Archive for Stories – Page 16

“I knew I never needed or wanted to eat animal products again”

By Jane Birch · Comments (11)
Saturday, June 13th, 2015

Paul & Jenni BroomheadBy: Jenni Broomhead

In high school and college I tried every diet under the sun, but ever since I’ve been married I have always eaten a normal western diet.

I became aware of plant-based eating when my friend had cancer and we read The China Study in our research to find a good diet for her. It made sense to me, but I wanted to compare it with the Word of Wisdom. I noticed a statement in D&C 89:13 that I hadn’t thought about before, which completely supported a plant-based diet:

“And it is pleasing unto me that they [animal flesh] should not be used, only in times of winter, or of cold, or famine.”

After I read that, I knew I never needed or wanted to eat animal products again.

It was a relatively easy change. I have always liked vegetables, beans, and legumes, so I didn’t have to learn to eat many new foods. I only had to cut out some of the old ones. With Pinterest, blogs, and other social media at our fingertips these days, it is very easy to find recipes and ideas for plant-based eating, even while travelling, and I have found that restaurants are very willing to accommodate my way of eating and provide me with delicious food ideas to try at home.

I didn’t demand that my family change. Although they think I’m weird, they don’t care what I eat or don’t eat. I hope that as my kids get older they will learn that plant-based eating is best for them and they will know how to do it because of watching me. Once my last two kids have left the nest, I don’t intend to buy or prepare meat at all. My husband will just have to eat healthier at home by default!

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Categories : Married-1 WFPB
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“My body doesn’t need animal eggs or milk”

By Jane Birch · Comments (14)
Saturday, June 6th, 2015

Pilar ArceBy: Pilar Arce

(Read the Spanish version of this story.)

I remember the first great commercial of milk and cereal I saw when I was a kid. It convinced me that my body really needed milk to be strong, happy, and healthy like the kids on TV. Even though milk sometimes made me sick, I knew my bones would be stronger if I had some milk, cheese or butter with my breakfast.

When I was on my mission I got a disease called “chronic fatigue.” It sounded funny, but after some months it affected my back and I came home three months early. After going home, I had the well-known “chronic phases,” which means there were weeks when I felt extremely tired, and those days I had to rest, eat really good food, and say good bye to the stress. It was funny that when I rested the most I felt more tired. The good thing was that every time the “chronic fatigue crisis” ended, I had my normal and very active life back. I’m a climber, college student, a freelance worker, Relief Society counselor, traveler, etc. For a couple of years my life was like that, going up and down all the time.

Two and a half years ago I decided to be vegetarian (because I didn’t agree with how big industries treat animals like slaves). Even though I didn’t do it to be healthier, I received both emotional and physical rewards. I felt more energy, and my “chronic fatigue crisis” lasted for shorter periods.

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Categories : Single Adult
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“When God, science, and logic all line up”

By Jane Birch · Comments (9)
Saturday, May 30th, 2015

Greg WilliamsBy: Greg Williams

It is hard to communicate the love of junk food and meat I have maintained throughout my short 26 years. Because my mom was careful to ensure we had primarily healthy options at home, I frequently raided my cousins’ and friends’ pantry and cupboards when I was invited over for play dates or sleepovers. I relished the white bread and sugary cold cereal. I snarfed down candy bars and gobbled up anything with a hint of sugar. What a great treat after being restricted to whole wheat, home made bread, and oatmeal! For my birthday one year my mom got me a package of steaks, and a year later she gave me some beef sticks. She knew me well and was good enough to indulge me.

As a missionary my love of food grew. Serving in the U.S. I ate as much lasagna, burgers, and whatever I could each night and agreed to third and fourth servings of dessert. The members were always emphatic that “missionaries need lots of food!” and I was quick to agree with them. That was the life! Of course I gained 13 pounds after just 3 weeks in the MTC and nearly 40 pounds in the mission field. When I met and married my wife she often noted my funny way of choosing meals at restaurants. “How big is it?” was (and often still is) my primary question. While I had gained some weight, I wouldn’t say I was unnaturally big. Indeed I didn’t really even feel I had a problem. What I wasn’t as thoughtful about was how this way of eating might be influencing other aspects of my life, including my spirit.

