Words of Wisdom, Part 3: The Healing Process

I love to learn from history, from other's experience and from wise people. That way I get the most gain with the least pain. It's why I love to read and learn from Dr. Fuhrman.

But that’s not my usual style. For me, and most people I know, change is hard. Growth is uncertain. Simple, positive outcomes are the stuff of dreams. I learn most often the hard way, through tough, bitter experience, with raw dirt, so to speak, being forced into open wounds in my soul. Real pain, spiritual and physical, seems to have the most impact as my teacher.

Isn’t it amazing how slowly we learn some things?

My mother’s personal history tells of her grandfather, a loving, loud, cigar and pipe smoking man who wept with pride when he heard his sons singing together. My great grandmother always kept a pot of coffee on the stove. 

They work and lived on their farm in a small Utah town.

Mormons? You betcha. And for their day and time, pretty normal.

In about 1875, five years after my great grandfather was born, the prophet Brigham Young gave a talk where he admonished the bishops of the church for not better living the Word of Wisdom. He said while most of ‘em lived a good part of it, almost none lived all of it.

So the most faithful people, in general, were still catching on. A health principle that saved many thousands of lives because of its ban on tobacco, was revealed as truth, spiritual principle and finally as a commandment, but it took time.

It finally came into its own, and was general practice among most Mormons, in the late 1800’s and beyond. It was still many years before the medical community or population in general acknowledged any of its worth. General compliance with the Word of Wisdom was a gradual process, necessary because hearts and habits change slowly.

Brigham Young in his later years taught a principle that was essential in the Word of Wisdom finally coming into its own. He said that as young people were taught to emphasize this, it would become the major blessing that was intended. And so it did.

So when I slip up and eat too much meat, cheese, whole grains, potatoes, sugar, oils, etc., I don’t feel bad. I feel determined. I know what’s right, for me, my health, and my direction is up.

I’m doing better and better over time, as I grow in my understanding and make this more fully effective in my life (here’s one good reason for being a member of Dr. Fuhrman’s web site). There’s so much to learn, so many habits, traditions and cultural dispositions to overcome.

And too much to gain to do anything else.

It’s the ultimate motivation here. Truth heals.

The Book of Mormon tells of a magnificent healing miracle, where the resurrected Savior says to bring anyone who is “lame, or blind, or halt, or maimed, or leprous, or that are withered, or that are deaf, or that are afflicted in any manner.” It then records “He did heal them every one” (3 Nephi 17:7, 9).

I think the nutritarian paradigm is truth, and a healing “miracle.” Nutrients per calorie equals good health. Simple, profound, powerful and far reaching in its effect.

I believe that same God who created us, made this world, gives us life and breath, abilities and free will, and is the ultimate source of all truth, wants us to learn truth and be healed.

I find no conflict between nutritarian eating and the Word of Wisdom. I quote from last part, the lesser known, non-tea/coffee/alcohol/tobacco part:

10 And again, verily I say unto you, all wholesome herbs God hath ordained for the constitution, nature, and use of man—

11 Every herb in the season thereof, and every fruit in the season thereof; all these to be used with prudence and thanksgiving.

12 Yea, flesh also of beasts and of the fowls of the air, I, the Lord, have ordained for the use of man with thanksgiving; nevertheless they are to be used sparingly;

13 And it is pleasing unto me that they should not be used, only in times of winter, or of cold, or famine.

14 All grain is ordained for the use of man and of beasts, to be the staff of life, not only for man but for the beasts of the field, and the fowls of heaven, and all wild animals that run or creep on the earth;

15 And these hath God made for the use of man only in times of famine and excess of hunger.

16 All grain is good for the food of man; as also the fruit of the vine; that which yieldeth fruit, whether in the ground or above the ground—

17 Nevertheless, wheat for man, and corn for the ox, and oats for the horse, and rye for the fowls and for swine, and for all beasts of the field, and barley for all useful animals, and for mild drinks, as also other grain.

18 And all saints who remember to keep and do these sayings, walking in obedience to the commandments, shall receive health in their navel and marrow to their bones;

19 And shall find wisdom and great treasures of knowledge, even hidden treasures. . . .

Oh my goodness, I think I’ve found hidden treasure here!

Words of Wisdom, Part 2: The Millenial Process

So I’m going to engage in some pure speculation here, inspired by my religion, my experience, my impressions, hopes and dreams.

Some day, I believe, the world will be a paradise. Truth will reign supreme, and there will be a perfect ruler at the head.

There will be no war.

