How to Eat, Lose Weight, Look Great, and Enjoy Your Life, Part I

by

John Stephen Mauldin, MLA (not AI assisted)

All right reserved, copyright © 2025

Please note that I am neither a doctor, a nutritionist, nor any other type of health specialist. I wrote this essay to share the remarkable improvements I made to my well-being by eating healthily. I do not presume they will affect you in the same manner or even similarly. So, I kindly encourage you to consult with your physician before trying these ideas or beginning a new diet, for what you read here is anecdotal rather than scientific.

Stating that I learned the proper way to eat naturally implies that others do not understand fundamental nutrition and, perhaps, that I alone made this discovery. Yet this essay is not such a polemical insinuation.

   Indeed, this is not the only way to eat. Similar dogmatism closes windows through which illumination shines, for all of us are at various stages of growth and revelation, and those daybreaks must dawn at the speed and timing, comfortable to each of us. Therefore, you may take or leave this essay with my humblest best wishes for your goodwill. Nevertheless, I invite your thoughtful consideration.

   Now, I assumed I knew how to eat. Does not everyone? After all, I was athletic and thought I was eating healthily. Yet I slowly realized I was eating all wrong, confirmed by the astonishing improvements to my body after learning to eat. Perhaps, it would be helpful to describe several of these miracles I experienced.

•         I lost eight pounds in one week by removing gluten, or wheat, from my meals. Eventually, I lost around forty pounds, and now the scales consistently average 170 lbs. with very little fluctuation, which is the ideal weight for my height of six feet. I have weighed about the same for over twelve years.

•         Painful arthritis in the ball of my right foot and both hands caused limping and the inability to use my hands in the mornings. That vanished in three weeks after eliminating all gluten from my meals and eating the right food.

•         I overcame hay fever merely by right eating and using the robust anti-inflammatory powers of cayenne pepper, turmeric, and raw celery.

•         Possibly, the greatest miracle was the liberation from debilitating colds that would cast me into a bed of suffering for several weeks each year. A sore throat, swollen shut, fever blisters, and heavy congestion plagued me each winter. I assumed that this was normal. But now I am emancipated from that horrible suffering!

•         My regularity was also affected, usually three times each day. That is profoundly essential to whole-body wellness, particularly mental health. Indeed, I feel my disposition is more amenable and relaxed, possibly because our mind is not limited to our brain but includes our gastrointestinal tract, where most serotonin originates. “Although serotonin is well known as a brain neurotransmitter, it is estimated that 90 percent of the body's serotonin is made in the digestive tract.”[1] The correlative dynamics of a functioning digestive system and mental health are profound and illustrative of why we should eat living food.

•         My irises became much brighter.

•         I also manage, or perhaps, overcame dry eyes, known as blepharitis. That condition robbed me of sleep for years, but no longer.

•         I suffered from severe eye fatigue from writing on my laptop for twelve hours each day on behalf of charity work. My eyes were so overwrought that I could not look at my computer screen without intense pain. So, I rested my eyes for three weeks by not once opening my laptop. To my dismay, even that hiatus did not relieve the pain, for when I resumed writing, I had to stop after twenty minutes. I was crestfallen with the thought that I might need to abandon writing permanently.

   So, I began including a generous helping of kale in my smoothies each morning. My eyes healed in three days, and they have never been severely fatigued since.

   The following improvements occurred in a window of approximately one month after eating correctly for a year.

•         A lymph node on the right side of my neck, just below my jaw, assumed its normal size. Swollen for as long as I could remember, it was probably unnoticeable, but I was aware of it and even considered having it removed. My doctor examined it and advised me to monitor it and contact him if the swelling increased. That was unnecessary since the swelling vanished after eating properly for approximately twelve months.

•         The medicinal powers of correct eating manifested in the index toe of my right foot. That toenail was troubled by a tiny black dot, smaller than the head of a pen, which caused the toenail to thicken and darken. Over ten years, I tried several over-the-counter and home remedies to cure that disorder. The most aggressive was filing the nail away entirely and soaking my foot in pure apple cider vinegar. It burned like hellfire, and although I have never experienced fire from hell, I am certain that is how it must feel. After the ordeal, I thought, very good! No fungus could survive that!

Yet when the toenail regrew, the black dot reappeared, along with all the accompanying symptoms. So, I gave up on medicines and remedies and managed the condition by soaking my feet in warm water with diluted apple cider vinegar and filing the toenail when it thickened.  

Ah, but after a year of eating correctly, the disorder began to retreat. The black dot and discoloration vanished. It appears that the toenail has returned to a normal and healthy condition.

•         The following healing victory came during a routine check-up. I was eager to hear my doctor’s response after examining my ears since I was prone to wax build-up. I intended to schedule an appointment to have my ears irrigated, as I have done all my adult life. But, lo, and behold, the doctor said that my ears were self-cleaning precisely as healthy ears should.

•         Several warts appeared on my left leg, which I am sure were evidence of viruses leaving my body. A dermatologist removed them.

•         At the same time, the little toe of my left foot suddenly turned black. That was distressing since I had just overcome the toe problem on my right foot, which I described above. Yet after some filing, the blackness disappeared, and a healthy toenail regrew. I am sure that was also poison leaving my body. 

[1] Jessica Stoller-Conrad, Microbes Help Produce Serotonin in Gut, California Institute of Technology, 2015, Pasadena.