Wednesday marks the beginning of Lent. Could this traditional time of fasting...be just what you need to lose weight? A new book - by a local author - outlines a diet as old as the Bible itself.

It's a diet that consists of fresh fruits & vegetables, grains & nuts and doesn't cut out carbohydrates and the principles it uses are over two thousand years old.

Author Rosemary Ellis says, "the orginal Lent diet in the Bible says that people abstained from all animal products for 40 days prior to Easter."

Unlike some popular diets on the market today - the Bible diet actually promotes the use of carbohydrates.

"Carbohydrates like your whole grains and beans - they are actually healthy for you and oatmeal & stuff like that will help you reduce cholesterol."

Randy Grabill, a Clinical Dietician at Altoona Hospital agrees. "What they ate back in the Biblical times that was almost strictly vegetarian - that includes fresh fruits & vegetables, beans, whole grains and was strictly vegetarian and it could be very healthy."

Along with the elimination of meat products - the Bible diet also recommends cutting out dairy products and alcohol for Lent.