As you know, nutrition is a constant topic of discussion in my office. Nearly every patient who walks in my office door receives some sort of nutritional counseling because it’s such an important complement to acupuncture. (They are also encouraged to seek out a good chiropractor, if they haven’t already, which shouldn’t be a surprise since the foundation of my education is chiropractic.) I am often asked why I place such an emphasis on nutrition, and why this is not done by every practitioner who practices acupuncture. My answer is that, while most acupuncturists recognize the extreme importance of nutrition in overall health, it is not part of the general curriculum in acupuncture school. However, nutrition is in the chiropractic school curriculum, and after experiencing firsthand just how much what I ate affected my overall health, I knew in my heart that a large portion of my practice simply had to include nutrition. It is important I mention here that I have seen countless patients improve their overall health with acupuncture alone, but that isn’t the topic of this particular blog post, so I’ll save that for another day.
During the course of treatment, my patients frequently ask about my eating habits and how I turned my health around back in 2013, and I’m always happy to share my experiences. I also make sure that I emphasize that we are all unique and what worked for me, may not necessarily work for them. That being said, I always advocate for a very clean, heavily plant-based diet with little to no processed sugar, no artificial sweeteners, no caffeine, light on red meat, and lots of fresh water. It is my experience that many patients start feeling better after simply drinking more water each day. Our bodies are made of up to 85% water, so dehydration is a very real cause of many health issues. I have also researched and seen firsthand the roles of both gluten and dairy have on inflammation levels, especially in my autoimmune patients, so even before I see the results of a food sensitivity/allergy panel, I generally remove them from a patient’s diet for a minimum of six months.
As for me personally, when I began my healing journey in 2013, I followed to the hilt the AIP (Autoimmune Protocol) of the Paleo diet. This consisted of no grains, no dairy, no nuts, no seeds, no caffeine, no eggs, no nightshade vegetables, and no legumes. You may ask, with a list like that, what in the world did I eat? Plenty. I ate lean meats and fish, and tons of fresh fruits and vegetables. And I healed. And it was beautiful. I won’t lie: it was tough at first. Especially when I had to clean out my pantry and make room for all my new foods-we were a family on a single income at that time because I was a stay-at-home mom. But I can’t even begin to explain how worth it this leap of faith was, and it would eventually inspire a whole new career path for me! My entire life (and the life of my family) was changed because of this, and I will be forever thankful.
I generally tell my patients that they won’t have to eliminate all of these foods forever, but some will be likely be permanent, such as gluten and dairy. We usually have results back from their food panel within 2-3 weeks, and I have them continue the strictest part of the diet until we can get a clearer picture from that food panel. It allows us to be more specific with food eliminations, instead of simply shooting in the dark and playing whack-a-mole with which foods trigger their symptoms and which ones don’t. Many times, patients start feeling better within a few weeks, and quickly start to learn on their own which foods make them feel well and which foods trigger the inflammatory response in their body, which reproduces their symptoms. While I certainly don’t enjoy it when patients tell me they have identified certain foods as being problematic, I do feel a sense of satisfaction because, not only are we on the right path to their healing, but I am thrilled to see they are taking part in improving their own health and seeing that the complete and total overhaul of everything they’ve ever known food-wise, is actually worth it.
So…fast forward to today, more than eight years after I overhauled my own diet-what does it look like now? Well, I was eventually able to add some grains back in VERY periodically, but I am still (and will likely always be) strictly gluten-free. I am also still strictly dairy-free. I do eat nuts and seeds periodically, as well as several types of legumes. Nightshades remain a huge source of inflammation for me (especially tomatoes), but I can tolerate white potatoes very sparingly as well. As long as they are truly pasture-raised, free-range eggs, I can also eat those every now and then. I still eat an extremely clean, heavily plant-based diet with no caffeine, little to no processed sugar, and based on what my body is telling me right now, the only meats I am consuming are very small amounts of wild-caught salmon or tuna. Every one of the foods that I have been able to re-introduce have been by trial and error and paying attention to how my body reacts, and everyone’s journey is different. The beauty of nutrition is that it looks different for everyone, and I have had to tweak how I eat over the years according to what my body needs. It may seem like I am quite limited in what I can eat, but I assure you that I am not. Do I sometimes miss how I used to eat? Sure. But what I don’t miss is how sick I was while I was eating those foods, and how poor my quality of life was. Each day that I wake up, I have a choice to make, and I choose to be a mom who’s very actively involved in her son’s life, who maintains a busy private practice, and who feels well enough to do all of those things, plus exercise. It’s a simple choice, really.