DIET

The first few days of this diet were rough. Eating became a chore instead of a pleasure.

But to my amazement, after about a week I felt less tired and my joints were hurting much less. I wasn’t sure I believed it was possible that a simple diet could help, but I was improving. I no longer wanted to scream every time I lifted my arm. The swelling in my wrist and knee had subsided and my shoulders felt better.

This experience taught me how important my diet was to how I felt. There are many different diets out there all claiming to be the answer. What I have found is that my diet needed to be different at different times in my healing journey. Maybe it is possible that there is a place for all diets depending upon the person.

I personally feel that a good long-term diet is one loaded with fresh organic colorful vegetables and fruits with some healthy protein sources and plenty of healthy fats. I can never personally eat gluten-containing foods and I almost never eat sugar or dairy.

When I was recovering from Lyme disease my protein needs were much higher as my body was busy doing the needed repairs on all my connective tissue and my diet was close to being a ketogenic diet.

Something that makes the diet so confusing is that so many people have developed food sensitivities and a very healthy food for the body may now initiate an inflammatory response.
I would recommend eating an organic diet no matter which diet you choose. Environmental Working Group publishes a list every year of the Dirty Dozen. These are foods that contain the most pesticide residues when grown conventionally. Strawberries seem to head up this list every year. If you have to make a choice to only eat some organic foods you might start with these:
1) Strawberries
2) Spinach
3) Kale
4) Nectarines
5) Apples
6) Grapes
7) Peaches
8) Cherries
9) Pears
10) Tomatoes
11) Celery
12) Potatoes

Another benefit of eating organically is that you will not be getting genetically modified food.
As I stated in my book most genetic modifications of our food are done to make them Round-up ready. This means our food is genetically modified so it can be sprayed with the herbicide Round-up. The Round-up goes on the vegetables and it kills grass and weeds around the plant, but not the plant itself.
Some of the health ramifications have now become apparent as scientists not associated with Bayer/Monsanto perform studies. One of the most noticed was performed by Gilles-Eric Séralini, an Italian scientist who performed the same study that Monsanto did – except they followed the rats for two years instead of ninety days. The results? Organ damage, cancer, and premature death were found in Séralini’s rats. This study, along with the World Health Organization’s announcement that the active ingredient in Round-up (glyphosate) is a probable carcinogen has hopefully begun to turn the tide to a more natural way of growing food. The legal system is now successfully linking Round up to cancer. I hope we can be a little more wise when they come out with their next new chemical that they will tout as perfectly safe.

ELIMINATION DIET
The elimination diet that I used was key to my recovery. This type of diet eliminates all foods except for a few generally well-tolerated foods in order to discover what foods are provoking a negative response. In my case, I ate lamb, rice and broccoli for two weeks and then I began to slowly add foods back into my diet one at a time. This is a very time-consuming approach, but it was so important for me to understand which foods did not build health in my body.

The GAPS (Gut and Psychology Protocol) and the AIP (Autoimmune Protocol) Diets
They are types of elimination diets. The GAPS diet focuses on repairing leaky gut and consists of a three-part plan designed to heal and seal the gut lining, rebalance the immune system, and restore the optimal bacterial ecosystem within the gastrointestinal tract. Grains, commercial dairy, refined carbohydrates and starchy vegetables are removed while focusing on bone broth, stocks, fermented and other easily digested foods.

The AIP or PALEO AUTOIMMUNE PROTOCOL
This diet is designed for those that suspect they have leaky gut or those with autoimmune diseases like multiple sclerosis, chronic fatigue syndrome, and Crohn’s disease. It removes such reactive foods as grains, beans, legumes, dairy, eggs, nuts, seeds, nightshades, as well as food chemicals and additives while promoting pastured meats and wild fish.

FODMAPS
This is another example of an elimination diet. FODMAPS stands for fermentable oligo-, di-, mono-saccharides and polyols, which are groups of carbohydrates that trigger digestive symptoms like bloating, gas and stomach pain. People who have these symptoms are usually diagnosed with Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS). This diet improves the digestive symptoms of 70% of adults with IBS.

