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“Nothing need die, that I might live!”

By Jane Birch · Comments (13)
Saturday, December 7th, 2019

By: Tom Rodgers

I grew up on dairy and poultry farms managed or owned by my father in the Bountiful, Utah area. I thought I ate a healthy diet, which included meat, eggs and milk. I obeyed the Word of Wisdom as I understood it, but contrary to the promise, my health was failing.

In February of 1990 I was 49 years old. Here I am with my wife Betty (left) and daughter Cindy (center) just days before serious cancer detection, surgery and treatment work began. Far exceeding 250 pounds (I stopped getting on the scales out of embarrassment and denial) and no longer feeling like I was the invincible, unstoppable, independent entrepreneur and functional man I had labored to be for decades.

As my own boss in my some-times animal husbandry and all-the-time mechanical repair business, I was never short on exercise. My work was always physically demanding and strenuous. I could “throw” a cow, “drop” a cantankerous horse, pull wire or break thread on the largest rusty pipe or bolt without difficulty. I did unfortunately believe, as I had been thoroughly taught, that I needed to sufficiently consume, for the “good” of my health, teeth and bones, the products of my own dairy and animal husbandry industry. I had no shortage of milk, eggs or meat. I should have been as healthy as my old horse Frisky – but it was not so!

One day as I was working on a washing machine, I leaned over it and bumped into a little mass in my chest that gave me a sharp pain. I thought, “Wow what is going on here?”

I went to the hospital. After several tests, I learned that I had tumors in my chest and abdomen. I had one very large tumor in my upper back with tentacles reaching into my chest cavity and brain. Additionally, a black mass was found on my shoulder about the size of a pencil eraser. It turned out to be stage 4 malignant melanoma.

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Categories : Married-2 WFPB, Stories
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“The Word of Wisdom has never been more important than it is right now”

By Jane Birch · Comments (8)
Saturday, November 9th, 2019

By Michael Crowley

My journey into the plant-based lifestyle seems trivial in light of many other stories I’ve read about here. Still I hope it’s one that gives encouragement to those just starting out like I was not so long ago. I am very motivated and excited about sharing the benefits I’ve experienced with others.

I remember reading about Jane Birch’s experience where she said something like, “Some people get an answer about the Word of Wisdom before even praying about it.” That was pretty much my experience in a nutshell. My wife and I had been going through some challenges. On the evening of Sunday, April 14, 2019, I prayed not for help but to recommit myself to the Lord. Then something miraculous happened. Later that evening, while scrolling on social media, I came across a friend’s post with a link to a video on Netflix called What the Health. Usually I would have just kept scrolling, but I felt for some reason I should check it out. As I watched the video, things started to click for me. The Word of Wisdom was suddenly front and center in my thoughts to the extent that it felt as if God was suddenly speaking to me.

Even though I had not been in good health, I really had not even been thinking about the Word of Wisdom at all. While watching the video, the beam in my eye of “vegans being strange” was removed, and my mind was suddenly open to the message being shared. I clearly recognized the health issues presented as the same ones I had previously thought of as the normal effects of aging or bad luck. I now understood what was causing them, and I was impressed at how many of the chronic diseases that had impacted my extended family over the years were being addressed.

Again the Word of Wisdom had not even been on my thought horizon that evening, but the Lord was mindful of me. He surely knew where I was headed health wise and the negative impact it would have had on both my family and me. I marveled that the Lord was so quick to enlighten me on his law of health that very same evening.

To describe my situation: at 6 feet tall and weighing 220+ lbs, I was heading towards 230 lbs with no indication of stopping there. I had horrible sinus problems, migraine headaches, poor focus, and low energy. Terrible pain in my lower back had me in physical therapy and chiropractic care and was again threatening to put me back there, no pun intended. The flare-ups would often last for months at a time. Getting out of bed meant literally rolling out. Putting on my socks was near impossible due to my limited range of motion and the sharpness of the pain. Driving was unbearable during those times. There were also multiple skin issues, including a rather large and painful boils on my back that had to be surgically removed. There were infections and sickness that just repeated over and over again. There was increasing soreness and fatigue that left me depressed and feeling useless. I had become an unbearable version of myself.

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Categories : Married-1 WFPB, Stories
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“I’m healthier at 35 than I have ever been before”

By Jane Birch · Comments (7)
Saturday, October 26th, 2019

By: Brandon Berrett

I’ve been a “larger fellow” all my life. I simply chalked it up to genetics. I watched my father and grandfather be diagnosed with diabetes and saw them struggle through everything that comes along with obesity. After years of seeing this happen, I didn’t want to be that person.

