When I was a senior in high school, I stumbled upon Frances Moore Lappé’s Diet for a Small Planet and decided to become a vegetarian. Despite living on a family farm in rural Iowa and helping with animal duties around the farm, I felt it was morally wrong to raise and kill animals for food. I also found that a vegetarian diet was more environmentally sustainable.
My parents were not thrilled with my decision, but I maintained my new diet and eventually chose medical school over becoming a vet. As a student, I thrived on a diet of beans and rice, whole grain bread, eggs and cheese, and fruits and vegetables. Contrary to the medical profession’s promotion of a low-fat, low-cholesterol diet at the time, I believed I needed fat and protein from eggs and cheese to sustain my high-energy lifestyle.
When I became pregnant, I even agreed to add some fish to my diet after my parents expressed concerns about my dietary choices causing complications. However, legumes, grains, eggs, and dairy products remained my dietary staples throughout my life.
First Signs of Disease
In the early 1980s, I experienced my first symptoms of multiple sclerosis. It began as fleeting twinges of electric pain in my right or left temple, and over the next few days, the twinges intensified into massive burns. I chose to ignore it since I didn’t have time for personal medical issues.
Over the years, I developed other symptoms, including episodes of visual dimming, dragging feet, and crushing fatigue. In 2000, I was finally diagnosed with MS, and it filled me with panic. How had I not seen the signs? How would I support my family? Was I doomed to a life of disability?
I began medication but quickly declined. Within a few years, I found myself in a tilt-recline wheelchair, barely able to walk across a room with two canes.
Searching for Answers
In my book, The Wahls Protocol, I detail my relentless search for answers. I was a doctor, but stubbornly unwilling to accept a life as a patient. I began experimenting on myself and discovered the work of Dr. Ashton Embry, who connected diet to multiple sclerosis.
The mainstream medical literature denied any connection between MS and diet. However, Dr. Embry’s research on a diet without grains or dairy products that included meat had a dramatic effect on MS progression. Desperate, I decided it was worth a try.
Going Back to Meat
Initially, the thought of eating meat was nauseating to me, both physically and morally. As someone who had been vegetarian for over 15 years, I found it difficult to reconcile eating animals and giving up my favorite dishes.
However, I spent time reflecting on life in the wild and realized that all living things without photosynthesis must consume other beings. Our atoms and molecules are continually recycled, and ultimately, they will consume me. I decided that eating meat was not a crime against nature but a return to nature itself.
Over time, I was able to work up the courage to include small amounts of meat in my diet. Gradually, I became used to the taste and noticed that I started to feel stronger. Eventually, I transitioned to a Paleolithic-style diet, giving up all grains, legumes, and dairy products.
Signs of Improvement
While my decline slowed, it continued. I kept researching and discovered functional medicine, deepening my understanding of brain biology. I examined scientific papers on the nutritional needs of brain cells and decided there were many micronutrients I was still lacking.
Since diet was one of the few things about my health I could control, I refined it further by not only eliminating foods that were causing problems but also adding foods that provided the essential micronutrients my brain required. I developed the Wahls Diet, focusing on vegetables and fruits, leafy greens, brightly colored fruits and vegetables, sulfur-rich vegetables, organ meats, and sea vegetables.
Now, I have not only risen from my wheelchair, but I also walk without a cane, ride my bicycle 5 miles to work every day, and feel healthier than I have in decades. I once advocated for vegetarianism on moral grounds, but now, as a doctor, I can no longer in good conscience recommend it.
