Jenn Taylor's Remarkable Journey: When Surgery Every 6 Months Didn't Work, This Did...And Is Now Changing Thousands Of Lives.

"Seeking joy everywhere has been Jennifer’s key to surviving and thriving despite having a rare and life-threatening illness. She looks for joy in the seemingly ordinary moments of life and has found that some of the most beautiful gifts reside there." -Wellness Foundation

As we at MamaSezz well know, changing to a plant-based diet can change your life in ways you never expected. In this series, we talk with some of the world’s most soulful, dedicated (and often funny) individuals. We get to hear their stories of suffering, transformation, and service — and we learn how food is an essential part of their journey. We’re thrilled to talk today with Jenn Taylor, wellness pioneer and Vice President & Director Education & Programs Wellness Foundation.

What prompted your interest in a plant-based diet?

My plant-based journey began in 1998 when I was in my late twenties and had suffered with endometriosis since my teens. I was literally having surgery to remove the endometriosis at least once a year, sometimes multiple times in a year. The disease was horribly painful and surgery felt like a band-aid and I knew I needed to get to the root cause.

At that time, you couldn’t do a Google search to research something so I went to my local library and started researching the old-fashioned way. I found very little on the topic, but what I did discover was that estrogen was a fuel source for endometriosis so I looked at what I was eating and realized how much low fat dairy and chicken was in my diet. (In the ‘90’s red meat started getting a bad rap, but we lived like chicken and low fat dairy were vegetables and somehow healthier for us.)

One day, by chance, I came across actress/author Marilu Henner’s book “Total Health Makeover”. Plant-based wasn’t a thing back then, but Marilu had improved her own health by giving up dairy, sugar and animal protein and had a meal plan I could follow so I decided to give it a month to see what happened. 

Despite being a healthy weight and exercising regularly, my cholesterol was too high and I was suffering every month from endo pain and I was determined to try to improve it. I remember being so excited when I took the book to my doctor and he told me that “nutrition had no impact on endometriosis”.

He told me to save my time and just schedule my next surgery for six months from then.

Back then, you couldn’t just go to the store and buy soymilk or plant milks, I had to special order soymilk from my local food co-op. Oh how far we have come! Thirty days later, I had lost weight, I had absolutely no allergy symptoms that spring, no sinus infections once I gave up dairy and best of all, no endometriosis pain! I decided to keep going and six months later, I was symptom free. Turns out all the estrogen rich animal foods I was eating thinking they were healthy sources of fuel were actually an accelerant for endometriosis.

Once I got to the source and stopped fueling it and started eating healthy plant-based foods my body responded by putting the disease into permanent remission. I never did need another surgery and I never saw that doctor again who told me that I couldn’t possibly reverse this disease. 

That began my obsession with sharing this information with others. I worked for several years coaching women about plant-based eating long before there was a plant-based movement. I grew up in a rural community and dairy farming was a way of life so people thought I was crazy for eating this way, but I felt better than ever and I wasn’t turning back. 

In 2006, I was given the opportunity of a lifetime when I crossed paths with a kindred spirit who had also reclaimed his health with a plant-based diet.
Doug Mercer is the founder of Wellness Foundation, a non-profit organization based on Long Island, NY. Doug offered me a job as the Executive Director of Wellness Foundation and together, we set out to turn our community into what we call a Wellness Zone.

For the past 15 years, I’ve developed programs and curriculum to educate children and adults on the power of plant-based nutrition to transform their health. All of our programs are based on cutting-edge, evidence-based research.

Our WKids in school program has educated over 25,000 children and their families on the power of eating whole plant foods and our life changing and often, life saving, adult programs Wellness Challenge 360° and Jumpstart 360° programs have helped thousands of adults take control of their health, lower their cholesterol, lose weight and reverse chronic diseases.

The work we do every day helps people take control of their health and in a world where so much is out of our control, it is so empowering to be able to prevent and reverse chronic diseases such as heart disease, diabetes and many auto-immune diseases. 

How were you able to stick with such a dramatic diet change?

What makes the Wellness Foundation programs different? Why are the so effective?

Pre-Covid, all of our courses were done in person and now they are all online and we’ve been able to reach people from around the world and the United States. It thrills my heart to see the reach we are able to have online and to be able to create a community where people can turn 24/7 to support each other is fantastic.
I am so excited to share our Jumpstart 360° program with people who want to take control of their health and our Thrive Membership Community is the place to be if you want to be inspired every single month by amazing experts in the plant-based field, delicious recipes and to be supported by new friends who share your passion for living a healthy life.

Jenn Taylor Wellness Foundation

For the past few years, I’ve been living with a very rare endocrine disease that is caused my tiny tumors at the base of my brain. It’s so rare that less than 10 people per million have it.

Most patients who have this disease develop type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol, fatty liver disease and heart disease because of the impact of very high levels of cortisol in the body.

I had brain surgery in 2017 and went into remission and about a year ago was diagnosed with a recurrence and while that stinks, I am happy to report that the years I spent investing in my wellness have paid off.

I don’t have hypertension, diabetes or heart disease or many of the other issues that most patients with this illness have and the one thing that separates me from most other patients in the research study I am involved in at Sloan Kettering is my plant-based lifestyle.

I believe that every single choice we make is an investment in our wellness or our illness. I spent years making deposits into my wellness account and because of that, when I did get sick (and let’s face it, no matter how much we do to protect ourselves, sometimes bodies get sick) I had made enough deposits that my body had what it needed to fight the illness and carry me through.