Diet.
Not another!
Cut down on this, eat only that …
Do I Keto, Whole 30, juice fast or starve to keep calories low? Which one is healthiest for me?
More pressing, my weight gain, brain fog, constant fatigue and anxiety…is it even possible a ‘diet’ could finally ‘fix’ that?
“Yes, yes it can!”, says Dr. Sara Gottfried, MD, gynecologist, functional medicine doctor, and New York Times best-selling author of Younger and The Hormone Cure.
What does the brain even have to do with weight gain or fatigue?
“You cannot have a healthy body if your brain is out of whack and you can’t have a healthy brain if your body is out of whack”, she advises.
In her newest book, “Brain Body Diet: 40 Days to a Lean, Calm, Energized, and Happy Self”, Dr. Gottfried explains that the Greeks would prescribe a “diet”, or diaita, a way of living. Building on that definition, she combines the latest research, personalized genetics, functional medicine and her own health experiences to prescribe a diet, a way of living, for a woman’s unique brain and body connection.
This connection she has coined as brain body.
Band-Aids
As in Dr. Gottfried’s experience, we see ourselves as smart, educated women who can survive, and yet still, we sometimes react out of a fear mode to ‘fight, flight or freeze’.
Seemingly together on the outside, inside, toxins are causing inflammation and imbalance. To survive, we disguise our brain and body imbalance utilizing what she calls ‘Band-Aids’, be it with alcohol, over-work, or a chocolate binge.
Only in Dr. Gottfried’s own debilitating health crisis did she learn to listen with her heart to her needs, discovering her brain body connection.
Dr. Gottfried reveals the science of how brain/body imbalance can be fixed beginning with food, as food is the info for the DNA of the cells, the microbiome of the gut, gene expression and immunity. She then delves into connections causing imbalances we don’t even know exist due to continued brain “insults”, such as stress, poor diet, disrupted sleep and toxins.
Who knew anxiety or brain fog can be due to weak stress coping genes or a compromised gut biome able to be improved with nutrients and lifestyle?
Unlike fast-fix pharmaceuticals, you reverse or prevent brain body breakdown with nutrients, specific exercises, and supplements utilizing scientifically proven strategies.
Food and lifestyle become the new ‘drugs of choice’, with personalized lifestyle medicine being the key to proper balance and functioning, says Dr. Gottfried. “The brain can detox and help the body heal”.
So where to begin this detoxification diet to reset the brain and get the brain body in sync?
Repair what she refers to as the broken 7: remove toxins, lower body weight set point, clear brain fog, heal addiction, calm anxiety, emerge from depression, and restore memory.
Begin with the questionnaires. Depending on your number of symptoms from each questionnaire, 1-8, develop a basic personalized protocol to practice for 40 days. Schedule 30-60 minutes each day for the actions of the Brain Body Diet until it feels as natural as brushing your teeth.
BEFORE YOU BEGIN, ALWAYS CONSULT YOUR HEALTHCARE PROVIDER PRIOR TO BEGINNING ANY NEW PROGRAM TO BE SURE IT IS RIGHT FOR YOU.
The Brain Body Protocol: A Brief Overview
Protocol #1: Remove Toxins
Recognizing the amount of toxins we unknowingly ingest is eye-opening. Begin to remove toxins (in food, skincare, water, and fabrics) from your body, your brain, and your environment. Utilize intermittent fasting.
Protocol #2: Lower Body Weight Set Point
Your set point is the weight your brain has been programmed to make your body maintain, which means when you want to adjust your body’s set point (and lose fat), you have to adjust the gauge in your brain that regulates body fat.
Find out your Set Point score to understand how your brain might be affecting your body’s ability to support healing.
Protocol #3: Clear Brain Fog
How to burn it off and get out of the pleasure trap.
Protocol #4: Heal Addiction
Healing reward deficiency syndrome. Meditation, Kundalini yoga, and supplements
Protocol #5: Calm Anxiety
How to turn on your healing system and calm down your wiring
Protocol #6: Emerge from Depression
Genes, hormones and supplements
Protocol #7: Restore Memory
The roll of diet, gut, hormones, and lifestyle
40 Days
Dr. Gottfried encourages a commitment to a full 40 days to detox your brain and improve all symptoms to experience profound change.
Mix and match the protocols, depending on your issues and questionnaire results to personalize a 40 day protocol to suit you.
Go Deeper: For scientific proof behind each protocol, please consult her research NOTES.
Today could be day 1 to a lean, calm, energized happy you. Or not. One should always question quick fixes and 40 days is a quick fix. A detoxification diet can be as simple as giving up sugar which would accomplish much of what she is purporting her program will do.
Want to give intermittent fasting a try? Take a look at Prime Women’s PLATE program. Now available in an app on Apple or Android with reminders to keep you on track.
This article is not intended as medical advice. ALWAYS CONSULT YOUR HEALTHCARE PROVIDER PRIOR TO BEGINNING ANY NEW PROGRAM TO BE SURE IT IS RIGHT FOR YOU.
