I usually ignore the glossy magazine with the latest news about celebrities, but a four-letter word in bold Helvetica type stopped me in my tracks. The word LYME disease stretched across the cover.
1. Fortify Your Fortress
Throughout history, civilizations erected fortifications to protect cities from neighboring invaders. Your body is like a fortress, and if you do not strengthen and maintain it, you do not stand a chance of conquering an invader like Lyme Disease.
Because Lyme disease assaults your immune system, it is critical that you make food choices that have a positive effect on your healing.
“Choosing foods that heal your body and boost your immune system allow you to participate in your healing of the disease,” attests Dr. Ortel. She is an ardent advocate of implementing specific dietary programs that fuel the body with nutrient-dense foods while eliminating foods that deter healing.
2. Rebuild the Walls of Your Fortress to Avoid a Seige
If you suffer from Lyme Disease, you can subdue the disease with your fork. Consider every bite as artillery used to defeat the disease.
Lyme Inflammation Diet
Dr. Ortel and other LLMDs, recommend the Lyme Inflammation Diet. Created by Dr. Kenneth Singleton, The Lyme Inflammation Diet is “an elimination diet (designed to help you to discover foods that you may be sensitive to) and an anti-inflammatory diet. You begin by eliminating the most common foods that contribute to chronic inflammation. You gradually add back foods and monitor the effects to establish a broad yet healthy diet.
Whole30 Food Program
The Whole30 Program is a food program that reduces systemic inflammation caused by Lyme Disease. Remember early on I referred to the body as a fortress. Well, “inflammation is a vital part of the body’s immune response. It is the body’s attempt to heal itself after an injury; defend itself against foreign invaders, such as viruses and bacteria; and repair damaged tissue.”
For 30 days, participants of the program remove gut-disrupting, inflammatory, hormone-unbalancing food groups from your diet and feed the body with unprocessed, real food.
Co-founder of the Whole30 Program, Dallas Hartwig warns that “The food you eat either makes you more healthy or less healthy. Those are your options.” His elucidative book It Starts With Food: Discover the Whole30 and Change Your Life in Unexpected Ways
There are other food elimination programs and healing diets that follow a similar protocol as the two featured in this article. Establish a habit of consuming real foods, organic when possible that boosts your immune system
In a recent article in Mother Earth Living Magazine, Stephen Buhner an expert in the field of herbal medicine and infectious diseases affirms that “the healthier the immune system, the less likely one is to be infected and, if infected, the less severe the course of the disease.”
3. Eradicate Your Food Enemies
A key factor in reclaiming your health from Lyme Disease is to protect your body from harmful foods. Guard your body against harm by relentlessly reading and investigating food labels. The goal is to restore your health by replenishing your body with foods that will reconstruct your defenses.
Foods to avoid permanently:
- Artificial sweeteners– even if you are doing an elimination diet or food program, you must read food labels to guarantee that a food manufacturer didn’t sneak in one of these body damaging chemical substances.
- Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) Foods
- GMO Soy Products/Soy in any form, unless it is a fermented food
- GMO Corn products
- Monosodium Glutamate (MSG) and its elusive counterparts: Glutamic Acid, yeast extract, various forms of caseinate, natural flavorings, anything hydrolyzed. Avoid ingredients concocted in a laboratory.
- Processed Foods
- Fast Foods
4. Gather Your Defenses When Faced with Opposition
Perseverance
The road to restored health could be a long and arduous journey. Depending on where you are on your food journey, making a radical change to your diet necessitates determination. You will most likely encounter some form of food in opposition to your new way of eating. Be prepared and stand firm.
Gratitude For Food
After I incorporated my Lyme healing food principles into my diet, not only did my health increase but my attitude towards food changed. As my body gradually repaired, I recognized the vital role that food played in restoring my health.
Over time, I developed deep gratitude for food. When I sit down to thank God for the food in which I am about to consume, I am truly grateful for the gift of food. Using food in adjunct with the care of a Lyme Literate health care professional helped my recovery process from Lyme Disease.
I no longer take food for granted. Gratitude for food helps you to appreciate the nutritional benefits of food.
Final Thoughts
- Take Action, be a proactive gatekeeper of your fortress
- Rebuild Your Fortress with foods that sustain, nourish, and heal you
- Use food as a defense measure to mitigate and to resist Lyme symptoms
- Purge your diet of food enemies that harm the body
You will need to add organic fruits and vegetables to your diet, reduce red meat, and move toward a plant-based diet. A food protocol like this will allow you to start maximizing your body’s ability to heal.
Resources for Combating Lyme Disease with the Help of Food
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