I struggled about whether or not to include this section in my book because while it’s a topic I’m passionate about and believe many people will find helpful, I also don’t want to promote fear in any way. So I decided the best way to do it is to present my experience and research on the subject matter and then turn it all on its head and talk about food from a completely different perspective. I’m going to do the same here. So first let’s look at the science:

First things first, treat your body well! It’s your one and only vehicle for moving through this lifetime, and just like you wouldn’t neglect your car when it needs new brakes or an oil change, it’s important to take care of it. The better your diet, the better you will feel and the more energy you will have to create your dream life and do all the things you love to do. Try cutting out sugar and processed foods as a place to start. If you want to really dive in and commit, release gluten from your diet as well, at least for the twenty-one days.

Gluten can lead to thyroid issues, including Hashimoto’s, where your body attacks your thyroid gland. This is because, on a molecular level, gluten looks very similar to the thyroid hormone. Your body tries to attack all of the gluten and ends up attacking your thyroid in the process, seeing it as a foreign invader also. Gluten also causes inflammation and has wheat germ agglutinin, which makes nutrients unusable by your body. According to Dr. Will Cole, this can cause an immune response, leading to chronic systemic inflammation. Gluten can cause leaky gut, where your gut lining becomes permeable, and food particles, toxins, and bacteria get through the holes and into your bloodstream. This causes inflammation which can lead to a host of autoimmune disorders.

Dairy can do similar things to some people because it can cross-react with gluten, meaning that your body will respond to dairy the same way it does to gluten. This is because the protein found in dairy is so similar to the protein found in gluten that your body can’t tell the difference between the two. If you’re gluten intolerant, you might suffer from:

a wide range of autoimmune conditions

skin conditions like eczema and acne

fatigue

joint pain

arthritis

bloating

gas

heartburn

constipation

diarrhea

anxiety

irritability

moodiness

chronic headaches

migraines

brain fog (which is inflammation in your brain)

trouble focusing

decreased memory function

neurological conditions

depression

anxiety

There have even been studies done that link gluten and sugar to autism, ADD, and ADHD.

I have suffered from bad eczema my entire life. It moved around my body every few years, but I would get it across my elbows, on my hands, and my legs mostly. I would be broken out in itchy red bumps and blotches almost constantly, and the harsh Chicago winters where I grew up only amplified the irritations. My hands were always bright red, and I would wake myself up scratching in my sleep. My skin would crack and form cuts, and the skin around the bumps would become inflamed. It was miserable. Doctors would prescribe me tubes of steroid cream, and for well over a decade, I would slather steroid cream onto my body daily. The steroids were like a Band-Aid. They kept the itchiness at bay but never got rid of the eczema completely. The moment I stopped using it, it would flare up again.

When I was in my mid-twenties, the book Wheat Belly by Dr. William Davis came out and became a sensation. That was the first time I learned about the perils of gluten. The book focused mostly on how eliminating gluten will cause you to lose weight (think wheat belly instead of beer belly), but there were a few lines in there that I zoomed in on about how gluten can affect your skin and cause things like eczema. I decided to cut gluten out. It was awful at first. I went through terrible withdrawals and cravings. I was super moody, super lethargic, and had super bad brain fog. All I wanted were bagels and cookies and cake and noodles and bread. But I stuck with it. It took six weeks for the gluten to get out of my system, but as soon as it did, my skin cleared up. My eczema was finally gone. And it’s never come back. I threw out all of my steroid creams and did a happy dance. I’ve tested it out plenty of times too. The moment I eat gluten again, it’s like a light switch and the eczema comes back. I couldn’t help but think at the time that if gluten was doing that to my skin, the outermost organ of my body, what was it doing to my insides? I’ve been gluten-free for ten years now, and I don’t even miss it. And gluten-free snacks and recipes have gotten so good I don’t even notice the difference anymore.

You don’t have to have such obvious outward signs to have a gluten sensitivity. The damage could be purely internal. It’s worth getting a food sensitivity test (different than an allergy test) from a functional medicine doctor. Or better yet, go gluten-free for six weeks and see how you feel.

“What about other grains?” you might ask. Grains have a reputation for being a superfood (think of the old school food pyramid with grains on the bottom row), but they can also destroy your health. Plants like grains don’t want to be eaten, so they’ve developed a defense system called lectins to protect themselves. Lectins can cause inflammation, leaky gut, weight gain, and excessive hunger in human beings. Some types of lectins can prevent your body from absorbing nutrients, leading to malnutrition. Other sources of lectins are considered seriously toxic. Legumes such as beans, lentils, peas, peanuts, and soybeans also contain a high amount of lectins. Dr. Will Cole tells us that grains not only contain lectins but also enzyme inhibitors (which make it difficult for your body to break down food), phytic acid (antinutrients that bind to minerals and make them unusable), amylose (sugar found in grains that will spike your blood sugar), and omega-6 fatty acids (which are highly inflammatory when out of balance with omega-3s). To me, it’s not worth it.

