Crashing on the Genesis 1:29 Diet
From Invalid to Athlete in Five Months
By Greg Westbrook
Adapted from "The Rudder" Newsletter, October 2002
Click here to learn about the WestbrooksMy wife Judie's condition on the Hallelujah Diet was fast approaching invalid status by the year 2001. Cobwebs that had lingered in the far reaches of our ceiling had nothing to fear since Judie was too far down to even think about cobwebs. Each day was a struggle to find energy just to do daily necessities like dressing, cleaning up, and fixing meals. All Judie's energy was going to struggling with horrible head and neck aches. Every morning when she got up, her head and neck was pounding with pain. Sometimes, if she took an aspirin or other pain reliever, it would help. Otherwise, it was a matter of just trying to cope.
Judie had withdrawn from almost all aspects of our ministry, reserving her energy for just a few phone calls per day. Before we started our years as all-raw vegans (three years), then Hallelujah Dieters (another three years), Judie had absolutely no health problems. She had always been robust, healthy, and capable of doing a tremendous amount of physical work. Now we were facing the frightening prospect of our lives completely shutting down because of Judie's head and neck problems. It had reached the point that even a half hour ride in a car was very difficult for Judie.
Early in the spring of 2002, we decided to take a drive to the lake, which is about an hour and a half away. We tried propping Judie up with a mountain of pillows, but never made it to the lake. Judie's neck was so bad she thought she might need a helicopter to get back. It was a frightening situation. We realized we had no place to turn but to the Lord for guidance.
Several friends advised us to get medical opinions. After x-rays and blood tests, two doctors told Judie the same thing: the muscles in her neck had atrophied to the point that they were only pencil thin. There was precious little muscle in her neck to hold her head up. Her bones were slipping out of place since the muscle structure was unable to provide proper support for the bones.
Looking back on it now, Judie's neck was rather thin in the Weigh of Wisdom videotapes, indicating almost no muscles in that area. Doctors told Judie she was dangerously low in calcium and magnesium. Furthermore, she had developed osteopenia (beginning stages of osteoporosis) on the diet. All these were new conditions she had developed on the Genesis 1:29 Diet.
Most people probably would have taken the battery of supplements (pills) the doctors prescribed, but we felt very strongly that since diet was what caused these problems, we should first give diet a chance to solve the same problems. We didn't fill the prescriptions but began to add chicken, turkey and dairy back into our diets. Slowly, Judie began to improve a little.
Eventually the day came that Judie told the family she had been craving beef, and that she was going to the health food store and buy some for dinner. Thus, we ate our first beef meal in over seven years. She ate it again in another week and began to notice a marked improvement in her neck. After including beef regularly in our diets, Judie began to make some real headway, and her neck muscles began to rebuild quickly.
Within four months after starting on beef, Judie had improved so much that we decided that she would be able to make a business/vacation trip. Little did we know that the two-week trip would turn into almost five and our planned flight home would turn into a long drive. We traveled 7,000 miles in an automobile, with Judie doing much of the driving. At the end of the trip, we stopped in Colorado to see my parents. The country was so beautiful and Judie felt so much better, we decided to try something we had never done before: mountain biking. In Colorado, at an elevation of 8,000 to 10,000 feet, we made two rides. On the first one we did 12 miles, and on the second one, we did 22 miles of very demanding riding in the mountains.
I can't begin to tell you what an accomplishment this was for Judie to ride 7,000 miles in a car almost pain-free, and to do the vigorous mountain biking. And we survived the bike ride with no sore muscles! We can only marvel at Judie's recovery. Without any pills or supplements, by just changing our diets to what the Bible says we can freely eat, Judie's robust health has been restored. Without apology or reservation of any sort, I'm thankful to God for giving us animal products to eat. Thank God for giving us the simple instructions in Genesis 9:3. Thank God for giving us guidance throughout the Bible. It's frightening where Judie would be today without these wonderful, powerful foods.
Note from Chet:
- Click here to read Greg Westbrook's more detailed article about the dangers of the Genesis 1:29 Diet.
- Click here to read my review of Greg Westbrook's excellent book When Hallelujah Becomes "What Happened?" -- Crashing on the Vegan Diet.
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