Plant-Based Healthy Solutions

A Dominican Vegan! How in the world did that happen? That way of eating was not part of our culture. All I knew growing up was the Bandera Dominicana, The Dominican Flag! Rice, beans and meat, platanos; starch and more starch with a side salad. 

At 9 years of age I was Diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes, an Autoimmune disorder. I remember my mother crying in the Doctors office as if I had been given a life sentence. Truth is, I was.
Diabetes ran rampant in my family, just about every senior family member on my dads side had diabetes. My mother was devastated.

I guess being the 1st grandchild, I was also the lucky one.

The silent killer is what they call it. Challenging to manage, ever changing day by day, hour by hour and meal by meal. A Deadly illness, if left uncontrolled, could kill you. Slowly.

As a diabetic child I wasn't taught much about the illness, and neither were many of my closest Diabetic friends, that I met at a Diabetic camp for children. We were taught MEDICATION and not NUTRITION. We grew up believing that as long as we took our medicine, injectable insulin, that we could keep right on living; eating and drinking whatever we wanted. But we were so wrong.

• By age 19, I started losing some of those same childhood diabetic friends.
• By age 25 some were on dialysis, some, lost limbs, went blind and unfortunately some didn't even make it that far. Talk about being scared to death.
• At age 26 I had my son, 7 months prematurely via an emergency c-section, due to Preclampsia. At that time, I was also diagnosed with Hypertension and Hypothyroidism.
• By age 30 I had high cholesterol.
• By age 35, I had diabetic retinopathy.
• By age 40 I was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis, Osteoarthritis and Diabetic Gastroparisis.

And this is where my story begins.

After years of suffering with all these ailments, I just assumed that this was my fate. One auto immune disorder led to another autoimmune disorder.

Diabetic Gastroparesis; slow stomach emptying. My stomach would hurt after every meal, I felt full after 2 bites. I suffered from chronic constipation, my belly would painfully balloon as if I were pregnant. I was told that it was all because of my Diabetes.

Bone spur in my heel, bone spur surgery in my shoulder, trigger fingers surgery, dupuytrens disease, hand surgery, bone spur in my toe- surgery twice! My Orthopedic Dr., after my zillionth cortisone shot would say "its the diabetes Von". Cortisone shot after cortisone shot, my blood sugar would be so high for days and I steadily gained weight. by December 2014, I reached 198 lbs, which at 5'5 was a lot of weight to carry.

But all this was MY normal. The more I weighed the more Insulin I needed. it was a vicious cycle. Then one day watching history documentaries, I came across a documentary called "King Corn" on Netflix. This documentary talked about the dangers of High Fructose Corn Syrup. That documentary led me to another documentary, "Sugar Coated" and then "That Sugar film." Documentaries talking about the dangers of sugar and how much of it is hidden in our foods. No wonder I couldn't get a handle on my blood sugars.

I started reading all the food lables in the grocery store. It would take me hours to shop, looking for high fructose corn syrup, sucrose fructose and all kinds of Ose hidden in the foods. I was DETERMINED to get better.

The more I watched and learned the more I wanted to learn. I became a docujunkie.

"Reach One Teach One" became my motto, because the one that I wanted to teach was ME. But I was still in a lot of pain. I began to hate eating. The pain was terrible. I would sit down to eat a meal, take 2 bites and push my plate away. Nothing was appetizing. I went to one Gastroenterologist who did a colonoscopy. Unfortunately or fortunately, he found nothing wrong. More months of this discomfort, then I went to another gastroenterologist who decided to do an ultrasound and my 3rd stomach emptying test. The ultrasound revealed that I had a 10 milímeter gallstone. They removed my gallbladder but to no avail, I was still in pain. They put me on medications that gave me the runs, painful cramps and awful side effects.

I was surviving on smoothies and eating out of tea cup dishes while trying to get a handle on my blood sugars that were rollercoastering from high to low, I was miserable.

I found a Dr. which after talking about my thyroid my aches and pain recommended I go vegetarian, that was easy I didn't eat red meat or pork anyway.

A friend of mine who is also a type one diabetic and a raw vegan, led me to Dr. Joel Fuhrman's YouTube videos and his book Eat to Live.

After reading Eat to Live, I gave it all up instantly!

Gave up eating chicken, fish, cheese, milk, eggs. I became a low carb vegan. I ate salads smoothies, soups, complex grains, beans and vegetables, berries, low glycemic fruit

That was March 2015, by June I was down 20 lbs. My Dr. asked me what I did, I said, I went vegan!

My cholesterol stabilized and he took me off of the statin. We did an ALCAT food sensitivity test which revealed foods that triggered inflammation in my body. I removed those foods from my diet as well. 3 months after that, I was down another 20 lbs. The weight was falling off and he took me off one of the blood pressure pills. 3 months later I had lost another 13lbs and he took me off the 2nd blood pressure pill. In that time frame My A1C dropped from a 7.8 to a 5.5 and my insulin totals were cut in half. My inflammatory markers came down and my joint pain improved.

My husband is also 95% on board now. It has been a transition for him. I don't force it. He has come to this decision on his own, after watching me improve my circumstances. Two years ago he had ulcer surgery and was told that he would be on medication for the rest of his life. Changing his diet has controlled his hyperacidity and his asthma. Im happy that he has not had an asthma attack in 2.5 years and at now 52 he takes no medication.

In 3.5 years I have turned my health around, maintained my weight and have kept my A1C stable. I've watched so many documentaries on food and health and have read so many books. It has become my passion.

I'm happy that I have helped a few of my friends, coworkers and a couple of family members change their circumstances simply by sharing my journey. Truth is, I'm just a regular person like them, and if I can change, they can too.

It's not that hard to make the change, all we have to do is make the choice and then take the first step.

Plants saved me, now they sustain me.