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I've been lurking here for about 6 weeks, this discussion nudged me into finally registering.

My younger sister had a (mild) stroke in February, my youngest sister was diagnosed with breast cancer in March and my husband was diagnosed with kidney cancer a few weeks ago, so I went hunting for info and answers.

I thought we were leading a healthy lifestyle - we've always been active and I made sure we ate "well balanced" meals. What an eye opener I got when I started researching "diet to prevent cancer."

I am all about the science, but my aha moment was totally emotion and luck to have found this site. So the sequence:

My doctor told me to take niacin for high cholesterol.
I started trying to eat better, and bought some Right Food Soups.
Looked at the main page of this website.
Looked at the question: What would you choose, taking medication or adventure travel to Costa Rica? ----- Wow, this is a choice? I'm absolutely in.

I had dealt with some past nightmares involving family members on medications, and had been on a great adventure trip, so juxtaposing these two hit me between the eyes. I am still here.

A-ha moment yesterday was watching a co-worker try on one of 5, 2X lg. scrubs, I was giving her. I had never worn them and now I will never have a need too, and I was able to tell her how beautiful she looked. I had already given her Dr. Shintani's "Hawaiian Diet", Dr. McDougall's "Digestion Tune-Up", and Dr. Kessler's "The End of Overeating." The seed has been planted and she knows she too can lose a hundred pounds. The realization is how much more powerful the placebo effect is than the no-placebo effect that we receive in the medical community.

Aloha, patty

I slowly went to a vegan diet, just being grossed out by cooking meat, then going to a vegetarian support group and when they said there was mucus in cows milk, that was all it took for me to be vegan. That was over 20 yrs. ago. But I was not a healthy vegan and ate a lot of junk food. The funny thing is I owned one of Mcdougalls old cookbooks. I was close to 60 lbs. overweight after I had my last son. I prayed and asked God to show me how to lose this weight. Then I rememberd that cookbook and looked online, until I found this website. And I read someones star Mcdougaller that said she felt God led her to this way of eating. I then knew it was a sign. I haven't been perfect, but I have lost over 55 lbs. and have 10 lbs. left to lose. I will admit on occasion I have tried to eat high protein vegan stuff so see if that would work, I have tried counting calories, but it all comes back to this way of eating. It does work, and I am not nearly as obsessed with food.

I woke up early one morning, turned on the tv to pbs, and there was Dr Fuhrman giving his presentation. It made perfect sense to me, and from that day I changed my eating habits.

To be honest, I still would prefer the foods I used to eat, but my health is more important to me. I was never a horrible SAD fast food eater, but I did prefer the meats, eggs, cheese, bread and butter, real salad dressings, and so forth.

But they are mostly gone with only a few occasional compromises. And I feel so much better in so many ways. It's a trade-off I gladly make.


Ohh, Mad Man is starting.... gotta run.

I was in high-school. I had high blood-pressure (144/90) and high cholesterol (220), I also showed symptoms of metabolic-syndrome and testosterone-deficiency. I also began losing lots of hair during puberty. I pretty much knew at this point that something was wrong, yet I didn't know what. After many hours of research I came to the conclusion that the western-diet was the cause of the aliments.

My a-ha moment came when I realized how the "system" worked; people were given drugs that combated the symptoms rather than the cause, the cause obviously being the rich high-fat, high-sugar American-diet. I would sit at home with my mom and dad and little sister (age 7) and watch "Wheel Of Fortune". We would see commercials for greasy-bacon-cheese-burgers and sugar-laden soft-drinks... next we were watching commercials for Viagra and Lipitor!

I then realized that people have thrived on grains since before biblical times. I realized how the human body is designed to "run off of glucose". And that starchy-foods are the best source of glucose. Many passages in the bible show that the dietary-staple back then was indeed bread… and if it weren't for starch we wouldn’t be here, having this discussion!

My husband and I had our "Aha!" moment together while watching "Forks Over Knives" in a theater on June 12, 2011 in Monterey California. We both walked out of that theater and never ate meat or cheese again. It took awhile to get it right, but between the two of us, we have lost over 130 pounds and have gotten off all our medications.

As a sidenote, I do tend to be a skeptic, so I did a lot of reading after watching that documentary and I read many the detailed criticisms as well. When I looked at the prepoderance of evidence, it seemed clear that this was the path to take.

Our whole family is so much healthier and happier.

Most of my uncles on both sides of the family died of heart attacks - in their 60s, 50s and one in his 40s. My sister once commented how it would be tough to be a male in this family. So, I always thought that one day I would die of a heart attack - why would I be any different??

One doctor visit, I was told I had high cholesterol and high BP and my doctor wanted me to take pills for them. "I want to try diet and exercise first," I argued. Okay, aerobic exercise and meet with the nutritionist. Went on AHA diet (not the A-ha!) - chicken, fish, etc... Go running 4 -5 times per week. Re-check in 90 days. Cholesterol went up! "That just proves your high cholesterol is not related to diet," the doctor says "you need to take statins for the rest of your life." Okay, I accept statins for life, and BP meds.

A few years later I read an article on the front page about a local doctor who has a diet that can prevent heart disease. "A-ha!!"

I research Dr. Esselstyn on line. Sounds logical. "Honey, we need to give up meat, dairy and oil." "Why?" I explain. "Okay," my wife says. We switched and never looked back.