Surprising Insights from a Whole Food - Plant-based Perspective

Very well written. Convincing and helpful. I do realize the "wisdom" part of utilizing the Word of Wisdom, since we are all very unique, is to know the needs of our own bodies. Some of us can do well with a complete whole food plant based diet, and some of us require some meat in our diet. Certainly not in excess, however, and Birch's book is very good to bring that out.

The principles in this book are another food fad written by someone who has no authority to guide others.

If any of you, like myself, sincerely wants to learn more about the Word of Wisdom, learn from someone who has authority.

One of the apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who was also a scientist, John A. Widtsoe, with his wife, wrote a book called "The Word of Wisdom: A Modern Interpretation, and nowhere in the book (or in the scriptures) it is advocated a vegetarian diet.
Elder Widtsoe's book promotes a diet of abundant fruits and vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nuts, milk, eggs, cheese, seafood, and eating the flesh of beasts and fowls sparingly. That's it!
He also focuses on the good quality of these foods, and being well grown, fresh, unprocessed and unrefined for better health.
See a snapshot of one of the pages that summarize a lot in just a few lines.

Spread the word!

This is a serious book how to achieve excellent health. It is well written, easy to read, comprehensive, accurate and sensitive. It has all the answers. I've studied and lived this subject for a long time and in my opinion this book is the best.

I already enjoy eating a plant based whole food diet yet I was surprised at the new insights I gained from Discovering the Word of Wisdom... As soon as I finished reading Jane's book I bought 20 more copies to give as gifts! I am excited to see this book help change the way we as Latter-day Saints follow the Word of Wisdom.

I commend Jane Birch for having the courage to share her thoughts and perspectives on the Word of Wisdom and how the Word of Wisdom teaches much that is in agreement with a whole food, plant based diet. I found much in the first six chapters that was useful and some in the last chapters.

Irregardless of the useful information provided, however, both my wife and I only skimmed the last few chapters and did not finish the book. Why? Because we felt like the author, despite her claims to the contrary, came across to often as if she feels like her "private interpretation" of Doctrine and Covenants 89, which comes across as if we should all be adopting a vegan lifestyle, should be how it is interpreted for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and the world in general. This is backed up by the many examples she includes in her "Real Mormons, Real Stories" section of which nearly all of them have a vegan slant. She goes so far as to include an example from a child in which the child states: "We are vegan so that we don't get cancer and don't get sick. The Lord wants us to eat healthy. The Word of Wisdom says not to eat cows." If the Word of Wisdom teaches that, I guess the Latter-Day Saint leaders must believe whole-heartedly in the violation of it given the fact that the church has several large cattle ranches and every storehouse in the church that has food stuffs includes canned beef chunks.

To be fair to the author, I agree with her that we should follow the Word of Wisdom as written, including, however, eating meat sparingly, in times of famine, cold, winter, and excess hunger. I also agree that we should not waste flesh needlessly as that is expressly forbidden by God, and that when we do use meat, it should be with thanksgiving and gratitude.

I do recommend reading the book, at least the first six chapters, as there is a lot of useful health information provided, including information from the China Study. However, to members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, I recommend staying close to God, paying attention to your feelings, and viewing the author's writing through the lens of prophets, both ancient and modern. I also recommend reading other verses of scripture including the following:

D&C 49:18-19, https://www.lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/49.18-19,%2021?lang=eng#17
D&C 59:16-20, https://www.lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/59.16-20?lang=eng#15
1 Timothy 4:1-3, https://www.lds.org/scriptures/nt/1-tim/4.1-3?lang=eng#2 - paying attention to verses 1 and 3 in particular.
JST - Genesis 9:10-15, https://www.lds.org/scriptures/jst/jst-gen/9.10-15?lang=eng

Finally, I recommend seeking guidance through prayer, as God is the ultimate source for the understanding of truth.

Wasn't worth the time or money. Kept repeating the same information over and over again like she was trying to convince you of the research. I would have liked to have seen more practical use of the information offered, but that was in a small appendix at the end of the book.