The study suggests that the higher death rates are likely driven by differences in the prevalence of risk factors, including obesity, physical inactivity, smoking and diet, which are “known to be elevated among children and young adults with lower [socioeconomic status].”
Because the study relied on death certificates, researchers couldn’t say exactly why college graduates had better outcomes.
Because the researchers didn’t have the patients’ actual medical records, they couldn’t see things like frequency of screenings or treatment options, which would impact survival outcomes. (iStock)
Certificates typically list the cause of death, age, race and education level, but they do not include a person’s full medical history.
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Because the researchers didn’t have the patients’ actual medical records, they couldn’t see things like frequency of screenings or treatment options, which would impact survival outcomes.
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Colorectal cancer is now the leading cause of cancer death for men under 50 and the second leading cause for women in the same age group, according to recent statistics.
While colorectal cancer death rates remained stable for college graduates, they climbed significantly for those without a bachelor’s degree, the findings showed. (iStock)
Because the disease is highly treatable when caught early, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) lowered the recommended screening age from 50 to 45 in 2021.
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Common signs and symptoms of colorectal cancer can include a change in bowel habits, such as diarrhea, constipation or narrowing of the stool, that lasts for more than a few days, according to the American Cancer Society.
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Other signs that warrant seeing a doctor include blood in the stool or a persistent feeling of needing to go to the bathroom but being unable to go.
The research was published in JAMA Oncology.
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A young woman who started vaping at the age of 15 has been given just 18 months to live — after being diagnosed with lung cancer in her early 20s.
Kayley Boda, 22, of Manchester, in the United Kingdom, was engaging in heavy vaping on a regular basis when she started coughing up a brown substance with “grainy bits” in it in January 2025, news agency SWNS reported.
The retail assistant said doctors turned her away eight times, telling her she had a chest infection — until she began coughing up blood.
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After seven biopsies, Boda was diagnosed with lung cancer. She underwent surgery to remove the lower lobe of her right lung, as well as chemotherapy — and in February 2026, got the all-clear, the same source reported.
Two months later, though, doctors said the cancer had come back in the pleural lining. Now she’s been given 18 months to live.
Kayley Boda, 22, is shown in the hospital. She started coughing up a brown substance with “grainy bits” in January 2025, she said. She had been vaping since the age of 15. (SWNS)
The young woman has now issued a warning to others to be aware of the dangers of vaping.
Boda said she smoked a bit as a young teenager. She took up vaping after that.
Then, “a few months after I switched from reusable vapes to disposable ones, I started coughing up brown, grainy mucus,” as SWNS reported.
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“Doctors turned me away eight times with a chest infection. … Then I started coughing up blood, so they did an X-ray and found a shadow on my lung,” she added.
“They told me they were 99% sure, [since I was] so young, that it wasn’t cancer, so not to worry about it. When I got the results back, and they told me it was lung cancer, it felt so surreal.”
Boda said she was “very naive” before her diagnosis and thought that “something like this would never happen to me.”
She said that she had surgery to remove half of her right lung.
“After the surgery, I started chemo and I had a terrible reaction to it. I couldn’t lift my head up. I was throwing up blood. I was urinating blood. I couldn’t eat. I couldn’t sleep.”
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She said that when she got the “all clear [in Feb. 2026], it felt amazing, but just two months later I was told the cancer had come back, and I have 18 months to live.”
She added, “I’m 22. This isn’t meant to happen to somebody my age.”
“Stay off the vapes because they will catch up with you.”
She blames her cancer on vaping, she said.
“My symptoms started a few months after I started disposable vapes, and there’s no lung cancer in my family,” she said. “I haven’t vaped for three months, I’ve made my partner stop, I’ve made my mom stop, I’m urging all my friends to stop. Stay off the vapes,” she continued, “because they will catch up with you.”
When doctors did an X-ray, they found a shadow on Boda’s right lung. She was later diagnosed with lung cancer and has undergone surgery to remove the lower lobe of her right lung, as well as chemotherapy. (SWNS)
She said she’d been using reusable vapes since the age of 15 and began using disposable vapes a few months before her cancer symptoms started.
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In November 2024, when she developed a rash all over her body, doctors said it could have been due to shingles, chicken pox or scabies, she told SWNS.
‘Nothing worked’
“I got treated for all three, and nothing worked,” Boda said. “It got to the point where I was cutting myself from scratching so hard.”
A few months after that, she began coughing up a dark brown mucus, with “grainy bits, the consistency of sugar, in it,” she said. When the coughing continued, she visited the doctor’s office, but was told it could be scarring from pneumonia or a chest infection, she also said.
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It wasn’t until March 2025 that she began coughing up bright red blood. At that point, doctors gave her a chest X-ray and told her they’d found a shadow on her lower right lung.
