The Three Principles of Holistic Nutrition

At MyNaturowellness, I work with patients every day who are struggling with chronic health issues. Whether it's digestive problems, fatigue, brain fog, hormones, or autoimmune conditions, the path to healing always comes back to three fundamental principles of holistic nutrition.

These principles are in a specific order for a reason. Each one builds on the last, creating a foundation for true, lasting healing. Let me walk you through them.

Principle One: Eliminate Sources of Toxicity

This is step one on purpose. To heal, we have to stop the barrage of what is coming in that is hurtful and toxic to our bodies. Toxicity can be in the water we drink and in the air we breathe, but it is constantly present in the foods that we take in.

Eliminating sources of toxicity means targeting foods that cause inflammation in the body. But what exactly does that mean? We need to understand what real food actually is.

The definition of food has two essential qualifications. First, it must be nutritious. Second, it must promote life and growth.

There are a lot of things out there that are nutritious. They have some form of nutrition. But they don't meet the second qualification to be food, which is to promote life and growth.

When you're looking at what you're going to be eating and asking yourself, "Is this a form of toxicity? Is this food that is really food?" then you should be looking at whether it meets those two qualifications. Does it immediately help you? Is it alive? Is it growing towards the sun? Is it organic? Has it not been sprayed with pesticides?

These are things that are not going to be toxic for you. If something doesn't meet these standards, you want to limit that toxicity from entering your body so that you're not getting glyphosates that have been sprayed on your food. That's a form of toxicity as well.

Fast, frozen, processed foods that are high in sugar, gluten, and dairy are causing toxicity in the body. They may be considered food because they have some nutritional value, but they do not meet the second standard, which is promoting life and growth.

That is the first principle of holistic nutrition. We have to eliminate the sources of toxicity that we're bringing into our body.

The Connection to Chronic Disease

We have cohabitated with germs for a long, long time. We have a great microbiome in our gut that's full of bacteria. It's when a species of something becomes overabundant and our immune system cannot react to it properly that we have problems.

But when we eat toxic foods or foods that are not really foods, we set ourselves at a disadvantage in being able to have our immune system work properly.

What we're seeing now is an intense increase in autoimmune disorders, meaning the body is so toxic that it's starting to attack itself. This has really increased in the last 50 to 75 years, which is when we started to mass produce and mass process food.

There is a key component to helping your health and helping you thrive in an environment where there are bacteria and viruses. It's making sure that the level of toxicity you put in your body is as low as possible.

Principle Two: Add in Foods That Are Healing and Nurturing

The second principle of holistic nutrition is to add in foods that are healing and nurturing to the body. These foods are going to reduce inflammation.

This is number two on purpose because I can eat all of the great foods in the world, but if I'm still eating fast, frozen, processed foods, I'm never, ever going to truly heal because I'm constantly bombarding my body with inflammatory foods. That's why this is second. Adding in foods that are healing and nurturing to the body.

You probably know what I'm going to say. If it grows towards the sun, if it's alive, if it's been planted in soil that has been fertilized and has been properly cared for and contains nutrients that are going to be beneficial for the plant growing in it, you should eat it.

What About Frozen Foods?

I love frozen strawberries and frozen berries. I think it's great. And the reason is because the fruit is ripening on the vine. What you get at the store when you buy strawberries that are on the shelf and not frozen is they are already in the process of rotting.

They picked them before they were really ripe and they sort of tried to ripen, but really they're not ripening anymore. What they're doing is going through their own process of death. When you get it frozen, it's a great way to consume it because it has ripened on the vine. You have all the nutrients from the soil that give you all those vitamins and minerals from that plant, from that fruit, from that vegetable.

So frozen foods are a great way to integrate nutrition into your diet because those have already ripened on the vine and they have a lot of nutrition in them versus what I call rotting on the way to the store. I still eat and love to have fresh produce. I'm not saying don't have fresh fruits and vegetables too. But being open to frozen options is important.

