Author(s): Jacqueline Alnes

Health

Jacqueline Alnes was a Division One runner during her freshman year of college, but her season was cut short by a series of inexplicable neurological symptoms. What started with a cough, escalated to Alnes collapsing on the track and experiencing months of unremembered episodes that stole her ability to walk and speak. Her symptoms were first dismissed by her coach and her doctor. Two years after quitting the team to heal, Alnes's symptoms returned with a severity that left her using a wheelchair for a period of months. Desperate for answers, she turned to an online community centered around two wellness gurus who claimed, without any evidence, that a strict, all-fruit diet could cure conditions like depression, eating disorders, addiction, anxiety, and vision problems. Alnes wasn't alone. From all over the world, people in pain, doubted or dismissed by medical authorities, or seeking a miracle diet that would relieve them of white, Western expectations placed on their figures, turned