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A Meta-analysis of Kooky Diets, Part III — PALEO!

This post is a continuation of A Meta-analysis of Kooky Diets, Part I and Part II.  In this post I’ll discuss three proponents of the so-called Paleolithic Diet.  In Part II I introduced the Paleolithic Diet and discussed its core concepts — if you’ve never heard of it you might want to read that post first.

Meat. Not required as part of the Paleolithic diet, but not discouraged either.

In short, the Paleo Diet is a method of eating that excludes foods that were not widely available or consumed by our pre-agricultural ancestors, such as grains, legumes, dairy products, refined sugar, oil, and salt, instead favoring non-starchy vegetables, less-sweet fruits, meat, fish and seafood, poultry, eggs, nuts, and seeds.

Personally, I no longer find this way of eating to be “kooky” in any sense.  When I first heard about it, it seemed both radical and silly.  Sure, it’s reasonable to cut back on white sugar and white flour, but to also cut out whole-grains?  Wholesome oats and brown rice are out?  Whole-grains are good for you, aren’t they?

Whole-grains may be good for you when compared to eating refined grains, and that’s what most of the research examining the health benefits of whole grains has looked at.  For whatever reasons, few researchers have compared a diet including whole grains to a diet including no grains.  Those that did found that a grain-free diet led to rapid weight loss, improved glucose tolerance, faster muscle gain, and a number of other benefits (please see Part II for links to clinical studies).

The Paleolithic Diet has been around since the 70’s, but more recently a number of Paleo evangelists have been spreading the word; grain-free is the way to go.  I’ll introduce three of these health nuts and you can draw your own conclusions.

Arthur De Vany

I first became aware of Arthur De Vany after reading an interview with him about nutrition and exercise, and seeing the picture on the right.  A guy approaching seventy who looks that ripped?

Arthur De Vany, at age 68, going for a quick sprint.

There are plenty of meatheads in their twenties or thirties can develop a ripped physique, even if their diet includes Pop Tarts and pasta.  Decent genetics, lots of working out, maybe some steroids, and BAM! there you go — comic book muscles.  But Art De Vany — he seemed to defy aging.  It got me, and a lot of other people, very curious.

I began reading Arthur De Vany’s blog at http://www.arthurdevany.com.  I learned about his system of health dubbed Evolutionary Fitness, based on a “Paleo-Med” eating plan (a cross between Paleolithic diet and Mediterranean diets) and short, irregular bouts of intense physical exercise, with an emphasis on weight-lifting, sprints, jumping and leaping, and no distance running or jogging (the latter two being actively discouraged).  He also blogged about more personal things, including his beloved wife passing away, his frustrations with his incompetent softball team, and his occasional trouble with insomnia.  His blog included a wide range of intellectual ideas; he shared his opinions and theories about teaching, Hollywood economics, evolution, climate change, and a number of other topics.  I use the past tense because he has since made his blog private — its popularity was resulting in excessive bandwidth fees and occasional outages.  Art De Vany himself is still going strong — and you can still read his blog if you don’t mind paying the subscription fee.

One interesting feature of his previous public blog is that he would occasionally post a picture of a meal.  At first Art seemed a bit baffled — why were those simple posts so popular?  His readers kept requesting more pictures of his meals.  The fact is that it’s hard to imagine what a grain and starch free meal looks like if you’re used to eating cereal and milk for breakfast, a sandwich for lunch, and pasta for dinner.  Seeing pictures of Art’s breakfasts (maybe an omelet with fruit on the side, or a pork chop with half a melon, usually with a cup of black coffee), and lunches and dinners (colorful salads, grilled vegetables, sizzling steaks, racks of ribs, slices of avocado, olives, sometimes a glass of wine or a beer) helped me and a lot of other people think more creatively about our meals.  That’s what a diet is, after all, it’s meals.  You’ve got to put food on the table three times a day, and like it, in order to stick to any kind of eating plan.

There was an ad I saw about ten years ago (I forget what for), a picture of a juicy steak like this and the caption was “the new health food.” No longer so shocking …

At the time I was reading his blog on a regular basis, Art De Vany’s version of the Paleolithic Diet included lean meat, poultry and eggs, seafood, nuts, non-starchy vegetables (both raw and cooked), and fresh fruit.  Olive oil and olives were included, as well as some wine and cheese (the “Med” part of “Paleo-Med”).  De Vany, at least at that time, limited his saturated fat intake by trimming the fat off of his steaks, and preferring low-fat cheeses such as Jarlsberg.

