My "Nutrition Testimony"

This was a letter I wrote to a family member of mine. I wanted to post it here in hopes that someone will read it and be inspired, and that I would have a record of it that I could read later myself.

---,
I wanted to write you this letter because I've been thinking about you fairly often lately. I heard that you'd gone into the hospital recently and I know that your weight is something you've struggled with for a long time.

There's a good chance you may have seen a bunch of the stuff Angela and I have been posting lately about our lifestyle changes related to diet and exercise, but I wanted to write to you personally and tell you that there is hope for something better. I know now, because I’ve been living it for nearly 5 months now.

There is actually a "right" way to eat. A healthy, and satisfying way. It will make you lose weight and get healthier. You don't have to buy into a program, or count calories, or keep a log, or take pills. You've heard the phrase K.I.S.S.- keep it simple stupid. That's what this dietary change is all about. Simple, unprocessed food: vegetables, grains, and fruit.

Now you've known me for 20 years. I have been overweight since I was 8 years old, and I’m 31 now. I grew up with excellent southern style cooks. “Yummy! Put some more butter on it for me! Bacon grease makes anything taste good. Chicken fry it and smother it in gravy! Oohhhh weeeee!” You know exactly what I mean ;-)

So I had this idea of what it meant to eat. And I loved it and ate all I wanted for 30 years. My folks didn't put any restrictions on me in that regard. That's how I learned to live and eat. It's no surprise that I got fat off of that diet pretty early on.

My weight problem, I understood, was somehow related to what I ate, and the fact that I'm "big boned". That's all I knew. The only thing I ever learned was from a brief period at church when we did Weighdown Workshop, and I learned that I was supposed to control my portions. Other than that, I was fortunate that my weight was well distributed on my body, so most people thought I was lighter than I actually was. But I had grief over my weight the whole time. It's affected my self confidence, my self-worth, my energy levels, my sleep, etc. for most of my life.

About 5 years ago I started working for a couple that is vegan. When I first heard the term vegan and learned what it meant I thought they were nuts. But there I was, working out of the small office in their house. And they cooked this food that smelled awesome, and when I could get samples, it tasted excellent. This was the first thing that really got me interested.

What's more, -----'s elderly father had come to live with them months before because he was afflicted with a degenerative nervous system disorder brought on from chemicals he'd worked with as a younger man. He of course was eating the way they were, and he'd lost all the extra 30-40lbs he had on, and the home health nurses were always amazed that "he has the blood pressure of an 18 year old" even though he was about 86. His other numbers were similarly impressive.

Through this experience, I became more interested in their diet and began to learn about it. They ate as much as they wanted and didn't gain weight. They didn't count calories or pop pills. The base of their diet was starchy foods - potatoes, rice, beans, corn, etc - and a good variety of other vegetables and fruits. They didn't add oil or butter to anything, just some spices. They ate no meat, no eggs, and no dairy. They also stayed away from refined foods as much as possible. They used lots of spices though: basil, oregano, cumin, chili powder, etc, etc, etc.

The second thing that pushed me was that I read the China Study by Dr. T. Colin Campbell. The China Study is most likely the largest and most comprehensive study ever done on cancer. They studied tens of thousands of people over the course of years. In the study they found over 90,000 correlations between diet and health. Through those they were able to determine that the consumption of animal protein directly affects the occurrence of cancer. Anything over 2-4 ounces of animal protein per day and the occurrence of cancer begins to rise sharply. It’s so directly related, it’s like a switch that can be turned on and off simply by adding or removing animal protein from the diet.

The third thing was a combination of their personal histories and an apparent lack of exercise. ----- had been diabetic for years, was overweight, and was suffering from several other maladies. In 1989, she came across a book called The McDougall Program: 12 Days to Dynamic Health. She read it, went on the plan, and has been on it ever since. She lost all of her extra weight, her diabetes disappeared, and all of her other health problems went away. They by no means lived a sedentary lifestyle. They travelled often were always active, but there was no actual consistent exercise in their schedule. So their health and weight loss was not directly tied to exercise, leaving their diet.

After about 3 years of seeing the diet, and reading up, and watching videos, I finally decided that they had it right, and their diet was the best one. But I made no change. I didn’t want to. I like meat, cheese, eggs, more cheese, fried chicken, bacon… It’s all very tasty food. And I didn’t want to give it up. Angela already had some hopes of heading that way too, but she was unable to do anything consistently because she didn’t have my support. Verbally sure, but you know what they say about actions and words.

Now we move up to 5 months ago. I was becoming increasingly dissatisfied with my diet – our diet. My family’s diet was poor. I was watching what they were putting in their mouths wondering what affect it was having on them, and on me. But I was so hard-headed.

