Ex-Vegan (7+ Years): Veganism Killed My Sexuality & Caused Asthma, Rheumatoid Arthritis

Watch on YouTube · 2021-04-01 · 25 min

[video] 0:00 My name's Melanie. I got into vegetarianism when I was 13. It was because of the animals. I was introduced to it actually from a Greenpeace spokesperson in primary school. She came and talked about her travels and her job as a worker on the Greenpeace boat. And they docked in Fort Moresby, where I was living at the time, in Papua New Guinea. And she totally inspired me. She said, right at the end of her talk, she mentioned that it was virtually impossible to love animals and eat them at the same time. And that was absolutely the biggest... point for me that hit home and I was hooked from there. We did eat a lot of meat as a child and I used to love meat.

[video] 0:57 I used to love barbecues and pile my sausages and spend steaks whenever we had a barbecue. So anyway, that was in my puberty years and it was quite deprimental because within that very first year I I developed severe period pains. I had blackouts. I had terrible anemia. My hair would fall out, like, literally in chunks. And we also went to see an atropath. And they said to go off dairy. And I remember in my early teenage, like, well, 16, 17, I also suffered from asthma. And I was In and out of hospital, there was no improvement, even to the dairy, and I craved dairy so much. I also ate tons of soya milk and soya yogurt.

[video] 1:57 Soya yogurts are so disgusting. But I believe this would help my...

[video] 2:08 Asthma, but it didn't. I was really fortunate that we lived some time in the Caribbean and we used to get fresh seafood. For some reason, occasionally I would accept eating fish. Obviously, they were of a lower species. I don't know why. But I didn't love fish as much as I did animals. I actually grew up with severe eczema as well. My mother had to take antibiotics just after my birth. She had an infection. My gut bacteria was completely destroyed. So I would have been really in the category of learning disabilities, ADHD. And yeah, so it's severely impacted my learning. So going vegetarian was like the worst thing that could have ever happened to me. And when I was just before I turned 17, I became severely depressed and suicidal.

[video] 3:06 And I remember just really having these dairy cravings. They were just so intense.

[video] 3:13 So when I was 19, I was back in Australia and I believe it or not, I discovered fruitarianism because here in Queensland, there's loads of fruit and it really attracts fruitarianism here. And so I managed to lose a bit of weight because I became quite chubby, mainly because of the medications I was taking for my asthma. And it did stabilize my asthma, but I would discover later in life why, because I took out all the grains. They were the major problems. I did eventually find out in my early 20s that I had a severe wheat allergy, which is typical if you've always had gut issues.

[video] 4:05 And But in my early 20s, I still was mainly vegan, although I classified myself as vegetarian because I did have occasionally egg. And I think what saved me is that I did have maybe once or twice a year some fish.

4:27 When you had all of these dairy cravings, did you also ever have any meat cravings or anything like that at all?

[video] 4:34 No, I don't remember the meat cravings. It was always dairy. And I did occasionally have goat's dairy because I was told by someone that it was more tolerable.

[video] 4:47 But I used to, I remember reacting to cheeses anyway, like really, really strong cheeses, hard cheeses, you know, really aged. I eventually discovered that I had a high histamine intolerance. Okay, in my early 20s, I suffered from Candida really badly. I ate so much sugar and so much fruit. I had bladder infections. I had to take antibiotics as well. I think in my early 20s, I took a lot of antibiotics again. This all came to a crashing... Yeah, everything just fell apart when I was in my early 30s, and I developed rheumatoid arthritis. it started in the feet with gout because I was, I was having way too much grains.

[video] 5:37 I also, if I did have a meal, it would be brown rice and zucchini and a bit of, um, like sweet chili sauce. Obviously, you know, I needed the redness like you often mentioned about. So there was probably a meat craving there. Um, And I moved to Canada to teach in a Waldorf school, a dining school. And I discovered Natasha Campbell, my bride.

[video] 6:09 And it was really popular at that stage when I was there. This was 2011, 2012. And I did the bone broth. But because of that histamine intolerance, I got really ill.

[video] 6:27 It caused a lot of joint pain. But the wonderful thing was the moment I stopped grains again, my asthma disappeared completely. Like literally after three days or four days of just doing Natasha Campbell's bone broths and eating meat and trying a little bit of goat's dairy again. I had no more asthma whatsoever. This is childhood asthma that just disappeared within a few days. So I knew there was something in that.

[video] 7:06 But unfortunately my rheumatoid arthritis, which was diagnosed at that stage, was so severe that I eventually just had to quit my job and go back to Europe where I was at the time and stay with my parents in France. I just started Googling like mad. The worst thing is I came across Clint Patterson and I think that must have been the worst thing. He has this program that helps people with rheumatoid arthritis because he had rheumatoid arthritis. He thinks that he cured it by becoming totally vegan. And so I did his protocol, and his first protocol was like green smoothies and a bit of fruit and whatnot. And that, of course, helped it for a bit.

