My Medical Medium challenge
Welcome at my new page for Medical Medium. I just started the protocol and I’m keeping an online diary. I already have some recipes and will publish more soon.
For the last 5 years I’ve been eating lowcarb with lots of healthy fats. For the next 3 months I will make a U-turn with Medical Medium: lots of carbs and low on fats. Time to experience first hand what this ‘miracle diet’ can do for me. I challenged myself to learn as much as I can.
Why am I doing this?
I’m sick. I can hardly remember the last time I really felt healthy. I got cancer twice, have a busted thyroid, thrombosis in both arms, asthma, constant bladder infections… the list is long. For 5 years now, I’ve known that I also have Lyme disease. I started receiving targeted treatment and adjusted my diet. But lately I’ve been going downhill. Brainfog, sensitive to light and sounds, dizziness and an overal feeling that something is eating me away.
Time for something completely different: Medical Medium. Something I’ve always been looking at skeptically and I still have many questions. But… I am also curious and want to know what it can do for me.
What I’m doing now, isn’t working
Unfortunately, my health has deteriorated in the last year. I know that there are good arguments and results for many Lyme treatments. Only empirical, unfortunately, because there is still little in-depth scientific research. Many treatments didn’t work for me though. And the only method that brings me relief has too many side effects: so I couldn’t continue.
Many diets promote a healthy lifestyle. And they completely contradict each other in many aspects. There are well-substantiated arguments for every food as to why you should or shouldn’t eat it. With supporters and opponents who sometimes enter into quite heated discussions.
For both Lyme treatments and diets, I decided to experience for myself what works for me. Lowcarb and Paleo matched my own ideas. I have adjusted my diet to no gluten, no dairy, no refined sugar, limited carbohydrates and lots of good fats. Everything as pure as possible and with as few eating moments as possible. Wildcaught fish, grassfed meat. That has helped me a lot: more energy, less stomach ache. And control on overeating.
Sceptical and still go for it?
I was always skeptical about ‘curing’ Lyme with Medical Medium. Intellectually I see wonderful explanations and solutions that suit me well. But I’m a bit worried: especially about the many sugars and anti-nutrients. Won’t my blood sugar level fluctuate enormously because of all the fruit, (sweet) potatoes and parsnips? And won’t I eat way too many lectins, oxalates and salicylates (anti-nutrients)? MM resolutely puts both aside, but in my opinion does not refute the substantive contradiction with good arguments.
And yet… Because there are so many positive stories (and because I am not insulin resistant or seem extremely sensitive to anti-nutrients): I decided to just experience it for myself.
My plan
- Phasing out ‘no foods’. That means no dairy (again) and no eggs for the first time in a long while. I already avoided gluten, soy, white sugar, MSG and all kinds of additives as much as possible. But I will be a bit more careful about those.
- Introducing more ‘healing foods’ such as fruit and potatoes. Also considerably more leafy vegetables. I already eat a lot of vegetables, spirulina, samphire and seaweed, so this change is not very shocking.
- Introducing morning cleanse with lemon water and celery juice. Add heavy metal detox smoothie at a later stage. These are really new things for me. I’m not really into juice and smoothies. But who knows, maybe I will love it!
- Stop taking recommended supplements. Add recommended supplements slowly.
I’ll keep eating some foods you can personalize a bit, maybe a a little bit less than before:
- ‘Filler foods’ such as glutenfree (pseugro)grains and legumes.
- Meat and fish in moderation. In my case those already were grassfed and wildcaught. It now becomes lean instead of fat. Pork is gonna have to go… No more bacon and spare ribs, but I think I’ll sneak in some bacon with my Dutch ‘stamppot’ (potatoes mashed together with veggies, gravy and sausage or bacon).
- Healthy fats, especially olive oil, nuts, seeds, avocado and coconut. I will follow the advice to have those later in the day and certainly not during breakfast. I will cut down the amounts I’m taking now and remove unsaturated animal fats from my standard diet as much as possible. I think this will be my biggest challenge.
Which slowjuicer?
For celery juice and other juices such as cucumber, ginger and turmeric, you want to use a horizontal slowjuicer. Vertical juicers or the more ‘aggressive’ and fast-chopping juicers are less suitable.
MM recommends a horizontal juicer from Omega. These are quite expensive. The best is the Omega 1500MM. A more affordable option is the horizontal juicer from KitchenBrothers. I bought this for the time being. If I like the diet, I might invest in a more expensive one.
Books to read
If you want to read in depth, use Anthony William’s books. I started with the cheapest version of his first book: the English e-book. Of course you can buy ‘normal’ hard copy of the book. It has been translated in many languages (although the Dutch translation is about 3 times more expensive).
A lot of free information and recipes can be found on the Medical Medium official website. There are also various Facebook groups. I have been using a Dutch group myself (pretty handy with questions like where to buy stuff).
Diary
Curious? Follow my online diary on this website. Or on Instagram and Facebook.