At the age of nineteen, do I follow the conventional wisdom on how to treat several incurable diseases that jeopardized my life? Or do I follow God’s plan for good health set forth in the Bible?

I had just finished my freshman year at Florida State University when I took a counselor position at a summer church camp. Out of nowhere, I was hit with nausea, stomach cramps, high fever, and horrible digestive problems. That was the first wave; the follow-up was a tsunami of violent diarrhea that knocked me for a loop and sapped any remaining energy I had. I would drop twenty pounds from my already lean frame in just six days at camp.

My health deteriorated over the next few months, and I was forced to withdraw from college at the start of my sophomore year. I went back home to Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, where my parents knew something was seri- ously wrong. When my fever spiked to 105 degrees, they immediately stepped into action, filling our bathtub with ice and cold water. My father gently eased my fever-ridden body into the chilly bathwater, but I was close to incoherent.

My parents rushed me to the local hospital, where specialists and medical technicians conducted various tests, including a sigmoidoscopy and an upper GI series that allowed them to examine the condition in my intestinal tract and look for any irregularities.

I was examined by a gastroenterologist, who recognized the symptoms of high fever, night sweats, loss of appetite, general feeling of weakness, severe abdominal cramps, and diarrhea—often bloody—as symptoms of inflam- matory bowel disease. After running a battery of diagnostic tests, the doctor delivered a stunning verdict: I was stricken with a digestive ailment known as Crohn’s disease.

“How do we treat it?” I asked.

“There’s no known cure,” replied the gastroenterologist. “You’ll probably be on powerful anti-inflammatory and immunosuppressives for the rest of your life. You could be facing surgery to remove parts of your small intestine and potentially your colon.”

My doctor then rattled off words such as “resection” and “colectomy” and “ostomy.” None of those terms were familiar to me, and later I would learn what they really meant: I would have to live with the surgical removal of my colon and wear bags to collect fecal waste from my body. To a nineteen-year- old preparing to find his way in the world, that sounded like a fate worse than death.

Neither my parents nor I liked that scenario, so we set out on a path that would take me to sixty-nine doctors, medical practitioners, and health experts and attempt treatments ranging from conventional medicine to “natural cures.” We tapped every medical and nutritional mind we could, and I personally read more than three hundred books on health and nutrition. I tried every possible diet out there in my attempt to leave no stone unturned.

Nothing stopped the death spiral that my health was in. I lost nearly half of my body weight and was reduced to 104 pounds, a frightfully thin figure who resembled a concentration camp survivor. The medical team treating me prepared my parents for the news that I might not make it.

I’ll never forget the night in my hospital room when nurses, phlebotomists, and doctors desperately tried to get an IV in me to rehydrate my shriveled body. After one failed attempt, a nurse ran out of my hospital room. I over- heard her say, “This young man isn’t going to make it until the next morning.”

I truly believed this was it for me. I was ready to die and go home to be with the Lord. After four hours of agony, they successfully inserted a needle into my vein.

I woke up the next morning alive, but I was far from healed. When my condition stabilized, I was sent home with a half-dozen medications to deal with the stabbing pains in my gut, and I made dozens of trips to the bathroom each day.

It was about that time when I made a commitment to God. “Lord, if you heal me and I come out of this alive,” I prayed, “and if I can help just one per- son overcome a horrific disease like mine, this living hell will have all been worth it.”

I also took a major step of faith in asking my mother to take my picture. She was reluctant to do so and even asked me if she could wait to take the photo when I looked better. I demanded she take the picture now, as I wanted the world to see what God was about to do in my life. 

Despite my step of faith, my health continued to deteriorate. The med- ical doctors counseled my parents that it was time for me to go under the knife. Feeling like I was out of options, I consented to life-altering ostomy surgery.

Just before the surgical plan was enacted, my father was introduced by phone to a San Diego nutritionist who offered to show me God’s health plan in the Bible. He believed I could be healed if I followed a diet based on the Bible, proven through history and confirmed by science. I had nothing to lose, and better yet, I believed that this may be God’s plan to heal me. I boarded a plane to travel across the country in my wheelchair. Upon my arrival in San Diego, I feasted on the Word of God and followed an eating plan that I would later call the “Maker’s Diet.”

After forty days, I added twenty-nine much-needed pounds and soon topped 150 pounds for the first time in nearly two years. Six weeks later, I was back to my old weight and ready to begin my life again. Not only did I get well without medication or surgery, but I was inspired to transform the health of this nation and world one life at a time. Upon return- ing home to South Florida, I worked at a health food store where I shared my story and encouraged many customers to change their diet. A few short months later, I started a health and nutrition company, Garden of Life, that in the following decade would become the most popular nutritional supplement company in American health food stores.

During this time, I’ve been able to share my life-changing experiences and what I learned about healthy living in seminars spanning the globe as well as in major media—television, radio, magazine, and newspapers. I hosted an international television program and would go on to write more than twenty books on nutrition, health, and wellness, including The Maker’s Diet, which released in 2004 and today has over 2 million copies in print.

In 2009, I was led to purchase thousands of acres of farmland, sources of pure spring water, heirloom seeds, and livestock with genetics resembling  those found in biblical times. Taking nutrition a step “beyond” organic is a recently realized but longtime passion of mine that has resulted in a focused mission to provide people with the world’s healthiest foods, beverages, skin and body care, and living nutritional supplements. My ultimate goal is see one million people living beyond organic by the year 2020.

During the last decade and a half, I have studied with and learned from some of the greatest minds in medicine, nutrition, and sustainable agricul- ture. Additionally, I have successfully coached thousands of people to trans- form their health as I had.

But perhaps my greatest nutritional revelation occurred at the end of 2012 while on a mission trip to India. On a long drive back from a remote city in the state of Andra Pradesh, the Lord spoke to me and laid out the diet plan that you’ll read about in this book, The Maker’s Diet Revolution.

I believe this new plan, which expands upon the principles found in the original Maker’s Diet, will create a health and wellness revolution in the lives of millions of people.