From Cancer to Living Foods
by Brenda Cobb

On February 13, 1999, my life changed forever. I went to the doctor for a check-up and was shocked to find that not only did I weigh 190 pounds, but that I had a lump in my breast about the size of a quarter and a large cervical tumor. My mother and her sisters had cervical and breast cancers. They chose the mainstream medical route which included surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation. My doctor recommended immediate surgery and that I go to another doctor for a second opinion, hospital tests, and blood work.

The first thing I did when I left the doctor’s office was go to the health food store and ask for books and information on curing cancer without surgery and drugs. They recommended How I Cured Cancer Naturally by Edie Mae. That little book confirmed that surgery and drugs were not for me. When I read Edie Mae’s story of healing herself through the use of living foods, which she learned at the Living Foods Center run by Ann Wigmore, I knew immediately that this was the way I wanted to go.

I contacted the Ann Wigmore Foundation in New Mexico and reserved a place for the first available class in May. To help me begin my healing right away, they recommended I read The Wheatgrass Book, Be Your Own Doctor, and Why Suffer? by Ann Wigmore. They also recommended that I drink as much wheatgrass juice as I could and eat living raw organic foods. I bought the books and started immediately.

Then came time for my next doctor’s appointment. I spent two entire days at the hospital and the doctor’s office. After getting all the tests back their consensus was that I definitely must have surgery. They set up a time for my surgery and talked with me about signing the consent forms. By this time my head was spinning. The doctors made me think I had no time to think it over, that I had to act fast. They were alarmed at what they saw, especially considering my family history, and they did their best to alarm me too.

I let the doctor schedule the surgery, but when it came time to sign the consent forms I changed my mind. I decided not to have the surgery, but rather to heal my body the natural way through the Living Foods Lifestyle. They were not supportive of my choice and put pressure on me to go through with the surgery, but I had made up my mind and I stuck to my decision.

I began drinking wheatgrass and lots of fresh juices everyday. I ate a lot of organic raw vegetables. From the middle of February until the middle of May I lost twenty pounds, my energy increased, my bleeding stopped (I had been bleeding heavily every day with the cervical tumor), and my breast tumor began to shrink.

Through reading, I learned that in addition to eating the right foods, it was also important to clean out my colon of toxic waste by receiving professional colonics and doing personal enemas and wheatgrass implants at home. I booked an appointment for my first colonic. I was uncomfortable just thinking about it because I didn’t know what to expect, but the whole experience was very dignified, and I was amazed at all of the old impacted fecal waste that came out of my body.

I continued having colonics once a week and eating mostly raw food until it was time to go to New Mexico. During my stay there I learned how to do enemas and implants. I also learned the importance of and how to make Energy Soup (a cleansing, detoxifying, and healing soup/smoothie), Rejuvelac, and Vege-Kraut. At the time I was thinking how hard it was to have to eat this stuff and that I wished I could have some cooked food. It’s not easy to give up an addiction, and I was addicted to the wrong kind of foods. I learned about fasting and I did my first juice fast.

Detoxing was rough! Every toxin and poison in my body began to release and I had the "headache from hell" for two full days. I also experienced nausea, exhaustion, sleeplessness, depression, anxiety, aches, pains, facial breakouts, dry, itchy red patches all over my thighs, hips, and butt, and I felt like I had the flu. It was probably the most miserable I had ever been. Besides feeling awful, I had all these emotions surfacing to deal with. I was angry for allowing myself to get in this bad shape. I didn’t like the living foods and I wondered how I would be able to do without Thai food, french fries, pizza, chocolate, potato chips, and all those other foods I had become so attached to. How would I ever go to a family holiday gathering again and be able to eat anything there since everything would be cooked? I resented that all this had happened to me. I cried, then I sobbed, then I cried some more. I felt real sorry for myself and then I kicked myself in the butt. I released old feelings that I had suppressed for years. Things came up for me that I didn’t even realize had been bothering me. I was changing inside and out, but through all these miserable feelings I stuck with the program.

At the end of two weeks in New Mexico I had lost 23 additional pounds. I was feeling better than I had felt in years because I had released so many of the toxins, but I knew I still had a long way to go. When I flew home and my husband met me at the airport, he could hardly believe his eyes. I had lost a couple of sizes while gone.

I came home a totally different woman. I celebrated my fiftieth birthday a couple of days after I returned, and realized that all my goals and dreams for the future had changed. All I could think about was opening a Living Foods Center in Atlanta so I could share this incredible healing information with others

I was completely overwhelmed at the thought of having to learn to prepare foods without cooking. There were so many new things to learn and do. How would I ever learn everything I needed to know? I struggled with making and drinking the Energy Soup everyday. I ruined four or five batches of Rejuvelac before I learned how to sprout the berries properly. I craved cooked food and I cheated by going to a Thai restaurant. I worked everyday to continue to do the things that I knew instinctively would help me, and then something miraculous occurred.

As my body became cleaner, free of all the toxic waste that had built up over fifty years, and as I became less deficient by eating enzyme rich, living foods, my tastes began to change. The Energy Soup and Rejuvelac that I had once loathed now tasted good. I even began to crave it! I lost all my desire for sugar— no more chocolate bars, cakes, pies, or cookies. I didn’t even like the smell of sweets anymore. I noticed that tofu, which I had once loved as my favorite meat substitute, made me tired and bloated and gave me gas. Eating living foods made me feel lighter, more energetic, focused, and calm. Things that had once bothered me now just rolled off my back. Through self-examination I couldn’t detect any tumors in my breast or on my cervix. My life had been transformed. I had been lifted up mentally and spiritually by this wonderful new lifestyle.

My mission in life became very clear: I had to open a Living Foods Center in Atlanta and share this incredible knowledge with others so they could heal themselves too, the natural way. I told my son, Richard, about my dream, and he agreed to help me. Together we opened The Temple Of Health And Beauty. It is so rewarding to see people who come into the center sick and begin to heal their bodies and their minds. I know it’s radical and different than anything we’ve ever been taught. It isn’t easy to give up the foods that we have become addicted to. But, I believe that without these changes many of us will continue to get sicker and sicker, and live less than a full and happy life because of health problems that have been brought on by a diet of mostly cooked, dead food.

The good news is that we can change that by changing the way we think, what we do, and what we eat. Nature intended that we get 100% of our nourishment from whole, live fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, and grains. This is not a new age diet. This is the original diet that we were intended to thrive on. Now is the time to get back to our roots, to embrace a way of living that promotes total and perfect health. As we heal ourselves, one person at a time, we will then heal our planet.

Everyday I thank God for opening up the door to Living Foods for me. I give thanks for Ann Wigmore who dedicated her life to teaching the Living Foods Lifestyle, to Edie Mae for writing her story so that others like me could know that there are better ways than surgery and drugs to heal the body, and to all the Living Foodists who have gone before me to pave the way for this lifestyle. I have a whole life ahead of me, a life that I will spend teaching others about this wonderful, natural, healing lifestyle.