The Anti-Anxiety Diet
Page 4
Sources and Replacements for Gluten, Corn, Soy, Sugar, and Dairy
Sources of Gluten, Corn, Soy, Sugar, and Dairy
Gluten
Sources: Wheat, barley, rye, spelt, and their byproducts, including wheat and white flours
Hidden Sources: Malted barley, malt syrup, malt vinegar, brewer’s yeast, seitan (wheat gluten), soy sauce, gravy, sauces, and thickened dressings
Corn
Sources: Popcorn, cornstarch, cornmeal, high-fructose corn syrup, corn oil or Mazola (sometimes called vegetable oil), and grits
Hidden Sources: Baking powder, maltodextrin, dextrin, dextrose, maltitol, mannitol, MSG, iodized salt (Morton’s), calcium citrate, sorbitol, sucralose, Sweet’N Low, xylitol, xanthan gum
Soy
Sources: Edamame, soy sauce, tofu, tempeh, miso, soy milk, soy protein powder, textured vegetable protein, isolated soy protein, and vegetable oil
Hidden Sources: Sugar icings, processed meats, soy lecithin (may be just noted as lecithin), baked goods, vegetable broth, artificial and natural flavoring, thickening agents, cooking sprays, and protein bars and products
Sugar
Sources: Cane and GMO-beet sugar, evaporated cane juice, fructose, sucrose, glucose, corn syrup, high-fructose corn syrup, agave, maltose, and all sweets and sweetened foods
Hidden Sources: Breads, condiments, salad dressings, bars, cereals, most processed foods
Dairy
Sources: Milk, cheese, butter, cream, yogurt, cream cheese, sour cream, and milk protein. Avoid at least 6 weeks: whey and ghee.
Hidden Sources: Processed meats, artificial and natural flavoring, high protein flour, granola mixes, canned tuna, broths and stocks, medications and vitamins, cosmetics, fat replacements
One way we can limit the amount of toxins we are exposed to is by choosing local, non-GMO, pesticide-free whole foods and products. Take the first step to lowering your inflammation by eliminating these five foods for at least 12 weeks and, in the removal process, ensure your replacements are comprised of low-carb, antioxidant-rich, organic ingredients. Here are some simple substitutions for the removed foods:
Replacements for Gluten, Corn, Soy, Sugar, and Dairy
Gluten/carbs as pizza crust
Replacement: Zoodles (zucchini noodles) or other spiralized veggies
Recipe inspiration: Sauté with olive oil and herbs, top with protein and sauce of choice.
Gluten/carbs as pizza crust
Replacement: Cauliflower crust, almond/coconut flour blend, or spaghetti squash boat
Recipe inspiration: Top with your favorite herbed olive oil, grilled veggies, and meats of choice.
Soy/soy sauce
Replacement: Coconut liquid aminos
Recipe inspiration: Use soy sauce and coconut liquid aminos 1:1 in any stir fry or umami flavor application, or as dip for sushi.
Dairy as a beverage
Replacement: Coconut milk, almond milk, or any nut milk of choice, unsweetened (look for options free of binders and fillers such as carrageenan and guar gum)
Recipe inspiration: For a boost of selenium, mix 2 cups of Brazil nuts with 5 cups filtered water, vanilla, salt, and optional raw honey to sweeten.
Vegetable seed oils and industrialized oils
Replacement: Virgin coconut oil, refined coconut oil*, tallow*, lard*, virgin avocado oil, refined avocado oil*, macadamia nut oil, olive oil (*Can be used for high heat application over 350°F)
Recipe inspiration: *These fats can be used in the oven for roasting or in a marinade on a high-heat grill. Choose unrefined or extra-virgin oils to retain most nutrients at lower heat, such as a light sauté, herbed oil sauce, or salad dressing.