So I took action and 15 years ago I started to do everything that traditional medicine and weight loss advocates say to do. I went on a high protein, low carb diet filled with as much meat as I could handle.

I saw a lot of success. I lost about 50 pounds. I looked great. It was suddenly an option for me to pursue a career in the military, which I did. Even in the military though, I was always at the high end of the weight scale. I had to constantly count my calories. I found that pounding back tons of protein every day was no longer effective.

Despite my high level of physical activity, I was gaining weight. I was distressed and depressed at the same time. And it never sat right with me that I was told to avoid certain fruits and vegetables. How could carrots and fruit be causing my weight gain but unlimited steak and bacon were perfectly fine?

My health was also suffering. I was diagnosed with chronic recurring pleurisy. I had terrible chest pains that would leave me incapacitated for days or weeks at a time. Needless to say, this was not good for my military career, and I was medically discharged.

Over the next 7 years, I watched my weight gradually increase and my health steadily decline. I felt 30 years older than I was. I found myself weighing 320 pounds and was constantly sick from ailments doctors couldn’t diagnose. I was in my early 30’s, and I had to walk with a cane.

Despite my pain, I decided it was time to make a change. For the second time. I decided to skip the high protein route though and after a year of really hard work, I dropped myself to 300 pounds with pure exercise.

During this time, my mind kept returning to my patriarchal blessing. In it I am specifically admonished to remember the Word of Wisdom and the principles of taking care of my body. In my wrecked physical state, I wondered what that could mean. It told me specifically to “only take into [my] body that which is pleasing to the Lord.”

I, of course, thought this only applied to the Word of Wisdom in a traditional sense. I took special care, more than most, to avoid harmful tea, alcohol, tobacco, etc. I thought I was keeping that admonition in my blessing because I was keeping the worthiness aspect of that section of the Doctrine and Covenants. I wanted to run and not be weary and walk and not faint. But somehow that promise was elusive to me.

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Categories : Married-2 WFPB, Stories
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“I was told I would most likely never have children”

By Jane Birch · Comments (5)
Saturday, October 12th, 2019

By: Jessica Peterson

Shortly after graduating from high school, I was given a diagnosis of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and told repeatedly by multiple doctors and specialists that I would most likely never have children. I was prescribed metformin. It was supposed to help balance out my health condition, but after months of no results, and the doctor continually increasing the dosage, the drug wasn’t working and had started to damage my kidneys. So I decided to take my health into my own hands and do as much research as I could on diet and exercise for reversing my condition. No cure was out there, but many professionals touted that “this” diet had significant improvements in patients and “that” form of exercise was the best.

I was desperate to feel normal again and not feel sick all the time. I tried everything that had even an ounce of hope attached to it. Over the next several years, I tried Low-Glycemic, Paleo, Gluten Free, Keto, Vegetarian. You name it, I tried it.

Meanwhile, I married the man of my dreams, and two years into our marriage he approached me saying he felt there was a boy who was waiting to come to our family. Skeptical, yet hopeful, we returned to the doctors.

Four years ago, after multiple doctor visits and tests, we tried a drug we’d only heard rumors about and were finally able to get pregnant with our son. That pregnancy and birth were so successful and positive, that we decided to use that same drug to conceive my daughter.

Shortly after getting pregnant with my daughter, we started doing some research on the effects of a Whole Food Plant Based (WFPB) diet for people who struggle with hormonal imbalances, chronic illnesses, infertility, and a lot of other health problems. By this point in my life, I was tired. I had tried so many diets that had promised wonderful results, with no noticeable results showing up in my life.

Despite my hesitation, my husband was certain that this WFPB diet was worth a shot. So I agreed to try it for 30 days. Within the first WEEK I noticed a huge difference in my energy levels and ability to eat without feeling sick (something I had just gotten used to for years since my diagnosis). 30 days later, I went back to eating the standard American diet for one day and immediately felt worse then I had all month. I felt achy, nauseated, constipated, dizzy, and had some serious heartburn! I decided I would try to continue eating this way at least until my daughter was born. Read More→

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Categories : Married-2 WFPB, Stories
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“Our mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual health improved so suddenly and drastically that we didn’t want to go back”

By Jane Birch · Comments (2)
Saturday, September 28th, 2019

By: Cassidy Gundersen

Starting at age 12 I began to experience a variety of concerning health conditions such as chronic kidney stones, debilitating PMS and menstrual cramps, migraines that would cause me to throw up in pain, and twice monthly bowel movements. The doctors assured me that I was in good health and “these things just happened to people,” so I was convinced that I was healthy (despite all of my pain) and continued eating like it. My staples were Oreos, Dr. Pepper, and Snickers. You couldn’t have paid me to eat fruit or vegetables other than perhaps potatoes, raspberries, and peaches. But I was extremely thin, and that was all that mattered to me at the time.

