What’s the healthiest diet for me?

That might take a longer, one on one convo to figure out, but for now I can give you two answers you can take to the bank.

1. A whole food, high quality, homemade, plant-centered food plan of any kind is always better than the Standard American Diet (SAD ☹).

2. Do a 4 week trial run of any new (but healthy!) diet and see how you feel. You are the best research project for yourself.

So basically, don’t stress out too much about finding the exact, perfect, this-is-me diet that you have to get all cult-ish about. I’ve tried all the diets there were over the last 20 years on my quest for health: food combining, vegetarian/vegan for a decade, blood type diet, raw food diet, weight watchers, Weston A. Price, no diet (a lot, lol), paleo, keto, low-carb, elimination diets of all kinds….ugh, I’m exhausted just thinking about all that work. BUT, I love food and working on my healthandfinding answers for patients, so I wouldn’t change all those experiments foranything!It’s actually what makes me so versatile with my population of patients and to know how to help them.

So…..let’s dig in to each of the diets I love to recommend, or watch the video below:

What is the Paleo diet?

who it’s for:

This is for the person who might not want to track their macros but go on a healthy, whole foods diet that improves health and/or causes weight loss. This is healthy eating, plant-centered (not a hot dog eating contest!) food plan that is a major improvement from the standard diet. It is our ancestral diet, afterall. Going Paleo reduces inflammation, sugar intake, and highly processed inflammatory foods- all responsible for reversing diabetes, improving energy, reducing pain, improving cholesterol labs, and any other weird symptoms you have. Many people with auto-immune diseases see a LOT of improvement on Paleo because of the gut-healing which then improves immune function.

what you eat:

Vegetables, starchy vegetables, fruits, healthy fats, nuts, seeds, eggs, meat, poultry, pork, fish and seafood.

how it helps you:

When you eat as written above, you are just eating simple, whole foods that your body knows how to recognize, digest and absorb. This makes digestion easier and can help heal leaky gut, which most people know by know, heals everything! The human body wasn’t meant to consume chocolate milk, coke, cheetos and pizza. If you spend a lifetime giving it to yourself, things are gonna fall apart at some point, no surprise there.

What is the Keto diet?

who it’s for:

生酮饮食对那些医学再保险fractive epilepsy, the obese, type 2 diabetics/pre-diabetics, and generally those that are feeling like crap. It’s anti-inflammatory, gut healing, can improve auto-immune issues, lower blood sugars, burn fat, improve skin health, and more. It definitely requires diligence with tracking macronutrients (protein, fat and carbs) and cooking. You have to stick to this diet every day if you want it to work, you can’t have cheat days (at least not in the beginning) or “taking the weekends off” types of situations.

what you eat:

Meat, poultry, pork, eggs, fish, shellfish, vegetables, nuts, seeds, dairy products, and healthy fats. Amounts depend on very specific number goals, usually determined by an RD or MD that knows how to help you.

how it helps you:

酮食物计划非常low in carbohydrates which is what can be credited for most of the benefits. This is, in part, why inflammation is reduced and therefore why so many things function better! Sugar feeds inflammation, so this is doing the opposite. People find that they have more energy, food cravings are reduced (because your hormones actually change, for the better!), auto-immune conditions can calm down, mega weight loss happens for many, and since the brain loves ketones as their fuel source, brain power improves.

What is the Anti-Inflammatory diet?

who it’s for:

Those with generalized pain, sluggishness, digestive issues, skin issues, possible food allergies/intolerances, just not feeling that great, addicted to sugar, and especially those who don’t need a tougher/stricter plan like keto or paleo. You may or may not have weight to lose, this is not the focus of the plan, it’s more about eating healthier in general.

what you eat:

Legumes, whole grains, vegetables, starchy vegetables, fruit, nuts, seeds, healthy fats, meat, pork, poultry, fish and seafood.

how it helps you:

You’ll be avoiding a lot of processed foods, dairy, gluten and sugar on this plan. For some people, that’s HUGE and helps with crazy improvements. Not everyone has to be on an extreme food plan, or wants to be, really. If that sounds good, then this one’s for you. Gentle, effective, and just real nice.

What is the Low-Carb diet?

who it’s for:

I love using low-carb diets no matter what plan I recommend because we’re all a bunch of sugar addicts! ALL of us! lol. This plan is much easier than keto or paleo because it’s not restrictive except in the grams of carbs allowed within a day’s time. Low-carb is great for reversing diabetes, weight loss, reducing sugar cravings, improving cholesterol labs, reducing inflammation, improving joint pain, sleeping better, and so much more.

what you eat:

Dairy products, nuts, seeds, healthy fats, grains, legumes, vegetables, starchy vegetables, fruit, meat, poultry, pork, fish and seafood.Carb sources with limitations:whole grains, legumes, starchy vegetables, fruits.

how it helps you:

Decreasing carbohydrates is like putting a fire out that feeds inflammation. It might seem hard to understand how that’s really possible- but it does and I recommend that you just try it. Patients come back 100% of the time noticing all of the improvements I mentioned above, and I check lab work to be sure! Lowering carbs also lowers blood sugars which we know reverses insulin resistance which helps diabetics, pre-diabetics and those with PCOS or weight gain. Most of the major chronic diseases ruining this country’s health is rooted in nutrition imbalance. It’s because we started relying on convenience foods and they are made of less “real food” and more of “not food” ingredients.

What is the Low FODMAP diet?

who it’s for:

Those with extreme gas and/or bloating, diarrhea (like shooting out meals intact), IBS, IBD or any functional gut disorder.

what you eat:

A very specific list of foods that are low in fermentable oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharides and polyols (FODMAP). Basically, it’s a lower fiber diet that is dairy free, gluten free and legume free, plus there’s a limit on quantities you can consume on most of the plant foods. Plant foods that cause trouble: broccoli, cauliflower, onions, almonds, apples, and many more. You really need a well-written food plan to understand what to do, not a one-page handout that has vague suggestions (I see this happen too often). My own sneaking suspicion is that I think most of the people with these symptoms have SIBO, small intestinal bacterial overgrowth. Long story, will discuss another time.

how it helps you:

This plan is low in the plant fibers that cause all of the gas and bloating which occur when you don’t tolerate them. What I think is happening with most people with above symptoms is that they have a high population of the wrong bacteria and/or yeast living in the gut. When you eat food high in FODMAP’s, they get fermented by these guys in the small intestines (instead of the large intestines) and the side effect is lots of gas, bloating and mostly diarrhea. Eating low FODMAP helps to starve them out and reduce symptoms, usually in less than a week. It’s usually a long road of healing, but diet is 100% the first place to start.

Watch below as I present each diet and talk about them