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Byron Shire
May 30, 2023

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I had a life-changing experience I feel compelled to share with you. A dear friend contacted me and told me he’d been diagnosed with terminal liver cancer. To extend his life, his doctor put him on a liver friendly diet, excluding fats, carbs, fruits, sugar, tobacco and alcohol. Out of solidarity with him I decided to go on a similar diet, mainly cutting out sugars, starches and excessive fruit. So I bought a detox and liver cleanse diet from Mullum Herbals and started my clean out.

You would not believe how rapidly I began to feel the benefits. By the third night my chronic sinusitis had cleared and I was nose-breathing like a turbo-charger, as if some giant cavern had opened inside my head. I was carrying 10kg of belly fat, which was probably both visceral fat and fatty liver, all early warning signs of cancer and heart disease. The weight just fell off me. I lost 6kg in the first week, mostly from my belly. I felt spring loaded; I can jump up and run and pull my socks on again without straining.

But the most remarkable and unexpected result was that I feel serene, like I’m living under a smooth overarching sky. My sleep is much more settled and the agitated churning, feeling anxious, as if something is wrong, has gone. I haven’t been able to smell anything for years, and two days ago I got my first whiff of smell back! And just as remarkable, the muscle aches and pressure pain I’d put down to living in an ageing body, is diminishing every day. 

I saw That Sugar Film years ago but didn’t have the discipline to cut out my sweetness craving. But on this diet I substituted sugar for stevia and monk fruit, and halved my fruit intake to two or three pieces a day instead of five or six. Apparently fructose, fruit sugar, is worse for us than sucrose.

Anyway, I have had to re-frame all sugars and starches as toxic, as poison to my system, and simply learn to eat other things instead, which is no big deal really. I can still enjoy a coffee or tea sweetened with stevia.

I thought my experience might give encouragement to others who have accepted living overweight or in pain, with clogged sinuses, and anxiety. My challenge is to maintain my new diet, eat smaller portions and re-embrace my life instead of resigning myself to a slow demise.

Michael Balson, Upper Wilsons Creek

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1 COMMENT

  1. Sorry to hear about your friend Michael.

    Great letter and congrats on your efforts. Sounds like your momentum is growing as you see, hear, feel and smell results.

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