Maybe it was disbelief. I just didn’t believe that this would work. Not that I wouldn’t lose weight, but that it would be more disappointment when I couldn’t stick to it. And the change was not a diet in the traditional sense… It was a lifestyle change. And not a popular one at that. If we went down that road, then we’d have to start explaining ourselves to people, and justifying our choices, and talking about it, and I wasn’t ready for that.

But on October 7, 2011, God spoke to my Spirit in a way that I’ve never heard Him before. It was almost audible. He led me to Romans 14. Paul says in there that the kingdom of God is not about eating and drinking, and that our place in Heaven was not going to be jeopardized by what we eat. But in 14:23 he says, “But whatever you do, do it through faith, because anything not done through faith is sin.” At that moment, I realized that I had lost faith in my diet. I knew that I was harming my body, and my children’s bodies through eating rich, fatty, and processed foods. And the Lord told me that if I continued, I would be sinning against my body, my family, and Him.

I cried. I pleaded. I blubbered like a baby. Seriously. I sounded like one of my own kids being told to do something they don’t want to do. But at the end of it, I told God that if I was to really do this, then He’d have to help me, because I couldn’t do it on my own. I fasted until late in the evening that day. I had a deep conversation with Angela. And the next day, cold turkey, we cut meat, dairy, and eggs out of our diet and began eating a starch-based diet with the addition of vegetables, whole grains, and fruits.

That night, we went through both of our refrigerators, our pantry, our cupboard, and removed all offending foods. If it was meat or had dairy or eggs in it- it was gone. We put it all in bags and called the church to see if there was someone in need, and they came by and picked it up. We got it all out of the house. First rule of diet: if it’s in the house, it will get eaten. If you don’t want to eat it, get rid of it or don’t buy it. Saturday we went shopping and restocked. We spent a lot of time in Wal-Mart that day reading labels and finding what kind of stuff we could get. Things like spaghetti sauces and noodles. We bought a lot of canned veggies, and frozen veggies, and fresh veggies, and lots of rice and potatoes. We bought a rice cooker.

Within 3 days, we had more energy. Within 5 days, we were sleeping better. Within a week, I’d lost 5lbs, and Angela had lost 3. I stopped getting tired in the afternoon after lunch. Within the first month, we’d had 2 family gatherings where we brought our own food to the event because we knew everything else was going to be covered in butter and cheese.

Dr. McDougall describes it this way: “Can a starch based diet include some meat? Sure. It’s not ideal, but it’s also not a religion. It’s a choice. When you are hungry, and need energy, what are you going to reach for? Meats and cheeses and high fatty foods, or starch based foods and vegetables? Dirty fuel or clean fuel?”

I compared myself to a recovering alcoholic. I didn’t touch anything “bad”. I didn’t want to lose what progress I’d made. 7 weeks after we started was Thanksgiving, and I finally let myself go a tiny bit. I had 1, 2oz piece of turkey. It tasted good, but it didn’t somehow want to start eating it again. I was satisfied with my diet. The food is good. There is a good variety in our diet and meals. I can eat all I want, 4 or 5 or 6 times a day, and I still lose weight. When the overall richness of your diet comes down, the tastes and flavors of fruits, veggies, and grains really start to pop. We noticed that early on. Steamed corn on the cob… oh man, it’s like a dessert for me now. It is so good.

I don’t know if any of this hits home for you. I don’t know what your journey has been like, but I suspect there’s been some disappointment and pain. God created this world and put us on it. And He made the ground grow plants and He put it all here for us. He made our bodies to handle plant foods with ease. We can eat all we want. We can get full every time. And we can still be healthy. It's not supposed to be complicated.

We have a website that has some more information: http://www.LifestylesForLife.com. It’s a small site now, but there are a bunch of good recipes, and some videos. There is also a resources section with some links to other doctor’s websites. They are inspirational people with a drive to see people get healthy through good diet.

I’d be happy to hear your thoughts on this. I know this was long, but this is kind of like my “nutrition testimony” of sorts. The obesity and health problems we’re having in the U.S. are becoming more and more important to me. The rates of heart disease, diabetes, and even cancer are increasing every year. Crazy thing is, they are increasing at roughly the same rate as obesity is increasing. And even more crazy, at roughly the same rate as the intake of processed, refined, fatty, rich foods is increasing. The correlations are amazingly similar. The amount of grain consumed each year by the world's cattle could feed 8 billion people. World hunger could literally be eliminated by channeling that grain to people instead of animals. Diabetes rates in the South Pacific and southern Asian countries are skyrocketing as their diets are becoming more Americanized. No one can tell me that this is not an epidemic. They do tell me that what I’m doing is extreme. But the rates of disease linked to diet, and invasive surgeries, and medication costs and side effects all sound pretty extreme too.

I love you, ---! And I want to see you get healthy. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t have written you all of this. :)
God bless,
-Jason