From Plant-Based Illness to Health Through Animal Foods
At 48 years old, Stephanie sits healthy and vibrant, but her journey to this point involved navigating severe health challenges that began in her early twenties. What makes her story particularly compelling is that her health crisis didn’t begin from poor choices but rather from what she believed were the “right” health decisions.
“I started to seek out yoga and alternative therapies in my late teens and early twenties,” Stephanie explains. “It landed me in a community of yoga instructors and yogis, which began taking me down a path of what I’d call health narcissism.”
The Downward Spiral of Plant-Based Living
This health-focused community introduced Stephanie to a cycle of dietary restriction. “First we don’t eat red meat, then we don’t eat any meat, then we add green smoothies, then we don’t eat fat,” she recounts. By 23, Stephanie began experiencing significant autoimmune issues, visiting multiple doctors who provided various misdiagnoses.
What she now understands is that her vegan lifestyle was depriving her body of essential nutrients. The restriction-focused approach she believed was optimal for health was actually dismantling it. By age 24, Stephanie was in multi-organ failure.
Eventually diagnosed with systemic lupus erythematosus that attacked her kidneys, Stephanie faced the reality of dialysis by age 25. For someone who considered herself the picture of health through natural living, the diagnosis felt like betrayal.
The Kidney Transplant Journey
Stephanie endured five years of hemodialysis before receiving her first kidney transplant at age 30. Even then, the dietary guidance she received was confusing – the dialysis dietitian recommended cookies and cake as snacks while limiting vegetables due to their potassium and phosphorus content.
After her first transplant, Stephanie gradually began incorporating eggs and white meat into her diet, though her mindset remained “brainwashed” toward thinking plant-based eating was superior. Her first transplanted kidney lasted eleven years before requiring replacement.
Breaking Free from Plant-Based Ideology
Following her second kidney transplant at age 40, Stephanie committed to taking her health to the next level. She began researching ketogenic approaches to eating.
“I wanted to see if my digestion could improve, which might improve other areas of my health,” she explains. “I committed fully to starting with a keto style diet, eliminating sugar and carbohydrates.”
The results were transformative and immediate. “Within a week’s time of cutting out sugar and carbohydrates and committing to higher healthy fat and proteins as my prime source of food, my stomach and digestion for the first time ever became completely regulated,” Stephanie shares. “My energy level went up, and it was so obvious that my body was starving for this kind of diet.”
Discovering True Satiation Through Animal Foods
Five years into her animal-based approach, Stephanie experiences continued improvements. Perhaps most profound was her discovery of what true satiation feels like.
“For the first time in my life at 40, I understood what satiation was. I never felt that ever before,” she reflects. “It hit me on a physical level, on a mental level, even on a spiritual level.”
This realization transformed her relationship with food and health. “I was depriving myself for so long thinking that was the way to health, when the way to health is not to deprive yourself of nutrients, fat, whatever it is.”
Challenging the System Through Patient Advocacy
Today, Stephanie advocates for patients facing chronic illness, drawing on her lived experience to help others reclaim their health. She encourages people to challenge conventional wisdom and trust their own experiences.
“I don’t care how many diseases you have or what you’re going through—if you have will and determination, you can often change your health outcome,” she asserts. “Be confident enough to challenge what you’re being told and try something else.”
With her second transplant functioning well after eight years, Stephanie attributes much of her continued health to her animal-based diet. Her journey from plant-based illness to vibrant health stands as powerful testimony to the transformative potential of animal foods.
