A Note on the Word Diet
There are so many negative connotations around the word diet. So I often use the phrase “eating pattern” instead of diet. If I use the word diet, I simply mean the food that you eat. Focusing on how we feel and how the food we eat makes us feel instead of “dieting” is much more powerful in my experience.
And there is no one size fits all. Our bodies are designed in all shapes and sizes and may react to food differently. Therefore our optimal eating patterns may be totally individual. While there is plenty of scientific evidence that a whole food plant-based eating pattern may well be the optimal diet, I’m not trying to persuade you of that. This is what I did, and I am simply sharing my story here.
My Health Story: Medicine
Now that I got all that out of the way let’s turn to my health story. Growing up, I thought I was a pretty healthy kid. I ate fruits and vegetables, I was pretty active, and I maintained a “normal” body weight. I struggled with allergies and asthma throughout my life and had the occasional cold, but aside from that was rarely sick.
But then, about 4 years ago I developed symptoms and was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis. I won’t go into too much detail of my exact symptoms, but let’s just say my colon was inflamed and bleeding. This was unpleasant to say the least, and quite frightening much of the time. So I was prescribed medication to calm the inflammation.
Like a good, compliant patient, I took the medicine, though begrudgingly. I have always hated taking medicine unless absolutely necessary. Doctors told me I would likely have flare ups for the rest of my life and need to continue taking drugs to calm it.
While the meds did calm my symptoms, they came along with unpleasant side effects like terrible headaches and fatigue. As with many drugs, the possible side effects also included the very symptoms it was supposed to relieve. Plus the cost was astronomical. So at that point I decided to take my health into my own hands and I started reading and experimenting.
Taking Health Into My Own Hands
As I briefly mentioned in my introductory post, I found many anecdotal stories of people reversing autoimmune diseases through dietary and other lifestyle changes. Granted these were not the most scientific findings, but I was desperate for an alternative at this point. And I figured trying to change my eating pattern and lifestyle couldn’t hurt, at least not any more than the side effects of drugs.
I started under the guidance of a functional medicine doctor who suggested cutting out gluten and dairy. These two things are often purported to contribute to gastrointestinal autoimmune conditions such as my own. I cut those out for about 3 months, and I did notice an improvement in my symptoms as well as things like more mental clarity. I noticed I slept more soundly and felt refreshed in the mornings rather than groggy. And while they improved some, I still had the ulcerative colitis symptoms that initially caused me concern.
During this time, I found that this functional practitioner seemed to cherry pick ideas and was not being as thorough as he was initially. It seemed to be a trial and error approach. So I decided if it was going to be trial and error, I would just do it myself. At least my experience so far showed me that diet did in fact have an effect on my condition though many doctors claimed it wouldn’t. Around that time a friend mentioned Whole30 when I told her I was trying to eliminate gluten and dairy. I looked into it and decided to give it a try.
Trying Whole30
Whole30 is, in essence, an elimination diet. A pretty restrictive one, actually. Whole30 resources abound if you’re interested in learning all the details. In a nutshell, you eliminate all grains, dairy, legumes, added sugar, alcohol, and some additives. In addition to strictly eliminating these foods, you are supposed to refrain from any kind of baked goods (even if it is made with Whole30-compliant foods) as this tends to reinforce old habits of overeating. The point of Whole30 is to “reset” your body so you can pay attention to natural satiety signals, which are often overridden by the overly fat and sugar-laden Standard American Diet.
You do these things strictly for 30 days and then slowly re-introduce categories of food one at a time, to be able to notate any symptoms. It is very important to be methodical about this or else all that precious time spent will be for nothing. And if you reintroduce too quickly or if you haven’t actually strictly eliminated everything in the first place, you won’t be able to identify what works or doesn’t work for you as there would be too many factors.
Because I was having symptoms and I was scared of the long-term affects of those symptoms, I was all-in and I followed this diet to a T. Whole30 did help greatly reduce my ulcerative colitis symptoms…at first. I was convinced I had found my solution! Ultimately though, I realized I was maybe doing more harm than good. Looking back, I realize it was likely the elimination of processed foods and dairy that was most beneficial to me at this time, though the overall eating pattern was not optimal.
