When you hear the theory that many people have negative physical reactions to food, the first thing you probably think of is allergic reactions. But did you know that what you eat can affect you mentally as well? Your diet could be the reason why you feel tired all the time or why you experience unexplainable aches and pains. The good news is that you can get rid of these irritating symptoms simply by cutting out the food that causes them with a simple diet. While most diets focus only on making you lose weight fast, the Whole 30 diet targets a sort of regeneration of both the body and the mind. It can be looked at as more of a cleanse than a diet – a cleanse designed to make you feel better emotionally and physically while simultaneously shedding the pounds.
Developed in 2009 by human nutritionists Dallas and Melissa Hartwig, the Whole 30 diet is a 30-day elimination program where you take out of your diet all types of foods that are not only physically unhealthy, but may also cause psychological imbalances. The diet operates on one major rule which, in the most basic sense, is to eat foods with as little ingredients as possible. Foods with no ingredients listed are the best because the lack of ingredients means that the food item is all natural. The biggest cause of those bad feelings that you get from food is because of all the unnatural and added stuff that comes with processed food.
The Whole 30 diet is restricted to seafood, eggs, lots of vegetables, a little fruit, meat, and fatty nuts and oils. Do not eat foods with added sugar of any kind, or even natural sugars like honey or agave. Stay away from dairy, soy, grains, legumes of any kind like beans or peanuts, and alcohol (even for cooking). And don’t try to be sneaky and recreate your favorite dishes like pizza using approved Whole 30 foods because that totally misses the point. In order to reset your metabolism and the way that your body reacts to food, your diet needs to be as simple and as basic as possible.
Of course, the food is only a part of the Whole 30 diet. The rest of the diet is psychological. The goal of the Whole 30 program is to change the way you look at food. For example, after these 30 days, your cravings will change, along with your eating habits, tastes and even some physical reactions. This diet promises more energy, a healthier, more athletic body, better sleep and weight loss. Testimonials have claimed that it helped calm or eliminate symptoms of ADHD, fibromyalgia and even diabetes.
Now, before you start thinking that this is an easy, miracle diet, there is one catch that may make this diet difficult for people to adhere to: It’s strict. You must stick to the rules of this diet for the full 30 days without any cheat days or special occasion excuses. One slip-up, and the whole process could be ruined, meaning that you would have to restart the whole 30 days. But after those 30 days, you can start to incorporate more foods into your diet. The Whole 30 diet is like a reset button on health; it’s only strict for 30 days in the hopes that you will voluntarily continue. Once the 30 days are over, slowly reintroduce favorite foods to find out which is the root of your health problems.
While the strictness of the Whole 30 diet may seem intimidating, the point of this diet is to be uncomplicated and relatively easy to follow. All you have to do is stick to the approved foods for 30 days. There’s no calorie-counting, no running around looking for special organic foods and no tracking. Plus, the program requires that you don’t take any body or weight measurements for the duration of the 30 days, nor does it require exercise (although adding exercise is encouraged).
The Whole 30 diet is a great diet for you if you want to cleanse your body of any harmful additives that may be making you feel less than awesome, or even if you want more energy in your life. For more on the Whole 30 diet, check out the diet’s guidebook and New York Times Bestseller, It Starts With Food (2012).