by Dawn Werness
In 2006 my husband was diagnosed with stage 4 Lymphoma. I soon learned that many of his family members have had some type of a blood related cancer. In 2008 he died. I then decided since I can’t change my daughter’s genes, I would do my best at making her body as healthy as possible. That included changing our diet. My husband had been the cook in the family, but now I had to learn. I decided to learn to cook what I considered healthy, whole foods. I started buying as much organic food as possible. I watched the movie “Food, Inc.” and immediately researched to find local farms. I knew pastured meats were what we were going to eat. I also realized all this was very expensive, but I could not put a price on my daughter’s health. I would buy healthy, more expensive foods, and cut back on spending in other areas.
At this point I had not found a resource for pastured eggs. As for my health, I have a family history of high cholesterol and in 2009 my level was 241 (under 200 is preferred). My HDL’s (the good cholesterol) was low. My doctor put me on medication and the level dropped to 155. Success! Except for one problem. I had a side effect to the medicine that affected me every day: my body ached all over. At this point my doctor took me off the medicine and my level was okay at 233.
I started buying eggs from Four Corners Farm in the summer of 2012. Now my cholesterol was 201, but my HDL’s were still too low and my triglycerides were too high. I have been eating two Four Corners Farm eggs almost every morning for over a year now, and I was so excited to get my recent test results. My cholesterol was 195. This is the first time it has been under 200 in at least 4 years. For the first time ever my HDL’s were nice and high, and my triglycerides are back down to a good level. I take vitamins and try to exercise a few times a week, but I’ve been doing that for about 5 years. Not until I started eating these wonderful eggs did my test results really improve.
Being able to improve my health with nourishing food instead of taking a pill is a great feeling. I also hope that these changes for the good are helping protect my daughter from future health concerns. Like I said, I can’t change our genetic makeup, but I can control what we eat. And you can’t put a price on your health.
