Jane Birch | Discovering the Word of Wisdom

Author Archive for Jane Birch – Page 23

WoW Moment – WFPB Relief Society Dinner

By Jane Birch · Comments (2)

Friday, March 7th, 2014

Debbie Christofferson

My good friend Debbie Christofferson, shared the following story with me yesterday. I’d like to feature short experiences like this as “Word of Wisdom Moments.” Please consider sharing your own WoW Moment!

“I had the greatest experience last night. I was asked to be in charge of our ward Relief Society birthday dinner. At first it was difficult because everyone wanted to serve foods that I don’t eat. I was willing to go along, but then after much thought and prayer, I decided the reason I was asked to be in charge was because I needed to make the meal a whole food, plant-based experience for everyone. I got my committee to agree on the menu by first serving the meal to them in my home. They loved it! Last night, we served an amazing dinner to our sisters. It was a huge success. And the best part is – one of the sisters on the committee is now eating whole food, plant-based because of the experience of being on the committee. She read Discovering the Word of Wisdom after a discussion we had, and she and her husband are fully committed. How exciting is that?! I am so grateful for Jane’s book and the difference it is making in so many peoples’ lives!”

Debbie Christofferson’s story of her conversion to WFPB eating is featured at the end of Chapter 2 in Discovering the Word of Wisdom. Debbie is both a Registered Dietician and an amazing cook. She was kind enough to share all the recipes with us!

Click here to view the Recipe PDF.

Comments (2)

Categories : WoW Moments

Tags : church situations, Mormon, social situations, spiritual promptings

“I would eat grass for the promises in the Word of Wisdom!”

By Jane Birch · Comments (6)

Saturday, February 22nd, 2014

By: Tim and Ellen McGaughy

Our nutrition quest began many years ago, long before we became converts to the LDS church. Ellen and I met in 1970 in Boston, Mass., while I was in graduate school at Tufts University. Ellen was working for American Airlines and was traveling all over the world. Eventually, I followed my doctoral advisor and relocated to the University of Oklahoma in Norman. I began to frequent a vegetarian restaurant in Norman, and it changed my course, planting a desire in me to eliminate meat from my diet completely. Meanwhile, Ellen decided to take a year off and move to Telluride, Colorado. She soon befriended neighbors who were vegetarians. She decided that not only did it make sense intellectually, but she also felt compelled to make the change. Up to this point, neither of us had been exposed to anything other than the Standard American Diet. So, nearly 900 miles apart, independently, we both decided to become vegetarians. That was an interesting telephone call.

Comments (6)

Categories : Married-2 WFPB

Tags : children, D&C 89, meat, Mormon, Word of Wisdom

“I have found many hidden treasures”

By Jane Birch · Comments (5)

Saturday, February 15th, 2014

By: Ilene Christensen

It was November 1973. I was sitting in a bus with the rest of the BYU volleyball team in Durango, Colorado for the Regional Tournament. My coach had already told me I would be starting for the first time that season. I was ready and very excited. We were waiting for our coaches to board the bus so we could go to breakfast prior to the start of the tournament. It was strange that they were taking so long. I remember sitting there as Earlene Durrant (the athletic trainer) boarded the bus and started walking down the aisle. My first thought was, “My father, it’s my father.” But then it appeared she was going to walk by, and I breathed a sigh of relief. Then she stopped and said, “Ilene, Sister Michaelis would like to see you in her hotel room.” I got off the bus, and the team drove away without me.

I went into Sister Michaelis’s hotel room, and she said the words no one wants to say, “I hate to be the one to tell you this, but your father passed away last night.” He was 46 years old. He died of a heart attack. My mother was left to finish raising six children on her own.

Comments (5)

Categories : Single Adult

Tags : athletes, cholesterol, heart disease, The China Study, Word of Wisdom

“I am a food addict”

By Jane Birch · Comments (16)

Saturday, February 8th, 2014

By: S. Scott Zimmerman

I have four confessions:

1. I am a food addict. I often seem unable to stop eating, and forage for food all day long, food that is often high in fat and sugar.
2. I have coronary artery disease (CAD) caused by an unhealthy lifestyle.
3. I have lost over 50 pounds three times in my life, only to regain the weight two of the three times.
4. During my 30 years as a professor of biochemistry at Brigham Young University, I always included principles of nutrition as part of my biochemistry courses for pre-medical and pre-nursing students, but I have recently realized that much of what I taught about nutrition was wrong.

So here is My Story of ups and downs in body weight and in nutrition management. It’s a story of a long, slow process of making mistakes, trying to learn from those mistakes, and finally finding the value of a whole food, plant-based (WFPB) lifestyle. I’ll start with my first confession.

Comments (16)

Categories : Married-2 WFPB

Tags : cholesterol, chronic illness, food addiction, food cravings, heart disease, Mormon, The China Study, weight loss, Word of Wisdom

“We couldn’t believe how delicious our meals were!”

By Jane Birch · Comments (2)

Saturday, February 1st, 2014

By: Robyn Rowley

I am 26 years old and have weighed a sprightly 100 pounds since 7th grade. I never gave much thought to what I ate, since candy, French fries and ice cream didn’t seem to affect me negatively, at least in the sense that they never added any pounds to my slight figure. And did I ever take advantage of my unbelievably good genes! As a missionary in France, my motto was, “Why buy one pastry when you can buy two?”

During my last year as an undergraduate, I was working with Jane Birch when she made her radical diet change. I was fairly skeptical of all she preached at first and told myself that, though great for her, it probably wasn’t for me. After all, eating a handful of carrot sticks and three different kinds of fruit every day meant I was pretty healthy myself . . . right?