THE WAHLS PROTOCOL
This was developed by Dr. Terry Wahls after she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Over the course of seven years her MS worsened until she was in a wheelchair. Over this time, she researched different methods to improve her health. Gradually she settled on a diet which involves eating nine cups of vegetables a day along with wild seafood and pastured meats. Dr. Wahls wrote a book called The Wahls Protocol and is back to practicing medicine and riding her bike to work.

KETOGENIC DIET
The ketogenic diet is usually used for short periods of time or for a specific purpose. It is used in mainstream medicine for epilepsy when pharmaceutical drugs don’t work. This is a high fat, low carbohydrate, controlled protein diet which puts the body into a ketogenic state and causes the body to burn fat instead of sugar. It is becoming apparent to many that the elimination of sugar, whether in the form of powdered sugar, alcohol, or simple carbohydrates is a benefit for everyone. It has been known since Dr. Otto Warburg won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1931 that glucose fermentation in the absence of oxygen is associated with cancer. Dr. Warburg’s famous quote is “Science advances one funeral at a time.”

INTERMITTANT FASTING
This is a technique that puts the body into intermittent states of ketosis and produces amazing benefits:
• Boosts weight loss
• Increases energy
• Promotes cellular repair and autophagy (when your body consumes defective tissue in order to produce new parts)
• Reduces insulin resistance and protects against type 2 diabetes
• Lowers bad cholesterol
• Promotes longevity
• Protects against neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s
• Improves memory and boosts brain function
• Makes cells more resilient

This information came from the bulletproof website https://www.bulletproof.com/diet/intermittent-fasting/intermittent-fasting-guide/  and they take you through how to get started on intermittent fasting. It involves eating during a set time window during the day. Many people eat one meal a day and others try to keep their eating within an eight-hour window. A complete fast for several days can also be part of the program. Long periods of not eating helps to reduce insulin, burn fat and increase recycling of cells. This is a very different philosophy than I grew up with but the theory of allowing to body to have time to clean itself up and not use it’s energy for digestion makes sense to me. This is now a daily practice for me. I don’t always make it the full 16 hours, but I’m getting there. The bulletproof style coffee is a fun trick and delicious. I make my own variety involving expresso, coconut oil and butter and whip it with an emersion blender. Before you say yuck you had better try it. Everyone I make it for actually likes it.

Vegetables have incredible detoxifying powers. Some people do extremely well on a vegetarian diet and it can be very helpful in removing toxins and cleansing organs and blood. I do not do well on an exclusively vegetarian diet. My body seems to crave healthy meats and seafood.

A useful method of getting more fruits and vegetables into your diet is to make green smoothies. I am able to get so many green and other really healthy foods into that blender. This has been an easy way for me to get those vegetables into my diet.

ALKALINE FOODS
I have found that the pH of the body is very important to human health. I remember the first time Ava (Vickey Barkley) tested my spit with pH paper and the paper was pure yellow. My body was very acidic and I was very sick and my diet still had room for improvement. The pH paper now reads nice and green. I have read that you should test the urine pH and not the spit, but as I have become healthier the pH of my spit has definitely changed. Since spit is so much easier to test I will stick with that for now. Most clients have very acidic bodies when I start working with them.

Certain things alkalinize your body that you think of as being rather acidic like apple cider vinegar (with the mother) and lemon juice. Here is a list of acid/alkaline foods. http://www.alkalinesisters.com/alkaline-food-chart/ 

Alkaline water has been touted by some as the answer but I am more impressed with hydrogen rich water. I was surprised to find this study on pub med https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24392771 

I came to my conclusions by looking at what SCIO was saying after I started drinking hydrogen water. I have not invested in the water maker yet, but I think that is in my future. I have been using Quicksilver Scientific hydrogen tablets.

These are some of the diets, techniques, and ideas that I’ve come across in my health journey. I hope that you can use this page and the information on it to empower yourself to search for solutions to optimal health. Healing your gut and having a healthy microbiome is critically important to everyones health.