There is so much to cover about this topic but I'll do my best to break it down without boring you to much ;) I think the most important thing to consider when looking at any type of diet to follow is the reason WHY you want to make changes to your diet. I would say the majority of people in North America are looking at a diet for weightloss specifically, when in fact we should be looking at a diet that is nutrient dense and healing to promote natural health that allows the cells to renew themselves and stave off disease. A healthy weight would then, ideally, be a side effect of proper nutrition. My Story: I've struggled with my weight my entire life and gone through every new weightloss diet there is. When I was young, processed food products and GMOs were becoming mainstream and a part of our every day lives. No one ever connected this with obesity back then. No one knew the real reason I was overweight was because my body was starving for nutrients so I would be seeking food to compensate and that this would lead to disordered eating habits. I know now that it's not all about willpower and portion control as I was always told it was. I've done it all, or at least attempted it. I was a child when I went to Weightwatchers and Jenny Craig but those never worked for me because weightloss is so much more complicated than calories in/calories out! The first most significant weightloss I was able to achieve was when I was single and working long crazy hours and ate one meal a day (basically starved myself) and lived on coffee and diet soda and went dancing on the weekends. I was active but not healthy at all and of course the weight came back with a vengeance because I had actually been depriving my body of the proper nutrients and my liver was busy trying to shove all of those toxins into new fat cells. The next big weightloss I achieved was when I went gluten-free after finding out I was celiac. It was amazing how the pounds melted off because the inflammatory load was reduced and I was finally absorbing nutrients properly. My body no longer felt that it was in starvation mode and started to release the fat stores it had made. I was also able to exercise more. It was during this time in my life that I felt my best and was my strongest. Before my distal pancreatectomy, I was hitting the gym at least 3-5 times a week lifting freeweights and getting strong, lean and fit. Unfortunately, after my surgery I literally ate ice cream and sat on the couch watching tv and never got back to the gym. I think it was partially due to the fact that I was newly married (blissfully comfortable) and partly because I was comfort-eating, trying to self soothe my emotions about my recent health issues, with food. I ate whatever I could stomach after my surgery as no one told me differently, (after the initial recovery period) not realizing that my new habits were setting me up for extreme problems down the road. One thing I'm certain of now is that all of the dairy and other inflammatory foods combined with the trauma of the surgery to my body made it very difficult to regain my health. (Interesting side note here- if you read Anthony Williams books, he claims that the Epstein Barr virus basically hides in our organs waiting for a traumatic event that weakens us enough to wreak havoc on our bodies causing autoimmune-like conditions. This hasn't been scientifically proven yet but there have been discoveries about Epstein Barr being linked to celiac and other autoimmune conditions and the way in which he describes this process have really made me think there could be something to this.)
Inflammation in my gut caused by dairy/gluten consumption led to what many describe as intestinal permeability or leaky gut, leading to more food intolerances and more inflammation- leading to fatigue and joint pain which lead to more weight gain. It was a vicious cycle but I had no idea why it was happening - only that I had less and less mobility and more and more health issues that doctors couldn't give me answers for. My digestion was a mess and I just wanted to stay in bed all the time. I'm sure you've heard of the ketogenic diet by now: high fat with very little carbohydrates. It seems to be the perfect way to lose weight according to everything I've been seeing on social media as of late. Imagine being able to eat all the bacon and steak and creamy cheeses and still lose weight without counting calories? There are studies that show that this diet has been used to help children with epilepsy and other neurological behaviors. The documentary called "The Magic Pill" was very eye opening to the benefits of eating this way. It's hard to refute it when there's so much hype surrounding keto and its gaining popularity with all of the weightloss stories! Other people have used it as a way to heal their guts as it eliminates grains and legumes. It has taken much research to determine if a diet so high in fat is achievable for someone like me who has had surgery on organs that help digest foods, especially dietary fats.
