By: Troy Gundersen
15 years ago I was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes. Since that time it’s been like the Indiana Jones ride trying to understand and navigate the positive and negative effects of carbohydrates and insulin. Paramedics were invited over to our house on multiple occasions to wake me up from an insulin-induced coma. Fortunately in all of these instances I was able to give the grim reaper the proverbial stiff arm. I’m grateful to still be among the living to share my story. Maybe there are others who can relate to my experience in finding the Word of Wisdom and the hidden treasures therein. This is how I recall my enlightenment.
It was about a year ago, February/March of 2018. My son Jordan and his wife Cassidy had been eating a whole food plant based (WFPB) diet for a few months. Up until this point I had been working out 4-5 times per week and thought I was doing a decent job of watching what I ate. They approached my wife Valerie and I with a WFPB diet as a possible solution to better health. We didn’t think it was really applicable to us because we were already “watching what we ate.” LOL. We listened to their position but thought, “Naw, this ain’t for us.” Little did I know that it was the love of bacon and eggs twice a week for dinner that had commandeered my mind like an opioid.
Little by little my wife Valerie and I would discuss the WFPB benefits as she read verses of “the bible” to me (How Not To Die by Dr. Michael Greger). My wife was much easier to convince than I. She didn’t grow up on hot dogs and macaroni and cheese like I did. I also loved pasta with a rich, creamy stroganoff sauce—a recipe that was handed down from generation to generation. How Not To Die convinced me by the overwhelming amount of specificity and controls the data provided. Dr. Greger referenced study after study after study. It seemed legit enough for me to experiment upon his words. It also made me hypothesize that God already had this data and just wanted us to study it out in our own minds and then ask Him if it’s right. Better yet, give it a whirl. As a business analyst by trade, the data cogently spoke to my mind, while the spirit gently whispered to my heart. They converged and my WFPB path was born.
I went plant based around April 1st 2018, and boy was it an emotional cork screw! I didn’t realize how emotionally attached I was . . . attached I was . . . attached I was to the food I ate. I’m still in food therapy, learning new coping skills on how to detach from things like bacon, cheese, Campbell’s soup, sour cream, cream cheese, etc. LOL.
We went to the scriptures and studied the Word of Wisdom to find more enlightenment. There were three scriptures that spoke to us at a higher decibel level than the others. They were Doctrine and Covenants 89:12, 13, & 15—
By: Jennifer Wheeler