I personally follow a paleo diet and work closely with my good friend who is a functional medicine doctor to see where my lab work is at on a regular basis. I also take a lot of supplements to keep my labs at optimal levels. I’ve found the best thing to do is eat fresh, clean, whole food whenever possible, like plenty of organic vegetables, some organic fruit, healthy fats like olive oil and avocado, lots of filtered water, and, if you eat meat, then grass fed and finished meats and wild-caught, low mercury seafood. A lot of the negative things you hear about what meat can do to your body is talking about meat where the animal is grain fed. Grain fed meat is awful for you while grass fed meat is not. If you must occasionally eat a small amount of grain, then I recommend making it a gluten-free grain and make sure it is a whole grain and not refined grain. Whole grains contain the entire grain seed in their original proportions, so your body has to work to break them down, meaning they digest more slowly and don’t cause as big of a spike in your blood sugar. Taking a digestive enzyme with them can help even more. If you are craving bread, try making your own sourdough and see if you can tolerate that. Sourdough bread contains lower amounts of gluten, lower levels of antinutrients, and more prebiotics. Plus, it will rise naturally as opposed to containing the quick yeast most bread manufacturers use nowadays, which many people can’t tolerate.

If you need to have one goal, then I suggest it be to balance out and stabilize your blood sugar. Eating foods high in sugar causes your body to respond with a rapid rise and then dramatic fall in blood sugar levels. This rollercoaster, and having high blood sugar in general, can lead to inflammation, hormone disruption, and insulin resistance. These three conditions can cause a host of problems, such as trouble sleeping, trouble concentrating, increased fat storage, mental health and mood disorders, more food cravings, brain fog, susceptibility to illness, thyroid issues, and much more. Chronic high blood glucose can lead to even more serious instances such as heart disease and stroke, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, obesity, kidney disease, vision problems, and nerve problems. Plus, sugar feeds things like cancer and bad bacteria and yeast in your gut.

Every system in your body can be negatively impacted by sugar but especially your gut microbiome, your endocrine system, and your nervous system. It can even weaken your immune system. Simply eating 75 grams of sugar can lower your immune response for five hours.

The goal should be to maintain homeostasis where you’re on a smooth, even keel throughout the day with blood sugar gently rising and slowly lowering as you eat. You can invest in a glucose meter and check each morning on an empty stomach and then periodically throughout the day to see which foods spike your blood sugar. Aim for a fasting (first thing in the morning) blood sugar in the 70s-90s.

If you love baking and are feeling disheartened by all of this, try using almond flour or coconut flour and stevia as a sweetener since it won’t spike your blood sugar. Even a little bit of honey is better than sugar. You also don’t have to deprive yourself all the time. Moderation is key. Yes, I indulge in sweets every so often.

All of this will make you feel like you have superpowers. You’ll be buzzing with energy, you’ll feel light, and you’ll feel satiated without feeling bloated or overstuffed. At the same time, you’ll feel much more calm and clear-headed. Food is medicine. Take care of your body, feed it good fuel, so that you feel good. When your body feels good, you have more power to manifest and focus on things that bring you joy.

You might get cravings at first if this type of diet is new to you, as gluten and sugar can both act like drugs in your body and put you into a state of withdrawal for the first several weeks. But if you stick with it, you’ll start to notice that your cravings go away, your anxiety goes down, and so does your inflammation while your energy and vitality will go up. Your body will be fed the right foods so that it can do what it’s made to do and heal itself.

I highly recommend seeing a functional medicine doctor. Functional medicine is different than traditional Western medicine because it treats the root causes, not just the symptoms. It’s worth it even to just get your labs checked routinely because they’ll test for a lot more than your regular Western medicine doctor will and then come up with a personal diet and supplement plan for you. My good friend, Dr. Taylor Krick, is a functional medicine doctor who sees patients virtually from all over the country. He doesn’t believe in hiking up the cost for lab work, so he’ll charge you what he pays himself. His podcast, The Autoimmune Doc Podcast, and YouTube channel are both invaluable resources and you can find the links for both in the “Learn More” section in the back of the book.

So now that I’ve said all of that, I’m going to seemingly contradict myself because the number one most important thing is this: Eat in ways that make you feel good but out of self-love rather than out of fear. Remember the way you feel about yourself and the world is what’s going to reflect in your body. So if you’re choosing to not eat certain foods because you’re afraid they’re going to cause disease, you’re doing it out of fear and that fear will be much more harmful to you than that food ever could be.

If you’re eating all organic vegetarian foods as a punishment to yourself or as a way to avoid punishment from others, then that same energy you’re reflecting will come back to you and you’re doing more harm than good. If you choose to have a hot fudge sundae because it fills you with joy and is a way of showering yourself with love, then that is a great choice. But if you’re eating that sundae and then feel bad about yourself or guilty later, then that defeats the purpose.

I personally feel my best when I eat mostly vegetables and fruits, with healthy fats, a tiny bit of meat, and little to no grain and legumes. It’s all about finding what works best for your body while being mindful of your reasons for choices and the emotions they stem from. I also think a vegetarian or vegan diet is a wonderful choice, so long as you’re not supplementing with a bunch of refined grains and legumes that are high in lectins. And, of course, it’s always important to work with your own licensed health care practitioner to make the right choices for your body and circumstances.