Now I'm not at all saying that fat isn't good for us because in fact I believe it is, as long as it's the right type of fat! I'm not worried about cholesterol as much as I am about the highly toxic fats that seem to be rampant in our SAD diets. I stay away from vegetable oils like canola, corn, peanut and soybean oils no matter what, as well as other oils high in inflammatory omega 6's such as seed oils. Of course I shouldn't have to mention how bad trans fats are. Monounsaturated fats are best, followed by naturally occurring saturated fats in coconut oil and lean cuts of meats. Speaking of oils, be sure to have a reputable source for your olive oil as many of them out there are fake and mixed with other oils! Apparently there's big money in selling fake olive oil! Also please read about the benefits of cholesterol on the body before believing that it is completely bad for you. Cholesterol is necessary for lubricating and healing our tissues as well as making vital vitamin D and regulating hormones. I believe going vegan is more of a lifestyle choice that people adopt to remain ethical by not harming animals, than it is a healthy diet. What is not mentioned often, is the erosion of the soil from crops and all of the small field animals that don't have homes due to agriculture. And that it takes animal products like manure and bone meal to enrich the soil to produce the crops. That is not to say that I do not seek out ethically sourced meats. I'm an animal lover too and I try very hard to make sure that the animal led a good life, free from suffering. I also care about what that animal was fed because if it was fed a poor, highly inflammatory diet or led a stressful life, then it will not be a healthy source of food for me. I feel that red meat has had a bad rap and we need to revisit the reasons why. Red meat actually has many health benefits and we need to be careful that we don't become deficient in a vital source if B12, iron and zinc without red meat. I personally do not believe that a high carb, low to no fat diet is good for my body either. Our bodies need omega 3 fats to stave off disease and a heahy source of cholesterol as mentioned, to function properly. As well I've found that with my blood sugar issues I need animal proteins to balance them out.
Many people see a plant based diet as very healing as well, but again, when you're replacing high quality, complete proteins with plant based proteins, you have those inflammatory lectins and phytic acid to deal with. They completely wreck my insides and make me constipated and it feels like I'm passing sandpaper through my intestines, not to mention my blood sugars are completely out of control on a high carb, low fat diet. So veganism is not for me but I admit that the movement gaining popularity has helped me with the diet that I started to eat to completely heal my gut: which is more of a paleo approach. I have been known to order gluten-free, vegan dishes and add protein to that because that takes away the dairy and eggs easily enough. I also do not eat eggs hardly at all anymore even though I do love them. They can be inflammatory and most people that are trying to heal their guts need to stay away from them until they're healed and even so should only eat them once in awhile (This has nothing to do with cholesterol btw.)
Learning about how Dr. Terry Wahls cured her own MS and how she did it was truly an inspiration to me and how I eat. I encourage everyone to read her books. There are so many great functional medicine doctors out there that have healed themselves and thousands of others by sharing how they eat, it's really worth looking into it.
A few years ago, I went to see a reputable functional medicine doctor and had a special food sensitivity test done where they take your blood and drop it into 200 vials with different food particles and measure the reaction that your blood has to each particular food. This is the Elisa food allergy test that tests not only the IgE reactions (histamine reactions, typical of allergic reactions, but also the IgG reactions that are much more subtle, maybe manifesting in tummy aches, sore joints, fatigue, acne or other skin issues or many other symptoms that most people don't recognize as food related!) The results are then graphed, showing foods that you reacted highly to - most people who's results I've seen react mostly to gluten, dairy, eggs, mustard, peanuts/legumes, pineapple, garlic, turmeric, and vanilla.
This test literally changed my life as I was getting debilitating headaches from minuscule amounts of garlic and vanilla that were virtually in everything I was eating! You have no idea how many foods contain the word "seasonings" "spices" or "natural flavors" all which would give me a terrible headache. How would I have EVER discovered the root of these headaches without such a test? Everywhere you look, garlic is promoted as a healthy food that you must be eating!!
So in conclusion, as far as healing diets go, my preference to begin a gut healing regimen is the paleo type diet. It is healthy to eat lots and lots of vegetables and some fruits and some meats and healthy fats. I try to incorporate a rainbow of colours for the most nutrient dense foods available. The best way I found to start to learn about a low inflammatory, healing diet like paleo is through a program called "Whole 30". The book is great at telling you why you should give up certain inflammatory foods and then helps you with a 30 day program. I loved it. This is how I started my new healing lifestyle before I even got the food intolerance testing done.
So hopefully I've shed light onto why it is good for me to eat this way. It is the cleanest, most healing and least inflammatory diet I have found (other than taking a special food sensitivity test that allows one to make a custom eating plan as I mentioned). I recommend anyone who needs a health boost to closely follow whole 30 or paleo diet.
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