The Virgin Diet

I hate to beat a dead horse, or however that saying goes, but I am absolutely fascinated by the concept of elimination diets. As I've mentioned before, I'm putting together a holistic wellness program for patients, heavily focused on diet and lifestyle. Therefore, I've spent quite a bit of time researching and have begun to build relationships with some great companies. One of the programs that I'm really loving is the Virgin Diet, which asks participants to eliminate the top 7 inflammatory foods for 21 days, and then gradually reintroduce them. The goals is to establish a diet that is tailored to one's unique sensitivities. The one issue that I have with the program is that the author, JJ Virgin, recommends a vegan protein powder that contains sugar. She also recommends the use of xylitol as a sweetener. Now, I'm all for cutting out sugar and artificial sweeteners, so I have a hard time accepting xylitol as a good alternative. I feel much better recommending stevia, or even honey or maple syrup.

I truly believe that a diet of primarily wholefoods, is key to healing, but I also recognize the benefits of a quality protein supplement. Thus far I have found one product that I think I will end up recommending to patients. Garden of Life makes a RAW protein powder that contains fermented soy, but no added sugar, and no gluten, corn, or dairy. I struggle with this because I'm still trying to figure out which is worse, fermented soy or sugar. From what I've read fermented soy, has significant health benefits,  just question whether it is a problem for those with a soy sensitivity.

After a week of tummy troubles, I'm really feeling motivated to try the Virgin Diet myself. Paleo already eliminates corn, soy, dairy, gluten, peanuts, and sugar so my biggest challenge will be to eliminate eggs. Unfortunately, this means no more breakfast cake for a while. I plan to start my 21 days on Monday the 4th, because I  want to try it out before I go recommending it to patients.  I better get a move on it since I'm all set to start seeing patients next week!

I actually ended up swinging by Wholefoods on my way home today and picking up some RAW protein. I didn't have time for lunch today (a huge no no!) so I made a shake when I got home. Here's the recipe:

1 scoop raw chocolate protein powder
10 oz unsweetened coconut milk
1/2 cup frozen blackberries
1 tbsp almond butter

This shake was unbelievably good! Just the right amount of sweet and chocolatey goodness all from stevia and raw cacao. Again, I am all for whole foods, but I do believe that a quality protein shake has significant health benefits. I'm looking forward to trying this one out for the next few weeks.