Comments (2)

Categories : Married-2 WFPB

Tags : headaches, weight loss, WFPB beginner, young author

“I am more in tune with what my body needs”

By Jane Birch · Comments (5)

Saturday, January 18th, 2014

By: Michael Anderson

Almost a year ago, I decided to stop eating meat. I have stomach issues— problems with digestion that run in the family. When I eat meat or diary, I end up in the bathroom about an hour later. My mother heard about a plant-based diet from her hairdressing clients (Debbie Christofferson and Ilene Christensen), so we decided to go the vegetarian route.

About a year before deciding to go vegetarian, I started to be very interested in health and taking care of my body, so this decision felt like a natural next step. I felt it would help me. Then as we did some research, and I learned what it really means to be vegetarian and what it really means to be vegan, I decided why not go the extra step and be a full-on vegan? So I’ve been doing that the past year, and it has helped me a lot with my stomach. I don’t have stomach issues with food any more, which is a big thing.

Comments (5)

Categories : Under 20

Tags : athletes, friends, stomach problems, Word of Wisdom, young author

“I feel so good!”

By Jane Birch · Comments (3)

Saturday, January 11th, 2014

By: Laura Bridgewater

When my husband’s cholesterol crept above 200, his doctor cautioned him to take better care of himself, so we both started working to lose weight. After losing 10 lbs, he had his cholesterol checked again. It was still 204.

A few weeks later, I happened to sit next to Jane Birch at a meeting. When I commented on how lean she was looking, she promptly introduced me to whole food, plant-based eating. After reading The China Study at her recommendation, I talked my husband into trying the diet with me. Six weeks later, we were both down about 15 lbs He got his cholesterol checked again. It was 131. Amazing!

His cholesterol came down so fast and easily, though, I guess we weren’t really convinced of the importance of continuing to eat that way. Over the next several months we gradually went back to old patterns, especially during the holidays, and his cholesterol began creeping right back up. We realized that in order to avoid heart disease, we’d have to get the cholesterol down and keep it down.

Comments (3)

Categories : Married-2 WFPB

Tags : cholesterol, energy increase, featured, food cravings, headaches, The China Study, Word of Wisdom

“This diet matches the advice given by the Lord”

By Jane Birch · Comments (14)

Saturday, January 4th, 2014

By: Neil Birch

My daughter, Jane Birch, introduced me to her new whole food, plant-based diet in 2011, a few months before I turned 80 years old. Many years before this, I had changed my diet and lost over 70 pounds to get off medication for Type II diabetes. I thought I was eating a healthy diet, and I was exercising regularly. But as I learned about this new diet, I could see the reason in it. This was confirmed the more I studied the Word of Wisdom and realized this diet matches more perfectly the advice given by the Lord. I felt it would improve my chances of avoiding medical problems as I continue to age, so I started to change my diet, with help from my dear daughter.

Comments (14)

Categories : Married-1 WFPB

Tags : compassion for animals, doing WFPB alone, energy increase, Mormon, WFPB beginner, Word of Wisdom

“I just wanted to feel normal” (Abbreviated Version)

By Jane Birch · Comments (3)

Saturday, December 21st, 2013

Note from Jane: This is a remarkable story. The original is quite a bit longer, so I’ve published an abbreviated version here. If you prefer, you can read the long version.

By: Kevin Tunstall

My journey to a plant-based diet began soon after my diagnosis with prostate cancer. However, to begin fully, I should probably start earlier. My grandmother passed away from cancer, after being terrified of the big ‘C’ from youth. My mother passed away from lung cancer; then a few years later, my wife’s only sister developed breast cancer. She ended up having a mastectomy, followed by chemotherapy and radiation.

I had been called as bishop of a very busy ward in New Zealand. One of my first challenges was dealing with a single sister with two teenage children who had breast cancer, but refused to get treatment or let me tell anyone. The week my sister-in-law finished her radiation treatment, our 15-year-old daughter developed what was thought to be a form of leukemia. We were devastated. It was a harrowing time but through a ward fast and miracles, her life was spared.

Comments (3)

Categories : Married-2 WFPB

Tags : athletes, cancer, D&C 89, energy increase, food cravings, International, Mormon, spiritual blessings, spiritual promptings, The China Study, WFPB experienced, Word of Wisdom

“I tried every diet imaginable”

By Jane Birch · Comments (5)

Saturday, December 14th, 2013

By: Charity Lighten

From the time I was thirteen I thought I was fat. I tried every diet imaginable and read every weight-loss book I could get my hands on. I would do anything to be skinny: drink lemonade for ten days, count calories, hire personal trainers. I pled with the Lord to just show me the right way to lose weight. Ironically, I was never more than ten pounds overweight.

About seven years ago, the Lord led me down a different path, a path that changed my focus from outward appearances to true health. It was then that I was introduced to cancer.

Comments (5)

Categories : Married-2 WFPB

Tags : Mormon, spiritual blessings, spiritual promptings, The China Study, weight loss, WFPB veteran

Author Archive for Jane Birch – Page 23

“I would eat grass for the promises in the Word of Wisdom!”

Like this:

“I have found many hidden treasures”

Like this:

“I am a food addict”

Like this:

“We couldn’t believe how delicious our meals were!”

Like this:

“I am more in tune with what my body needs”

Like this:

“I feel so good!”

Like this:

“This diet matches the advice given by the Lord”

Like this:

“I just wanted to feel normal” (Abbreviated Version)

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“I tried every diet imaginable”

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Author Archive for Jane Birch – Page 23

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