HEALTH RECOVERY STORIES

RECOVERY FROM CANCER TREATMENT

I have been on the Eat Fat, Lose Fat , way of eating for two months now after just completing cancer treatment (surgery,chemo, radiation), and my iron levels and stores are now normal, and my estrogen low ! I was surprised that the estrogen would be low, because I am eating so much fat. I was using a lot more coconut oil than the book recommeneds because I craved it, and was worried that it would increase the estrogen. Well, so much for the hypothsis that fats increase hormone levels. I love your book. Thanks so much for the life-saving information H.M.

MIRACULOUS RECOVERY

            My husband Richard and I have been married for nearly 11 years, and during that time, Richard has experienced serious, chronic gastrointestinal problems. He first became aware of these problems in elementary school, when his throat would sometimes seize up and close when he ate dairy food. During the last ten years, these problems primarily manifested themselves as extremely poor digestion and lack of energy. Richard could not eat or drink anything at all (even water) and “feel good” in his stomach. He frequently commented to me that his stomach felt “dead” and that the food he ate would remain in his stomach for 8-12 hours during which time he would experience constant repeating of his food. Ironically enough, his complete lack of digestive “fire” was accompanied by ceaseless cravings for chocolate ice cream. In an attempt to avoid using pharmaceutical drugs, which we felt would surely lead to other chronic problems, we searched in vain for years trying many alternative therapies to solve Richard’s problem, including acupuncture, herbs, cleanses, colonics, aloe, macrobiotic and several “anti-inflammatory” diets, powders, enzymes and acid pills of all kinds. During one particular “cleanse,” Richard ate nothing but rice, vegetables (raw, juiced, and cooked) and chicken/turkey for two months. Result: He got much worse. Then I learned about your work and was able to obtain one quart of raw cream and some pasture-fed ground beef. As you can imagine, I was extremely skeptical of this approach to eating as my husband was supposedly allergic to milk products, and here we were trying to feed him raw dairy! That evening, I prepared for Richard a bowl of raw cream with a little raw unfiltered honey, organic bananas and blueberries. After about two hours, Richard commented to me that his stomach did not feel heavy and that he wasn’t repeating his food as much as usual. I then purchased some raw butter and cheese and started him on that also. He also increased egg consumption to about a dozen per week. I began making beet kvass and several other fermented beverages, including kombucha, for him to sip with each meal to further enhance his digestion.   It has now been not even a month, and Richard is like a new man. He says that his stomach feels alive again and that he can eat even large meals with ease. He has cut out his enzyme and acid pills when eating at home, and we hope that his gastrointestinal tract will be healed enough in another few months that he won’t even need them in restaurants either. Most importantly, he has the energy and stamina of a 20-year-old!

I feel that his recovery is nothing short of a miracle and am so grateful for your pioneering efforts to get this information out to desperate folks like us. I now understand that Richard’s cravings for chocolate ice cream were simply the crying out of his body for whole, unprocessed butterfat. Once he got this need filled with raw butter, cream and cheese, his cravings for ice cream disappeared along with his gastrointestinal problems. I never could have imagined that so simple a solution existed for what seemed like an intractable medical condition. S.P.

NO MORE PANIC ATTACKS

  I’ve never been a paragon of vibrant health.  Born allergic to dairy products and other nourishing foods to a mother lovingly following the best of what politically correct nutrition had to offer, I destroyed my health further as a teenager with a diet laden with junk food.  When I became a vegetarian at 18 and a vegan six months later, I had no idea what I was doing to myself.  An anxiety disorder I’d had since my early teens was aggravated to near psychotic proportions—I was afraid to eat most of the food in my house (it was drugged), meticulously inspected seats before I sat down (in case they were doused in LSD), and was nervous about getting in my car (it may have been rigged with explosives).  I had panic attacks several times a week, and spent minutes of frustration in the university dining hall looking for a glass fit to drink from. In addition, I found myself with a mouth full of cavities (nearly one for each tooth), including two dead teeth that needed root canals.

            I found out about Weston A Price’s research and began making changes in my diet, eating vast amounts of butter (a pound or more a week), eggs (3 or more a day), raw milk and cream, cod liver oil, and liver.  The simple inclusion of meat in my diet several months before had eliminated my panic attacks.  Making the change to a traditional diet eliminated every vestige of phobia, obsession, or compulsion, that had been part and parcel of my life for the previous eight years. 

