By: Winona Davies

In 1989, I was 50 pounds overweight (it could have been much more, but because my genes are good, it was “only” 50 pounds). I had gotten divorced a year earlier. I was depressed and struggling to care for my large family. We relied heavily on government help to buy food and ate a pretty “standard” diet. I’d been exposed to some herbal and alternative health experts in my teens, so I knew, for example, that sugar wasn’t good for me or the kids, but it seemed too hard to avoid, so as a single mother, I just didn’t try. I had numerous health problems, though I was only 31 years old, including not being able to sleep because I woke up several times a night to take antacids. I also had gall bladder problems and allergies.

By June of 1989, things had gotten pretty desperate for me, and my bishop decided I needed a break before I broke. He arranged for my children’s father and new wife to care for the kids while I took a bus to my parent’s home 350 miles away. On the bus, I read a book about co-dependency which suggested that if I identified with the book (I did) I was probably a drug addict, an alcoholic, or a compulsive overeater. I was active in the Church and had never used either drugs or alcohol, but I had to take an honest look at my food. I came home and joined a 12 Step group for my problem and realized that my main addictive foods included meat and dairy. I gave up meat then, but I struggled for another 15 years before I could face the idea of giving up dairy, and then only because my compulsive eating was again out of control, and it was absolutely clear that the only foods that were really serious problems for me were dairy-based.

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