Therapeutic Diets

Twenty plus years ago a clinical nutritionist named David Vaughn was designing therapeutic diets for patients with serious medical conditions. Back then it was necessary to go into the library and look up all foods that were helpful or hurtful for a certain conditions. He soon realized that many "healthy foods" produced positive effects for some conditions, but had negative effects on others. As a result, he would painstakingly go through each food's nutrient list and then cross-reference them against the other known conditions to eliminate any complications. This procedure took up to 20 hours per client.

In the meantime, his three month waiting list was stil growing and some of his patients were literally dying before he could get to them. Thankfully the internet finally came into existence and he was able to cut his research time in half by searching on-line databases more quickly. Thankfully, David was able to turn all of his valuable research into an effective software program called Food Pharmacy Software, which allows practioners to quickly produce tailor-made, therapeutic diets that adress multiple conditions and diseases.

Food Pharmacy Software is the most complete and effective software of it's type on the planet, so a big thankyou to David Vaughn for making this both available and possible. I am happy to announce that I have legally licensedd the rights to use this program to help my clients. After all, in order to be a good nutritionist shouldn't I be able to tell my clients exactly what they should eat or what to avoid and why?

To understand why a therapeutic diet is so critical for our current times please read the following infomation:

Preventable Causes of Death in the US:
Comparative risk assessment of dietary, lifestyle, and metabolic risk factors

- Harvard Public Health Study; April 2009

These are the 12 Top Preventable Causes of Death in America. The causes in Blue are Non-Diet-Related and those in Red are Diet-related:

Smoking: 467,000
High Blood Pressure: 395,000
Overweight - obesity: 216,000
Inadequate physical activity and inactivity: 191,000
High blood sugar: 190,000 deaths
High LDL cholesterol: 113,000 deaths
High dietary salt: 102,000 deaths
Low dietary Omega-3 fatty acids (seafood): 84,000 deaths
High dietary trans fatty acids: 82,000 deaths
Alcohol use: 64,000 deaths
Low intake of fruits and vegetables: 58,000 deaths
Low dietary poly-unsaturated fatty acids: 15,000 deaths

Non-Diet-related deaths in 2009 were a total of 658,000
Diet-related Deaths in 2009 may be as high as 1,319,000

Conclusion:
The WRONG diet is now the leading cause of premature death in America, and in the last 50 years food has gone from being our main source of health and sustenance to the main cause of death and disease.

Additionally, it is important to note the following:

The right diet can prevent or reverse 10 of the 12 leading causes of death above.
The right diet can improve the efficacy of any therapy, whether it's botox, psycho-therapy or physical therapy - anything

Bottom Line:
You must provide therapeutic diets for your patients. NOT doing so is completely irresponsible because the wrong diet can undermine any therapy.

What Does Eating the Wrong Diet Mean?

Eating too many saturated fats, trans fats, sugars. mercury contaminated foods, carcinogenic or pesticide contaminated foods.
It also means eating too many non-organic foods because they are highly nutrient deficient, fertilized with heavy metals and chemicals, genetically modified (GMO). Additionally, there is no monitoring of pesticide use, or any kind of monitoring for that matter.

The Shocker:
The wrong diet can also mean eating authentically raised organic vegetables, organically raised animal proteins, wild-caught seafoods, low-fructose fruits, and organically raised whole grains.

The reason being is that these foods contain more of the phytonutrients and micronutrients that promote healing and disease, but they also contain more of the natural nutrients that cause and/or exacerbate certain conditions and diseases.

A good analogy is to think of commercially raised, low-quality, foods as using a butter knife for surgery; it generally won’t help. However, high-quality foods are more like a scalpel; you can do a lot of good or a lot of harm depending on how they are used.

The Bottom Line: REAL FOOD is REAL STRONG - and it's very important to understand this fact.

Let’s look at a few examples that clearly illustrate how eating the same "healthy foods" can produce very different results for individuals with different conditions:

GOOD foods for Osteoarthritis	BAD foods for Hypothyroidism	GOOD foods for Hypothyroidism	BAD foods for Kidney Stones
Brussel Sprouts Cauliflower Bok Choy Broccoli Spinach Kohlrabi Barley Oats Kale	Brussel Sprouts Cauliflower Bok Choy Broccoli Spinach Kohlrabi Barley Oats Kale	Collard Greens Bell Peppers Sweet Potato Beet Greens Celery Leeks Okra Millet Rye	Collard Greens Bell Peppers Sweet Potato Beet Greens Celery Leeks Okra Millet Rye

After reviewing this information it is easy to see that in order to be a good nutritionist you have to be able to tell your clients exactly what to eat or what to avoid and why. The proper steps needed to make this happen are as follows:

Record all of patient’s health problems and concerns
Research and record which specific foods, herbs and seasonings are known to be bad for each problem and/or concern
Research which specific micronutrients are known to be good and bad for each problem
Research which other food components (phytates, purines, oxalates, phytonutrients, fatty acids, amino acids, etc.) are good and bad for each problem
Compare all lists and eliminate cross-interfering food items and reactions
Remove all other bad foods: high-mercury seafood items, high sucrose/fructose foods, high-glycemic foods, and all patient food intolerances

Designing a Therapeutic Diet For all conditions & disease home | back to my Holistic Nutrition page | contact

Designing a Therapeutic Diet
For all conditions & disease
home | back to my Holistic Nutrition page | contact