Love will be the primary motivation of everyone, because of correct choices in the hearts of all people everywhere.

There will be no sickness or disease.

A thousand years of a perfect society.

And, let’s not forget that perfect ruler at the head, teaching, loving and inspiring by words and example. Never forcing, always judging with perfectly just judgment, helping us learn, love and encourage each other.

Now, it seems to me there’s a congruence here, between the hopes of a nutritarian future for me and for the world as a whole, and the concept of a millennial society. Could it be possible that Dr. Fuhrman tapped a vein of truth that could be so powerful as to be a part of bringing about the millennial dream?

The title of his blog and most recent book make it apparent he thinks so.

Diseaseproof.  No sickness or disease. “Eat meat sparingly… and fruits and vegetables in season.” Eat foods based on their micro-nutritional content, which means primarily fresh, with little animal source calories as a natural corollary.

Hmmm.  Does anyone else see a pattern here?

If it’s true, this would be a major part of “The Millenial Dream.” Or, as others would probably prefer to  call it, a “Utopian Dream.”

It’s certainly a cherished dream, to live substantially without sickness.

But is it just a dream, or is it a real possibility?

We’re talking about heady stuff here. Impossible stuff, most folks would say.

But wait a minute.

WHAT IF IT’S TRUE?

Wouldn’t it be worth checking out, just to see if it’s possible?

There’s some solid evidence here that it could be just exactly that. More than possible, It’s a dream that some people say they’re living.

This is too good to not at least hope for. And to yearn for. To pray, work, learn and act for.

There are also many barriers. And some warning signs. Just because it’s possible, just because there’s evidence and people who have succeeded with this, does not constitute proof. Not yet.

On the other hand, when you’re faced with a possibility of a long and healthy life, vs. the certainty of disease and early death, what would you do?

I have just that choice before me. I visited my doctor a couple of weeks ago, and he gave me no hope for recovery, only for slowing down the certainty of disease progression.

That’s what all the medications he prescribes, the surgeries he’s familiar with, every medical test he uses, are all aimed at.

Slowing down the certain progress of disease. No one, in his  opinion, can turn around heart disease. No one has their arteries clear  up, they always continue to close off, but at a slower rate if you follow the medical guidelines.

No one.

So I’m doing everything he suggests, and doing lots more. The most important part of “lots more” is eating according to nutritarian principles.

That’s what this is about, the lots more, the hope, and we’ll see if it’s reality, to be healed.

I’m 61. By the time I’m 91 (ideally long before that) I want clear arteries. A healthy mind. An active, fulfilling life. Bringing along a few friends (especially my best friend) on that same path.

I live for that hope, that part of the millennial dream, to be my life.

Words of Wisdom, Part 1

Truth is the ultimate cure for everything. This applies to all sickness, all sadness, all problems. Truth reigns supreme. We all spend our entire lives in pursuit of it, in one way or another.

It’s the human condition.

And nutritarian eating is a slice of truth, appears to me.

“Eat meat sparingly… and fruits and vegetables in season.” These words are scripture to us, modern revelation, revealed by a prophet of God.

The words, written in 1832, are part of the health code of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints – the Mormons.

My church. I’m a happy member, tryin’ my best to live right.

Dietary codes are part of religious lore. Kosher eating is familiar to many, as are the Muslim restrictions from eating pork and drinking alcohol.

We call our dietary code “The Word of Wisdom.” The major expression in our lives is avoiding alcoholic beverages, tobacco products, coffee and tea. This and other things set us apart (ok, makes us weird) enough that we don’t go generally looking for more weirdness. In fact, we generally abhor more weirdness than our religious beliefs call for.

But I could write many books about the difference my religious beliefs make in my life. Others certainly have.

Perhaps for these and other cultural reasons, few of us are vegetarians. Fewer are vegans. Almost none of us are nutritarians. 

Yet I find nutritarian eating to be completely in line with my personal expression of faith and belief.

How so?

We Mormons have this “expansion clause” part of our religion. It’s a commandment to seek and do good things, as an organization and as individuals. It runs like this:

“. . . . If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report, we seek after these things.”

Let’s see. Longer life, better health. Definite virtue there.

How about evidence based (like how Dr. Fuhrman backs his stuff up with solid research citations and powerful real-world experience, not just his opinions). Good report there.

Then there’s this one: The nutritarian eating plan just plain tastes good.  Lovely.

Then there’s the “limitation clause”. The principle is, there is order in the Lord’s Kingdom. The Priesthood leads the church, from the Prophet (the whole church) to the Deacon’s Quorum President (local group of 12 year old boys).