Over a year ago, my wife and I made a drastic change (documented in a blog post, “Our New Diet”). My father had given us a copy of Jane Birch’s book, Discovering the Word of Wisdom for Christmas (2013). After reading it, we agreed to give it a shot for at least three months and see how it went. Remarkable things happened for me physically, including the elimination of headaches that were once prevalent, an abundance of energy, and a newly discovered joy in eating foods I had once considered beyond touching with a fork! I also continued to lose weight and settled down at a point that I was at in probably 8th grade. Often I would wonder, is this a good or a bad thing that I weigh so little?! I consider it a good thing since I have more energy than ever before, continue to exercise each day, and feel wonderful. I finished a triathlon earlier this year and have almost beat my mile time set my freshman year of high school. That is pretty crazy!

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Categories : Married-2 WFPB
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“I gave it a three-month trial”

By Jane Birch · Comments (13)
Saturday, May 23rd, 2015

Elon MangelsonBy: Elon Mangelson

My dad was a wonderful gardener. I grew up eating crisp fresh radishes, tender green onion, luscious red ripe tomatoes (my favorite), and many other earth jewels that sprang up under his watchful eye. We had a chicken coop full of chickens who supplied our eggs and a cow or two that lived out back and gifted us with rich creamy milk for our growing family, which eventually swelled to 11 of us including mom and dad.

Our diet was composed of mostly clean, homegrown unadulterated food. My dad was always telling us that we should eat meat sparingly, in times of cold and famine. The usual pattern was to eat vegetables with boiled potatoes and milk gravy made with a browned flour rue or vegetable soup and other variations during the week. Then our meat meal was reserved for Sunday dinner.

I don’t exactly know how my dad got to be such an unrelenting advocate of what he considered healthy eating. He became the real food police. No black pepper in the house since it was hard on the lining of the stomach. Mustard was questionable. No double desserts for birthdays, only cake but no ice cream—already too much sugar. No added sugar in the hot cereal we ate each morning. Deep fried foods were another no no. Some unexplained disappearances of sweets were solved when one day we found a half eaten cake, dry and hard, safely hidden in Dad’s dresser drawer.

After graduating with a PhD in biochemistry and nutrition, Dad could lay claim to being a real professional. He became a much sought after public speaker on the Word of Wisdom and its implications for everyday eating habits. He delved into the parts of the Word of Wisdom that many had not even considered before. I emerged from all this with a pretty healthful attitude toward food and respect for trying to eat well.

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Categories : Single Adult, Stories
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“It’s not God’s plan that so many of us be sick”

By Jane Birch · Comments (10)
Saturday, May 16th, 2015

Sue Reuser

By: Sue Reuser

I’ve been interested in physiology since I was in college, but when I was young I was not necessarily concerned about my own good health. In fact, I was a smoker for almost 20 years. After getting married in 1980, it was only in consideration of my new family of four children that I finally quit.

I first became involved with Dr. John McDougall’s plant-based diet in 1985 when I heard him interviewed on a radio talk show. McDougall sounded very extreme to me at the time, but everything he said was so logical that I couldn’t deny its correctness. It was completely different from everything that I had been taught about food and what I had always eaten, but deep down I just knew that he was right.

In 1985 I talked my husband into both of us enrolling in Dr. McDougall’s 12-day program. It was for him, not me. I didn’t need it. I was healthy, active, and trim, but at 30 he could not get insurance because of his high blood pressure. We attended the program together. Even though we had enrolled for my husband, the science soon convinced me to switch to a low fat starch-based diet.

Changing my diet was not easy. A huge part of my diet was sweets, and I sure didn’t want to give those up! Meat was not a problem for me. In fact, I liked the idea of not killing animals to eat them, but I still couldn’t imagine how I would feed a family without using lots of hamburger and cheese. Even though I had lots of questions, I was able to work things out. I didn’t know it at the time, but I think that even back then (before I joined the Church) I was feeling the influence of the Holy Ghost.

It was only later that I realized that the McDougall program most likely saved my life. My mother died of breast cancer when I was 10 and she was 49. My sister died of breast cancer when she was 51. If I hadn’t changed my lifestyle I probably would have been dying of breast cancer in 1994 instead of getting baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and getting a new and happy life.

