Where to start with diet and health?

[Andrey]

Hello.

I would like to begin implementing diet and health protocols, but am unsure of where to start. The amount of information in relation to this field of study is quite overwhelming sometimes, and it can get confusing trying to figure out best ways to optimize health and psyche. I was thinking of just diving into a ketogenic diet or relatively high fat/low carb diet as the primary focus, but obviously there are so many other unknown factors that play a role in optimum health, like food sensitivities, right kinds of supplementation, inflammation, nutrition factors, gut health, etc., the list goes on. There's a lot going on, and I've never really gave much thought to diet and health, so I have no idea what it is like to follow a strict health protocol.

My primary goal is to have a sharper mind after many years spent in addiction. I have a tough time remembering what I've read and understanding complex ideas, am a slow reader, have problems with attention and concentration, and other problems relating to the psyche. So far, I've completely eliminated sugar, gluten, cut down on the carbs, and trying to eat healthier. I've noticed some improvements in my thinking. I ordered a comprehensive blood panel from my primary care physician a couple months back but haven't showed the results to any functional medicine doctors yet. I'm planning on going full keto for awhile, but was wondering if I should be doing something else before that, like taking a food sensitivity test or talking to a functional medicine doctor, etc. I am on a budget, so can't do too many things simultaneously, so have to to address different issues step by step.

So you can see I am having trouble managing all this information relating to diet and health and could use some assistance.

Thanks for reading.

 

[Gaby]

If you're on a budget, a way to find out your food intolerances is through an elimination diet. Here's a summary of how to do it:

How to Do an Elimination Diet and Why

An elimination diet is a great way to identify food intolerances, sensitivities and allergies. Find out whether it is right for you and how to follow one.

www.healthline.com

This used to be our version:

Ultra Simple Diet

HI All, I recently ordered the Ultra Simple Diet and am planning on going forward with it next week, as it recommends starting seven days after committing to doing the prep work prior to starting the diet. I have some questions about this diet, based on what I have read and am asking for...

cassiopaea.org

See Laura's post in the first page with a summary, but I would remove all beans and flaxseeds.

Most of us did an elimination diet to find out our food intolerances, and it was only after years that we did the IgG blood tests, which might show something that you never suspected before. It's useful, but not mandatory. They're pricey tests.

I would prioritize an elimination diet and resistance training and/or exercise if you're on a budget. A lot of the attention/mind focusing chemicals are released with a good workout. Once you've done that, you'll know better how to invest your money and/or if you really need a keto diet.

 

[Keyhole]

Hi Andrey!

I appreciate that it can be super confusing to begin with. There is the additional complexity of finding the right diet for YOU personally, given that everyone seems to be quite different.

I would say that you could start with some very basic principles, which could be referred to as "ancestral":

1. Whole food: Mimize foods which have been processed in any way. If the bulk of one's diet is coming from minimally processed/fresh food, they are probably 90% of the way towards the "perfect diet"

2. Rich in animal foods: Aim to consume animal products at every meal where possible. Focus on meat, fish (if its good in your area), eggs (if you do OK with them. The white is not necessary, but the yolk is excellent and is often better tolerated from an immune perspective), and organ meats on occasion if you can access them. Doing this will allow you to hit most of your micronutrient bases, along with ensuring sufficient protein and fat.

3. Avoid industrial vegetable/seed oils where possible. Cook with beef tallow, ghee, butter, lard, or small amounts of good quality olive oil

4. Minimize consumption of grains or grain-based products. This is particularly important for gluten-containing grains, although grains in general are not very optimal in large amounts whichever way you look at it. White rice tends to be much better tolerated by most.

Now, the above is super basic, but provides some fairly solid principles to start off with. You can find extra information in the recommended reading "Diet and Health" books.

With the above taken into consideration, it can be individualized even further. But to make any potential recommendations, we would need some more specific information.

For example, some people do much better with consuming lower carbohydrate and higher fat. On the flipside, many other like myself do better with lower fat and some starch or fruit. So it depends on one's reaction to foods, different diets, and underlying health conditions. This can only really be figured out in someone who has experimented.


RE food senstivities, they can be super random. Common ones are egg, dairy/casein, and some vegetables/nuts/seeds. After reading so many of these... they can be hard to predict. Like Gaby mentioned above, a super strict/limited elimination diet can be an easier/cheaper way to find out what makes someone feel best, followed by gradual reintroduction of foods.

 

[Andrey]

Hi Andrey!

I appreciate that it can be super confusing to begin with. There is the additional complexity of finding the right diet for YOU personally, given that everyone seems to be quite different.

