Orva Johnson: When our sixth daughter was born, she was colicky, and I was breastfeeding
her, and I learned that if I cut out milk she was so much happier. So at first I just
cut out milk and didn’t end up eating any dairy products, and I ended up doing that the
whole time I was nursing her, and by the time we were finished nursing, that had been long
enough that I didn’t really miss the dairy products anymore.
Right after that we moved, and I met a wonderful friend who mentored me in much more of a whole
food, plant-based diet and, she gradually helped me see the science behind it, and she was
also convinced this was a better way of looking at the Word of Wisdom, too. That had never
occurred to me the whole time I had been growing up, and so when she did that I started studying
more the science and as soon as I stopped eating meat and dairy, both, all of a sudden
the Word of Wisdom changed to me, and I was able to see the verses that talk about how
the Lord would rather us not eat meat unless we really need to. That was so surprising
to me and I was kind of embarrassed like they’d snuck in a verse that I’d never noticed.
So I started doing it. My family wasn’t doing it, although what I cooked, certainly,
I cut down the milk and the cheese and the eggs and the meat, but what I would usually
do was make a casserole or something, and their side would have some of those things
in it, and I would leave a little section that was mostly just rice or beans or potatoes,
and I left off the sauces that had the dairy and the cheese. And so for a long time that’s
kind of how we lived. I would have huge helpings of fruit and vegetables
and a little bit of the casserole with none of the sauce on, and still make soups and
casseroles for my family and my husband, and they were wonderful and didn’t give me a
hard time, and for some reason, I don’t know why, this isn’t even my personality—I’m
kind of traditionally really a nagging kind of wife and mom—but that was okay with me,
that was okay with me to have these two things going, and I’m surprised now when I see
how much easier it is to do when your husband’s doing it with you and your family’s doing
it with you, I’m surprised I was able to even do that, and it didn’t even seem that
hard to me. But I was motivated, I was really motivated, both because the baby needed me
to eat that way at first, and then I saw how much easier it was to control my weight after
I started doing this, and I just felt great, so that was motivating to me, and I’ve never
looked back. I am better off, I’m kind of an all or nothing person.
I have a hard time eating one cookie. I have a hard time eating one piece of cake
or one bowl of ice cream. I am somebody who goes back and back until the thing is gone—especially
with sweets—and so this is so freeing to me, because I just don’t have the first
bite so I never have to fight about the second piece.
Paul Johnson: What was going through my head is that she’s probably right and she’s
probably eating more healthfully than I am, but I don’t think I can do that, and I don’t
really want to do that even though I think it’s probably better, so I’ll continue
eating a little bit of meat and a little bit of cheese, and she can eat her way and all is good.
Orva: I ate like this for quite a while,
many years by myself, with I think my family was getting a lot of the benefits from it
And then about 10, 12 years ago my husband was diagnosed with pre-diabetes, and they wanted him to
eat the American Diabetic Association diet.
Paul: I was in my mid-40’s, 45-46, and my feet started tingling, and then that changed to hurting and burning
and really bothering me, so I went and checked and they said, “You got peripheral neuropathy. Why do you have
peripheral neuropathy?” and they couldn’t figure it out because I wasn’t, I didn’t
appear to be diabetic. So, they started doing all these tests on
me, they did blood tests, they did urine tests, 24-hour urine tests, and they said,
“Well, we think we found the problem. Your kidneys are throwing out all your calcium and so your
parathyroids are taking the calcium from your bones, and you have osteoporosis, and you’re 46,
and that’s really uncommon for a 46 year old male to have osteoporosis.”
They did dexa scans and x-rays on my feet, and they said, “Your bones are going away.”
So, that excited me a bit. And I saw a specialist. She said, “Well, your parathyroid hormones
are way elevated, way too high. They’re way too active. We may just have to take them
out, and then you take a thyroid medication for the rest of your life.”
None of that I really liked, but I said, "Fine, I'll try your medicine." And so I tried her medicine,
and we battled for months with her saying, "This is what you need to do," and
it not working. I would take the medication, and I would have side effects I didn't really appreciate,
and my feet still hurt like crazy. My calcium was still getting thrown out by
my kidneys, which was pretty serious. So I went to a doctor, a specialist at the University of Utah.
And he did a bunch of tests on me, and he said, "Well, you're pre-diabetic.
That's your problem. That's why you have neuropathy." I said, "Yeah, but what do I do about getting
the calcium kicked out." He said, "I can't help you with that."
And she was saying, "I can't help you with your feet, but your kidneys are still kicking
out your calcium." So I had these two problems that I was not
getting good success with the doctors on either one. In fact, the doctor at the U. of U. said,
"We can't fix your feet. You've got nerve damage. It's going to stay. Get used to it.
I'll give you some medication that will calm the nerves."
That's when my wife said, "Why don't you try being vegan for three months.
It won't hurt you to do this for three months.
Orva: I just begged him. I just said, "Try this for three months." And when he did that
it was going to be hard for him. And he knew it, and our whole family knew it. We had married
children, adult children, and our married children, just to support Paul, decided they
would do this whole food, plant-based, also 100%.
Paul: And I resisted for a long time, and after a few months, she just said, "Really, why don't you try this
cause you're not enjoying taking this medication that isn't really working, anyway."
So I said, "Ok, I'll go talk to my internist." We've got three doctors going here;
the specialist, the internist, and the guy up at the U of U.
So, I talked to the internist, and said, "I'm going to experiment with going vegan
for six months (or rather) three months." And she said, "You're nuts."
She said, "It won't help." I said, "Fine, but I'm doing this. I'm making an experiment.
I want you to take my blood test and my urine test. All the ones you're
making me do every three months. I want you to take them now. And then I'm going to do
this experiment for three months, and then you're going to run those same tests.
And we're going to see if it works. I'll probably just say, 'Ok, it didn't work’,
and I'll keep eating like I'm eating.” So I went completely vegan. Completely, 100%
vegan for three months. Went back in, took the same tests. She said, "Come back next week,
and I'll give you the results." So, I'm sitting in her office, the nurse takes me in there.
She walks in, and she says, "Well, you should have gone to med school and not law school
because you cured yourself." I said, "You're kidding me!"
She said, "No, your numbers are completely normal. Your PTH, your parathyroid
hormone: completely normal. Your calcium numbers and your urine: completely normal.
Your kidneys have stopped throwing out your calcium. And your fasting glucose tests are completely normal."
I said, "What am I supposed to do with that?"
She said, "Well, you know how to fix this." She still, by the way, doesn't really believe
in it, but she thinks it worked for me. And so it was good news and bad news.
It was good news because we figured out a cure. It was bad news because no more hamburgers.
Orva: And that was kind of the beginning of our whole family taking this on as a project
and sharing recipes with each other. We got a blog, and then finally a website where we share.
And it is so much easier when you have people who you love who are excited about doing this.
And now our grandchildren are eating this way because nobody's ever really
gone back to before, and that was really our probably watershed moment, is when we decided to
all do it together to support Paul. Of course, it changed his whole health future because he did it.