As I grew up, I lived a busy and active life and was very involved. My health began to take a turn for the worst when I was Miss Idaho in 2012. I was on the road a lot and began eating worse than I already had been. I noticed that my mental and physical health were waning, but I was determined to serve a full-time mission.

After leaving to Canada in 2013 for my mission, the complications only worsened. I was barely able to get out of bed after 12 hours of sleep, and I was in the hospital more times than I can count. I had MRI’s, ultrasounds, colonoscopies, and countless blood samples drawn in an attempt to get to the core of the issue. More than one time the mission doctor and my mission president tried to send me home to get better, but I was more stubborn than I was sick, and I refused!

It was on my mission that I was diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease, a diagnosis that would change my life. After my diagnosis, I was downhearted and began reading my Patriarchal blessing. I became angry as I read it because my blessing spoke of the Word of Wisdom and the health I would have by obedience to it. I was confused because I never smoked, I never drank tea, coffee or alcohol, nor did I do drugs, yet I wasn’t seeing any of the blessings I was promised. I had given some thought to the Word of Wisdom since one of my companions informed me that she didn’t eat meat because of the Doctrine and Covenants 89. However, I was convinced she was extreme and was sure that I knew better.

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“I love the way I feel. I love my way of life!”

By Jane Birch · Comments (5)
Saturday, September 7th, 2019

Helen Jessup Before and After

By: Margie Burton for her sister, Helen Jessup

My sister Helen was born nearly 72 years ago. Mom had a challenging pregnancy after months of infertility treatments. The premature delivery was a difficult one requiring forceps that damaged both frontal lobes of Helen’s brain. Her infant and toddler milestones showed slight delays but all seemed to be progressing reasonably well until a sudden seizure at the age of three. She had been riding her tricycle in the driveway when she slumped over and fell to the ground, not breathing. Mom, an obstetrical nurse, ran out and immediately began CPR while driving her to the nearest hospital. Helen was revived, but being without oxygen for some time caused more brain damage. She was never able to ride her tricycle again.

Helen went to regular public schools for kindergarten and elementary school. She had difficulty and repeated a grade when she did not develop number sense and could not read well. When Helen was ten and starting 4th grade, the teacher declared that she could not have her in class as she was too far behind in her learning. In those days, school districts did not have accommodations for disabled learners. My parents were dismayed as the options in our little New Hampshire town were limited. They finally found a boarding school in Massachusetts that catered to students with limited academic abilities. It was expensive, but my parents could not find an alternative willing to accept her.

Helen had been quite sheltered in her 10 years of life, and she felt abandoned by her family at the boarding school. She did not understand what she had done to be sent away from her loved ones. She slowly progressed in her academics but emotionally life was very difficult for her.

During Helen’s teenage years she began to put on quite a bit of weight. My mom seemed to look the other way, declaring that Helen enjoyed few pleasures besides food. At the age of 20 she graduated from her school program with a certificate of completion and came home to live. My parents tried to find places for her to go and things for her to do, but she continued to find comfort in food.

Our dad passed away quite suddenly in 1973 at the age of 62. Helen was devastated. He had been her comforter and her strength. When our mom died 25 years later, Helen became my responsibility. By then, her eating pleasures had taken a big toll on her health. She had type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol, and high blood pressure. She also suffered from emotional instability and severe depression. She went through various testing to see what public services were available. She could talk like an 8 year old but problem-solved at a two-year old level. That would never change.

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“Suffering from random episodes of total blindness, I was ready to try anything”

By Jane Birch · Comments (1)
Saturday, August 24th, 2019

By: Teresa Starr

My whole food, plant-based (WFPB) journey spans over 25 years. It has included twists and turns, ups and downs and has ultimately blessed my life beyond measure. In fact, I believe that the plant-based eating plan is the very reason I’m still here to tell my story.

In the early 1990s, when I was 29 years old and a young mom of 3 active little boys, I began having TIAs (transient ischemic attacks), sometimes called mini-strokes. During those episodes, I would temporarily lose all vision in my left eye. It was as if someone controlled my vision with a dimmer switch and gradually turned it off until I had a total black out – 100% blindness in my left eye. These transient episodes of blindness came on with no warning. Most episodes would last between one and five minutes. The longest one lasted 60 full, frightening minutes.

