Gerene Butterfield

Gerene Butterfield and her husband Roy eat 50 pounds of carrots a week between the two of them.  And they attribute those carrots and the other foods in their diet to saving Gerene Butterfield's life.  Butterfield, 60, was diagnosed with the auto-immune deficiency condition scleroderma in 1984.

With symptoms similar to lupus or multiple sclerosis, scleroderma can cause hardening and tightening of the skin.  Butterfield's symptoms started in her hands.  'One finger blanched and turned very painful," Butterfield said. "I looked like a dead person."  Butterfield actually thought it was funny at first, until the symptoms kept occurring.

Many doctor visits later, Butterfield's scleroderma, which was mostly internal, had left her lungs working at only 32 percent capacity.  The pain was excruciating, and stints at specialized hospitals in different states weren't helping much.  Butterfield began to plan her funeral and went home to Concord to die. But there was more to come. She had developed osteoporosis, and within a year had broken both wrists, her left humus and her right pelvis.  "I was just hanging on by the skin of my teeth," Butterfield said. "We'd been through hell personified."

In December, 1999, a friend asked Butterfield to watch a video by Dr. Lorraine Day, who claims to have cured herself of cancer through diet. Butterfield decided it couldn't get any worse, so she went cold turkey - with her husband - on an organic, vegetarian diet.  "Eight weeks later I was off all the drugs, and in 12 weeks I was pain free," Butterfield said. "I can do things now that I couldn't when I was 35."  Butterfield's typical diet consists of three 8-ounce glasses of carrot juice and some barley grass for breakfast, fruit or a salad for lunch and a huge salad for dinner.

"During the summer 90 percent of my diet is raw fruits and vegetables," Butterfield said. "In the winter I may have whole-wheat pasta, vegetable soup or non-dairy cheese.  Butterfield also makes a meat-loaf made from nuts instead of meat, and trail mix made with carob.  "The problem with America is we are all malnourished because of all the packaged food we eat," she said.

Although Butterfield and her husband used to own and operate a Christian book store and a specialty florist in Mooresville, she retired and now sells organic cosmetic and skin care products from Arbonne International.  Butterfield was also trained by the Rev. George Malkmus at Hallelujah Acres, who teaches health from a Biblical perspective.  She attributes her health completely to her diet and to God.  "God gave us a self-healing body and an instruction book," she said.  Butterfield now leads a Hallelujah Acres support group in Mooresville.  The Butterfields will be on their "raw" diet for the rest of their lives, and believe their lives will be much longer and better because of it.  "I'm done with canes, wheelchairs and drugs," Butterfield said.  Butterfield can be reached at roygerene@aol.com.

(From the April 21, 2004 edition of the Concord / Kannapolis Independent Tribune - Front Page)