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Categories : Single Adult
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“My stirrings as a child were correct”

By Jane Birch · Comments (16)
Saturday, May 9th, 2015

Julie BealBy: Julie Beal

My journey to plant-based eating started when I attended Brigham Young University at age 17. I was not a member of the Church at that time. Although I lived several states away, I was drawn there due to the clean living and purity I had noticed among new LDS friends I’d met while in a beauty pageant. Another contestant felt I had a happy glow and invited me to church!

I loved learning the Lord’s teachings at BYU. I was particularly proud of earning an A in my college Book of Mormon class, as it was all new to me. I had been intimidated by that class and tried really hard to do well. I was also a serious student of the gospel. Reading the New Testament on my own the previous year had prepared me for all I would later study in my quest for truth.

The knowledge I gained of the doctrine at that time has blessed me immensely through the years. As an investigator, I was able to take any doubt or concern that my family expressed and study it out, make inquiries, and then gain a testimony of all of the details prior to baptism. I respected my parents enough to do this, and it has given me an even greater foundation in my faith and beliefs.

I took the same approach to the beautiful latter-day revelation of Doctrine and Covenants Section 89, the Word of Wisdom, which is instruction from God for our health. I took the Word of Wisdom literally, believing it means what it states. I loved knowing that God is not some mythical, magical entity, but truly a loving Father in Heaven who teaches his children how to live in the happiest and most joyful way.

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Categories : Single Adult, Stories
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“The weight was a symptom, not the problem”

By Jane Birch · Comments (13)
Saturday, May 2nd, 2015

Sheri FarleyBy: Sheri Farley

My first venture into the Word of Wisdom “do’s” was in 1979. My husband said he wanted to try Vegetarianism. I’ve asked him since what prompted him to suggest that change in our lives, but he can’t remember. I remember sitting down with my in-laws to tell them about the change we were making. My father-in-law was almost scornful. I still remember to this day his negative attitude. My family was much more supportive. I had grown up with whole wheat bread (in the 60’s when Wonder Bread was all the rage), raw milk, and raw sugar. My father showed me some recipes for seitan and tofu.

My husband and I were enjoying life . . . but we weren’t concerned about nutrition. We had big salads with Russian dressing (mayo and ketchup), guacamole, and tortilla chips for dinner. Tofu patties (tofu, scallions, egg and wheat germ) fried in olive oil was another entree. I got a hold of the Laurel’s Kitchen cookbook, which became a favorite. I did notice that the meals that attracted me where the complicated “fancy for company” meals . . . I wasn’t understanding the beautiful simplicity of eating “meat-free.” Alas, after a few months of this way of life our four-month old son was diagnosed with Spinal Meningitis and was hospitalized for two weeks on IV antibiotics. As a nursing mom I stayed with him and ate whatever they brought me. Our new lifestyle took a back burner, and we never got back to it.

By 1992 I had ballooned to 350 pounds (six pregnancies hadn’t helped). I yo-yo dieted along the way but never turned back to plant-based eating. I was very sick and always exhausted . . . due to the fact that I wasn’t sleeping. My body had started to shut down certain functions to give energy to just staying alive. I was diagnosed with sleep apnea and given the amazing opportunity to reboot my metabolism. My doctor advised me to eat a low-fat diet . . . no more than 30 grams of fat each day. He advised me that one way to cut fat was to eat vegetarian.

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Categories : Married-1 WFPB
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“We avoided a massive heart attack”

By Jane Birch · Comments (5)
Saturday, April 25th, 2015

Deb Hadden Family 2015By: Deb Hadden

My story goes back to 1997 when I was diagnosed with Sheehan’s Syndrome, postpartum hypopituitarism. I was nine months post-partum and still nursing. The doctor wanted me to go on radioactive iodine, but something inside of me felt very horrible about that decision. I told the doctor to give me two weeks to make the decision. He was hesitant, but said okay. During that time I prayed with all of my being. The idea came to me that I was not done bringing babies into the world and that I needed to find a natural way to heal my body. Then I heard the words in my mind, “Thou shalt run and not be weary, walk and not faint.”