Cheese
Replacement: Other savory snacks or toppings such as avocado, olives, or nut cheese options
Recipe inspiration: Cashew Cheeze Dip (page 120)
Yogurt
Replacement: Homemade coconut yogurt using a quality probiotic capsule
Recipe inspiration: Quick Coconut Yogurt (page 104)
The recipes in The Anti-Anxiety Diet support your body, providing nourishment along with a functional approach to aid in the Remove, Reset, Repair, Restore, Rebound, and Rebalance phases of mood stability and mental health. The variety in flavor profiles and textures will support sustained outcomes, as you will find you can make an anti-anxiety diet alternative to any food craving! As you continue to explore new foods and flavors, you will also discover you don’t miss prior foods that were causing “yuck” in your body while driving anxiety or lack of clarity in your mind.
Elimination Diet Approach
The elimination diet is the gold standard in assessment of food sensitivity. Digestive processes and gut bacteria can be unique for each person and results of a blood test will vary. A trial-and-error approach strategically eliminates primary groups of inflammatory foods for a period of time, followed with the introduction of one food group at a time for results-based information.
During the elimination period, including both Phase 1 and Phase 2 of the anti-anxiety diet, it is important to be mindful of hidden sources of inflammatory ingredients and carefully read all food labels. Once the foods have been removed for the three-month period, they can be reintroduced one at a time with careful attention to any symptoms experienced.
Symptoms of irritation from a food can include water retention, headache, digestive issues, bloating, reflux, fatigue, or unexplained muscle aches, as well as anxiety, insomnia, and brain fog. My recommendation would be to start the reintroduction period at week 13, but if you are not able to maintain that length of time, follow a strategic reintroduction to determine which of the removed foods is most volatile for you and your body.
Reintroduction consists of eating a single food for three days in a row followed by a buffer period of three to four days with only one new food group per week.
Day 1: Eat a small portion of the reintroduced food. This should be smaller than a typical serving size.
Day 2: Eat a slightly larger portion of the same food that resembles more of a typical serving size.
Day 3: Eat a portion that is larger than a typical serving size.
Example: Dairy
When reintroducing dairy, you may want to do one week per form of the food group as the protein structures, enzymes, and irritants differ based on processing.
Week 1: Butter three-day introduction: 1 teaspoon, 1 tablespoon, 2 tablespoons
Week 2: Yogurt three-day introduction: ¼ cup, ⅔ cup, 1 cup
Week 3: Hard aged raw cheese three-day introduction: 1 ounce, 2 ounces, 3 ounces
WHY THE MRT BLOOD TEST IS SUPERIOR AND HOW IT CAN START YOUR JOURNEY
The Mediator Release Test (MRT), also known as the MRT Inflammatory Food Panel, or MRT Blood Test, is the most accurate and comprehensive blood test available for food and food-chemical reactions. MRT can serve as your jump-start to improved well-being and systemic balance. With the results from an MRT, you will be able to identify your triggers to begin a systematic process in determining your optimal diet. If you are experiencing digestive distress or inflammatory reactions in your body that proceed beyond the first four weeks of avoiding the top five inflammatory foods in this chapter, consider running the MRT panel to get a personalized GPS map of what foods are best for your body.
If symptoms that had resolved with removal of these foods begin to present again, stop eating the food and wait until symptoms clear before introducing a new food. If no symptoms are present a new food can be reintroduced after the buffer period. Test one food per week. After testing all challenge foods, any that previously presented symptoms upon reintroduction can be retested.
Carb Control Is Key!
At my functional nutrition clinic, Naturally Nourished, one of our mantras is “bread is dead.” When grain is processed into flour, including a whole wheat flour, the nutrients are stripped out, leaving it devoid of nutritional value. To reduce onset of folate deficiency, even organic non-bleached flours ar
e synthetically re-enriched to compensate for the processing. Unfortunately, the fortification used on flour foods is synthetic and provides a dangerous synthetic folic acid versus the bioavailable form of folate, methylfolate (more on this in Chapter 5 and how methylation is key to mood stability!).
In addition, consuming flour-based foods actually depletes some nutrients from the body’s storage, including magnesium, B vitamins, and antioxidants. The anti-anxiety diet is grain-free to support a low-glycemic, high-fat, low-carb approach to mood stability. Removing refined carbs from both gluten and non-gluten grains, as well as corn and sugar, aids in balancing blood sugar levels, which supports a more even-keeled mood and energy level.