[video] 8:01 And then he tells you to go on huge amounts of quinoa because it's the most tolerable grain. Within two days of eating quinoa, there was no way. And I got in contact with Clint Patterson and said, look, your program is not working. Why? He goes, well, you've got to try white rice. If you can't do quinoa, do the white rice. So I did the white rice diet. And by this stage, I had lost so much weight. So it was a good thing that I did at least have a bit of calories, even though it was dead calories. But it helped me put on weight. Mind you, I had lost my periods as well during this time. I eventually read also Douglas Graham's book because I realized like brains weren't working. So I did the 8-10-10 for about eight months. Yeah. Oh, my God.

[video] 8:55 I was so bloated, so depressed, severely like suicidal depressed. And one thing my sister said straight away with me is that my teeth were rotten. Like, I had grey teeth. They were just awful. And I didn't have much breast development either when I was younger, but it got really worse when I started losing weight. Like, I was literally, like, flat.

[video] 9:29 Anyway, this kind of went on right until 2015.

[video] 9:36 And I was mainly fruitarian for about almost two years. It was really bad, but I just knew that grains weren't helping me. Grains were the worst. I couldn't have fats either. Well, you know, vegetable oil. And it was really encouraged as well to have a bit, if you were too thin, to have all the avocados. But I couldn't tolerate avocados. There was only certain fruit I could tolerate, like pears. At one stage I ate lots of bananas, but they just made things worse. So the funny thing is, when I came back to Australia... I discovered zero carb, which literally just saved my life. And I was in total remission, like absolutely total remission.

[video] 10:31 And I tried Dr. Natasha Campbell's bone broths again, and they only worked if I cooked it for, like, meats for about an hour. It was okay because I started discovering...

[video] 10:49 but I had a histamine at home. So it just, it wasn't really working. And then I, I really attempted raw meat and I bought myself a, a mincer, but it was only really one sided. Like I was, I was just having beef, mince beef all the time. And I started getting really bad, um, calcare on my teeth, which was really bizarre. And, um, But I couldn't really tolerate the beef, and I only really found out now why, and that I'm better with other meats, like lamb. So the sad thing is, because I realized I couldn't tolerate beef, I fell back into veganism. I went back to New Zealand. I mean, back. I went to New Zealand, lived there for a bit, and worked in a Steiner school, a school there. And...

[video] 11:47 And I did the Furman diet, Dr. Furman, and had lots of beans, which was devastating. My asthma came right back. And I was hospitalized. Mind you, also through my 20s and childhood, I was always hospitalized for asthma. And once I went back on beans, that was absolutely like... the disaster point. I had severe acid reflux and I started getting shingles and I never had shingles in my life.

[video] 12:28 I think out of anything, beans are worse than grains, really worse than grains and I really wish I wouldn't have done that. So when I came back, I tried to go back a bit on meat, and I stopped the beans straight away. And I read Dr. Gundry's lectin plant paradox. But he's also very plant-based, and there was not enough fat. He encourages loads of olive oil, and I couldn't tolerate the olive oil. I couldn't tolerate the avocados or anything. And Nuts, you could forget about that. And then I went... When I did the medical medium, you know, Anthony William, you have an epitome. And, yeah, I think that really, like, was my turning point.

[video] 13:28 This was 2019, and I really...

[video] 13:33 I really was almost dying. I lost so much weight. I became totally asexual. I was 47 kilos. I had absolutely no joie de vivre, no joy in life. And then I fell upon this self-healing colitis and Crohn's book from David Klein. He's a good buddy with Douglas Graham. And I contacted him and told him that I can't tolerate a lot of food. And he told me to go on mono diets and to eat specific foods that I did tolerate. It turned out that I could have a bit of melon and pawpaw, and the bananas were kind of okay. But if they were overripe, it was disastrous. Plantains were the best, but it was very hard to get.

[video] 14:29 So I had a terrible, I had an absolute nervous breakdown at that point. And it wasn't until I tore my right knee. I've always had problems with my right knee. But I tore my two ligaments in the right knee. And I was bedridden for two weeks. And luckily my sister was here for some time. And she just said, you know why you're so skinny now? Because you don't eat enough. You don't eat meat. And It's just, yeah, it's really killing you. She literally fed me back to life. I told her that I did have issues with beef. And she goes, let's try the lamb. You've always been OK with lamb and fish. Let's just do lamb and fish. So I went back very slowly. And within three months, I put on weight. I ate eggs. I could get some really good pasture-raised eggs.

[video] 15:31 And yeah, for the last 10 months, I have really gained my strength back. I'm virtually in remission, but I'm still working on that knee. That knee is completely like, like you mentioned in your videos, it's a self-cannibalism. You just eat yourself away. I've eaten all my ligaments and

[video] 16:00 Also, since childhood, I've had higher mobility. And it's also because I don't have enough collagen to hold my joints.