            Two years later, I’ve yet to have another cavity. Still later, I finished the dental work I’d needed with two root canals.  I was immediately struck with immune system problems including chronic conjunctivitis.  I eliminated the conjunctivitis each time with chicken stock and coconut milk or coconut oil.  I successfully used several tablespoons of coconut oil per day to prevent recurrences of conjunctivitis or other problems.  The inclusion of raw meat in my diet finally allowed me to moderate my coconut oil intake and stay healthy.  Traditional foods, including traditional fats, have been central to the revolution that has occurred in my mental and physical health.  C.M.

WONDROUS NUMBERS

Several years ago, I was diagnosed with acidosis, and although I tried valiantly to correct the problem via diet, nothing worked. I felt like death warmed over and had all kinds of inexplicable aches and pains. I cut back on meat and carbs and was eating huge salads every day. What I didn’t know was that certain recently introduced foods that I thought were the epitome of healthful eating were robbing me of vital minerals, and who knows what else. In my never-ending quest for good health, I had begun eating what I thought was a modified macrobiotic diet. Brown rice (unsoaked) and soy milk every morning and sometimes miso soup with tofu at other times during the day. A triple phytate whammy! My cholesterol plummeted to 135 and when I questioned my then doctor (via letter) whether that was not dangerously low, I never received a reply. It was not until I learned about traditional diets that I understood the problem.

            I am now back on eggs (organic) cooked in butter (organic) along with toast slathered with butter and whole cream (organic) in my coffee every morning. Salads are drowned in olive oil. Recent cholesterol values were so stunning, my current doctor remarked that he had never seen such wondrous numbers. S.R.

OPTIMAL ENERGY

            After a number of years practicing macrobiotics and using a lot of soy, my digestion was horrible (constant gas and bloating), my menstrual cycle completely out of whack, my skin was lackluster and constantly blemished, and I was always tired. Now after several years on traditional foods, including butter, meat, fish, raw dairy, soaked grains, cod liver oil and homemade bone broths, my digestion is fine, my skin looks great, my periods are regular, my blood sugar is stable and my stamina and energy are at optimal levels. Even better—I don’t get colds or flu anymore and I no longer have cravings for sugar and chocolate!   V.B.

HEALTH IMPROVEMENTS

            I have been involved in your organization for a year now and my health keeps improving. I had hypoglycemia and was a vegetarian. I could not understand why I craved sugar and gained weight. My periods were coming every two weeks. Then I stopped eating soy and began taking cod liver oil. My periods evened out to every six weeks, and were much less painful. In addition, my blood sugar is much more balanced. Raw milk and fats have changed the way I think about food. Now I look forward to meals, knowing that I’m eating well and giving my body what it needs to be well. My sister has suffered from severe allergies for years and resorted to using Benadryl whenever she would visit our house with all its pets. She started drinking raw milk and her allergies have dramatically improved.   M.K.

A VITAMIN A MIRACLE

            I began having problems with rough and red skin on my face, and little bumps on my upper arms. My research pointed to a possible vitamin A deficiency so I tried 10,000 IU per day (in a blend with D, from fish oil) for a few weeks. I saw no improvement whatsoever, so I thought I’d hit a dead end. But something kept telling me to try more, so I read up on vitamin A toxicity and decided to give 20,000 IU per day a try.

            After discontinuing the vitamin A for a couple of weeks (to more clearly separate the results of one dosage from the other), I started on 20,000 IU per day. The results were immediate and dramatic! In three days, the skin on my face was back to a softness it hadn’t had in a long, long time. And not only that, numerous other complaints of long standing (one of 30 years!) began to fade.

            I never was a vegetarian—I eat beef (very rare, with fat) and I eat egg yolks. I also eat lots of dark green leafy vegetables and yams, both with butter. So it seems strange that I could have become vitamin A deficient, but that is what happened.    R.T.

FEEL AND LOOK BETTER

            I was diagnosed with breast cancer in October of 2000 while on a macrobiotic diet for three years, and also using a progesterone cream since 1998. After partial mastectomy surgery I became extremely ill from the general anesthetic and developed malabsorption and chronic diarrhea, losing weight rapidly over the next few weeks. I tried various macrobiotic remedies which stemmed the diarrhea but I did not begin to regain the lost weight until Christmas, when I abandoned the vegan stuff and attacked an organic, free-range turkey carcass and ate my fill. That night I slept well for the first time in months and my urinary pH, which had been very acid, was normal in the morning. So much for “alkalinizing” through macrobiotics.

            I continue to focus on organic lightly cooked vegetables of all kinds and small amounts of whole grains, but I have added back butter, olive, sesame and coconut oils and organic, free-range, grass-fed or naturally raised meats and fowl, eggs and organic kefir with flax oil. It took over a year to regain the lost weight. I feel and look better, and my menopause symptoms which had been very severe are no longer troublesome.   A.T.

