Nobody likes change, believe me, I get it. Unfortunately, to heal from MD and prevent it from coming back, you will need to change your eating habits. Do not forget, MD loves sugar, so you will need to cut added sugars out of your diet for at least the first 30 days. You need to kill off the bad bacteria by cutting off their food supply as well as replenishing the good gut bacteria with the yogurt. The yogurt has an abundance of probiotics to rebalance your digestive system. And If you just started reading here, then I suggest you take a step back and start with this.
I have tried many different diets to treat MD. For the first 30 days, I recommend that everyone follow the keto diet or try to follow it as closely as possible. The keto diet eliminates most carbs and sugars, and since MD loves sugar, to jump start your healing process, this is the way you should be eating for now. Luckily, it is the yogurt that will do most of the heavy lifting for you. Maintaining a healthy diet only helps the yogurt do its work faster. There are extensive resources online regarding the keto diet, so it should not be hard to learn much more about it. In the meantime, here are some of the basics that you should know.
The keto diet is a high fat and low carb diet. Roughly 80% of your daily calories should be from fat while only 5% of your daily calories should consist of carbohydrates. Your daily diet will consist of meat, fish, eggs, avocados, nuts, and low carb vegetables. Additionally, you should cut out seed oils (canola oil, corn oil, sunflower oil, safflower oil, and more). Instead, I recommend you use avocado oil, coconut oil (cold-pressed), and extra-virgin olive oil.
Some of you reading this now will immediately begin the keto diet and others probably will opt not to. If you are not willing to make all these recommended dietary changes then at the very least, you need to be eating “clean.” Most of you will be able to remove some of the restrictions from your diet after 30 days. However, from now on you need to be more conscientious and maintain a healthy diet.
What is clean eating?
Clean eating is eating primarily whole foods while avoiding refined and processed foods and artificial ingredients.
Do you see a trend here? You should be eating foods that are natural, preferably organic, low in sugar, not processed, and without artificial ingredients.
Here are some basic dietary rules that you will need to follow until you get your MD under control.
Do not consume any of the following foods for the first 30 days of the NMM Program
- Dairy products (homemade yogurt is the only exception)
- Highly processed foods
- Pastas and breads
- Foods with added sugar
- Candy, ice cream, and desserts
- Soft drinks (drink only water and herbal teas)
- Alcohol
- Seed oils (use only EVOO, cold-pressed coconut oil, and avocado oil)
- White refined carbohydrates (white rice, white flour, pizza dough, etc.)
Drink plenty of water
Be sure to drink plenty of water. Many health experts recommend drinking eight glasses of water a day. Eight glasses of water should be the minimum that you drink each day. Water will help to break down food and keep the digestive system moving. We want to optimize our digestion.
Do not eat at least 3 hours before bed
This will allow your body to digest the food you ate last. We want healthy guts with efficient digestion.
Diet options
Finally, if you follow any of the diet options mentioned below in addition to eating yogurt after each meal and before bed, it will go a long way towards helping you heal. A quick Google search on any of these diets will give you unlimited information to get started. And at the very least, you must learn how to eat clean.
Diet options that will help speed up your healing process
Candida Diet – This is another low sugar, anti-inflammatory diet that is great for gut health. This is the first diet I tried and I had a lot of success with it. The Candida Diet helped me begin my healing journey and I highly recommend it!
Paleo Diet – Also known as the caveman diet. This diet primarily consists of meat, fruits, vegetables, and fish. This option excludes all dairy, grain products and processed foods.
Simple Carbohydrate Diet – A grain free diet that is ow in sugar and lactose. Remember, I believe you will initially have the most success with the keto diet. This is a great diet but for me personally it felt too restrictive.
However, once you have killed off most of the bad bacteria, any of these diets should be sufficient since you will be cutting out added sugars and most processed foods. For many of you, this will be a blessing in disguise since you will lose weight rather easily, have more mental clarity, and feel better in general. And, if you have a metabolism like mine, then you will have trouble keeping weight on. In that case, I recommend increasing your fat intake to maximize your calories. Remember this, one gram of fat has nine calories, and one gram of carbs or protein has four calories.
Keep reading here, to continue…