Food as Medicine: Day 1

As many know, I am in the process of completing a certification in Functional Medicine. One of the concepts I am excited about is using Food as Medicine. The organization I am getting my training through – the Institute for Functional Medicine (IFM) has many published food plans based on what is wrong with the patient. They all start with a basic food plan called the Core Food plan. There is a Mito food plan to boost the mitochondria for people with Energy production concerns. There is a Detox food plan for people who have symptoms related to toxic exposures. The Renew food plan just helps people get back on track. A lot of practitioners start with the elimination diet, to try to see what food reactions might be causing symptoms. We are actually going to do that in a few weeks when our son goes back to school – we don’t think he needs to suffer our reactions to this. Yes, caffeine is on the top of the elimination list, but I am more worried about Milk!!

We are starting with the CardioMetabolic Food plan for people with Diabetes, Insulin Resistance and Metabolic syndrome.

So what is really cool is that IFM not only creates these food plans, but they also have suggested daily servings and a weeks worth of menus and recipes – complete with a grocery list. So I decided to go shopping this weekend and prepare for the week. (Thus the refrigerator shot above.)

I am creating this blog to update you on our progress. This will include the menus, and the pros and cons of doing a diet like this. I feel that if I am going to recommend these to my patients, that I also want to live the experience of going through this plan.

I will update this blog on a daily Basis. I will make comments on the events from yesterday

DAY 1 – Sunday

• Menu
  • Breakfast:
    • Fresh Spinach Quiche Cups
    • Orange
  • Snack
    • Greek Yogurt
    • Blackberries
  • Lunch
    • Chicken Pomegranate Quinoa Salad
    • Sugar Snap Peas, Carrots and Yellow Pepper Sticks
  • Snack
    • Almonds
    • Dark Chocolate
  • Dinner
    • Ten Vegetable Soup with Tempeh
    • Savory Seed Crackers

PROS AND CONS

Pros:

• The menus are easy, and the food is very tasty.
• Everything is laid out for you and with the shopping list, its easy to get everything you need
• The food is very filling

Cons:

• Although the menus are easy, each meal took a lot of time to prepare mostly because it is fresh and requires a lot of cutting. This is probably why we tend to want to go for fast food and processed foods.
  • I literally spent the whole day in the kitchen yesterday. My husband said I could get a new job as a chef!
  • I work part time, so I think this would be hard for a two job family.
  • But stay tuned, because I think day two won’t be as bad.
• I bought all of the food for the week and it ran up quite a grocery bill.
  • But sometimes this is the cost of eating right. However, after this is over, I plan to make a new menu that is more reasonable to give to my patients.
• I think having “special Meals” once a day or every couple of days would work well.

So all in all, Day 1 was a success, but a lot of work for one day. Good thing it was a Sunday. Except for the recommended portion sizes I think we got our fill, but maybe only because we went above the recommended sizes.

So stay tuned for tomorrow – I can’t wait to taste the crackers…

See new post for day two