Archive for Word of Wisdom – Page 8

“My journey of discovery began when I was diagnosed with MS”

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

Vicki YoungBy: Vicki Young

In April 2004, my doctor ordered a brain MRI, because I was having a lot of migraines. The MRI showed lesions in the white matter of the brain, indicative of a demyelinating disease such as multiple sclerosis (MS). She referred me to a neurologist who said that I didn’t have MS. Four days later, I was rear ended in a car accident. I had whiplash and pain in my left shoulder. After a few months of physical therapy, there was no improvement. I then had a MRI of the cervical spine, which showed lesions. And so my journey of discovery began when I was diagnosed with MS in January 2005.

When I was diagnosed with MS I felt relief to know that was the problem. When the first neurologist told me that I didn’t have MS, I didn’t feel that was right. Then a few days later I was in the car accident. I think that Heavenly Father wanted me to be diagnosed with MS. When I was diagnosed, I was thinking, what is going to happen next? Of course, I would have liked to have kept on going with a lot of energy for the next 20 years, like some people do, but that was not to be. I am OK with where I am now because of what I have learned in overcoming my challenges. I remember one person saying, “After 10 years, you will be in a wheelchair.” I am so glad that is not true!

Beginning in 2000, even before I was diagnosed with MS, I started to have gastrointestinal pain nearly daily. In 2003, my doctor ordered a scan that showed that my gallbladder was only functioning at 30% capacity. The surgeon said that my gallbladder needed to be removed, which he did, but I still had pain for years after that.

I also had tingling and numbness in my left foot off and on for years, and I had a tremor. After I was diagnosed, I noticed problems with my balance, making me trip a lot. By August 2006 I had fatigue so bad that I was not able to work anymore.

In August 2006, I got my first book on eating a whole food, plant-based (WFPB) diet called Original Fast Foods by James and Colleen Simmons. The authors explain all of the benefits of eating a whole food, plant-based diet, like Daniel’s diet in the Old Testament. The information in this book resonated with me. They talked about the Word of Wisdom and quoted many prophets and other Church leaders on the benefits of living the dietary guidelines in the Word of Wisdom.

After reading the book, I made some changes in my diet. I already did not eat much candy, pop, or meat, but now I started eating more fruits and vegetables and less dairy. I used to eat a lot of dairy. I had three or four canker sores nearly all of the time and yogurt and ice cream tasted good. They seemed like the only things I could eat when I had canker sores. I was surprised to see that with this small change of eating less dairy, I was getting fewer canker sores. What I thought was soothing to my sore mouth was actually the cause of the problem!

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“The Word of Wisdom is bringing me back to health”

By Jane Birch · Comments (9)
Saturday, December 20th, 2014

Phyllis BessenaireBy: Phyllis Bessenaire

My health adventures began in February 1986 just before I turned 32. A couple of weeks before my birthday, my aunt was visiting and talking about wanting to “lose weight.” I told her that I was losing a lot of weight. She asked me what diet I was following. I told her, “None! I eat what I want, and I still lose weight. It’s wonderful!” She looked at me and said, “You need to be checked for diabetes right away.” All I knew about diabetes was that my grandma was diabetic at the end of her life. When she came to visit, Mom always bought “dietetic ice cream” packaged in individual cubes about 2 inches square. Although I disliked ice cream, I loved sharing this with her, so I looked forward to it. For me, it meant fun times—how ignorant I was.

Going to the endocrinologist right away confirmed that I was, indeed, diabetic. He told me we would have to wait and see if I was Type I or Type II. I was a little old for Type I and very young for Type II. I remember going to church that Sunday. My son was transitioning from nursery and my daughter was new there. The nursery leader and I were very close friends so I told her the news. That was when the bottom dropped out of my world. She told me about someone in our ward whose son had just died as a result of diabetic complications. I was a mother of a 3-year-old and a 1-year-old. To think I might DIE of diabetes sent me into total depression.

I called my home teacher (my husband was not a member of the Church), and he came with another brother and gave me a blessing. I will always remember his words to me that day. He said that if I lived the Word of Wisdom, it would be as if I never had diabetes. I had tremendous faith that this would be my lot. I lived the Word of Wisdom very religiously, or so I thought I did.