For supplements, Art De Vany takes (and recommends) cod liver oil and l-glutathione, the first for its Omega-3 and vitamin A content, the second for its antioxidant and anti-aging properties.  He also recommends Mark Sisson’s supplement pack, which is how I came to learn about Sisson (who I’ll discuss next).

Art De Vany is an interesting character.  His writing style can come off as over-authoritative, but at the same time he’s obviously well-educated and extremely knowledgeable.  I heard a radio interview with him, and was surprised by how soft-spoken he was … somehow I expected a more macho or at least enthusiastic tone.  How to put this … he’s like a nerd-athlete hybrid.

Art De Vany’s views around climate change have generated some controversy.  His opinion, as I understand it, is that most models of climate change are bunk; there is too much randomness and there are too many variables that influence climate to be able to generate a reliably predictive model.  This opinion has somehow “rippled out” among the “Paleo community” as it is; there seems to be a large of number of “climate skeptics” or “global warming deniers” — whatever you want to call them — among Paleo diet enthusiasts.  Maybe it has to do with people who identify themselves as bucking the status quo and thinking differently from the mainstream.  Or maybe it’s the macho thing, eat meat and drive a big car?  I really don’t get it.  The logical approach to environmental issues if you are a skeptic of global warming models is extreme conservationism, as outlined here (see entry #120) by Nassim Taleb (the author of The Black Swan, and also a follower of Art De Vany’s Evolutionary Fitness program).

I’m glad I discovered Art De Vany’s site … it influenced me to eat more healthfully and helped me imagine what a meal without a “pile o’ starch” could look like.  But it wasn’t until I started reading Mark Sisson’s blog, marksdailyapple.com, that the Paleolithic Diet really came together for me.

Mark Sisson

Mark Sisson is a former professional athlete (distance runner and triathlete) who now writes a popular blog at marksdailyapple.com.  He’s written a number of books on diet and exercise, and also runs a supplement company called “Primal Nutrition.”

Mark Sisson doesn’t seem to own any shirts.

He’s 56 and in very good shape.

His blog is an abundant (and sometimes overwhelming) source of information.  He’s not kidding about the daily part; there really is a new, detailed post every day.  Topics are centered around what Sisson calls the “Primal Blueprint” — his holistic plan for total health that is based on his version of the Paleolithic diet — but also branch out to cover a vast array of health-related topics.

Sisson’s version of the Paleolithic Diet is comparatively easy to follow.  He recommends cutting out grains, legumes, potatoes, and refined sugar almost entirely, but moderate amounts of coffee, tea, wine, beer, salt, dark chocolate, and even cheese are not discouraged.  Sisson comes right out and says that a Paleo Diet should be a high fat diet.  The first time I read that, I remember feeling skeptical, but those two words turned out to be the key for me to personally adopt a Paleo eating style.  Before I started using more olive oil, butter, coconut oil in my cooking, and eating fattier cuts of meat and more fatty fish, I would just get too hungry if I wasn’t eating breads and cereals.

Sisson also recommends supplementing with fish oil.  In fact, he recommends supplementing with just about everything.  Check out the ingredient list for his top-selling supplement “Damage Control Master Formula.”  If those doses are

If I ate like this every night I wouldn’t have to take any fish pills.

supposed to be daily, some of them strike me as too high.  The water-soluble vitamins aren’t a problem, but trace minerals like zinc, copper, selenium, and manganese can build up in the body and have toxic effects.  This article references symptoms of manganese toxicity occurring in individuals drinking water with levels as low as 2mg/liter (each dose of Damage Control Master Formula has 10mg).  On the other hand, the same article points out only one case of manganese toxicity from supplement use, and none from food, so maybe 10mg/day is a reasonable dose.

Questions of dosages aside, Sisson gives the impression of genuinely caring about the health of his readers and customers — I don’t doubt his claim that his supplements contain fresh, high quality ingredients.

There is definitely a sense of community among the readers of Sisson’s blog — people supporting each other in a lifestyle choice that many people view as radical (for some reason people are more threatened by the idea of the Paleolithic diet than they are by vegetarianism).  Sisson often shares reader testimonials — like this one which I found to be quite moving.  It parallels my own experience — feeling that my body was somehow permanently damaged or broken (with adult-onset asthma and allergies in my case) and then experiencing a total cessation of symptoms within days of changing my diet.  A “second chance,” a “new lease on life,” — those phrases don’t do the feeling justice.  Here’s a brand new bodyone that works! That’s more what it felt like.