PAIN IS GONE

            I can’t tell you how much I appreciate your work! My husband and I had been on a vegetarian diet with only olive oil and a bit of butter for me. My health was going downhill with a lot of pain in the joints, spine and hips. At times my lower back was so painful I had to stay in bed. Now, after five months on your wise diet, my pain is completely gone and I can work hard in my garden without any repercussions. And my depression is lifted like a dark veil!     H. E.

NOTICEABLE CHANGES

            I came across the Weston Price Foundation while trying to improve my health. I had suffered from bad digestion, nose bleeds, insomnia, pain in the area of my gallbladder, and premature atrial contractions. One of the many things I did to help myself was to implement a traditional diet in our home. I cleaned out the house of most processed food and started cooking the nourishing traditional way. Within 6 months of following the diet I felt way better but to my husband’s and my surprise our children’s health made big noticeable changes. This is where the story really starts.

            Our son, who is nine years old, had anxiety, a hard time going to sleep, bed wetting, teeth grinding at night, frequent skin rashes on his body and around his mouth, and he started hearing voices in his head. We have a family history of mental disorders. Our six-year-old daughter had warts on her feet and dark circles under her eyes most of the time. The children had a bit of a hard time giving up their cold cereal, candy, and they were a bit reluctant to take cod liver oil and lacto-fermented vegetables but slowly they have gotten used to our   new diet, and lo, and behold their problems have slowly disappeared! L.C.

ALL RAW NOT ALL RIGHT            

            I am 30 years old and was diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome four years ago. In an attempt to restore my health I was perusing a number of dietary changes and natural health practices. In the summer of 1998, I discovered the
raw-vegan

 diet. With promises of improved health, my husband and I dove right in and were trying to eat 100 percent of our new vegan diet uncooked. I never wanted to admit it, but we never felt very satisfied. We would be hungry again soon after a meal and yet we struggled to get down large quantities of this food which had taken so much time and energy to prepare.

            We were part of a raw food group and on the surface everyone else seemed to feel satisfied and claimed that their health and energy was much improved on the diet. It was like this exclusive club and we feared for the rest of the enzyme-depleted, unenlightened world. I never expressed my sense of dissatisfaction because I just assumed that we would get used to it or that we weren’t doing enough of something and I would eventually get it
right.

 In truth, we went out to eat as often as possible because it gave us a good excuse to cheat. We were not alone in this. I know people really struggled to stay on this restricted diet. I felt such anxiety, constant guilt and a sense of failing. We were not enjoying our food. Eating became all about doing it just because it was good for us. Other times I just wouldn’t eat at all because something raw  wasn’t easily available. This is not a pleasant way to live! Then some friends in the raw foods group introduced us to the Weston A. Price Foundation and information about traditional foods. They had eaten all raw for several years and were beginning to feel concerned about some of the things they saw happening to their health and energy levels. We listened to some tapes and read Nutrition and Physical Degeneration. The information rang true and, even better, the food was so appealing. We were excited it felt a bit like being set free.  I began paying more attention to the levels of and energy and wellness in the people I knew within the natural health community. I realized again and again how those with the most vitality not only ate some of their food cooked, but NONE of them were vegetarians. Among the raw foodists we know, I didn’t find anywhere near that level of vitality. I am more convinced than ever that an energetic life-style cannot be sustained with the all-raw diet and I fear for the children produced under such circumstances.   I am so thankful for the path we are on now. I feel more peaceful than ever about our good choices. Best of all, we are so thoroughly enjoying our food. We rarely go out to eat and when we do, we almost always decide that the food is much better at home. I am getting stronger and stronger and am confident through the grace of God that I will completely regain my health. Thanks to all of you at the Weston A. Price Foundation for spreading the truth, for demystifying the myths and for making the information available. Keep up the good work! C.W.

WONDERFUL INCREASE IN ENERGY

I am noticing a really wonderful increase in my energy and I  believe it is from coconut oil. After initially being discouraged and  giving up on it because it make me nauseous and headachy, and then  reading posts on how that would get better in time I started back with  a tiny bit in my tea and then increased it gradually till I am up to  the recommended amount for my weight. It’s been about 2-1/2 weeks now and there is a definite increase in stamina. 

            Ordinarily  I wouldn’t have chose to make that extra trip for the beef suet that I  tacked on to the end of a very full day yesterday. But I did and did  not really feel it! Even thought I didn’t do the best job cooking  dinner, I still had more mental focus than I normally would after such  a day. This is what I have been searching for and had almost given up  on.

            Must also add that I have been taking some pills that my holistic doctor prescribed for fat metabolism...but wasn’t noticing any change  till I added the coconut oil in my tea. So I am sure there is a synergy  here. E.U.