16:20 That sounds like a very tough life for you. Were there any very special experiences during the time? Anybody you met or anybody else who shared any stories? Any kind of suffering from plant-based vegan or vegetarian diets? Or anything special that you remember that happened during this time? I'm sure you had a lot of experiences.

[video] 16:47 Do you know, the weird thing is, I've only ever met probably two vegans. And they were both from Israel. And I find that very interesting, that Israel is becoming extremely into veganism. I can't quite understand that. That's fairly bizarre. And the only two vegans I've ever met were from Israel. I know a couple of vegetarians. I think this is also an interesting point to state. I know about three vegetarians here where I live. And they all don't have children. And they're very much sort of like, they don't like children either. And I really started to make that connection because I've never had children. And I find this very sad. I mean, there is quite a few people in veganism that have kids.

[video] 17:47 But you do, it really does switch off your desire for children. And all through my 20s, I had no desire to have children whatsoever. And through my 30s, I'm 43 now, and I was just totally asexual. I really thought maybe I was gay, or maybe, you know, it was because of

[video] 18:22 this mental illness that I have, you know, ADHD, I probably have had autistic tendencies as well. But yeah, there was no desire whatsoever. That really just, you need the cholesterol in order to produce these hormones. to make you desire children or to have your libido. That's one thing which is pretty amazing is that for a long time I had no sexual desires whatsoever.

[video] 19:02 And within about a week of eating fatty, fatty meat, That was it, you know. Everything comes back to normal, and my periods are regular, and they're painless for the first time in my life. I didn't realize you could actually have painless periods. That's incredible. I thought this was part of life, you know. Your periods were just painful, but they're not supposed to be.

19:39 What do you think about veganism in general, where it comes from and where it's heading? Do you think that there's some agenda behind it, or is it just a trend, or what is it really? What's happening on Earth right now? Because it's clearly growing.

[video] 19:52 Do they say there's like 10% of the population, between 7 and 10% of the world's population is vegan? I mean, there are estimates. But it's definitely from a religious background. I mean, There are certain, I know that you mentioned about Buddhism, that a lot of them would eat raw meat. I totally believe that. But there are a lot of new Buddhist and Zen Buddhist movement now that are absolutely vegan. And because this is a religious mindset that sexuality is,

[video] 20:38 is something that's not natural. It's something that should be kept under control. And that's basically what this whole movement is. It's definitely a population control. It's something to really...

[video] 21:06 I don't know, there's so much push in this depopulation agenda that, you know, it's quite funny how the vegans always talk about, you know, you have to get a vasectomy, we've got to stop having babies because it destroys the planet and everything. They don't need to have a vasectomy. Within a couple of months, they'll be definitely infertile. That's definitely going to happen. And So, it's the funny thing, it's the most unnatural thing in the world, you know? It's so unnatural to be vegan.

[video] 21:52 And it really breaks my heart to think that I really fell for that. It's easy, I was your perfect global citizen, which was what... what they were really trying to achieve well in the early 80s it was really popularized for young people to try to get them to go into vegetarianism and then of course veganism if there was something short that you could say to any vegans especially young vegans who are watching now what would you say to a 13 year old girl for example wanting to go vegan now

[video] 22:38 Really watch your videos, even though some of them are quite extreme. But really look at the reality. Look at the two sides. Try not to be so biased because there's so much. If it's because of animals, then you have to see the crop death in grain agriculture. The birds, the amount of birds that are killed, especially in Australia for crop death, is phenomenal. It's heartbreaking.

[video] 23:12 The fruit industry here in Australia, possums are killed. All sorts of animals, because you've got to stop them from getting to the trees. There's nothing, there's nothing humane or, you know, safe about it.

[video] 23:30 If it's for health, then it's absolutely ridiculous. Research cholesterol because I had extremely low cholesterol and I was severely depressed and severely suicidal. And there are so many peer-reviewed papers on this saying that there is a really, really close correlation between depression and low cholesterol.

[video] 24:02 This is really a tragedy that it's not accepted or it's not mainstream anymore to see that cholesterol is a healthy component, that we are made of cholesterol and we shouldn't be taking our own cholesterol. We end up in severe... Yeah, it will become very dangerous.

24:32 Is there anything else you would like to add that you think is important?

[video] 24:42 I think that raw meat should really be tried because I

[video] 24:55 I couldn't believe how much I loved raw meat. I love it. If I even eat too much cooked meat, I'm terribly constipated. And there's a huge difference. There really is. I think people should not be afraid of eating raw meat. Yeah. I mean, you're an advocate of that anyway. All right.

25:24 All right. Thanks a lot for sharing.

[video] 25:27 You're welcome. Thank you very much. I really appreciate it.