I was diagnosed with Type II diabetes mellitus, which used to be called “adult onset diabetes.” It usually begins when a person is in their 50s to 70s, not when they are 32 years of age (although because of our diet, it is becoming more prevalent among younger people now, including teens).

I started insulin, and after a while, I began a diabetic “honeymoon.” It is called this by endocrinologists because of the way the pancreas responds to added insulin at first. It gives the pancreas a boost, and your blood sugars drop to normal range without insulin. Well, somehow I thought that meant I wasn’t diabetic at all. Like so many others, I made a big error in judgment and after a few years of decent control, I thought I was cured and began eating more sugar, etc. Boy was that stupid!!!

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“It brings me joy to eat this way”

By Jane Birch · Comments (8)
Saturday, December 6th, 2014

Janae Wise FamilyBy: Janae Wise

Though I didn’t grow up vegetarian, I was raised on plenty of farm fresh, local produce—apples, asparagus, cherries, grapes and corn were common local crops. My mother made sure we had plenty of nutritious plant-based meals around the dinner table. Growing up in this environment helped instill in me a love for vegetables, fruits, and all other food grown from the earth.

Fast forward to my adult years. In 2006, I was 23 and pregnant with my second child. My husband was a student, and we couldn’t afford the hefty co-pay for delivering in the hospital, so we decided to have a home birth. I had hypertension at the end of my first pregnancy, and my midwife told me that she could only deliver healthy moms at home, so if I developed hypertension (or any other trouble) I would need to deliver at the hospital. I thought that hypertension was not in my control, but she gave me a different perspective: You can choose to have or not have hypertension based on what you eat. She recommended I go vegan for better health during pregnancy. I thought she was crazy.

But, per her recommendation, I read The China Study (it had just been published) and realized, “You know, there is pretty strong evidence that a plant-based diet is the way to go.” Over the next months (about seven), I slowly weaned myself off dairy and meat. It wasn’t easy (I was pregnant after all), but a few weeks before I had my son, I was completely vegan.

I felt self-conscious about my diet, and I didn’t have a lot of courage. I had told friends and family that I was only going vegan “for the pregnancy.” But once I had my son, I realized, “Hey, I like this. I feel great, and it makes sense to me. I never want to go back to eating the way I used to.” So I told my very supportive husband of my decision, and I’ve never looked back.

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“I felt so great I never looked back”

By Jane Birch · Comments (19)
Saturday, November 29th, 2014

April AshcroftBy: April Ashcroft

My mother passed away when I was 5 years old, so my brother and I went to live with our paternal grandparents. Grandma had diabetes at that time, and Grandpa was diagnosed shortly thereafter and then died suddenly of a heart attack in his early 70’s. Throughout my adolescent and teen years, I witnessed my grandmother suffering greatly with the consequences of her disease. She was in and out of a rest home in her later years and during my many visits with her, I saw not only her suffering but the suffering of others in the rest home. This made a huge impression on me as a young child.

I’ve also seen the suffering of many others in my family. My mother had died of cancer at a very young age. My father had heart disease and was eventually diagnosed with diabetes. He died about a year later from pancreatic cancer. My maternal parents both had diabetes and heart disease and suffered strokes. One of my mother’s brothers had diabetes, heart disease, and eventually kidney failure, so he went on dialysis. After 5 years, he took himself off because of the great suffering he had experienced. My mother’s sister was diagnosed with diabetes in her early 40’s. She also has heart disease and has suffered a stroke. She continues today to live with the impact of these diseases.

Over the years I’ve thought about family members plagued with chronic diseases and wondered: Are these diseases and their suffering my destiny? Am I doomed because of my genetics? I was concerned about this at an early age. I did not want to go through what I saw my family and others going through. So I decided in my early 20’s that I was going to do everything in my power to avoid what many would say is my genetic destiny.

I now find it a blessing that I began to battle my weight after high school because I went from being sedentary and a bit lazy to being very dedicated to exercise. I thought that was going to keep me healthy. Unfortunately, my commitment to exercise turned into an obsession, and before I knew it, I was on a vicious cycle of dieting and exercise in my early 20’s. Worse, it was discouraging to see women in their 40’s, 50’s, and 60’s who were still struggling to maintain their ideal weight. I hated the mental madness of the dieting game, and I did not want to still be dieting when I was 40! I firmly believed that Heavenly Father didn’t want me spending so much time and energy worrying about my weight. Along with being consumed about my weight, I felt terrible. At 21 I was fatigued and tired all the time. I couldn’t understand why at this young age I felt so bad. I wanted to have energy and be active and healthy. I believed that Heavenly Father wanted that for me as well.