I had a family history of heart disease and high blood pressure (and my own personal history of extremely high blood pressure during child birth). The scary thing about TIAs is that studies indicate that 30% of people who suffer from TIAs end up having a full-blown stroke within 5 years. That was a very disconcerting thought because we had three little boys and were hoping to have more children. Raising our family was our top priority. My doctor put me on Coumadin, nitroglycerin (during TIAs) and one baby aspirin per day to thin my blood. I was also told to never take estrogen (because of my increased risk of stroke).

In addition to my family history, I had a few other strikes against me. Even though my weight was within a normal range, my cholesterol and triglycerides were always very high. At the time we were also under much stress and anguish because of a very serious health condition one of our kids was going through. The health challenges of our sweet little boy spanned several years and left us heartbroken (and broke).

After several years of facing our challenges, I was getting very worn out physically, emotionally and spiritually. The disturbing TIAs had continued to happen at random times and places even though I was following the doctor’s advice. One day my husband, Rick, told me that a friend at work had started a whole food, plant-based diet to improve his health. Together we studied the benefits of eating this new way. Still suffering from random episodes of total blindness in my left eye, I was ready to try anything, especially if it meant that I could live a healthy life and be a fully functioning mom, capable of raising our sweet boys.

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Categories : Married-2 WFPB, Stories
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“I’m thankful the Master of the universe cares what I have for breakfast”

By Jane Birch · Comments (9)
Saturday, July 20th, 2019

By: Charles Cranney

When I was on the local youth swim team, the only indoor pool during the winter was at BYU. For the morning swim we arrived at 5:45 and swam until 7. My mom would always pick us up after visiting Winchell’s donuts. My favorite was the buttermilk one. After that I would go home and usually have French toast or pancakes for breakfast. My favorite meal was roast beef with mashed potatoes and gravy. I drank tons of milk, thinking it was healthy. Lots of juice too.

I remained fit and trim during my mission and throughout most my college career, but little did I know my diet was laying the foundation for some challenges later in life. As the children came and I got a desk job, I started gaining weight. The joke was that every time my wife had a pregnancy, I would be empathetic and gain weight with her—but not lose the weight after she did. (We had seven children.😀)  I remember that for family night, we would often go to McDonald’s, where they had Big Macs for $1 each. I would usually eat two. I also loved ice cream. When I would go to social gatherings, I would try to be discreet about how much I ate, but I always felt I ate about twice as much as everyone else, if I was honest (especially the meat and sugary things). I did play racquetball several times a week and rode my bike to work, and we had a garden and many fruit trees, which I enjoyed. Fresh peaches drench with cream and sugar was a favorite—or peaches with Wheaties. I ate meat with nearly every meal. During food discussions I was fond of saying, “I didn’t spend a million years climbing the evolutionary ladder to be a vegetarian.”

I became more and more of a stress eater because of all the challenging church callings that seemed to come my way, including a couple of stints as bishop almost back to back (BYU and then the home ward). I remember sometimes thinking my “ticker” felt a little odd, but I never had it checked out. Later in 2006 when I was serving as young men’s president I hiked Timpanogos and King’s Peak with the young men, even though I was about 250 lbs. at the time and 49 years old. My wife had me get a heart stress test before those hikes since I was so overweight. It was shortly after that that I was called to serve as a mission president in the Russia Moscow Mission. There was, of course, lots of stress associated with that. It was one of the largest land-mass missions in the world. My farthest branch was a five-hour flight to southern Kazakhstan. My ankle hurt quite a bit during that time from an earlier extreme sprain.

When I returned from Russia, I was 264 lbs. At the doctor’s soon after, I was sent for a battery of uncomfortable tests and diagnosed with prostate cancer. Before the surgery, I went on Weight Watchers and lost 50 lbs. The robot-assisted surgery was very successful, and I was able to maintain weight of about 215 lbs for a couple of years. I was eating more fruits and vegetables than in the past but still plenty of other not-so-good stuff and meat. I also started running more.

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Categories : Married-1 WFPB, Stories
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“I felt powerless in my relationship with food”

By Jane Birch · Comments (6)
Saturday, July 6th, 2019

By: Christine Wilkins

A 14-year-old is too young to be overly concerned about food. But that was me. There are specific moments with food that I remember from my teenage—and even childhood—years because of the guilt I felt for having eaten so much of something and not knowing when to quit. I wanted to be thin so, so badly. For the sake of being thin. I felt powerless in my relationship with food, and I thought that going without food or applying other extreme means to reverse my overeating habit might be the answer. The weight of those feelings brought me to my knees. I feared I would deal with my food addiction for the rest of my life, that it would be my personal trial of mortality. Even at this young age I prayed with deep desire for help to overcome my obsession with food. In my mind, that translated to Heavenly Father taking away those natural-man desires; essentially, I hoped He would correct my brain. Of course, that is not how He works. And I’m grateful for the journey it has been—through study, prayer, and experimentation—to get to where I am today with my health.