Mark Sisson’s blog is a great source of information, and his tone is friendly, non-dogmatic, and nonjudgmental.  If a friend or family member expresses interest in changing the way they eat, I usually refer them to marksdailyapple.com

Loren Cordain

Dr. Loren Cordain is a professor in the Department of Health and Exercise Science at Colorado State University, and is the author of The Paleo Diet, a popular book published in 2002.

Dr. Cordain, rockin’ the center part.

Cordain’s take on the Paleolithic diet is similar to both Art De Vany’s and Mark Sisson’s.  He suggests that genetically, human beings are poorly adapted to eat grains, beans, dairy products, alcohol, and salt, and recommends eating fruits and vegetables, lean meat, seafood, poultry, nuts, and seeds instead.

In the Paleo community, Cordain’s view that saturated fat intake should be limited is controversial.  In The Paleo Diet, Cordain clearly puts saturated fats in the “bad fats” category, along with trans fats and polyunsaturated fats like corn oil (as opposed to “good fats” like Omega-3 fish oils and monounsaturated fats like olive oil and avocado).  In the same book he argues that wild game is quite lean as compared to domestic cattle.

Since then, it seems that Cordain’s view on saturated fats has become more nuanced.  If you carefully read the FAQ on his website you’ll see that Cordain no longer recommends reducing saturated fats.  He seems to consider them more “neutral” than “bad” at this point, and concedes that prehistoric humans probably preferred fattier meat when they could get it (this coincides with the Inuit’s warnings regarding the overconsumption of lean winter caribou as discussed in my previous post A Meta-analysis of Kooky Diets, Part I).

Cordain still holds to the view the eating lots of bacon, sausage, and other salty, fatty meats is no good for health and may raise the risk of heart disease.  To me this seems reasonable, despite the fact that it overlaps with conventional dietary wisdom.

Cordain has some interesting views regarding tomatoes.  Unlike other Paleo advocates, he considers them a neolithic food (my wife Kia challenged this assumption when she heard it — tomatoes had to grow in the wild somewhere and someone must have been eating them since pre-agricultural times.  The Department of Horticulture at University of Wisconsin-Madison agrees with her — early inhabitants of what is now Peru probably dined on wild tomatoes.)

Beautiful, delicious, and … evil?

In any case Cordain consider the lectin in tomatoes (which, by the way, is impervious to heat) to be harmful to human health.  He views the peanut lectin, the protein casein in milk, and grain lectins with equal disdain, but we already knew those foods were not allowed for wannabe cavemen, didn’t we?  But the delicious and healthful tomato?  Packed with vitamin C, potassium, lypocene, and glutathione?  Really?

If you have the time, and can stomach it, watch Cordain’s hour long lecture on lectins and multiple sclerosis.  It’s fascinating (and disturbing).  He explains in great detail how various lectins make their way into the bloodstream and interact with the immune system, essentially tricking your own body into attacking itself.  I used to use a great deal of tomato paste in my cooking — I don’t any longer after watching the video of his lecture.  I still sometimes eat fresh tomatoes though, as long as they’re ripe.  (Did you know green tomatoes have a poison calls solanine in them?  Yes, fried green tomatoes = poisonous snack.)

SUMMARY

There are a number of criticisms of the Paleolithic Diet, but most of them are quite weak.  The low-fat diet recommended for the past several decades by official sources in the U.S. has been largely debunked; in practice it has led to massive weight gain, greater instances of Type 2 diabetes, and no appreciable reduction in heart disease or cancer.

Sometimes the Paleo diet is lumped in with Atkins, but this doesn’t make sense; unlike Atkins the Paleo diet is rich in antioxidant-packed fruits and vegetables, is low in salt, and very low in processed foods of any type.  It is generally low-carb, but far from zero-carb (Sisson recommends keeping carb intake between 50 and 100g/day if you want to lose body fat, up to 200g/day depending on your size and muscle mass in order to maintain).