I would say that you could start with some very basic principles, which could be referred to as "ancestral":

1. Whole food: Mimize foods which have been processed in any way. If the bulk of one's diet is coming from minimally processed/fresh food, they are probably 90% of the way towards the "perfect diet"

2. Rich in animal foods: Aim to consume animal products at every meal where possible. Focus on meat, fish (if its good in your area), eggs (if you do OK with them. The white is not necessary, but the yolk is excellent and is often better tolerated from an immune perspective), and organ meats on occasion if you can access them. Doing this will allow you to hit most of your micronutrient bases, along with ensuring sufficient protein and fat.

3. Avoid industrial vegetable/seed oils where possible. Cook with beef tallow, ghee, butter, lard, or small amounts of good quality olive oil

4. Minimize consumption of grains or grain-based products. This is particularly important for gluten-containing grains, although grains in general are not very optimal in large amounts whichever way you look at it. White rice tends to be much better tolerated by most.

Now, the above is super basic, but provides some fairly solid principles to start off with. You can find extra information in the recommended reading "Diet and Health" books.

With the above taken into consideration, it can be individualized even further. But to make any potential recommendations, we would need some more specific information.

For example, some people do much better with consuming lower carbohydrate and higher fat. On the flipside, many other like myself do better with lower fat and some starch or fruit. So it depends on one's reaction to foods, different diets, and underlying health conditions. This can only really be figured out in someone who has experimented.


RE food senstivities, they can be super random. Common ones are egg, dairy/casein, and some vegetables/nuts/seeds. After reading so many of these... they can be hard to predict. Like Gaby mentioned above, a super strict/limited elimination diet can be an easier/cheaper way to find out what makes someone feel best, followed by gradual reintroduction of foods.

If you're on a budget, a way to find out your food intolerances is through an elimination diet. Here's a summary of how to do it:

How to Do an Elimination Diet and Why

An elimination diet is a great way to identify food intolerances, sensitivities and allergies. Find out whether it is right for you and how to follow one.

www.healthline.com

This used to be our version:

Ultra Simple Diet

HI All, I recently ordered the Ultra Simple Diet and am planning on going forward with it next week, as it recommends starting seven days after committing to doing the prep work prior to starting the diet. I have some questions about this diet, based on what I have read and am asking for...

cassiopaea.org

See Laura's post in the first page with a summary, but I would remove all beans and flaxseeds.

Most of us did an elimination diet to find out our food intolerances, and it was only after years that we did the IgG blood tests, which might show something that you never suspected before. It's useful, but not mandatory. They're pricey tests.

I would prioritize an elimination diet and resistance training and/or exercise if you're on a budget. A lot of the attention/mind focusing chemicals are released with a good workout. Once you've done that, you'll know better how to invest your money and/or if you really need a keto diet.

Thanks for the replies. Elimination diet is something I've wanted to do, but my body sensitivity is not that great. As mentioned, I'm recovering from years of drug and alcohol addiction and am completely sober for just 71 days so far, so it's difficult to intuitively tune into how I feel after eating something, although there has been some improvements regarding this though not that much. Hopefully it gets better with time.

As for me wanting to jump into keto for some time, the reason is that I have symptoms of drug induced psychosis from some of the crap I did in the past. It was really really bad before, but has gotten much better. My primary issue right now are intrusive thoughts from ocd, though the nature of the thoughts are unusual due to the psychosis. I'm reading some stuff about intrusive thoughts and ocd. Regardless the psychosis symptoms are still somewhat present, and I read some studies that show keto diet can help to significantly reduce the symptoms, so I wanted to do it. Unsure how long I should do it and if the symptoms could return once I stop. Anyways, it's something I've been wanting to do for awhile to treat the psychosis.

 

[forest_light]

Lots of support here for you Andrey, in so many ways.

Well done for getting to 71 days. That is SO wonderful!
That's 71 days of loving yourself enough to want something completely different for yourself as a soul... a soul who has so much amazing potential. It is also a commitment to gradually explore more of who YOU the soul is, rather than using substances that create a buffer to all your pain and fear, lying to you and distorting everything, resulting in a relentless downward spiral.

It takes a lot of strength to take that first big step... and for every step you have taken to get to where you are right now.
My heart/soul is smiling for you.

I encourage you to really hear what is being said about adapting your diet gradually and not leaping into it. The more stable and consistent your approach - in every aspect of your life - the more you build strong foundations that you can really rely on. Things won't shake you up easily / derail you, if you can be consistent in terms of how you 'rebuild your house'.

From my own experience in terms of chronic health issues, Keto has helped me massively, I have been doing it for about 2.5 years and noticed many benefits, I had to reintroduce more carbs though and some fruit.

I'm just wondering if you have ever tried the EE breathing program? You might find some basic breathing / stimulation of the vagus nerve helps with some of your issues... I wonder if it might really help when you have moments when you are really triggered and overwhelmed or feeling tempted to travel down old familiar pathways attempting to lure you through dark doorways. You can use this breathing technique anywhere, anytime and it is deeply transformational.