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“I find so much joy as I prepare nutritious meals”

By Jane Birch · Comments (5)
Saturday, November 15th, 2014

Anne Marie Yates FamilyBy: Ann Marie Yates

I first heard the term “plant-based diet” a year and a half ago. I was nearing the birth of my fifth baby and was anxious to lose the baby weight and get back into shape. I had successfully lost weight in the past on a high-protein, low-carb regimen, so I visited a body builder web site, ordered protein powders and selected menus and workouts to begin as soon as possible after my baby was born.

In the meantime, my sister told me about a documentary on Netflix called Hungry for Change. I watched it, and then I watched Forks Over Knives. Both films outline the dangers of eating the standard American diet (SAD) and show the benefits of eating a variety of whole, natural foods. Forks Over Knives introduced me to a wealth of information about the danger of animal protein, which was completely new to me.

I knew immediately I should not follow my high-protein, low-carb weight loss plan. I ordered books from many of the experts in the documentaries including Colin Campbell, Rip Esselstyn, John McDougall, and Joel Fuhrman. I read everything I could about a plant-based diet and was impressed with how closely it follows the Word of Wisdom. I had always had a nagging feeling that the “body-building” diet was not in line with the Word of Wisdom, but I didn’t realize modern research so closely backs up the “do’s” in the Word of Wisdom and not just the “don’ts.”

One of my favorite parts of more fully living the truths found in the Word of Wisdom is learning how following a plant-based diet can prevent most, if not all of the commonly accepted diseases related to aging. Last spring, my mom lost her fourth sibling to cancer, my beloved Aunt Wilma. I felt very helpless as I realized that cancer seems to run in my family, and I prayed to know how to eat as healthfully as possible to avoid future illnesses. After watching the documentaries, I felt empowered that I could control my own health destiny. I decided to have my cholesterol tested to get a starting point to go from, and was shocked when the results came back high! I committed to six months of not eating animal products of any kind. I was retested in February and my cholesterol was down 30 points and is now in the “safe” zone. I am striving to lower it even more, and I love how healthy and strong I feel when I follow this way of eating. My migraines, body aches, acne, mood swings and cravings are greatly diminished, if not gone altogether.

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“There is nothing I want more than to please the Lord”

By Jane Birch · Comments (7)
Saturday, November 8th, 2014

Marsha BurdickBy: Marsha Burdick

One evening when my children were quite small, as I put the lamb chops on the table, I thought to myself, “I can’t eat this. This is someone’s child.” A picture of a frisky little white fluffy lamb by its mother’s side came to my mind, and I knew that eating it was wrong.

In the nearly thirty years since that day, I have had no desire to consume meat. I couldn’t have told you then where the thought came from, and I didn’t explore the source of that inspiration, but there was no question in my heart that my life changed in that moment and there was no going back.

Perhaps the seed of the idea was planted when I was but a toddler. As the youngest child of four, during my early years I was my mother’s shadow on a small family acreage in Idaho. She adored animals and each spring would quietly sit in the pasture watching the newborn calves until they would approach her and allow her to pet them. I learned how to gain their trust as well, but she warned me not to give them a name because she knew that would form an attachment leading to problems on the day they were sent to butcher. It was not uncommon to see her sitting near the trough and talking to the pigs while they ate, or clucking to the chickens as she gathered the eggs. I am sure this example of love for animal life contributed to my sensitivity to consuming flesh later on.

My mother was not blessed with strength; she could not run without becoming weary, in fact, there were many days that she did not have the power to even hold up her head above her shoulders because she was burdened with a terrible disease. At the time of my birth, the doctors did not expect her to be able to raise me, giving her three years at best. Nevertheless, her life, though weak, extended well into my teenage years.

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I felt the Lord telling me, “This is a good thing. You can do this.”