The Benefits of Healing Foods

These foods reduce inflammation in the body and help your body to heal naturally with whatever is going on. They also help protect your immune system. They give your gut what it needs for serotonin production. So for people that are feeling sad or depressed, we make serotonin in our gut, and these foods help with that.

They help with brain health. They help with our heart health. They help with our gut and all of our other organs that are working together to help make you move and talk and walk and think and work.

That is the second principle: really adding in those foods that are going to be healing. These are foods that, by definition, are real foods. They must promote life and growth and they must be nutritious.

Smoothies, juices, salads, soups. Any way that you can get foods that are alive into your body is going to be a great way to reduce inflammation.

A Note on Organic

I strongly encourage you, if it's a choice between not eating vegetables or eating organic, I would say eat vegetables even if it's not organic. But if you can, try to integrate organic foods slowly into your diet and you'll see and taste some of the difference there.

Growing your own food in your own backyard is the absolute best way to get the best quality because you are going to have control over temperature and the soil and what goes in and what goes on.

Principle Three: You Must Cleanse Before You Rebuild

This one is important and it's in this position for a very good reason.

The third principle is that you must cleanse before you rebuild. When I'm working with my patients, I explain that it's kind of like going to that really, really messy closet, the one that you have avoided for years and years. You just kind of throw things in there.

Well, we have to take everything out of the closet and we have to make an even bigger mess. So in the beginning, when you start this healing process and when you're starting to eat better foods and you're starting to heal your body and you're starting to reverse conditions that you thought were irreversible, it's a little what I call messy.

We have to cleanse the body first and we have to detoxify the liver and the gallbladder. That is done through cleansing. Once we've cleansed and we've got it all clean, we took everything out and we threw away the toxic foods and we start buying all the good foods, then we can start to rebuild the body with nutritious foods that are going to be rebuilding.

Embracing the Discomfort

I have found a quote that I love and I say it a lot: "When you commit to transformation in your life, you commit to getting very uncomfortable over and over and over again. Be friendly with the unfamiliar, the risky, the 'me no wanna.' The discomfort means you're almost there."

I have started to integrate that into all my protocols with my patients. I want you to understand that when you're making a change, it is uncomfortable. You are trying to make a change, and any change at all has a level of discomfort.

But we have to cleanse before we can start the process of rebuilding the body. That is the third principle of holistic nutrition.

You Can't Grow Without Discomfort

You're not growing unless you're feeling uncomfortable, ideally on a regular basis. That's just the way it works.

I have to tell myself that too because I'm taking on new things all the time. You can't really make any significant change unless you push past those pretend boundaries. Because you created those in your mind. You said, "I can't eat fruits and vegetables. I don't like broccoli. I don't eat this way."

You decided. You decided to put the wall up and you decided that those were your boundaries. To systematically go through and kind of take those down is uncomfortable.

I was uncomfortable going and doing things on social media and doing things with my practice. I was uncomfortable. But I found that there's a lot of benefit there for me and there's a lot of benefit for other people to kind of move outside of their comfort zones when it comes to foods that they think are real food.

There is that sort of discomfort of, "Is this going to work finally?" I see that a lot at MyNaturowellness. By the time patients come to me, they have tried 12 other doctors and 10 other things. And they're asking, "Is this really going to work for me? Is this the thing that's going to work for me finally?"

So there is that discomfort too. And that's a really important point to acknowledge.

The Path Forward

These three principles, eliminate sources of toxicity, add in foods that are healing and nurturing, and cleanse before you rebuild, are the foundation of everything we do at MyNaturowellness.

They're simple in concept but profound in practice. And they work.

If you're ready to take control of your health, if you're ready to feel better, think clearer, and have more energy, these principles are where we start.

I'd love to help you apply them to your unique situation. You can visit www.mynaturowellness.com to schedule an appointment and talk about your health goals.

Because you deserve to feel amazing. And with the right approach, you will.