“After all these miracles, I was convinced that this was the way I needed to eat”

By: Janelle Dunn

As a young girl, whenever someone asked me how many children I wanted to have when I grew up, I would answer “eight.” I have always wanted a big family with a house full of children. Well at age 44, life hasn’t exactly turned out as I had hoped. I didn’t get married until I was 33. That was only part of the challenge. The amazing news is that I have been blessed to have been pregnant eight times. Getting pregnant was never the problem. I ended up having six miscarriages and the last three were all in my second trimester.

As my empathetic OB/GYN would disappointedly share the news with me that I had yet again lost another baby, she would follow it up with the same consoling words, “This isn’t because of something you have done. It is probably because of your age.” At this point in my life, my age ranged between 37-42 years old. Her final words were usually, “. . . and this has nothing to do with something you ate.” Each time she said that, the Spirit would say, “This has something to do with the way you eat.” I didn’t know what this meant, but I began praying about it. God quickly told me to break my addictions to chocolate and sugar. So with much prayer and fasting, I covenanted with God to give up chocolate and sugar. It was a painful first year without chocolate. With the Lord’s help though, I can say that I have not had any chocolate now for three years, and I no longer feel the addictive craving for it. This was only my first hurdle, unbeknownst to me at the time.

In the interim, I spent way too much money on specialists, genetic testing, and other options to see if I could find a solution for my miscarriages in hopes of having another child. No specialist seemed to find anything obviously wrong with me. They found some thyroid levels that were slightly off and that I had endometriosis. This was not enough to convince any of them though that it was the cause of my miscarriages, and the blame usually fell back on my age. I just wasn’t satisfied with that response.

Around the same time, my mother read a book called Discovering the Word of Wisdom. My mother has always been a righteous thought leader in our family. She read it and immediately gave up eating meat. She would mention a few things to me here and there, but I still wasn’t awake enough to get what she was trying to tell me.

Several months down the road, my father called me on the phone. He started telling me about an 80-year-old man who walked into his dental office and started sharing his secrets for great health and vitality. This man had run three miles that day, and he told my dad he eats two large salads every day. He attributed his youthful athleticism and his clean diet to a book he read called Eat to Live by Dr. Joel Fuhrman. My dad ate the Standard American Diet at the time, but this man caught his attention enough that he wanted to tell me all about him. I wrote down the name of the book, and I immediately got it on Audible. I did not know what the book was about or what I was getting myself into, but I knew it would be a good idea for me to eat more salad.

I listened to Eat to Live, and I decided to eat whole food, plant-based exactly as Dr. Fuhrman suggested in his book for the next six weeks. The weight seemed to fall off. I lost 20 lbs. Even more significant was what happened next. I have had scoliosis since I was 11 years old, and once I had my back brace off at age 14, it seems that my back hurt every day since then. Every x-ray showed I had osteoarthritis. But during my six weeks of following Dr. Fuhrman’s eating plan, I started to notice that my back pain had gone away. In addition, I’ve had asthma since my youth, and my breathing was improving. Needless to say, I no longer have endometriosis, and I now have a healthy, fully-functioning thyroid. After all these miracles, I was convinced that this was the way I needed to eat, but my palate had different ideas.

Even with all these amazing improvements, I still had not completely broken my addictions to a monthly cheese pizza and an occasional burger. Because my flesh was so weak, I decided that I needed to continue to educate myself as to why I ought to eat a whole food, plant-based diet. So I bought more audio books on Audible and the education continued. To date, I have listened to over 17 books on the topic. The true tipping point for me, though, came when I finally decided to fully commit to eating only plants. This was after my last visit to my fertility specialist. He told me that my low cholesterol could have been the reason for my miscarriages and that I needed to eat a burger at least once a week. His response didn’t sit well with me, and I knew that I had to stop looking to these physicians to heal me. After all, was I going to please God (Doctrine & Covenants 89:13)? Or was I going to listen to this doctor’s advice?

My husband has always been athletic, healthy, and fit. For the most part, he can eat as much of whatever type of food he wants, and he always looks and feels amazing. Yes, he is that guy! So, when I made the change to healthier eating, he was at first a little resistant to the changes that I made to our family meals. It didn’t take long though before he decided he would eat whatever it was I made for the family, but he wasn’t up for making a personal commitment for himself. That was the case until he watched the documentary, The Game Changers. After watching The Game Changers, he was motivated to clean up his eating. He even decided he was going to set a goal to do an hour on the ropes at the gym, yes the same ropes as seen by James Wilkes in The Game Changers. My athletic husband did an hour on the ropes, and he felt like James Wilkes did in the movie, that he could go even longer. My husband quickly set a new goal to do two hours on the ropes. Within two months of watching The Game Changers, David had met his goal of two hours on the ropes. Needless to say, some gym-going bystanders made a congratulatory scene for him at the gym that day with high-fives, loud voices, and hugs. Way to go David! And thank you God for these miraculous plants!

Through my continued education on the topic, God impressed upon me to start a plant-based potluck group in Kamas Valley (see Kamas Valley Thrive on Facebook). We get together once a month for a plant-based potluck, and we have a wonderful speaker present to us on one or more of the many blessings that come from eating plant based. I am so thankful for my dear friends who have joined me in this endeavor. We couldn’t make this happen without each other.

It has been two years now that I have been completely whole food, plant-based, and my testimony of this way of life, the promised blessings, and the mysteries of God are alive and well within me. I have not become pregnant again since eating this way and even still, I cannot go back to my old way of eating. If there are any regrets, it is only that I didn’t humble myself sooner and become open to changing my ways to His ways. My resounding thoughts on my life experiences thus far are as follows:

Mortals say of some temporal suffering, “No future bliss can make up for it,” not knowing that Heaven, once attained, will work backwards and turn even that agony into a glory . . . The Blessed will say, “We have never lived anywhere except in Heaven.” (C. S. Lewis, The Great Divorce)

I am so thankful for this gift of health, the increased spiritual experiences, and the increased vitality that allows me to be more present and active for my two little angels and my dear husband. The Word of Wisdom is a treasure that is available to each of us. In a way, for me, this is the love of the God. This is the fruit of the tree of life, this gives us our lives back. It may not appear to be the exact thing that Lehi is speaking about in Lehi’s dream, but I can definitely see and feel the correlation of these blessings that I continually receive in my life from eating a whole food, plant-based diet. With that said it brings me to an invitation for all . . . will you partake of the fruit?

Janelle Dunn is 44 years old and lives in Kamas, UT. She is first and foremost a disciple of Jesus Christ, which means she has to repent a lot. She is a home school mom, a wife, a neighbor and friend to all, as well as a friend to the animals, a volunteer for Operation Underground Railroad, and an active real estate agent. In 2019, with the help of friends, she started Kamas Valley Thrive, a plant based potluck open to the public. Kamas Valley Thrive’s purpose is to educate the public as to the incredible healing benefits of eating plants. Janell received her Bachelor’s Degree in Health Sciences in 2000.