It seems clear that you found this forum for a reason Andrey... What a gift.
I wish you wellbeing and strength, as you continue to grow and heal.

 

[annp]

Hi Andrey, Elliot and Gaby gave great recommendations, and I agree that starting off slowly, doing a simple elimination diet is a good way to start. Do as much testing as you can afford, but mainly just start slowly and begin to listen to your body. Regarding functional medicine doctors, my experience with many of them as well as others in my family has been iffy. Some of them tend to want to throw supplements at you, which can be quite expensive and can overwhelm the body, so it's good to be cautious.

Not sure if you are aware of the EE breathing and meditation program, but that might be helpful - you might not want to do the BaHa part but just the breathing and meditation. Also, very helpful is neuroptimal neurofeedback - many of us have found that very helpful for stabilizing our brains. There's a thread here - and if you cannot find a practitioner with a unit nearby, they can be rented. It's not inexpensive, but something you might want to consider later on.

 

[Andrey]

Thank you for the advice on doing things gradually. I have a bit of an all or nothing, going the extreme, hack the system type of way of thinking. Mind altering substances not to mention the general mind state of the modern age is all about instant gratification, and my sponsor in AA has been telling me over and over again to relax and do things step by step but my brain is still like "NO! Want results NOW!" I guess in a sense you can't blame me because the psychosis and intrusive thoughts are really terrible to deal with on a daily basis.

Anyways, I seem to be learning thankfully. Just gotta be patient. I think I'll start on the EE and the neurofeedback as well. Anyways thanks again for the advice so far.

 

[Andrey]

Hello again.

I know this may kind of be reverting back to the "hack the system" mentality, but hey, we're into fourth way on this forum so why not be the clever man or woman and take the pill that teleports us to the 4th room? I don't think being "clever" as Gurdjieff describes it is the same as free lunches, right?

Anyways, point is, my brain is pretty fried from everything I've done, and I really want to implement some protocol to heal my brain at least as quickly as possible so that I can learn and think better as soon as I can. It's the reason I got sober in the first place. I will definitely be following all the advice given so far regarding taking things slow, but as far as brain health is concerned, I was thinking of megadosing at least 4-5 grams of DHA daily long term along with eating foods rich in choline and folate, along with whatever else helps to facilitate absorption of DHA into the brain. I feel like this is something I could invest in diet and health wise and can afford in accordance with my budget. I am currently also taking 8 capsules daily of a multivitamin called neurovite plus (from brainmd.com) which has also been helping me stay mentally and emotionally stable and I am eating healthy for the most part, in terms of eliminating sugar, gluten, dairy, soy, wheat, cutting down on carbs and eating whole foods. I get a certain modest amount a month from my job, and I figured why not invest it all into DHA and megadose it daily to get the brain working better at least, and meanwhile do everything else suggested in this thread which is free for the most part (except for the neurofeedback). So I think this is the best route to take. The choline and folate to work with the DHA I can also manage to consume by replacing certain foods in the diet I already eat.

So what do ya'll think? Is this more or less safe to do? Any possible dangers? Any problems or blind spots I should be aware of here? Anything else I should add to this to strike a balance (within budget)? I was thinking about the omega 3/omega 6 ratio, but I don't fully understand how that works. If the ideal ratio is 1:1, does that mean I should take the same amount of omega 6 as I take omega 3 (4-5 grams of omega 6 if i'm taking 4-5 grams of DHA?

Or should I completely discard this idea of megadosing DHA and focus only on what has been suggested in this thread so far? I personally think this is a decent idea. I will definitely do more research on it, but please be honest if you don't think this is a good idea. Thanks for reading.

 

[Andrey]

Okay I'm reading the thread about omega 3 fatty acids right now (link) and came across some of the possible dangers. My diet isn't too bad right now, so I think I should be safe, but not sure still. I'll keep reading.

 

[Andrey]

good god is nothing safe anymore? still reading the thread. very interesting. so intake of high amounts of saturated fats will make consuming fish oil safe for the most part?

 

[Andrey]

Hello again.

Just to give an update, I realized (again) that the best thing to do right now is just focus on the suggestions given in this thread, and hold off on making any sudden drastic changes to the system (like the megadosing DHA idea), especially if my knowledge base in relation to the subject is superficial. I guess some old thinking patterns took over again and I got a little excited.

I've been doing a lot of reading this past week about optimizing health and I think the first thing I should focus on (other than what has been suggested) is understanding and improving any blood work issues. Thankfully, the kind of insurance I have, I can order a relatively comprehensive blood panel from my primary care physician for little to no cost.

Anyways, thanks again for the advice. I need to be more vigilant about when I start thinking in old ways. As someone once said, "be weary when the stratosphere tints."

 

[lindrie]

good god is nothing safe anymore? still reading the thread.