What I Was Eating Then
Fear Surrounding Certain Foods
While elimination diets can be helpful in the short term to find how certain foods may or may not affect you as an individual, it can also lead to an unhealthy relationship with food. It often vilifies certain foods leading to fear associated with entire food groups that are actually some of the most nutritious foods on the planet, namely whole grains and legumes. Limiting these foods may temporarily relieve some symptoms, but in the long run can be detrimental to our gut health.
For a long time I continued to avoid these really for no reason other than the conditioned fear response I developed through doing this elimination diet. In doing so, I may have caused more damage than good. And while my symptoms faded at first, they did not disappear and slowly started getting worse again (which I didn’t understand until later once I dug into the science). So I went back to the drawing board.
Whole Food Plant-Based
About a year ago, I stumbled onto the book “How Not to Die” by Michael Greger. I learned about a whole food plant-based diet, and for once I was reading a book that was fully backed by science. Dr. Greger is the founder of NutritionFacts.org, a non-profit dedicated to reading every scientific paper related to nutrition that is published every year. They analyze the methodology used, consider biases based on who is funding the studies, cross check all references between these papers, and ultimately synthesize the best data currently available.
When I first read this book and many others that focus on a whole food plant-based diet, I still wasn’t 100% convinced. I am pretty skeptical by nature. Plus, I was so brainwashed by all the misinformation and conflicting data that is out there related to so many fad diets like keto, paleo, Atkins, etc, that I still irrationally feared things like whole grains. And as society tells us, I also still thought I needed to eat animal products for the optimal diet. It is difficult to unlearn a lifetime of food pyramids.
At this point, I didn’t even know this term, but I think I had developed a disordered relationship with food known as orthorexia. This is basically an obsession with eating healthfully to a point that the relationship to food is ironically not healthy. I was constantly scrutinizing every piece of food that came anywhere near me. My family, the saints that they are, must have thought I was a madwoman.
The Breaking Point
Looking back I also realize how selfish I was being here. Anger and frustration over having this illness when I thought I was a generally healthy person to begin with consumed me. It felt so unfair. So I frantically did whatever I thought would maximize my own health without considering anything else.
This is why I continued to eat animals, even though there were signs that I should stop. I was still dairy-free from my time doing Whole30 as I definitely noticed improvement from its elimination. And I did start cutting back on my consumption of meat, but continued eating a little as I thought it was part of an optimal diet.
During this time of obsessing over finding the healthiest possible diet, I had a profound experience where I decided to become vegan. I will tackle my full vegan story in a couple weeks, but it was nearly an overnight decision made for ethical reasons alone. I completely gave up my selfish focus on finding the healthiest diet and considered eating compassionately instead. Compassionately in terms of avoiding harm to animals as well as the planet. Ironically when I stopped building my diet based on selfish reasons, I ended up having the best health of my life.
What I Eat Now
Unexpected Benefits
While I started changing my diet to improve my ulcerative colitis, I ultimately got more than I expected. Allergy and asthma symptoms that used to leave me miserable for at least 6 months out of the year have all but disappeared. For nearly 15 years I took allergy shots or sublingual allergy drops. On top of this I still had to take over the counter antihistamines most days. But now, I’m not using any of these treatments anymore. And as I mentioned earlier, cholesterol and inflammation normalized.
In addition, I am so thankful for what it has done for my family. I am extremely lucky. My family supported my decision and even embraced a more plant-based eating pattern themselves. It wasn’t easy. There was some tension at first. But once I explained why I was doing this and I shared a few documentaries about the health aspects, my family quickly came to understand.
My parents have been 100% plant-based for a few months now. Both have more severe chronic illnesses than me including type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol. They have had to lower or stop some of their medications for these conditions. Each of them has lost weight without trying, and they are both more energetic and have improved mood.
If you can get your loved ones onboard, the path to a plant-based diet will be much easier and more rewarding. I feel like I’ve started a revolution within my family, and I couldn’t be happier. Knowing that I contributed to their improved health has been overwhelming. I only wish I knew all of this sooner. But from now on, we know we are doing what we can to optimize our health, adding years to our lives and improving the quality of life along the way.