One criticism that I consider to be at least semi-valid is the fact that humans have evolved biologically in the 10K years or so since we invented agriculture.  Some of us have genetically adapted to our “new” neolithic diet, at least to some extent.  I, for one, have no problem digesting lactose.  I’m lactose tolerant — I inherited the “right” genes from my European ancestors who co-evolved with cattle (less than 25% of humans carry this gene, and yet we talk about “lactose intolerance” as if it were some kind of rare disorder!).  People whose ancestors evolved in agrarian societies tend to have more copies of the gene that helps produce amylase, the enzyme in saliva that breaks down starch.  This is one example, discussed in this NY Times article, of how culture and the human genome co-evolve.

That’s the big picture — we push against our environment, our environment pushes back, and we either adapt ourselves, or change our environment, or both, or we perish.  Human beings haven’t stopped evolving genetically.  In fact, we’re changing faster than ever.  Still, genetic change happens slowly, over many generations, and it’s obvious that the modern industrial diet of highly processed, high-carb fake food is not the ideal fuel for the human body and mind.  Paleo diet advocates (myself included) would go further and say that the relatively “new” foods like grains, legumes, dairy products, and nightshade vegetables, while they may not be harmful in small amounts, are not ideal staples (and for most people in the world they are staples).

Another possibly valid criticism is that not everyone in the world can afford to eat a diet that is high in protein and low in grain.  This might be true — we know that the world’s fisheries are overburdened, and also that it takes a great deal of water, pasture and/or grain to raise a cow, but these facts must be weighed against the following counter-arguments.

  • The collapse of the world’s fisheries has as much to do with poor ocean resource management (a lack of protected areas, poor enforcement of existing protections, wasteful and destructive fishing practices, etc.) as it does with how much fish we eat.
  • Growing grains and beans takes up an enormous amount of land and water and fossil fuel fertilizers and pesticides; intensive polycultural farming techniques that produce meat, vegetables, and eggs might give us more food in exchange for less land and water, and improve the soil quality while we’re at it.
  • The number of overweight people in the world (not just the U.S.) has reached epidemic proportions.

Some of use may be better adapted to “modern” foods, but most people would probably experience health improvements if they switched to a diet that more closely resembled what our distant ancestors ate.  I think groups who would most benefit from a Paleolithic diet, in order, would include:

  1. Anyone with a direct intolerance of gluten, anyone with celiac disease, anyone with IBS, anyone who has noticeable trouble digesting grains and/or dairy products
  2. Anyone with an autoimmune disorder of any kind, including multiple sclerosis, arthritis, lupus, asthma, or allergies.
  3. Anyone with (or at risk for) Type 2 diabetes, Metabolic Syndrome/Syndrome X
  4. Anyone who wants to reduce their risk of heart disease, cancer, and dementia
  5. Anyone who wants to gain muscle, lose body fat, have more energy, have clearer skin, not get sleepy after meals, sleep better at night, have a higher sex drive, and feel happier.

Did I leave anyone out?

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25 Comments

  1. Joan

    Great article. Now I wonder how to be a paleo vegetarian? I do eat fish and eggs sometimes.
    I have well water with high manganese, and last year I finally got a filter that works. I used to have facial tics that I thought were a result of stress, but these are now gone.

  2. Probably a great idea you got that filter … I’ve heard of excess manganese being related to problems with facial musculature … tics, facial rigidity, and what is known as a “manganese mask” among people who mine the mineral. I’ve also heard the theory that Van Gogh’s health problems might have related to manganese toxicity (from blue paint), though that seems pretty speculative.

    Probably the majority of our paleolithic ancestors lived on the coast and ate more seafood than meat. You could try replacing some or all of the grains in your diet with more healthy fats (olive oil, nuts, avocado, coconut oil, fatty fish) and see how you feel. Good health to you!

  3. @Joan. You can be paleo and not eat meat. But the paleo diets does require animal foods. If you believe in the aquatic ape hypothesis then you could argue that eating fish is even better than meat.

    @jdmoyer. I’d add to your list of groups that the diet is most beneficial for: people on the autism spectrum. They call the diet they follow GFCF, for gluten-free, casein-free.

    Being able to digest lactose doesn’t mean that dairy is good for you. It’s the casein protein that is best avoided. One could argue that grass-fed ghee is paleo.

    Tomatoes, of course, are New World. So no one in paleo times could have eaten them. All in the nightshade family are New World, even the eggplant, if you consider Asia New World (which Europe-centered food historians do).