Removal of Carbohydrates: Ketosis as Medicine for Anxiety
In the anti-anxiety diet, you will be focusing on keeping carbohydrates to a minimal level and launching into ketosis in the first phase of the diet program to accelerate your mood stability. The process of ketosis, or entering into a ketogenic state, occurs after restricting carbohydrates in the diet to 30 or less grams daily. As carbohydrates are reduced, the body’s use of glucose (blood sugar) as fuel is depleted along with stores of glycogen in the muscle and liver. After a couple days of restriction, the body is forced to manufacture ketones as an alternative energy source. Ketones are made by fat in the body as well as fat from the diet, and they serve as a high-octane fuel source, providing a cleaner, more constant fuel as opposed to glucose, which has substantial fluctuations, often resulting in mood and energy shifts.
As glucose levels regulate at a low, steady level from absence of carbohydrates in the diet, insulin levels also fall. Insulin is a hormone that drives fat storage in response to blood-sugar spikes; it is also inflammatory in its mechanisms, and studies demonstrate unfavorable influence of elevated insulin on brain health. According to the Journal of Diabetic Complications, researchers have found individuals with elevated blood sugar levels are more than twice as likely to develop depressive illness. In addition to regulating glucose and insulin levels, ketone production also supports the release of other mood stabilizers and metabolic regulators, such as HGH (human growth hormone), that can aid in amino acid utilization and neuron function.
The ketogenic diet was first brought into the medical realm as a treatment option for epilepsy due to its ability to reduce overactivity of excitatory compounds in the brain. Studies have demonstrated clinical overlap in mechanisms of epilepsy and bipolar disorder. Ketones sit on brain receptors and encourage a mellow mood. They can cross the blood-brain barrier and act on neuropeptides, directly reducing anxious signaling. This impact is being studied as a tool to support treatment of neurological conditions such as multiple sclerosis and Parkinson’s, as well as certain cancers and autoimmune diseases.
Ketones have a favorable influence on the brain, supporting stabilized mood and reduction of anxiety. They also aid in reducing stress response feedback to the fight-or-flight HPA-axis of the body. In summary, a ketogenic or high-fat, low-carb diet can enhance your mind and mood by regulating a consistent low glucose level, which reduces insulin response and has anti-inflammatory mechanisms while reducing excitatory neuron activity, thus mellowing out and stabilizing your body and mind.
SATISFYING YOUR SWEET TOOTH
Sometimes a girl has to have a little sweet. Although the ketogenic Phase 1 of the anti-anxiety diet will prohibit all sweeteners, if you are to cycle or transition to the low-glycemic Phase 2 or incorporate a carb cycle, you may include, on occasion, the following: dates, raw unfiltered honey, coconut sugar, dark amber maple syrup, molasses, sucanat, and organic dried fruit. These foods provide nourishment with their contribution of natural sweetness and once you “break up with sugar” through the program, your palate adjusts so a little bit will go a long way.
To achieve ketosis and a balanced state of mind, you will be limiting total carbohydrates to no more than 30 grams daily and ensuring ample protein for lean body mass maintenance or gain while primarily nourishing with whole food fats. Phase 1’s six-week ketogenic protocol slashes the Standard American diet (SAD) to one-tenth the amount of carbs typically consumed. After allowing your body to convert to the use of fat versus sugar as fuel, you will have an opportunity to transition or intermittently cycle the less restrictive HFLC Phase 2, which is low-glycemic with an upper limit of 90 grams of carbs. The logistics and application of these phases is discussed in Chapter 8 starting on page 83, which includes a two-week meal plan. Feel free to skip ahead if you are ready to get to the diet program now, but the remaining chapters will continue to empower you on the “why” and provide specific functional medicine application to the “how.”
FOOD AS MEDICINE
Removing Inflammatory Foods
The recipes of focus in this section aid in replacement of refined carbs and provide a focus on healthy fats. The variety of flavors and textures in these recipes paired with your body and brain’s anti-inflammatory effects will have you coming back for more of these dishes, no longer seeing them as a replacement for a temporary program but as a desired upgrade to your daily diet!