I knew that I needed to take a deeper look into the Word of Wisdom and train myself on how to follow the dietary counsel. I went to the library and looked up every cookbook that I could find that fit most closely to the Word of Wisdom dietary counsel. The book 12 Days to Dynamic Health by John McDougall, M.D. was the only book in that Utah library that I could find that even remotely supported the counsel. I took the book home, combed through, followed it’s guidelines, and two weeks later my blood work was normal.

What I learned was that eating high amounts of sugar depletes the B vitamins in our bodies, and messes up the thyroid. My doctor, who was also LDS, was so impressed that he too switched to the McDougall program. I lost 50 pounds, and all the while, I did not know that I was already in an early pregnancy with my fourth baby. Had I gone on the radioactive iodine, his health would have been severely compromised. I have since that time had three more babies, who would probably have not been able to come to our family with the thyroid trouble I was having.

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“I topped the scale at 269 pounds!”

By Jane Birch · Comments (6)
Saturday, April 18th, 2015

April ThompsonBy: April Thompson

I’m a wife and a mother of four. If you saw me and talked to me today, you would think that I’m a fitness nut. Well maybe I am, but I haven’t always been that way.

As a kid, I was pretty happy, but the divorce of my parents left me feeling a little hollow and empty. I turned to food for comfort. It was an easy choice. Every time I ate, I felt better. I would feel full. I wasn’t obese, but I was bigger than most other little girls and was teased about it. I told myself it didn’t matter, but I knew inside that it really did. These feelings continued for years.

I met Joshua, the man who is now my husband, and he changed my world. Most of the changes were great, but . . . well . . . I’m not going to blame my weight issues on my husband, however he was an integral part of them. I adopted many of his HORRIBLE eating habits, and bit by bit, they added up to me being UNHEALTHY.

Through the next 8 years, I had 3 beautiful daughters and supported Josh through graduate school, and managed our apartment complex among other things. If I was treating my body the way I should have, I could have handled the stress. But because my fitness and eating habits were terrible, I topped the scale at 269 pounds!

You heard me right.

Outside I seemed happy, but inside I was sad. I hated looking in the mirror—yuck! I felt trapped in my body but with the brain of an athlete. Not only that, I had pre-diabetic blood sugar levels.

What was I going to do about it though? I started where many start: with a few fad diets. I tried hCG, Body for Life, South Beach and Weight Watchers. As fad diets always are, these diets were a temporary fix. I would lose weight, but eventually it came back.

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“I’ve come to see food and all creation as sacred”

By Jane Birch · Comments (14)
Saturday, April 11th, 2015

Steve ReedBy: Steve Reed

I grew up in South Texas where barbecue and eating red meat are a deep part of the culture. My transition to a plant-based diet underwent a major shift in 2011 when I finally decided to regulate my personal use of meat to only those times when I legitimately needed to consume it.

I spent a period of about 6 months reflecting on past personal experiences, studying scripture, and searching for wisdom in the words of past and present Church leaders. As I studied and considered many perspectives, I felt that a transition to a plant-based diet was necessary.

In adopting this way of life, I knew that there would be consequences that I would need to address. First, I had to find suitable alternatives to the meat I had become accustomed to. Thanks to the Internet, there is no shortage of recipes out there, and I have been very satisfied with the alternatives I have found. I realized that it wasn’t the taste of meat that I liked, but the spices, sauces and flavors that I found most enjoyable. I began to find alternatives to meat to provide the foundation for those flavors. Because of the vast array of options out there, I don’t feel that I am missing out on anything. It is similar to the feeling of alcohol abstinence, I don’t feel like I’m missing out there either.

Balancing my personal food choices among family and friends has been a little tricky. How do you justify making a radical change in diet that culturally alienates you from those you care about? In my situation, my motives were driven by morals, health, and a desire to please God. I am a believer in persuasion rather than force, so I have been concerned with others thinking that my choices were a condemnation of theirs. My wife and children are free to eat what they want, and they often choose animal products when they are an option. In rare situations, I will eat meat that is served to me if I feel that to refuse would be disrespectful to my host. I found Romans 14 (CEV version in particular) to be a good source of inspiration. Animal flesh is not a prohibition like certain plants are, so the sparing use of it guided by wisdom and judgment is important. I follow the rule and deal with exceptions individually.

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