  4. Thanks for your comments Don. Good point about autism and diet.

    I agree that being lactose tolerant doesn’t mean that milk is an ideal food (and dairy products can probably all be considered neolithic foods), but the Weston Price research shows that a number of groups eating some dairy products maintained excellent health. Regarding casein, the a2 casein from Jersey and Guernsey cows seems to be less problematic for many people (vs. a1 casein from Holstein cows).

    According to Stephen Oppenheimer’s research, humans have inhabited what is now Peru for over 13,000 years. I find this “Journey of Mankind” map to be fascinating:

    http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/journey/

  5. well done, JD, very nice summary of the paleo godfathers, their respective approaches and how it all kind of fits together… nice recap of a bit of the history that happened before the recent paleo explosion in the blogosphere. Again, well done.

    • Thanks Zach. Enjoyed your post on raw milk. I’ve noticed in Berkeley and Oakland (where raw milk is legal and sold in some supermarkets) it tends to fly off the shelves (even though it’s crazy expensive).

  6. jd,

    I appreciated this write-up on Paleo. I’ve been following uptake and reading of this in a few other blogs and being a late and tentative adopter of everything, I appreciate the testimony of those who’ve put it in practice to augment what authors publish.

    As a dancer, yoga teacher, etc., I find I’m fitter than most but have consistently had problems with sugar cravings, skin issues, insomnia, and a family history of mood disorders. I’m considering a moderate approach to Paleo to be good medicine. Do you know of any resources, cooking groups, and such in SF?

    Michael Allen Smith posts some book reviews on nutrition, Paleo and fitness and first introduced me to the authors above.

    Thanks again,
    -Justin

    • Paleotechnics is in SF. Bi Rite market has good and fatty grass-finished meat and non-corn-grain finished meat. I think Cafe Gratitude fits in. Marin Sun Farms at the Ferry Farmer’s market is another good resource for grass-finished meat. But the real magic happens in Berkeley: 3 Stone Hearth, the Weston A Price Foundation chapter head in Berkeley, Revival, The Local Butcher, the Marin Sun Farms butcher shop in Rockridge, various organic juice bars. Contact me for more.

      Chris

  7. Hey Justin — if you don’t want to go 100% paleo you might try going gluten-free … some friends of mine have had great success going that way. It’s getting easier and easier to do — I’ve noticed gluten-free pasta on more than a few menus, and there are a number of local gluten-free bakeries.

    http://www.mariposabaking.com/

    I think there are other benefits to cutting out grains entirely or almost entirely, but gluten-free is easier and works just fine for many people. Good health to you.

  8. Awesome post if anybody is wants to know more I came across this great collection of quick paleo recipes. Check it out.

  9. Nick

    Hello, I originally came across this blog searching for help with asthma problems I have been having. I’m wondering if there is a page with a list of foods to eat to help with weight loss and asthma as well as foods to avoid.

  10. hari

    just want to say ……….thanks a lot…… for your valuable information.

  11. emily ann osler

    J.D., I’ve been driving myself crazy, trying to search every paleo blog in existence, an impossible task to accomplish in a few days….this world is immense….I had no idea it could be so frustrating! I’m not going to comment on the benefits of any kind of diet, as you say different diets work for different people (obviously assuming one doesn’t subsist on refined flour, sugar and junk food… I’m ovo-lacto vegetarian, have been since the age of 12…39 now and “still” very healthy, lean, with tons of energy!!! ). What I’ve found quite alarming, and very off-putting, is the level of sexism and machismo that seems to permeate a lot of these blogs…Everything appears to be aimed at men, may I add that this ideal man usually is super fit, often a proud member of the military, conservative, perfectionist…I could go on but you get the point….And It’s not the silly shirtless photos I find worrying, there is an undeniably abrasive attitude that I find slightly disturbing….I know this issue has been raised by many a commentator…nothing original here…just wanted to get it off my chest…thanks.

    • Macho meat-eating paleo! I know what you mean … but there are some great sites out there that don’t have that attitude. Both dansplan.com (not strictly paleo, but a great health and fitness site) and marksdailyapple.com have a good mix of male/female participation and perspectives, and stick to health topics.