I've been trying to "catch up" myself and this same thought crosses my mind! If it helps in the "slowing yourself down" department, take the time to learn about the nutrients you're planning on intaking, whatever it may be. That's what I've had to resort to as my mind keeps going back and forth on thoughts like 'is this sabotaged too?' and 'should I just take it and see what happens?' then eventually do nothing as I'm not sure what to do. Then weeks go by wondering what have I been doing this whole time??

Currently I'm learning up on Iodine, taking it in small chunks. I got to about page 6 but I'm having to re-read since a lot of it is not sticking

 

[Goemon_]

I know this may kind of be reverting back to the "hack the system" mentality, but hey, we're into fourth way on this forum so why not be the clever man or woman and take the pill that teleports us to the 4th room? I don't think being "clever" as Gurdjieff describes it is the same as free lunches, right?

There always gone a be trial and error.

I have been reading the threads on diet and health starting in 2012.

First I removed grains and dairy and limit carbs to 50g or so.

Long story short I ended up on the carnivore diet something like 3 years ago.

During those years I also tried other things:

Omega 3. Iodine protocol, HBOT, FIR sauna, HIIT exercises. All those things are things that you can "research" to decide how to implement them.

Iodine made my brain going so slow that I would make bad decisions. So I did put that aside.

Last thing that I looked into is fasting and intermittent fasting.

With trial and error I think I have finally found a way to do intermittent fasting in a way that works for me.
And for the first time after all those years I can really see that my brain is working much better.

So, what would have happen if I had gone into intermittent fasting a few month after I was gone low carbs ?
Would I have had clearer thoughts and make better decisions in the following years ? Maybe. Or maybe some other thing would have been the missing piece that would finally make the difference.

My 2 cents

 

[Jenn]

Just to give an update, I realized (again) that the best thing to do right now is just focus on the suggestions given in this thread, and hold off on making any sudden drastic changes to the system (like the megadosing DHA idea), especially if my knowledge base in relation to the subject is superficial. I guess some old thinking patterns took over again and I got a little excited.

Yes, I think that's a great approach, start off slowly with the basics to get to a baseline of good health, there will always be time later to try new supplements and regimes.

Don't worry if you don't see results straight away, from personal experience, it can take months and sometimes years of dedicated efforts to resolve certain health issues. And even when it seems pointless at times, just know that you are building your will and signaling to the universe that you are committing to a new, healthier way of life.

As for the intrusive OCD thoughts, you may find the diet changes reduce them, but if not, have you ever thought about seeking therapy/ guidance from a specialist? There's also this book 'Can't Stop Thinking: How to Let Go of Anxiety and Free Yourself from Obsessive Rumination'. It was recommended elsewhere on the forum and I've just started reading it. It offers lots of exercises and techniques to deal with those repetitive and sticky thoughts that can consume us.

 

[Weontv]

I definitely would not suggest jumping right in to keto. I was one of the fools who did that, on day 1, and I paid the price for it with several weeks of feeling like absolute sh*t. The body needs time to adapt.

Elimination diet is probably the best approach. You want to get to a point where you've accepted mentally as much as physically that you cannot eat gluten again. That your sugar intake may be minimal for the rest of your life. That you may end up not being able to eat practically anything in a conventional grocery store. Its huge changes like this that are very hard mentally on top of stressing the body.

As someone who has tried every protocol that has been discovered via this website and made just as many mistakes I can summarize what worked for me.

Fasting is an extremely powerful healer. I try to go on a regular 4-5 day fast at least once a month. Intermittent fasting daily.
Regular organ meat consumption is vital. (Grass fed, pasture-raised, organic, etc)
Iodine/Selenium, Magnesium, Melatonin, Coq-10 and fish oil(if its quality) are the only supplements I would consider necessary.
The body needs to move, even if its light exercise. The benefits of exercise are boundless. Also stretching! Pent up energy can be registered in your muscles and stretching helps alleviate that.
Sleep quality can make or break you. I suffer from insomnia, and it's something I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy.
Fermented food is absolutely vital for a healthy diet. I believe a ton of health issues in the world are due to terrible gut health. This is something I wish I had realized and focused on years ago, but now its a regular part of my diet and its night and day.

There's probably some stuff im forgetting, there's so much information. Not sure if any of that helps you but its a small summary of the things Ive discovered and wished I knew starting out. I don't think there is a blueprint for the absolute best way to go about these things, but the combined efforts of everybody in this community has given us an excellent platform to go off.

As for the mental stuff. I've done a lot of drugs in my life as well, lots of psychedelics, been down a lot of rabbit holes and ups and downs. The cornerstone for regaining control of your thoughts and mind is meditation, and to supplement that I would say continuing to digest truthful information. As you piece together the puzzle of yourself and the universe all of those things start to peel off you and break down.

Great job on staying sober. Wish you the best.