A Plant-Based Diet Resolved My Rheumatoid Arthritis Pain, Transformed My Life

About 20 years ago, I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). My doctor told me I could take medication to reduce the impact of RA, but once I started the medication, I would need to take it for the rest of my life.

A friend convinced me to wait a month, to see if we could manage my symptoms naturally. We went grocery shopping and bought a selection of whole plant foods—nothing prepared, ultraprocessed, or artificial in any way. For the next 30 days, I ate nothing but those foods.

I was supposed to see my doctor again at the end of the 30 days, but I had started noticing improvements in my symptoms, so I postponed the appointment. After another month of eating this way, I continued seeing improvements, so I postponed the appointment again, and so on. I gradually re-incorporated some animal products into my diet; if my symptoms flared up after reintroducing a food, I would cut it back out. A year later, all symptoms of RA had resolved.

Fast-forward to August 2017. I was in great health. I felt like I was living life to the fullest. I was leading a workshop for photography students, hiking through the Grayson Highlands in Virginia, photographing wild horses, and coming down one of the nation’s most beautiful mountain bike trails. Then, in the blink of an eye, everything changed. A bad accident on a mountain bike landed me in a wheelchair for several months, with a leg full of rods and screws and an injured shoulder.

I went from exercising every day to barely exercising at all, aside from physical therapy. I went from making healthy meals for myself to living on takeout.

With my limited mobility and lack of focus on my diet, I began gaining weight. And although I was learning to walk fairly well, my RA was flaring up. The arthritis pain took over my life and made a full recovery from the accident seem almost impossible.

In 2023, I knew something had to change. I was in the absolute worst shape of my life. I had gained 60 pounds since the accident. My blood pressure was extremely high, topped only by my horrible cholesterol levels. After contracting COVID-19, I felt tired all the time. My doctors were prescribing all kinds of medications. I knew there had to be a better way to get back to where I’d been just six years earlier.

I started to eat less meat and grow more fruits and vegetables in my garden. Gradually, my aches and pains started to recede. Around this time, I found out about Forks Over Knives and started learning about the science behind a whole-food, plant-based (WFPB) diet. I watched every documentary I could find. On Dec. 26, 2023, I woke up knowing that I’d found my answer. I will never forget that fateful day. My wife walked into the room, and I said, “Good morning. Today is a new day, and by the way, I’m a vegetarian now.” She looked at me, smiled, and said, “Well, I guess I am, too. You’re not doing this alone!”

We joined Forks Meal Planner and started planning out WFPB meals for ourselves. Over the weeks and months that followed, I began to feel better in my body and mind, much like it had happened 20 years earlier. After I cut out dairy, my RA symptoms fully receded.

By April 2024, my blood pressure was in the normal range. I had lost some weight, and I was back to gardening and enjoying the outdoors with zero pain in my joints. My life had been restored.

As of this writing, my wife and I have been full-on WFPB for eight months. We’ve each lost around 25–30 pounds. We continue to use Forks Meal Planner for recipes and meal plans. Some of my go-to dishes are the garlicky mashed potatoes, oven-roasted veggies with garlic mustard sauce, and coconut curry stew. My most recent favorite is vegan elote; it gives me something nice to roast over the fire or on the grill. I also love to snack on air-fried cauliflower poppers and black pepper and vinegar spiced cauliflower bites. I didn’t even know I liked cauliflower until I started this lifestyle!

Going WFPB also provided me with the inspiration I needed to finish a novel I’d been working on for several years. I incorporated my personal health journey into the story. Since publishing the book a few months ago, I’ve received so many messages from people seeking to improve their health through nutrition, as well. It’s been mind-blowing.

I am humbled and honored to be on this path with so many other incredible people and cannot wait to see what comes next. It has been quite the incredible journey so far, and we have only just begun!

To learn more about a whole-food, plant-based diet, visit our Plant-Based Primer. For meal-planning support, check out Forks Meal Planner, FOK’s easy weekly meal-planning tool to keep you on a healthy plant-based path.