- Eat seven to ten fresh fruits and vegetables each day. Organic when possible, with peelings, cooked and raw. Fruit (& fruit juice) is loaded with sugar — eat only one fruit to each four vegetables.
- Drink eight glasses of filtered water daily. Never drink at meal time (it dilutes stomach acid).
- *Diabetics must work closely With their MD for this next recommendation. Limit carbohydrate rich foods (sugar) to less than 25% of your daily diet. To further lower insulin levels, try eliminating wheat (gluten) and other grains from your diet altogether and explore intermittent fasting.
- Increase good fat consumption to 50% to 70% of your daily calories (coconut oil, olive oil, avocado oil, grass-fed whole butter and fish oil. Avoid all vegetable oils, hydrogenated or partially-hydrogenated oils. If you no longer have a gall bladder you must take a digestive enzyme with each fatty meal in order to digest any/all fats.
- Increase Omega 3 essential fatty acids by supplementing diet with pharmaceutical grade fish oil. Molecular or steam distilled fish oil is the next best grade at a lower cost. (Discuss dosages during your appointment with Dr. Heard.) Vegan sources of Omega 3's are not adequate for human dietary requirements.
- For protein needs eat grass-fed meat and poultry (preferably organic) or wild caught fish. Protein digestion requires strong stomach acid. *Acid reflux medications neutralize stomach acid. To best utilize dietary protein, acid reflux causes and alternative solutions should be discussed.
- Balance your daily calcium intake with chelated Magnesium Glycinate or Magnesium Lysinate. (Discuss dosages during your appointment with Dr. Heard.) Requires strong stomach acid. See *Acid reflux recommendations above.
- In addition to a good multivitamin/multimineral supplement, include the following antioxidants with your meals.
- Avoid all artificial sweeteners and flavor enhancers such as aspartame (as in nutri-sweet) and splenda, glutamate (as in MSG) or cysteine. Avoid hydrolyzed vegetable protein.
1) Vitamin C
— 500 mg ester Vit C
2) Vitamin B complex
— 200 mg Vit B complex
3) Selenium
— 200 mcg selenium
4) Vitamin D3
— 4,000 to 8,000 IU (Discuss dosages during your appointment with Dr. Heard.)
5) Iodine & Iodide (Lugol's Solution) *Those on thyroid medications require MD management.