Food is Medicine

By Samantha Gilbert, BA, CHNP, Nutritional Therapist

In our world today, knowing what and how to eat can feel like a daunting task. And the plethora of dietary theories and dogma only serve to create more confusion and health problems. 

If there's one thing I've learned over the years as a practitioner of nutritional therapy it is this: what's good for the body isn't necessarily good for the brain (thank you Dr. Mensah).  In other words, feed your brain first so that your body can follow. 

This truth hit me hard after a couple of years on a strictly plant-based diet in which I was consuming a lot of high copper and folate rich foods, where I couldn't for the life of me understand why I suddenly felt so terrible. 

I mean, aren't kale and avocados good for me? 

Imagine my surprise when I found out that all these healthy foods were actually turning on deviant genes inside my body making me feel depressed, anxious, and tired.  The worst part for me was the return of a very disordered relationship with food that I developed as a child.  Only this time it was back with a vengeance. 

This is the power nutrients have on gene expression. 

Now I want to share with you this fundamental truth: we are all biochemically unique, which means that there's no such thing as a one-size-fits-all style of eating for everyone. 

As a patient of Drs. Mensah and Bowman, I know the advanced nutrient therapy journey well, and want to share with you a few things to keep in mind: 

• Nutrient efficacy can be diminished with a diet that is inappropriate for your biotype.
• Extreme juice cleanses, detox programs, and restrictive diets overload or deplete the body of nutrients, leading to cognitive dysfunction, and stressed out organs and glands that don’t work properly. 
• Plant-based diets alone do not supply all the nutrients required for balanced methylation and glutathione synthesis (the body’s master antioxidant).
• Plants have inherent chemical defense systems or anti-nutrients that can make humans and animals ill (this is their claws and teeth).  Some of these defense systems come in the form of chemical compounds such as oxalates and salicylates that can create inflammatory responses in sensitive individuals.
• Behavior and thought processes are greatly influenced by the kind of foods you eat, even foods deemed healthy such as spinach.
• Overmethylators thrive on folate-rich foods, while undermethylators need to be very mindful of them.
• Both over and undermethylators can have food and chemical sensitivities, thus is the case with autistic individuals, most of whom are undermethylated.
• Testing for methylation status via looking at whole blood histamine does not mean a low-histamine diet will correct the imbalance.  Some folks are sensitive to high histamine foods, while others are not.

I currently work in partnership with Drs. Mensah and Bowman providing dietary programs that complement their advanced nutrient therapy protocols for learning, behavioral and mental disorders.

Click here if you'd like to reach me to see how I can help.