Over the next four months, she had seven biopsies as doctors took samples from the “shadow.” In August, when she went to get the results, she was told she had stage one lung cancer.
Boda is shown in the hospital. She was diagnosed with lung cancer and had surgery to remove the lower lobe of her right lung, as well as chemotherapy. (SWNS)
In September 2025, she had surgery to remove the lower lobe of her right lung, and the surrounding lymph nodes. During the surgery, doctors upstaged her cancer from stage one to stage three after finding cancer in six surrounding lymph nodes, she said.
Following the surgery, Boda was unable to breathe properly and had to learn to walk all over again.
“The oncologist said this is so rare.”
After finishing chemotherapy in February 2026, Kayley was given the all clear, leaving her feeling elated.
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However, just a month after that, she began experiencing extreme chest pains and was told by doctors she had a pleural effusion — a build-up of fluid in the lungs. She had the fluid removed, but when doctors tested it, they discovered her cancer had returned to the pleural lining of her lungs, giving her 18 months to live.
“The oncologist said this is so rare, and usually something they see in patients that are 80 years old,” she said, as SWNS reported.
Increasingly, vacation hot spots are enforcing strict bans on the use of e-cigarettes in public venues. (iStock)
Boda claimed that doctors were unable to pin her cancer to a specific cause — but told her that smoking and vaping definitely didn’t help.
Since her diagnosis, she has stopped and is urging others to stop, too.
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She’s hoping to raise the thousands of dollars needed for treatment to try to prolong her life, she said.
Last year, Fox News Digital reported on the case of a Pennsylvania woman, 26, who said she vaped for just one year before her lungs collapsed. She was 22 when she took up the habit, she said in an interview.
“Everybody warned me about it, but I didn’t listen — I wish that I did,” she said.
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Dr. David Campbell, clinical director and program director at Recover Together Bend in Oregon, told Fox News Digital at that time that signs of collapsed lungs include sharp chest or shoulder pain, shortness of breath and difficulty breathing.
Lung issues are just one of the many health issues linked to vaping, he warned. The habit can also increase the risk of heart disease and stroke, as well as exposure to harmful heavy metals.
Melissa Rudy of Fox News Digital contributed reporting.
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The key to feeling better in a fast, overstimulated world might be surprisingly simple: Live a little more like your grandparents.
A growing social media trend, dubbed “nonnamaxxing,” draws inspiration from the slower, more intentional rhythms associated with an Italian grandmother.
The lifestyle is often linked to activities like preparing home-cooked meals, spending time outdoors and making meaningful connections.
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“Nonnamaxxing is a 2026 trend that embraces the slower, more intentional lifestyle of an Italian grandmother (a Nonna). Think cooking from scratch, long family meals, daily walks, gardening and less screen time,” Erin Palinski-Wade, a New Jersey-based registered dietitian, told Fox News Digital.
Nonnamaxxing, derived from the name for an Italian grandmother, is a trend that incorporates lifestyle habits hundreds of years in the making. (iStock)
Stepping away from screens and toward real-world interaction can have measurable benefits, according to California-based psychotherapist Laurie Singer.
“We know that interacting with others in person, rather than spending time on screens, significantly improves mental health,” she told Fox News Digital, adding that social media often fuels comparison and lowers self-esteem.
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Living more like previous generations isn’t purely driven by nostalgia. Cooking meals from scratch, for example, has been linked to better nutrition and more mindful eating patterns.
Adopting traditional mealtime habits can improve diet quality and support both physical and mental health, especially when meals are shared regularly with others, Palinski-Wade noted.
One longevity expert stresses that staying healthy isn’t just about food — it’s also about joy and community. (iStock)
There’s also a psychological benefit to slowing down and focusing on one task at a time. Anxiety often stems from unfinished or avoided tasks, Singer noted, and engaging in hands-on activities can counteract that.
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“Nonnamaxxing encourages us to be present around a task, like gardening, baking or knitting, or just taking a mindful walk, that delivers something ‘real,’” she said.
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Palinski-Wade cautions against turning the trend into another source of pressure, noting that a traditional “nonna” lifestyle often assumes a different pace of life.
The key, she said, is adapting the mindset, not replicating it perfectly.
Nonnamaxxing, derived from the name for an Italian grandmother, is a trend that incorporates lifestyle habits hundreds of years in the making. (iStock)
The goal is to reintroduce small, intentional moments that make you feel better.
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That might mean prioritizing a few shared meals each week, taking a walk without your phone or setting aside time for a simple hobby, the expert recommended.
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Singer added, “Having a positive place to escape to, through whatever activities speak to us and make us happy, isn’t generational – it’s human.”
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