My teen-through-early-adult years were full of fulfillment, but they were tainted by the ready access to cheap cake mixes and other indulgences, namely ice cream. I actually have a picture of a high school friend and me shoving cake into each other’s mouths. This image is a good representation of my two favorite hobbies at the time: hanging out with friends . . . and cake. I gained friends and confidence in high school, but I also gained weight—30 pounds of it, from start to finish.

Midnight donuts and chocolate milk. Bets to scarf down a whole pizza or a triple Baconator—challenges I accepted and over which I prevailed. (And I thought I was proving my strength of will.) Free soda and popcorn on my movie theater shifts. Half-price fast food during Wendy’s shifts. Confectionary samples during bakery shifts at a grocery store. Is it a wonder why I was so drawn to food-service jobs?

In my young-adult mind, my unhealthy habits and their consequences were disconnected. The miracle is in how I got through four years of higher education with the little energy I had. I don’t exaggerate by saying I probably spent half the time sleeping. The sense of powerlessness I had felt at 14 stayed with me, especially when I was alone and free to eat cake and slip into the accompanying sugar coma.

I wonder if you’ve ever felt as I have—that you were meant for “greater things than these” (Mormon 8:12) but were waiting for that change to happen to you rather than realizing the power to change was within reach. When I was 16, before I really felt the weight of my gluttony, I was given to know in my patriarchal blessing that Heavenly Father had blessed me with “physical strength and vigor.” I had seen this blessing manifested on my high school dance and cross-country teams and in the workplace. The “physical strength and vigor” were present when I felt accountable to other people. However, my accountability to myself yielded lethargy; I knew something had to be missing because I didn’t always experience those blessings I had been promised.

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Categories : Married-2 WFPB, Stories
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“I am not after mediocre results with my health or life. I want outstanding results!”

By Jane Birch · Comments (4)
Saturday, June 22nd, 2019

By: Janeen Alley

For as long as I can remember I’ve loved health and the human body and was fascinated with how it worked. I also knew that in my life journey I really wanted to help people. Fortunately, I found plant-based nutrition early on, but it wasn’t until after a few unhealthy detours. Currently, I’m a health and life coach and run my own business. I’m passionate about educating others about the newfound energy and life I discovered after I stumbled upon plant-based nutrition in 2004.

After I graduated from college, I got a job working as a personal trainer in a gym in 2001. I had taught anatomy as a teaching assistant at BYU for 2 years, so it was an easy position to transition into.

The job proved to be more challenging than I thought. As a trainer, I couldn’t give specific nutrition advice to my clients because it was beyond my scope of training. I could ask if they were eating “a balanced diet” – if they said yes, I could move on to their workouts. If they said “no” – I could point them to the My Plate guidelines, and then… move on to their workouts!

I knew diet mattered, but at the time, I didn’t realize how much. When my clients failed to reach their goals, I was devastated for them. I was also frustrated and embarrassed I couldn’t figure out how to troubleshoot better and get them the results they were after.

At the time, I thought I had a “pretty good diet.” My dad was a physician and my mom made everything from scratch. They lived by the Moderation Mantra: everything is okay, even healthy, as long as it is consumed in moderation. I have found that this thought and lifestyle only creates mediocre results. I don’t know about you, but I am not after mediocre results with my health or life. I want outstanding results!

I knew how the body worked – down to the nitty gritty details – but I couldn’t figure out how to get outstanding results for my clients. According to my training manual, I was doing everything right. But I was still confused by ALL the conflicting information out there on nutrition, and I definitely didn’t feel good about recommending gym supplements because I knew there were some dangerous side effects.

When my husband started dental school in Philadelphia in 2002, I was more than relieved to get away from my frustrations at the gym and move on to the next phase of my life. Our first two children were born while we lived there (2002 and 2004). But not only had I stopped training clients, I stopped taking care of myself. As a result, my energy levels tanked, I put on weight, struggled with my acne, and lost a TON of hair during my pregnancies.

I remember being exhausted! When my son was about 9 months old, I have memories of being so tired I couldn’t get up off the floor. I would lay down and try to stay awake while he would crawl on my legs and back to try to get me up to play with him. I felt like a horrible mom. I didn’t want to take him to the park or to the library because I didn’t have the energy. I knew I needed to do something different.

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