This Health Source co-op has been life-changing. I thought I was eating healthy before we joined, but little did I know what healthy really was!

We’ve spent the last year transitioning to a whole-foods diet, eliminating processed foods (including white flour, white sugar) and changing the balance of our diets from primarily meat and veggies every meal to eating mostly vegetables with a little meat on the side 2-3 times a week. One nice result is that we get sick very seldom. Another great result for me is that my hypoglycemia is completely gone and I have lost 20 pounds. Oh yeah, and I don’t get headaches anymore or 4-hour stomach aches, which I used to endure 2-3 times a week. You forget these things when you haven’t had them in so long.

For years after the birth of my second child, I had several chronic health issues that just would not resolve. These were things that doctors just could not pinpoint or help me with at all, like chronic inflammation and “crunchy” knees that ached all the time. There was no curative answer. I first explored herbs. I did find relief in the herbs that I couldn’t find in over-the-counter or prescription medicines, but it was to the tune of about $200 a month. And that was just to feel like a normal person!

Some of my issues resolved through the use of the herbs, but when I met Monica, what she said made such perfect sense. She said 95 percent of what ails us can be cured through a good diet. So I thought instead of spending all that money on pills, it made sense to spend the money on good, organic produce and then eat mostly fruits and vegetables. Incidentally, our grocery bill has not gone up at all, because the produce through the co-op is such a good price and we have cut back on our meat and dairy consumption.

It has taken this long to re-learn to prepare meals the healthy way, but it has been worth every minute. My whole family loves vegetables now — we even crave them! We are SELDOM sick and the chronic inflammation has improved greatly. I am currently fasting to see if that will zap it for good.

The other way that this co-op has helped me so much is through the Health Source egroup. I have learned SO much about preparing vegetables I’ve never eaten before, about nutrition, about which books to read, how to transition your family to the better diet, etc. It helps to have folks you can ask a simple question to, like, “My bread didn’t turn out fluffy. What’s wrong?” or, “Has anybody heard of acid vs. alkaline balance in the body and how it is affected by diet?” Learning how to make my system more alkaline and all the benefits to that was key to my motivation to KEEP eating healthy. (Benefits: no more heartburn, EVER, increased immunity, and if you have psoriasis or eczema, you should try changing your diet.)

Bottom line, it is so nice to be in charge of my health and not sit here like a helpless victim, waiting for the next disease to come along. You CAN be proactive about your health! I think reading Eat to Live by Joel Fuhrman is the first step. That is a book Monica recommended and has shared excerpts from. It has become a book that I have read and re-read, high-lighted and studied. The information in there should be the basis of high school nutrition courses, because it is based on scientific studies rather than propaganda from the USDA. God love ’em, they (the USDA) are only fulfilling their 1950s founding mission of promoting the meat and dairy industries, but to the detriment of the health of all America.

I finally learned what was keeping my weight on, even when I made the switch to healthy eating (too much oil in my cooking, even too much of that good bread). At age 44, I feel better than I have in a long time. By this point in life, most gals have many health issues, their hormones are out of whack and their bodies look matronly. Things don’t get better when you do nothing different. Eating this way got that matronly generous middle portion off of me and my health issues are dwindling both in number and in intensity. I couldn’t be happier about the direction I’m headed. This is not a fad diet. It’s the diet we were created to eat!

Words are not adequate to express my thanks to you, Monica, for having the vision to start the co-op and the support that goes with it!