When embarking on the journey to feel better, a change in diet is one of the first things people try. In the beginning years, I went back and forth on food choices, rather desperately attempting to figure out which diet could take my symptoms away. Here’s what I learned: The right diet for a particular body helps, but it’s not the cure-all I I had hoped for years ago - and that’s a good thing! Feeling well is a mind/body/spirt and usually /detox prescription, in my experience.

I now eat what I want to eat, and that’s usually whole foods, grown without chemicals when possible, fruits, vegetables, pastured meats, properly prepared grains like sourdough bread, filtered water, coffee, tea, and yes even a bit of sugar here and there (thank you Ray Peat for explaining why I feel better on carbs). I tell people about who Weston Price was.

Here’s what I tried:

• Specific Carbohydrate Diet

• Ray Peat - Inspired Eating

• HED (High Everything Diet)

• Special Foods Diet

• Paleo Diet

• Gluten-free

• Gluten-free Dairy-free

• Ketogenic

• Weston Price/Nourishing Traditions

• Dr. Atkins

• Vegetarian

• 100% Whole Foods Diet

Personally, over the course of many moons, I discovered that a diet of pastured, healthy animals like chicken, beef and lamb, bone broth, fruit, vegetables (mostly cooked) a few properly prepared grains here and there including real sourdough bread (yes, I now eat gluten), is my ticket to a nourished, satisfied body. The book that has helped me eat this way is Sally Fallon’s Nourishing Traditions. I am very appreciative of Weston Price’s work from the early 1900which this cookbook is based on.

Many people feel better on a grain-free/gluten-free diet, and that may have to do with the fact that they’re consuming less glyphosate (the active ingredient in Roundup, which is sprayed on wheat and other crops as a ripener before harvest). See Dr. Seneff’s research for more on this important topic.

When I tried the low carb thing, my hair would fall out.

I love raw milk and lots of it, but it causes a bit of itching so I don’t have it often (for now).

Eating Ray Peat-style filled me with joy many times, as I transitioned from a sugar/grain-restricted (and therefore low calorie) diet, and I still follow many of Ray’s findings. For example, a breakfast of pastured eggs, tropical fruit, a glass of orange juice, and a coffee with real cream and honey satisfies me to no end.

There are signs my body shows me that I used to curse as symptoms. For example, when I eat regular bread with who knows what ingredients, I feel a sensation in my knuckles a moment later. It’s actually pretty cool to have a super sleuth body! I think it’s my knuckles saying: “We didn’t ask for the hydrogenated oils, food dyes, and high-fructose corn syrup but thank you anyway!”