By Jane Birch · Comments (7)
Saturday, October 25th, 2014

James and Parie DrechselBy: Parie Drechsel

I’ve always enjoyed eating healthy foods. My mother helped me understand good nutrition and raised me on healthy foods, lots of vegetables, beans and rice and those kinds of foods. I naturally enjoyed that. When I married, I tried to prepare healthy foods for my family, and as time went on, I worked harder at doing that.

I’ve also always loved the Word of Wisdom, but I’ve questioned the “eat meat sparingly” advice throughout the years. I would ask my husband, James, “What do you think this means?” I wondered why God would tell us to eat meat sparingly when we as a Church don’t do that. Sometimes, I’d limit meat to just twice a week or otherwise cut it down. I was confused, but I don’t think I ever prayed about it. I think I didn’t want to give up meat. It kind of scared me.

Last October (2013), my sister, Jane Birch, came to visit for a week. Because I enjoy cooking, I enjoyed modifying my recipes to cook whole food, plant-based foods for her. I knew it was healthy and thought it was great she was eating that way, but I really didn’t feel ready to do that. I felt it would be very drastic. I felt like I was already doing a lot to feed my family healthy foods. We were eating whole grains and vegetables, and I had cut out a lot of white stuff: white flour and white sugar. A whole food, plant-based diet seemed too radical.

Then on the Sunday when my sister was here, I suddenly had a prompting to not eat meat. I was kind of bothered by this, and I certainly did not tell my sister! I kept wondering why I was feeling that way and why the feeling didn’t go away. By that evening I decided, “OK, I’m not going to eat meat. Fine.” And then that unhappy feeling I had went away, and I felt peaceful.

I realized I’d have to tell my husband. I was nervous, but when I told him, he seemed OK with it. So we decided to not eat meat. I think I may have told him it would just be for a little bit, but really in my heart I felt it would be forever. At some point I said to him, “Honey, instead of just trying it out, we are going to do this.” And he said “OK.” Because it was a spiritual prompting, he was willing to go along with it.

A few days later, I cleaned all of the meat out of my freezer and took it to the neighbor family who are on a special diet with lots of meat. The mother had just purchased a quarter of a cow, so I doubted she’d want all of mine, but she said she would love it. When she asked what we were doing, I said, “We decided to try vegetarian.” She asked, “You aren’t going to do that scary vegan stuff are you?” I replied, “Oh no! But my sister does that. She doesn’t eat oil either.” My neighbor seemed very shocked!

I went away feeling very excited to be vegetarian. Later that night while I was cooking, I had a feeling, “We can do this. We can go vegan.” I felt the Lord telling me, “This is a good thing. You can do this.” I called my sister Jane to tell her.

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“I felt the Spirit guiding me and telling me things”

By Jane Birch · Comments (19)
Saturday, October 18th, 2014

Gary Powell and Siew-LeeBy: Gary Powell

I was born in Melbourne, Australia in 1941. I have moved around the world a lot and have always tried hard to adapt to the local cultures. This has taken me to some out-of-the-way places. I have met some very interesting people and eaten some interesting food over the years, everything from exotic European cuisine to dog kidney stew in a Dyak village. I learned the truth of the saying “One man’s meat is another man’s poison.”

I did some time in the Australian army and learned to live off the land, eating what nature provided. While in the army I had an aboriginal tribal brother who taught me a whole lot about living in tune with nature. In 1965 I was badly injured. With broken vertebrae in the lower back and neck, I was in and out of the hospital for the next three years. The army “specialists” were contract people who didn’t seem to care much about soldiers in their care. After each session with these people I felt a lot worse. In three years no one ever had an X-ray of my back done.

After I was discharged, things got steadily worse. I went to a very expensive back specialist who got the X-rays done. He shocked us both when he said I had three split vertebrae in my lower back and another badly damaged one in my neck. The specialist put me in a cast for a month and assured me this would fix all the problems. It didn’t work. In fact I felt even worse.

At this stage I was suicidal. A hippie friend noticed my distress. He knew exactly how bad it was and saw I was about to take a jump off a high bridge. He said he knew someone who could help. I said I would never go to a medical specialist again because they had got me this way. My friend said, “This person isn’t a medical specialist. He is a chiropractor and naturopath. Come with me to see him, and if he gets you right you are in front. If he doesn’t you can still jump.”

Chiropractor? Naturopath? Was he talking Greek or Russian?

