The UltraMind Solution (93 page)

Any food additives

Potassium bromate, propyl gallate, sodium nitrite, sodium nitrate, monosodium glutamate, etc.

Check out the Center for Science in the Public Interest’s website for further information and updates:
www.cspinet.org/reports/chemcuisine.htm
.

Red meats (unless organic or grass-fed) and organ meats (liver, thymus or sweetbreads, and kidneys)

Large predatory fish and river fish, including swordfish, tuna, tilefish, and shark, which contain mercury and other contaminants in unacceptable amounts.

Avoid the fruits and vegetables with the highest toxin load. Here are the ten worst offenders: peaches, apples, sweet bell peppers, celery, nectarines, strawberries, cherries, lettuce, grapes, and pears. (See
www.foodnews.org
for a list of low-and high-pesticide containing foods.) Choose only organic versions of the fruits and vegetables noted above, as their conventionally farmed counterparts have the highest toxic burden.

Caffeine (sodas, coffee, tea)

Alcohol

These are the primary foods you will avoid during the program. However, there is another critically important group of foods you will avoid as well. These are the foods that are most likely giving you brain allergies.

The stresses of our modern, toxic, genetically altered, nutrient-depleted diet; the stress of our lives; and the overuse of antibiotics and other gut-damaging stresses have led many modern humans to suffer from delayed or hidden food allergies. This is the result of a leaky gut. (See chapters 8 and 9 for a refresher on food allergies.)

A leaky gut leads to brain “allergies.”
¹
Clearing up these brain allergies can dramatically impact your mood, attention, and behavior, and may resolve a laundry list of symptoms, including digestive, allergic, autoimmune, and neurological symptoms.

The only way to know what you are allergic to (aside from medical IgE and IgG allergy testing) is to eliminate certain substances from your diet and then systematically add them back in. This is called an elimination/ reintroduction diet, and it is a critical part of the UltraMind Solution.

The concept is simple. If you get rid of the foods that commonly cause bad reactions, you may feel better and you can heal. If you add them back and you get sick, you know you have a problem with them.

The most common and most serious undiagnosed immune or toxic reactions are to gluten and dairy (especially the casein, and not so much the whey component, of dairy). These are also the main allergens and foods that cause bad brain reactions. Stopping these foods can be life changing for the majority with brain or mood problems.

The inflammation and toxic effects of these otherwise harmless and often healthful foods are so powerful in derailing our brain function that they can lead to everything from brain fog, to depression, to ADHD, autism, and dementia.

That is why I recommend a short holiday from these two worst offenders,
which are unfortunately the staples in our diet. During the six-week program you will eliminate the following foods in addition to those listed above:

Gluten (from wheat, barley, rye, spelt, kamut, triticale, and oats)

And dairy (milk, cheese, yogurt, sour cream, ice cream)