Reading and…. is a new semi-weekly posting of recommended books. These will include books on health, nutrition, cooking, alternative living, environmental issues, spirituality, or anything else I think helpful, inspiring, enjoyable, or smile inducing. If you have a book you would like me to review, please contact me at meghan (at) meghantelpner (dot) com.
When I was diagnosed with Crohn’s, told my options and given a list of medications that could potentially, possibly, maybe help me, what I saw in my future was not free of disease. I saw my future as Meg Wolff’s life unfolded for her, disease-ridden.
In her book, Becoming Whole, Meg recounts in an honest, composed, revealing manner what she went through with her near death, double brush with cancer. She was as good as gone from what her doctors could determine, but each still insisted that cutting and chemicals were her only option in prolonging her life. She was not given any options that would ensure living.
Like Meg, I had this inkling that something was not right. Like Meg I went from doctor to doctor looking for someone to take me seriously and allowing the doctors to brush away my worries, giving me prescriptions for symptoms. Like Meg, every time I left a doctor’s office, I did not feel reassured. Like Meg, I knew something was very wrong.
My grandfather, who lost his wife (my grandmother) when she was in her late 40′s and his son (my uncle) when he was in his early 30′s- both to cancer, has a saying “Doctor’s bury their mistakes”. Meg could see this coming, and making a shift she began to ask big questions. She didn’t take study results at face value but actually called the researchers who did the studies.
Desperate times call for desperate measures and when you are not given an option that feels right, you have to create your own. Meg had the same realization I did, that if we didn’t change what was building the disease within us, the disease would continue to appear, perhaps in different ways, in different manifestations, but it would come back.
An amazing observation that Meg makes in her book is that “Health is an unknown state of being for most doctors. They don’t know how to detect it, or what it really looks like, which is why they don’t know when to call off the war. Illness is all that they understand. Health is a mystery”.
When it comes to a health crisis, one of the scariest things we can do is to go against science and ‘the professionals’ and instead follow our hearts and instinct. Meg transitioned to a strictly macrobiotic diet and cured her stage 3 cancer. Meg found a doctor that supported her and gave her hope and there is no greater aid to our healing than finding someone we respect to help stoke the fires of our own sense of hope. The law of attraction can work in many ways- good and bad.
Meg will carry with her for the rest of her life the battle scars of the war she fought, losing a leg and a breast. Aside from these reminders she is the embodiment of perfect health in body, mind and spirit. The book concludes with a delicious selection of healing macrobiotic recipes and resources and of course the reasons why they work.
I would have taken great comfort in her book when I was going through my ‘alternative’ (or what I prefer to call ‘traditional’ path to healing, knowing that my reservations an fears that I had gone off the deep end were not mine alone. I have always been reluctant to boast about the disease curing ability of the wholesome plant based foods. I stress that it can prevent disease, that bad food will build disease but have never claimed (and legally am not allowed to) that these health supportive foods like whole grains and green vegetables and best lifestyle practices are actually a cure for disease. Meg is one of the few other people I have known that believes this as thoroughly as I do. I would hate to think that it takes being on the other side- the side that is leading to more and more disease for people to make this connection.
What if we could get people to eat and live like this from birth and that disease and degeneration is not the inevitable result of getting older? Imagine the burden that would be lifted economically, environmentally, socially, and spiritually? A healthy world is truly a different one than we are building. Eating kale and brown rice, drinking green smoothies regularly, taking walks, and sitting quietly once in a while could actually change our lives. Does it get any simpler?
I know that you know someone with cancer. We all do. Get this book. Read it yourself, share it, and spread the word. When we get sick, we have choices to make and we must make the choice is right for us. This book will inspire anyone to empower themselves to take control of their health and their life.
How about starting with me next Sunday with 3 awesome days of Green Smoothies?
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Thanks for this post Meghan. By the time I finished it there were tears in my eyes and a smile on my face. I will definitely track down this book.
I especially liked the excerpt from her book: “Health is an unknown state of being for most doctors. They don’t know how to detect it, or what it really looks like, which is why they don’t know when to call off the war. Illness is all that they understand. Health is a mystery”.
P.S. Nothing beats a tree as a reading companion, it looks like you found a mighty good one there!
GREAT review Meghan! Hadn’t heard of this book before but will be sure to look it up. Keep up the excellent work!
Meghan-
I read this book as well and loved it. I have had the opportunity to talk with Meg through email and she is an amazing lady.
Being in the medical field as a nurse I often wish that doctors would stress the importance of a wholesome diet. It seems like they just always are handing out handfuls of prescriptions after prescription…it can be really frustrating to see. My husband is in medical school and it is sad how little education they get on the health/nutrition side of things.
I am totally for what you do as a holistic health counselor and would love to make the leap to that field someday! Keep up the great work girl!
Great review. I love Meg’s blog and her story is always inspiring. And her quote about doctors not being able to recognize health is so apt. Makes one wonder when the “conventional” medical professionals will finally wake up!
Great review — I am addicted to books and this looks like one I’ll have to get (soon!). I love it when other bloggers with common interests turn me on to good reading. Thanks, Meghan!
Melissa
Doctors: The leading cause of death.
(And, as you know, I’m not being flippant.)
The book that changed my life in a similar way (recommended by my aunt whom I’ve told you about) was Marcia Zimmerman’s The ADD Nutrition Solution.
FoodsThatFit- The medical system needs more people thinking like you. Every little bit helps. No need to vene make the leap- just keep learning and applying it to what you do and changes will surely come!
Taryn- you should have seen me while I was reading it. It was all I thought about- even came in to my dreams. It is a very powerful and uplifting story that gets into you.
Myra!- Thank you! It has been too long. We need to connect soon.
Ricki- Always amazed by how small and supportive the healthy blog world is.