Caramelized Onion, Turkey, and Kale Egg Muffins, page 100
Sweet Potato Avocado Toast, page 101
Prosciutto Egg Cups, page 102
Smoked Wild Salmon Scramble, page 103
Paleo Pumpkin Protein Pancakes, page 105
Mango Zen Fuego Nutballz, page 115
Cashew Cheeze Dip, page 120
Almond Flour Chicken Piccata, page 135
Chia Cherry Thumbprint Cookies, page 141
CHAPTER 3
Reset Gut Microbiome
Your body has over 100 trillion cells of bacteria and yeast that line the mucosal membranes of your mouth, skin, and gut. These 3 to 5 pounds of living bacteria, known as the microbiome, have the ability to work with or against your body. When the microbiome is working in your favor, your body produces ample neurotransmitters such as serotonin and GABA (an inhibitory neurotransmitter that reduces feelings of fear and anxiety), and other complex mechanisms are activated to regulate your stress and anxiety response.
This chapter focuses on resetting your gut bacteria (also known as gut microbes or microbiota) and supporting the system with probiotic- and prebiotic-rich foods. Excessive intake of carbohydrates, foods high in yeast, and refined sugars can drive dysbiosis with bacterial or yeast overgrowth. Maintaining a low-glycemic diet and jumpstarting your anti-anxiety program with a HFLC ketogenic diet approach will work to not only reduce your body’s blood sugar, by producing ketones to use as fuel, it will also serve to starve off or weaken dysbiotic bacteria and yeast.
Why Do Bacteria Matter?
Starting as early as your birth, your bacteria exposure, the environmental influence of bacteria, and your dietary influence promote the growth of positive or negative strains of bacteria that play a significant role in mood and whole-body health. This initial thumbprint of bacteria inoculation begins with the introduction of vaginal bacteria during a vaginal delivery. Breast milk then provides immunoglobulins to aid in lining the GI tract. Supported by human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs), specific fibers in breast milk work to prevent growth of bad bacteria while feeding positive influencing strains. Beyond immunoglobulins and HMOs, breast milk provides live active cultures in the form of probiotics, bacteria strains that have a positive influence on the human body.
C-SECTIONS AND VAGINAL INOCULATION
If you have a C-section, you can request a manual vaginal inoculation. Yes, it is what it sounds like. Specifically, a vaginal inoculation is the practice of exposing a newborn to the mother’s vaginal cultures (which occurs naturally during vaginal birth) by swabbing the mucous membranes of baby, including mouth, nose, eyes, and ears, with non-sterile gauze that was inserted in the mother’s vaginal canal. This is something I support. When my natural waterbirth became an emergency C-section, we did what we could to reduce sterility in my baby’s birthing experience and had a vaginal inoculation done.
Once in the stomach
, the microbes present in the GI tract have the potential to act in a favorable, deleterious, or neutral manner depending on the ratio of good to bad bacteria. If the beneficial bacteria dominate, then the body is in a state of symbiosis. When in a state of symbiosis, the gut bacteria are able to reduce inflammation in the body, regulate immune and digestive function, enhance nutrient absorption, and produce serotonin and other natural mood stabilizers.
On the contrary, when in the state of dysbiosis, “bad,” or pathogenic, strains of bacteria can take over, leading to gas, bloating, constipation, diarrhea, inflammation, immune dysfunction, and imbalanced neurotransmitter production. Often, dysbiosis drives excessive epinephrine and excitatory neurotransmitter response, which fuels expression of a pathogen. In other words, our bodies’ stress signaling perpetuates the growth and spread of pathogens, which only drives more anxiety expression. As a result, serotonin is exhausted and under produced. Yeast overgrowth, another culprit of dysbiosis that is often seen as an excessive presence of Candida albicans, can be identified through belching, distention or bloating, excessive sugar cravings, anxiety, and brain fog.
For optimal health we should strive for our GI tract to be in a state of symbiosis, rather than dysbiosis.