Secret Discovered! - Food and Mental Health

Oh. My. Word!

The Interwebs. I love them. And I hate them.  We can find any bit of information at the simple stroke of a keyboard (and the website better load in less than a half-second, dangit!).  We can also find a load of crap at the same simple stroke of a keyboard.

Just as soon as I read something about how we should cut out this food or that food, use this sweetener instead of that sweetener, cut this fat and add that fat, I'll come across an opposing article that tells me why the first one I read is all wrong. 

Forks Over Knives and Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead both sing the praises of a meatless diet that includes grains.  On the other hand, the whole Paleo movement (Wheatbelly and Whole30) will tell you that meat is necessary; that it's in our DNA to eat meat, and that it's modern wheat that is making us sick.  Other sources say it's dairy that causes so much mucus and inflammation.  Or maybe it's what combinations we eat, such as the Trim Healthy Mama suggests.   Everyone agrees white sugar is evil, right?  So we sweeten our food with Stevia?  No?  That's bad, too?  Honey?  Yes!  No?  Wait....

As a layperson, it makes me tired! Each method seems to have a mix of anecdotal and statistical evidence to back the claims, so what gives?

What gives is that we are all different.  That's the secret! Just as we metabolize food differently, we react to food differently.  What does this mean for my teen?  I have a few solid ideas for our family for now:

Avoid:

white sugar

high fructose corn syrup

synthetic or highly processed sweeteners (including Stevia, thank God, because I think that stuff is nasty)

highly processed foods

fake foods

meat and dairy with hormones, antibiotics, or nitrates

Eat:

fresh fruits and vegetables

most nuts and seeds

grass-fed beef

organic chicken and other fowl

wild-caught fish

Test intolerance by removing for a while. If no intolerance, add in again:

organic or raw dairy

all wheat

other grains

gluten

For 30-45 days, I'm going to have my teen (I'll be joining her) follow The Whole 30, which will remove everything I listed in the first and third lists.  After that, we will add back dairy for a few days, then gluten, then general wheat to see if she has any intolerances to that.

(Click here to read my previous post that explains why we are doing all this.)

For the first few days, we will do a gut cleanse.  This is also a debated issue, but the fact is that 95% of the body's serotonin is found in the bowels. (read more here)  For this reason alone, we are going to do some things to focus on gut health: cleansing diet, drinking Kombucha and adding in small amounts of other fermented foods, and taking a probiotic supplement.

We will add daily vigorous exercise in addition to the food changes.

I must add that we are keeping our teen on her medications. She will also be under the continued care of her doctors. I'm sure we'll have some trial and error, but we feel hopeful to find some healing.