Diets That Prevent Health Problems Vs. Diets That Can Cure Health Problems

Every single functional medicine teacher I was trained by operated under the assumption that patients would require animal protein to heal. For our steadfast vegetarian patients, we'd have to supplement with protein powders and/or free-form amino acids to get adequate protein levels for cellular repair and rebuilding to occur.

In the bubble of chronic illness I've worked within for over twenty years, clinical experience reinforced this belief. Many patients come to us unable to eat carbohydrates, sensitive to gluten and even non-gluten grains, and dealing with a whole host of problems — from leaky gut to blood sugar instability — that require them to avoid many foods and rely heavily on animal protein and fat.

Then there's the occasional confusing patient who gets much worse on a diet that includes animal protein and fat with every meal, day in and day out. I've always thought that the more damage to the body's tissues, the more repair a patient requires — and the more they'll need to rely on healthy protein and healthy fats. Mostly this has meant meat, fish, or eggs with every meal, and various forms of fat, from the fat in meat to olive oil and coconut oil.

The logic was straightforward: we need to build enzymes, boost Phase 2 liver detox pathways with sulfur amino acids, and supply the amino acids required for neurotransmitter production — the list goes on. When we add in supplements for liver support, brain support, free-form amino acids, and protein powders, and patients get adequate amino acids and good quality fat, we see improvements.

I understand that when we invoke stress physiology and live in a constant fight-or-flight response, we flip a switch and become catabolic — burning through available protein faster than we can resupply it, requiring meat with every meal and additional amino acid supplementation on top of that.

But all these years, there have also been patients who responded horribly to these diet concepts. Cholesterol levels climbing, fatigue and digestive problems getting worse. I explained it away with the idea of a damaged gut unable to digest meat, or other logical alternatives.

Turning 50 and Hitting a Health Pickle

About three years ago, I found myself in a health pickle. I had gained weight — gradually — and upon turning 50, I was up to 167 pounds from my historical healthy weight of 147. I'd gained exactly one pound a year for twenty years, and it was so gradual I'd simply ignored it. Somehow turning 50 triggered an evaluation moment, and I realized I needed to drop twenty pounds.

To lose the weight, I worked with a nutritional counselor and started exploring diets outside my comfort zone. During those twenty years of weight gain, I'd been eating gluten-free (not perfectly, but pretty well), hormone-free, healthy meat, farm-raised eggs, dairy mostly from goat milk, the usual vegetables, and small amounts of fruit and grains.

I quickly dropped 19 pounds over about three months by reducing (yes, reducing) my cardiovascular exercise and shifting to a balanced diet — still eating meat, but with smaller portions.

Breaking Free and Experimenting

Having broken free of my typical "I'm a functional medicine doctor, so lots of fat and animal products in relatively unlimited portions are fine" mindset, I began experimenting with food in general.

For three weeks, I ate unlimited fruit, vegetables, and grains with zero fat — no extra oils, no animal products. I anticipated that by day three my blood sugar would collapse and I'd be craving sweets. Instead, in a fascinating turn of events, I felt great.

I then spent a month eating only lean animal protein — chicken breast, lean pork, egg whites — along with salad greens. Interesting, but pretty boring.

The list of diets goes on. What I discovered was that I felt good, in different ways, on all of them. There wasn't a single combination of foods that made me feel poorly — though some were harder to stick with than others, and required more cheat days. In general, my body seemed to adapt to just about any combination of foods I threw at it.

Remembering the Diet That Made Me Feel Best

About a year ago, I decided to do a complete life inventory and return to the diet I'd felt my best on. It turned out that at age 18, I'd traveled to Japan and lived in a Zen monastery for six months — and that was when I truly felt at my best with food.

We ate simply. Brown rice with most meals, several vegetable dishes including pickled vegetables with every meal, and occasional fruit as a treat. The temple was also a farm, and we grew our own rice and vegetables, so we ate what we had available. Fish, meat, and eggs showed up occasionally — typically two or three meals a week, if we ate out or a local fisherman or neighbor shared something with us.

From age 18 through my early 20s, I was mostly vegetarian. I made my own wheat grass juice, sprouted everything imaginable, and kept things on the vegan, organic side of life. When I started chiropractic college, I carried this diet forward, though between school and clinic hours I didn't have much time — oatmeal most mornings, and a tofu sandwich on organic whole wheat bread with a bag of raw carrots, celery, and cucumbers every day for lunch, for years.

Where Things Fell Apart

Once I started seeing patients, things fell apart. I would skip breakfast and have an Ultraclear Plus shake instead (a protein/detox powder). Oftentimes I'd skip lunch too and just grab a second shake. By 7pm I'd be so exhausted and hungry that I'd power down a huge dinner — and dessert, too. Looking back, this is when my gradual weight gain started. I was exercising every day, cycling to work and back, so I didn't gain large amounts of weight quickly, and I was too stressed about my life to think about changing my diet patterns.

Once I finished school and settled into the functional medicine world, I started eating for blood sugar control. I figured out how sensitive to gluten I was, ran food allergy testing on myself, and started eating meat with each meal — increasing my fat consumption with raw butter, olive oil, coconut oil, avocados, you name it.

Coming Full Circle

Now, 34 years after my first investigations into a meat-free diet, I'm right back where I started. Today I'm eating what I'd call a "whole foods, plant-based diet" — which, to me, differs from the old-school vegan or vegetarian diet in some specific and important ways.

The "whole foods" part means deemphasizing processed foods, including flour. So it's oatmeal from steel-cut oats rather than gluten-free bread or pancakes. It's potatoes or quinoa rather than pasta.

The "plant-based" part seems most important. It means plants — vegetables and fruit — with every meal, every day, and many of them. Several vegetable dishes with every meal, fruit with breakfast and as a nighttime treat. I'll often do my old cereal-bowl trick: a cereal bowl full of raw veggies to start off lunch, and a cereal bowl full of cooked vegetables to start off dinner. In common language, that translates to a salad with lunch and various cooked vegetable dishes with dinner.

Starting every meal with vegetables seems to be key — it creates a sense of fullness and limits how many grains, beans, and potatoes I need to feel satisfied. I've also noticed that if I start a meal with rice or potatoes instead, I tend to overeat the starchy carbs and get full before eating any significant amount of vegetables.

But Where Do I Get My Protein?

That concern has bothered me more than any other. When I first went back to this style of eating, I genuinely believed I'd feel horrible within a few days. Instead, I started feeling better and better. I sleep better, have more energy, and can exercise more and get more done — without all that animal protein.

Will this last forever? Who knows. Will it work for everyone? I'm sure not. I do believe that an otherwise healthy person — without extraordinary protein needs brought on by extreme stress, leaky gut, a toxic liver, or depleted brain chemicals, and who has already built a foundation of healthy fat over time — could benefit from this type of diet.

I know doctors in general tend to recommend the diet that works best for them to everyone, so I'm hoping to avoid that common trap. I'm also mindful, from my own spiritual training, that killing and eating animals raises real concerns for certain religions and can interfere with specific spiritual practices. Most religions and traditions seem fine with meat, but it's worth considering.

For now, I'm sticking with the whole foods, plant-based diet — with the occasional cheat day for a grass-fed burger or a spicy Italian sausage.