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“I’ve decided to stick with revelation on the subject of nutrition”

By Jane Birch · Comments (15)
Saturday, October 11th, 2014

Barbara CramerBy: Barbara Cramer

I am 61 years old, and from the time I married at age 20, I have always been interested in health and nutrition. My parents were ahead of their time in that they believed in cracked wheat cereal, whole wheat bread, and eating lots of fruits, vegetables and salads every day; however, there was always plenty of meat on the menu, and drinking milk at every meal was gospel.

I have enjoyed good health most of my life, and through vigilance, never had a weight problem. However, about six years ago I started having severe knee pain and was diagnosed with osteoarthritis. I visited an orthopedic doctor and was seriously considering surgery on my right knee. I had also had a couple of colonoscopies with several pre-cancerous polyps. My cholesterol levels were on the high side, although not dangerous. I was always constipated and also had rosacea, a skin condition.

My mother (now aged 92) has severe osteoporosis and arthritis, and my father (an amazing and active 94) has used statins and blood-thinners for years; both have had bouts with cancer (now seemingly in remission after surgeries and radiation). My husband’s father died at age 62 from heart disease, and his mother from stroke. With all this in the family, I became interested in finding ways to maximize our health possibilities.

About five years ago, I started making and drinking lots of green smoothies, per “Green Smoothie Girl.” This helped my digestion, but I continued to use lots of dairy every day, plus some meats and eggs. Then, three years ago, a friend recommended the book Eat to Live by Dr. Joel Fuhrman. The next week, we had lunch with friends who told us they were on a vegan diet and that it had cured their migraine headaches and prostate cancer. Then yet another friend recommended the book The China Study by Colin Campbell. I wondered why I was suddenly having all these encounters with whole food, plant-based (WFPB) information, but I did the reading and became convinced that the science was reliable.

I decided I would try the diet for three months and see how I felt. I had read and studied a number of diets before, so it was like a light went on when I realized that the WFPB diet was really just the Word of Wisdom stated anew! Now when people present me with information that contradicts it, I just say that I’ve decided to stick with revelation on the subject. Otherwise, one month it’s this, and the next month, it’s that. Tossed to and fro . . . whom to believe? But with divine counsel, it’s easy. Why did it take me so long to come to this understanding? It seems so obvious now. But cultural influences are powerful and had prevented me from embracing it sooner.

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“I feel Heavenly Father is pleased that I am trying to live better”

By Jane Birch · Comments (26)
Saturday, October 4th, 2014

Leilani GómezBy: Leilani Gómez

I decided to be a vegetarian in the summer of 2011 before joining the LDS Church. I had already given up red meat because of all the information I had heard and read about it being bad for our health. As I slowly began being exposed to more information on the meat industry, I decided to give up chicken as well. I decided I would eat fish and shrimp on occasion, but then I stopped eating that too.

Prior to becoming vegetarian, my family and I began making changes in our diets, such as not buying cookies and other processed foods, not buying sugar, not drinking soda or sugary fruit juices, and not drinking coffee, etc. Being vegetarian was part of my newfound interest in being healthy. I was still not eating an ideal diet, though, and I found myself constantly lacking energy and not feeling my best.

When I started investigating the Church a few months after becoming vegetarian, I felt great about the Word of Wisdom and the way it seemed to perfectly support my ideas about an ideal diet (including not drinking coffee and vegetarianism).

After joining the Church, I had lots of up and downs with my diet. I struggled because I didn’t always replace meat with nutrient-rich foods. I’ve been through phases of eating lots of meat and dairy substitutions, junk-food binging periods, and even periods of skipping meals because of lack of hunger (I need to gain, not lose weight). The Word of Wisdom and the Church’s emphasis on physical health (and how it affects our spiritual health) has kept me happily struggling through it all, though, and I am making changes as I go.

Now, in 2014, I feel like I have finally reached a stable point in my diet and my lifestyle in general. I strive to eat plenty of raw fruits and vegetables. I avoid processed foods, and I try to make sure that I am meeting my daily nutritional requirements as well as eating enough calories. I had been eating cheese and eggs occasionally since going vegetarian, but I’ve recently decided to become fully vegan. I was starting to develop some kind of allergy to eggs and dairy, which is another reason why I went vegan. Not eating those has definitely eliminated discomfort and itchiness.

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