The Power of Healthy Eating: How This Woman Healed Herself with a Healthy Diet
The food you choose to eat has drastic effects on your body, and we don't just mean your waistline. A young woman with a debilitating illness found her miracle cure not with medicine, but with a change in her diet.
Ella Woodward from London, England was 20 years old when she woke up one morning and found her stomach so swollen, she looked like she was in the last trimester of pregnancy. After months of doctors visits and tests, Ella was eventually diagnosed with a rare illness called Postural Tachycardia Syndrome, which breaks down the autonomic nervous system.
She felt perpetually groggy and achy, and her heart rate would drastically drop or accelerate at a moment's notice. Ella found herself sleeping up to 16 hours a day and would spend weeks holed up in her room.
Ella was taking 28 pills a day to treat her symptoms, but she still felt awful. After months of seeing no improvement with her medication, she decided to take matters into her own hands.
Inspired by Kris Carr's book "Crazy Sexy Diet," Ella switched to a vegan, gluten-free lifestyle. After a lifetime of eating processed, sugar-filled junk food, this was a big challenge for her.
"I hated fruits, I hated vegetables, I had no idea was quinoa was," she tells the Good News. After three months of eating the same bland foods, she decided to expand her horizons and experiment with recipes. She created a blog called "Deliciously Ella" to share her journey with others and keep herself accountable.
"I needed to be able to make sweet things that didn't make me feel ill," she says. "You need moderation to feel happy. I started the blog as a way to push myself to make new recipes, to make myself try new things, and that worked out really well."
Not only did she discover all sorts of delicious new dishes to make, within six months she began to reverse her illness and now has more energy than ever before. She's off all of her medications, and wants to help others feel as good as she does.
"You can get so many benefits just eating whole foods and plant-based foods," she says. "You can eat that sixty percent of the time, and still eat your burgers and love them. But your body will feel so much better."
"Deliciously Ella" now boasts an app that hit #1 on iTunes. Ella, who is studying to be a nutritionist, leads cooking classes featuring some of her mouthwatering recipes, like her delectable Sweet Potato Brownies. She's also writing a book about how changing her eating habits has truly given her back her life.
"I don't know if I've ever been this happy," she says. "I feel so healthy and alive. I'm doing something I love, and I'm making a difference."
More of the Good News:
Couple Runs Hundreds of Marathons a Year on Vegan Diet
Hiker's Time-Lapse Shows Epic Weight Loss
Man Proposes in Whole Foods