In other words, when you find a personal “pearl of great price” (and  as for me, I do mean nutritarian eating and healing), you don’t presume to blab to every living creature in every possible setting, and that if the church were really about truth everyone would do this.

For that to generally apply would lead to total weirdness.

Thank heaven for the truth of balance.

A Necessary Part Of Amazing Health? Part 2

To continue an amazing list, let me start of by admitting, this can be hard to swallow.

Errors in the truth arena abound, after all. Every multi-level marketing guru of the latest health fraud will tell you, their product is a cure for most everything.

Maybe some are. But not most (take that, Noni International).

Sorry, it’s wrong of me to pick on something so specific, too harshly. There’s so many targets, and off-target good intentions, out there after all.

I count regular medicine as among those. I’d hardly call it a fraud. Well, maybe just the pharmaceutical industry part of it. Or maybe most spine surgeries. Or maybe. . . .

Sorry, off track again. Later.

So here goes:

Flu. Fractures in general.

Gastric bypass. If ever there was a clear case of standard American diet combined with standard medical approach vs. health, this is it!

Hashimoto’s disease. Heart disease. Hepatitis C. High blood pressure. High Cholesterol/triglycerides. Hip fractures. Hormonal abnormalities, especially relating to young women and maturation. Hypertension. Hypothyroidism. IBS (irritable bowel syndrome).

Inflammatory processes. This is another deep, deep subject, affecting so many things that it’s really hard to describe briefly. Another tip of the iceberg.

Kidney stones. Lupus. Meningitis. Migraines. Non-cancerous tumors.

Obesity. Yet another huge topic, with so many implications and relationships to other conditions, affecting so many, yet so few people accomplish this. The fact that nutritarian eating is so universally effective in this regard is a key to many of the other conditions it can impact.

Osteoporosis. Pellegra. PMS. Pneumonia.

Prescription drug poisoning. Ok-Ok, I’m in trouble here consistency-wise. This is not a disease, but a principle related to health. All prescription drugs are poisons with a purpose, they all have risks, that’s why it takes a prescription to get ‘em. All of them cause something negative, and the chances of negative effects and disease increases with the standard American diet. Just one well-researched example: A blood pressure medication causes multiple-site cancers, and is notorious for being related to lung cancer in non-smokers. You may not have heard that from your doctor! And the amazing thing is, you don’t even have to be exposed to that risk, with nutritarian eating (because high blood pressure just goes away).

Renal failure. Renal insuffiency. Rheumatoid arthritis. Rickets. Scurvy. Skin diseases. Strokes. Thrombosis. TIA’s (mini-strokes).

Ulcerative colitis. Very personal to me. Our son died of complications from UC, without ever being given a chance to hear about this. We asked every doctor we could find if there wasn’t  something more we could do, something related to eating, it seems so obvious. We’re talking about where all food residues pass. No relationship, we were told. We had no idea we were dealing with a medical “blind spot,” that made it so almost no gastroenterologist who hoped to stay in practice would ever admit or even read about food- related correlations and cures. A few great ones who understand otherwise are around, we’ve since found. This and more makes us hyper-receptive to the nutritarian message. And eager to share.

Uterine fibroids.

Viral infections. Another huge category, with amazing correlations.

Weight gain. According to Dr. Furman, 85% of Americans are overweight. Our normal or average weight is way skewed against optimal health. This one factor alone is perhaps the best indicator of the potential for better health through nutritarian eating.

As doctor Fuhrman says in Eat to Live*, how can this not catch on?

But this is not a panacea (a principle that cures everything). Not quite. But it can lead to one.

I’ll talk about the only real panacea in the next article.

*Note that some of this material is only touched on briefly or not even mentioned in Eat to Live. I also got insights from Dr. Fuhrman’s most recent book Super Immunity.

A Necessary Part Of Amazing Health? Part 1

Superior nutrition produces superior health.

It seems so obvious. And once you try it, it’s even more so.

But the total impact is not completely obvious, because when you try it, you try it, you experience it, you can tell the effects. And there are so many opinions on quality nutrition, it’s hard to sift the diamonds from all the dirt.

There’s lots of dirt. The nutritarian concept appears to me to be a diamond.

It’s still not enough to tell that it’ll be effective for someone else, on some other condition, in another set of circumstances.

That’s what makes Dr. Furman’s experience and books so valuable. 

He’s seen a wide range of conditions, over a number of years, backed up by lots of high quality research.

