BeanDiet

There's nothing better than to believe you have played a role in greatly improving someone's life. It reminds me why I chose a career in health prevention (nutrition) rather than the more secure, better paying path of medicine. Helping people live healthy, long lives is money in the bank for me - or better yet, treasure in heaven.

Last week, as I began to teach my first of twelve nutrition classes at CalPERS, I asked a former student to share her experience with my class. I'll call her Sara. Sara shared how she took the class because she had recently been diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis, which is an auto-immune disease so debilitating that without medicine, people are confined to a wheelchair within years of diagnosis. And because this disease is so serious, chemotherapy is used in treatment. Unfortunately, chemo doesn't just stop the progression of rheumatoid arthritis, but destroys the immune system.

So needless to say, Sara wanted to see if diet could make a difference. She shared that after radically changing her diet by eliminating almost all dairy, meats, eggs and processed foods, she experienced a difference within only three weeks. Her doctor cut the amount of chemo in half! And now, months later, her doctor is taking her off her medicine entirely.

Seriously. I'm stunned. I'm still taking time to believe it myself.

The effects of a plant-based diet can't be overstated, even with extremely serious disease thought "untreatable". Please share this with everyone you know. Even if they don't listen now, they'll remember it if they are diagnosed with a tragic illness in the future. You could help save someone's life.