Eating Right: A Nutrition Primer for Patients
"Diet is King, Exercise is Queen." - Jack LaLanne
Why Nutrition Matters for Your Recovery
You are what you eat. We all know this intuitively, even if we don't think about it when choosing what to put on our plates.
Here's what most people don't realize: regardless of your symptoms, the diet you choose directly affects how your body functions, heals, and responds to treatment. Some symptoms you're experiencing may be caused by food sensitivities you didn't even know you had.
When you adjust your eating appropriately, significant changes occur: weight loss, reduced inflammation, better energy, improved healing, less pain, and often a reduction or elimination of medications you've been taking for years.
A critical fact: 80% of your immune system comes from your gut. If your digestive tract is inflamed, your immune system can't function optimally. This impedes healing, creates autoimmune patterns, and maintains chronic dysfunction.
The diet outlined here is designed to reduce inflammation so your body can heal. It's a blend of Whole30, Paleo, Carnivore, and Keto Reset principles focused on one goal: removing inflammatory triggers and supporting your nervous system's ability to function.
The Basic Principle
Eat protein with vegetables. Fruit in between meals.
This simple framework reduces inflammation, stabilizes blood sugar, supports healing, and allows your nervous system to function optimally.
Eat this way 3-5 times per day and you'll feel better than you have in years.
What to Eat
Protein (Every Meal)
Grass-fed, free-range, organic meats are always best. These are your foundation:
Red Meat: Beef, lamb, venison, buffalo, pork, elk
Poultry: Turkey, chicken, duck, pheasant
Fish & Seafood: Salmon, cod, tuna, mackerel, tilapia, halibut, trout, shellfish (if not allergic). No sushi.
Eggs: Eat the whole egg. Yolks included. They're one of the most nutrient-dense foods available.
Vegetables (Every Meal)
Eat lots of fresh, local, organic vegetables. The only vegetables to avoid are corn and white potatoes (high in carbohydrates and inflammatory). Sweet potatoes and yams are okay in moderation, but if you want to lose weight, avoid them initially.
Load your plate with greens, cruciferous vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts), and colorful vegetables. Steam them, roast them, sauté them in butter or coconut oil.
Fruit (Between Meals Only)
Eat your fruit. Don't drink it.
Store-bought juices contain sugar and additives. Even "no sugar added" juice is problematic: labeling laws allow companies to add sugar up to the concentration of the sweetest batch and still claim no sugar was added.
Best practice: Eat whole fruit as a snack between meals. Mid-morning or mid-afternoon. Don't overdo it. Just because fruit grows on trees doesn't mean you can eat unlimited quantities.
Fats (Use Liberally)
Use real butter, coconut oil, and olive oil in your cooking and baking.
Avoid: Margarine, butter substitutes, vegetable oil, canola oil, soybean oil, safflower oil, Crisco, PAM, trans fats, and partially hydrogenated oils.
Fat doesn't make you fat. Sugar and refined carbohydrates create inflammation and metabolic dysfunction. Fat supports healing, hormone production, and nervous system function.
Salt
Salt is good for you in most cases. Use Celtic Sea Salt or Himalayan pink salt. These contain minerals your body needs. Avoid refined table salt.
Water
Hydration is critical for all healing. A good guideline: drink half your body weight in ounces per day. Better yet, drink your body weight in ounces.
Minimum: 2 liters of mineral water (like San Pellegrino) or high-quality spring water daily. Preferably one liter before noon, one liter before dinner.
Avoid: Reverse osmosis filtered water like Dasani or Aquafina. These are stripped of minerals your body needs.
What to Avoid: The Five Fingers of Death
These five categories create inflammation, disrupt healing, and maintain dysfunction. Eliminate them.
1. Sugar
No high fructose corn syrup, agave, candy, cakes, brownies, pies, cookies, ice cream, or soda.
Natural sweeteners you can use sparingly: Honey, molasses, real maple syrup, stevia.
Avoid all artificial sweeteners: Saccharin (Sweet & Low), Sucralose (Splenda), Aspartame (NutraSweet, Equal), Cyclamates, Acesulfame-K (Sunette). These are especially problematic in diet soda and Crystal Light.
Artificial sweeteners disrupt gut bacteria, create cravings, and trigger insulin responses despite containing no calories.
2. Wheat (Gluten)
Avoid wheat and gluten, especially if you have digestive issues, autoimmune patterns, or neurological symptoms.
Modern wheat is hybridized to contain significantly more gluten than historical varieties. It's inflammatory for most people, not just those with diagnosed celiac disease.
Gluten-free grain substitution: Rice is acceptable for most people initially. Long-term, reduce all grains to minimize inflammation.
3. Dairy
Avoid cow, goat, and sheep's milk. No ice cream, yogurt, cottage cheese, or American-made cheeses.
Exceptions: Real butter and whey protein are okay for most people.
Substitutes: Rice milk or almond milk (unsweetened).
Dairy is especially problematic if you're of African-American or Asian descent (high lactose intolerance rates in these populations).
4. Soy
Soy is not the health food it's marketed to be. Over 95% of American soy crops are genetically modified, even if labeled organic.
Soy contains phytoestrogens that disrupt hormone balance, especially in men. It's also highly processed in most forms (tofu, soy milk, soy protein isolate).
5. Corn
Over 85% of American corn crops are genetically modified, even if labeled organic. Corn is also high in sugar and inflammatory for most people.
Avoid especially if you're of Native American or Hispanic descent (higher rates of corn sensitivity in these populations).
What Breakfast Looks Like
You should eat a protein breakfast every morning. Preferably eggs (slightly runny yolks) with steamed vegetables like kale or chard sautéed in butter. Add bacon, breakfast sausage, or last night's leftover protein.
If you're egg-sensitive, change your mindset about what breakfast can be. Think protein and vegetables: leftover steak and broccoli, chicken and spinach, salmon and asparagus.
My breakfasts look a lot like most people's lunches. That's fine. "Breakfast food" is a marketing concept, not a nutritional requirement.
The Hard Truth
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results.
If you've been eating the Standard American Diet (aptly abbreviated SAD) and you're dealing with chronic pain, inflammation, fatigue, or dysfunction, your diet is contributing to the problem.
Diet is the foundation of changing your life. This isn't easy. Anything worth having requires sustained effort and commitment.
But you're worth the effort.
This Diet Does Not Replace Treatment
This diet does not substitute for chiropractic care and Applied Kinesiology treatment. Chiropractic care does not substitute for this diet.
Both are necessary. Structure and biochemistry are two sides of the triad of health. Address both, and your body can heal. Ignore one, and results will be limited.
Questions About Nutrition?
If muscle testing reveals nutritional factors affecting your patterns, I'll recommend specific support and dietary modifications tailored to what your body needs.
This primer is the foundation. Individual cases may require additional modifications based on muscle testing results, food sensitivity testing, or specific metabolic patterns.
Call or text: (972) 989-4683
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