(Most people though wouldn’t know quality research from a hole in the ground. I’m not saying I’m any great expert here, but I’ve found people who are, and I listen to them.)

Nutritarian style eating is best at preventing disease, but it’s effective at curing and reversing many diseases. Sometimes, though, a disease process has gone on too long, done too much damage to be reversed or cured.  Even so, it can still be dealt with way, way more effectively than medications alone.

But other times even serious and long term conditions are reversed. Sometimes even nearly fatal conditions are stopped in their tracks and symptoms and effects vanish.

Here’s an alphabetical list of conditions that nutritarian eating prevents, cures or just helps with. Any list is going to be incomplete, and I’m betting that many more conditions will be added in time. Some are duplicates, same disease different name. And I know I’ve missed some that are probably obvious or well known.

Even so, the list is simply amazing.  When it’s worth a comment I’ll pause with a separate paragraph:

Acne, including cystic acne. Allergies. Amputations related to diabetes.

Anti-centennarianism, or the tendency to not live to be a hundred years old, healthy, happy and active up until you die (OK, I made that one up, but it’s true).

Appendicitis. Artheromas (fatty deposits hiding in blood vessel walls). Artherosclerosis. Arthritis. Asthma.

Autism. If ever there was a complex and difficult issue, this is one. My NMD friend Jerry Taylor cures this, with superb nutrition, research and lots more involved, but nutritarian eating is a basic principle he uses, in this as well as everything he treats. Smart man.

Autoimmune diseases. Lots more to tell, there are so many related conditions listed here, the words are just the tip of an iceberg. But it applies so often it suggests there is an overall affect on potentially most, many or all of these.

Back pain. Bacterial infections. A huge category, with fabulous research and amazing results, if you’re open to reading about ‘em.

Beriberi. Birth defects. Blindness related to diabetes. Bone fractures.

Cancer. Wait till you see the research correlations with cures vs. deaths related to nutritarian eating!

Colds. Constipation. Cretinism. Crohn’s disease. Dementia. Depression.

Diabetes. The vast majority with type 2 diabetes are proven to be better off with a nutritarian lifestyle, and most have a complete reversal of symptoms, as we did. Even type 1 diabetes  is impacted, with less insulin, far fewer negative consequences, and normal life spans.

Diverticulitis.

Epigenetic conditions, which are passed down to children, can result from environmental or external factors - like eating! Healthy or unhealthy, we pass it down to our children, especially through the mother. But it appears that negative effects we receive from our parents can be reversed by reversing our own unhealthy eating.

And here I’ll  take a pause, lest you faint or fade into incredulity (a serious mental disease than can actually be caused by nutritarian learning, where you stop believing in truth because it conflicts with things your mother, your doctor, and even your culture, civilization and experience teaches you).

More next time in Part 2.

Healing Power

There are many ways that nutritarian eating affects health. These are completely effective, non-controversial, proven to consistently work – for everybody. These things are so hugely beneficial that there ought to be a groundswell of public acclaim and demand for this information.

Though nutritarian solutions to disease are proven with solid research, they remain unappreciated. They aren’t taught as the core of medical education; medical students are lucky to get one course in nutrition. These solutions will remain as unproven, experimental and even unfounded (hint – read that as unfunded, and you’ll begin to understand the problem here) to the medical community at large.

And to most people in general.

Still, where positive outcomes are consistent, there is real power and truth at work.There is a substantial body of well researched, peer reviewed evidence, to help anyone understand where the real truth lies.

I want to make that very clear. Nutritarian eating can be healing all on its own. It ought to be the first thing people do, not the last. But for serious chronic conditions, and to be on the safe side, there may be more needed.

For example, my wife’s diabetes. We changed how we ate, but continued to have her medically supervised, including a program of blood sugar monitoring. That way we knew there was healing taking place. We also had complete confidence that what we were doing was not just effective, but safe.

Plus we had medically validated backing for our claims. We knew when all symptoms were reversed. We had full support for the fact that there was never any need for medication. We even knew that after a long period of no symptoms, we could consider her healed.

Along the way we gained some valuable support that made the long-term outcome much easier and more certain.

The support came from a book, recommended by our naturopathic medical doctor friend, Jerry Taylor. He described it as focused, specific advice on recovery from diabetes, and said it would be information that would add to what we’d already accomplished.

Dr. Neal Barnard's Program for Reversing Diabetes provided the strong backup we needed. It told of amazing recovery from diabetes, time after time, in the majority of diabetics. Because it’s written by an MD, backed up by research, with the medical justification (the chapter he says only your doctor will understand is right on the money), it was exactly what we needed to keep moving forward in the face of all-but-total ignorance from everyone we knew.