  12. emily ann osler

    thanks J.D. ……I also liked “the perfect health diet”, also recommended by Mark Sisson…and probably feasible for me since it allows rice. I can’t see a paleo diet working if you don’t eat meat or fish, but I am trying to reduce gluten and dairy…If I can rant on just a bit more, growing up in Italy in the late 70’s early 80’s meant not seeing many over-weight people…the general Italian diet was quite healthy. yes, probably it included too much pasta and bread, but also meat, fish, raw cheeses, loads of fresh vegetables and fruit, extra virgin olive oil, red wine and of course, rivers of coffee…. huge supermarkets didn’t even exist, streets were teeming with local farmers, dairies, butchers and fishmonger’s…processed foods and soft drinks were unheard of, my favourite afternoon snack was bread and tomatoes with shavings of parmigiano! (yum..) Sugar laden desserts were reserved for special occasions and were considered a treat, not a daily habit…everything changed in the 80’s, with the rise of fast food chains and the almost sudden consumption of highly processed foods and snacks….very… SAD! needless to say, obesity rates have skyrocketed and over-weight children are now almost the norm… so, YES! McDonald is the enemy! and, by the way, preaching vegans can be very annoying too…

  13. Janet

    Great Blog! Love it, and I am a low fat vegan. Nevertheless, I have seen both diets work well in my patients. Very well, depending on the condition.

    I think your blog is a completely responsible take on Paleo. Ethical and Informative. I will be recommending it to people.

    However, the following statement is false: The low-fat diet recommended for the past several decades by official sources in the U.S. has been largely debunked; in practice it has led to massive weight gain, greater instances of Type 2 diabetes, and no appreciable reduction in heart disease or cancer.

    100% not factual. If anything, stop people on the street and they will say they avoid starches, carbs, bread and pasta. Atkins won the debate on that. And people TRY to eat low – fat, sort of, but they don’t. Actually our consumption of fats has increased dramatically. Look at the work of Esselstyn and Ornish – they have reversed heart disease. These people: Barnard, McDougall, Fuhrman are all rail thin. Cordain, however, well I notice you don’t use his current picture. He and William Davis are fat.

    The evil is processed foods. Any form of unprocessed diet will work. It may need to be tweaked – some people thrive on higher protein content in the diet, some will do better with lower.

    Look at Stephan Guyenet’s talk at the Ancestral Health symposium where he talks about Amylase. Wow – really showing that there are real differences in our ability to tolerate and THRIVE on starches.

    There’s a real problem with the One-Size-Fits-all answer to diet. Declaring foods off limits that some people are thriving on is ridiculous – all Blue Zone cultures eat legumes, for example. Go figure.

    Love your blog, though. Love it!

    -JN

  14. Which version of the paleo diet do you follow

    • Close to Mark Sisson’s “primal” diet, but less strict even than that, since I include legumes. “Low-grain Mediterranean” would probably better describe the way I eat at this point. For me it’s working well — no asthma issues, good energy, and I’m happy with my weight and strength.

  15. dan

    Hey, thanks for shearing I found your tips about asthma very helpful. You should also check on Dr Kwasniewski diet.
    http://www.cybernaut.com.au/optimal_nutrition/

  16. Heya just wanted to give you a quick heads up and let you know a
    few of the pictures aren’t loading correctly.
    I’m not sure why but I think its a linking issue.
    I’ve tried it in two different browsers and both show the same results.

  17. Eirene Mitsos

    I saw your previous post on how to combat asthma two months ago, and it was like a breath of fresh air. It gave me such hope.

    I stopped eating wheat five weeks ago, and stopped all dairy three weeks ago. I also stopped all processed foods. So, each meal consists of a bit of protein, vegetables and fruit. I have not given up potatoes or lentils and pulses, but do not take much of those.

    I am taking magnesium, fish oils, Vit D as you suggested.

    So far I have not seen any difference. Is it because it’s too soon and I need to give it longer? Or is it because I’m a hopeless case? 🙂

    I would love to hear from you and what you think about my situation.

    All the best,

    Eirene

    • Hi Eirene — sorry to hear you are not experiencing any relief despite the dietary and supplement changes. Have you had your vitamin D levels checked since you started supplementing? That might be a helpful step. You could also try an elimination diet … you might have an allergy to a food you eat on a daily basis. Keep experimenting until you find what works for you!

  18. Suzy

    I am going through the same situation as you, hoping to find a way to “cure” my asthma without using inhaler or prednisone medicines… I hate prescriptions Durga or any type of drugs, if I can stay away I will try far away…. I guess I will need to try this diet….. A bit confusing on how to start it though

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