About

Welcome everyone! My name is Magen and currently I’m in college studying Nutrition and Dietetics at East Carolina University. Since I was a child, I have always loved food. I love to see food, smell food, read and learn about food, and of course — make food. Most of my life, I never fully understood the importance of food. I realized that we all need to eat to be healthy and grow, but as a child and teenager I never looked much deeper than this superficial understanding of what it means to eat. As I said, I have always been drawn to food but it was not until I was in college that I fully understood the significance of diet and lifestyle choices. Being diagnosed with a form of Scleroderma known as Diffuse Systemic Sclerosis has changed me and made food more important in my life than it has ever been.

 

I have always been very fortunate in my life. I have never questioned the love of my family and have never gone hungry or uncared for. I grew up in a happy household and lived a typical middle-class American life. Like many Americans, my family unquestioningly ate and used all the common household brands of food, hygiene products, and cleaning products. Very little cooking ever took place in my house when I was a child. We would buy microwave meals, box meals, frozen meals, junk foods, processed foods, sodas, you name it! As a child, I rarely ate fruits, vegetables, and unadulterated foods – this was normal for me. While this American lifestyle seemed normal, it was only normal because it was the only lifestyle I ever knew. However, in the context of human health, human culture, and nutrition it is evident that modern lifestyles are contributing heavily to the development of chronic diseases.

My mom will tell you I was a healthy child and she is not lying. I was a healthy child in the sense that I did what every other child did and was never physically limited. As I became a little older however, I noticed increasingly more “little things” that were wrong with me and doctors started putting names behind these autoimmune and inflammatory issue I was having. From a young age, I intuitively recognized something was wrong with me but I didn’t know what it was. As I grew, I became more intelligent and aware of my personal health but I was still missing crucial information to make changes to improve my life. It took until I was 18 years old to start understanding the complex relationship between diet, lifestyle, and health, but this was just the beginning of my journey. I was also 18 when I discovered I have Scleroderma. Initially, like many people newly diagnosed with Scleroderma or any life-threatening disease, I was devastated and mentally preoccupied with my disease and fears for my future. After some time, I became inspired and realized that my future did not have to be defined and limited by my disease. In this stage of my life I recognized that I had nothing to lose by deliberately trying to improve my health, but only precious life to gain. I was acting off the inspiration of others and this was the best thing I could have ever done for myself.

I created this website to inspire people to take back control of their health as I have done. I want everyone to know that being healthy Is not complicated, even following a devastating medical diagnosis. Many people leave it up to medical doctors to fix their ailments solely through prescriptions and medical procedures when there is so much more that can and should be done. This website is not a blog about me or a platform for selling products and making money. This is about saving people with chronic diseases valuable time, money, and effort. Sclerodermadefiance.com is meant to provide hope—something so many people in the world are without when they get told they have a life-threatening disease. I have felt hopeless and helpless due to my disease but now I feel inspired, happy, enriched, and proud of my accomplishments. Changing one’s lifestyle can be challenging at times but it is well worth it.

Today, I am healthier than I have ever been. I attribute this to my education in nutrition, the inspirations of others, my own intuition, and my observance and contemplation of nature.  I decided I would not be a victim of scleroderma and that there had to be things I could do to live a longer, healthier life—this was the start of Sclerodermadefiance.com. I went from a typical American diet and lifestyle lacking in nutrients and full of harmful exposures to a natural lifestyle that emphasizes simple health promoting practices for prevention of my disease progression and the development of subsequent disease. Since implementing my dietary and lifestyle changes, my health has improved dramatically.

My hope is that this website provides a framework and the resources necessary to make substantial lifestyle modification to improve health and wellbeing. There is no magic bullet or magic pill for health – health is maintained through healthy lifestyle. Changing lifestyle takes time, dedication, and education. In today’s world, it’s hard to know what is the right diet to have or the right foods to eat to be healthy because there is so marketing, scientific research, and conflicting evidence. Sclerodermadefiance is intended to help you understand what I believe to be the true definition of “health” and how to achieve it in many aspects of daily life.

Disclaimer:

The information and advice found on this website is not intended to replace the knowledge of a Medical Doctor or Registered Dietitian. Please consult your Doctor or Dietitian before making any dietary or lifestyle changes. I cannot be held liable for any injury a website user may experience. Linking to other websites and mention of specific brand names or people does not imply endorsement from those websites, brands, or people in any way. It is merely to provide reference and give credit to others’ intellectual properties. I did not and will not receive any form of payment for any of the statements, recommendations, or opinions found on this website.