Dr. Barnard recommends a diet that has three important components:

• No animal source calories. Fats, protein, milk, cheese, fish, everything animal based is goners.
• Low glycemic foods. High glycemic foods contain sugars or carbohydrates that the body quickly converts to sugars.
• Low fat, with no added oils, fried food, etc.

If you can’t find the nutritarian essence here, you don’t yet understand. And if you can’t see how the nutritarian approach expands, explains and makes this anti-diabetes diet even better than the original, then you don’t understand it the same way I do.

Maybe I’m wrong.

But, I really don’t think so.

Healed from a supposedly impossible-to-heal disease. Medically validated. Nutritionally supported. Long term solution. Medication free. Well understood principles. A fabulous support network, strong enough to overcome all reservations, lack of knowledge, support or sympathy from any doctor or other source, including friends, family and culture.

That’s amazing healing power.

Miraculous? Not really. But the circumstances that make it possible are rare.

It’s actually much, much better than miraculous. It’s repeatable. It’s something anyone can do, at any time of life, that will help powerfully prevent and treat so many disease conditions. It has the potential for massively improving life span, quality of life, productivity, financial stability and so much more.

Imagine that. Massive, worldwide positive outcomes from people voluntarily making good nutritional choices based on solid information.

Now that would be a miracle.

A Basis For Health

One of the truly serendipitous events of my life occurred several months after we had corrected my wife’s high blood sugar.

We had effectively cured her of diabetes through aggressive dietary measures. It was through nutritarian style eating, though we didn’t know enough to call it that.

We met the Jerry Taylor family at church, and invited them over for dinner. 

Now, let me explain. We accomplished something we’d been told by the “best” experts was impossible. We had reason to believe the effective cure would be long term, as long as we kept up the changes we’d made, and similar benefits would come to anyone who tried this. Every meal was an adventure. We were delighted to confirm new eating habits, leave behind old ones, try new combinations and recipes, and occasionally to share the wonderful things we learned.

We have done this before and since, invited people over and shared this, including some who are in critical need of this information. Usually our efforts to explain are met with politely, but not with much real interest.

This time though, our story was met with unabashed, raging enthusiasm. You see, they had experienced the same type healing of an "impossible to cure" disease in their family. Not only that, but Dr. Taylor had just graduated with a naturopathic medical doctor (N.M.D.) degree, and come to Montana to heal diabetes in one of the many native American communities critically needing such a thing.

Note: I’m using the word “heal” and “cure” guardedly, as it’s a dangerous, controversial thing to do. “Heal” and “cure” when used in conjunction with the word “diabetes” is a politically incorrect thing, as it is in association with the word “autism” which was the Taylor family’s experience. 

The standard medical community doesn't believe and doesn't support that “cures” can ever take place with such difficult chronic illness. After all, if such things could be healed, these doctors would be doing it, right? And they don’t.

The one thing, though, exciting me more than anything else about Dr . Taylor was he recommended every single one of his patients read The China Study. This book was also a foundation of healing my wife’s diabetes.

In Dr. Fuhrman’s book Eat To Live, on pages 83-85, is the best summary of the “China Project” I’ve ever seen. The China Project is the main study reviewed in the book The China Study. It’s the largest study of diet and disease ever done.

The study found as animal source calories approached zero, cancer almost disappeared. So did diabetes, heart disease and autoimmune diseases. Low fat meat and milk made no difference. Even relatively small amounts of any kind of meat, milk and cheese significantly increased disease, and real reductions in disease did not take place until animal source calories dropped way below what most people in the U.S. as well as most other western countries eat.

The main point is, the China Project showed these diseases don’t have to even start. Curing and treating these can become all but totally unnecessary.

Now, if this is true, it has vast significance. It means cancer, heart disease, diabetes and many other diseases can be eliminated.

It also means we can live longer, healthier, more productive lives.

From my experience with this over the last four years, I believe it can happen. It will happen, when we’re ready for it.

And if animal source calories are the cause, and drastic reductions are almost totally preventive, then treating these diseases almost certainly involves removing the cause. In other words, cutting out the crap causing these in the first place. 


That’s what Dr. Taylor prescribes for every single patient, and he’s had some amazing results. Obviously, we thought it could work just that way.

Going from proven prevention to proven cure is a leap. Couldn’t say it’s true.

Unless it works.

And now my wife is cured.