Terry Wahls' : The Wahls Protocol
 

Has anyone read this yet?

I'm particularly interested in the top phase of her program, which she calls "Wahls Paleo Plus" which is ketogenic but has very high vegetable requirements.

I'm currently experimenting with a paleo anti-inflammatory elimination diet and my carb count has almost tripled due to the higher veggies and daily serving of berries. I don't intend to stay on this super-restricted elimination forever, however, and I'm really interested to see what people think of Wahl's ketogenic level.

Here's the description of this part of her program (taken from a blog reviewing her book)

For those who may be interested, this is a link to the TED talk she gave a couple of years ago, along with links to her website etc:

Dr. Terry Wahls gives a talk on how a Paleo diet cured her MS.
http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthread.php?t=436081

I have it, my library ordered it and I was first in line :-)
Haven't finished it yet, but it is well written and I am enjoying her take on Paleo for auto-immune disorders.
Good summary above, the 6 cups of veggies didn't phase me, I make green protein smoothies to fit in the volume, but 5 T of CO?
Long description of various fats, MCTs and CO for brain health. Yet from her numbers for an "average woman" it is only 65% fat, where some Keto plans suggest 75% for a typical meal plan.
IF is eat just twice a day and fast 12-16 hours, also close to what I do now.

Also, Dr Wahls has been hot on the book release media trail. Most of her interviews are listed on her website. Two I thought particularly good were the one with Sarah Ballantyne, author of Paleo Auto-Immune Approach and host of ThePaleoView, and Robb Wolf's. Both free podcasts on iTunes.

Thanks Janet.

I think I'll order it, although I feel like I'm diet jumping right now!

I've been tracking my food and macros for a while now, and as I went AIP in early March my numbers have jumped around, and I'm around 60-65% fat, which is considerably lower than it was, and carbs up percentage wise much higher. My protein also has climbed some, I think because I'm a little hungrier. But I suspect eating this volume of veggies just makes it mathematically difficult to get the fat percentage up to 75% unless you're just eating a boatload of calories (which I'm careful not to do).

I'll check out those podcasts

Just saw on the other thread you are doing AIP...it is so very similar, doubt Wahl's would add much new. More details of PaleoPlus here for you to compare and consider:

-5 T of CO or 3/4 can of full-fat Coconut milk. Also some unheated olive oil and ghee.
-6-9 cup non starchy veg, fruit (berries) max 1 cup.
- no Grains, legumes, white potatoes, soy, rice, rice milk.
- starchy veg only 2/week with T of fat
-meat intake 6-12 ounces
- eat only two meals/day. Fast 12-16 between dinner and next breakfast.

For the "average women" eating 1,790 cal, that would be 129 g fat or 1160 cal fat.

Her thing is really more about the nutrient density of foods, e.g. The vegetables have to a range of colors, the meats and fish varied, then there are functional foods like seaweed, and supplements. She is all about healing the body at the cellular level, not weight loss.

Highly interesting. I'm doing the Adrenal Fatigue protocol, which emphasizes a hearty breakfast within an hour of waking. This gives me a small lunch and a very light dinner, eaten to appetite.

If I try to stretch out the times, I get a headache; my signal that my body is struggling to increase cortisol according to demand. Which makes me think the warnings about IF being a strain on women's adrenals might be true.

I also upped carbs a bit, but mine were low before; basically adding more berries, yogurt, and nuts. Still no snacking.

Not to disparage anything, merely contrasting. Because it would make sense that different disease states would require different approaches, and skipping lunch might be metabolically different from skipping breakfast.

Actually it's the nutrient dense approach that has me attracted to her protocol. That's what I'm loving the most about AIP. But I think living long term with the AIP restrictions would prove too challenging for me - although I'm open to keeping anything eliminated if I find it causes me issues, which is why I'm planning a careful reintroduction. Staying gluten free for me is not a problem long term, but I'd like to be moving to something with high nutrition and that still lets me eat nuts, coffee and hot sauce...

I am really enjoying the focus on nutrient dense produce (can't wrap my head around organ meats yet though).

Janet, have you read Eating on the Wild Side by Jo Robinson? It's totally changing the way I eat! Finally a rationale for buying this kind of lettuce instead of that... Sarah Ballantyne is great at the gut stuff, but doesn't give anything close to that kind of detail on the fruit and veggies. If you haven't read it, I highly recommend you do, it fits beautifully with a whole foods low carb (or paleo/primal) approach.

Thanks for that recommendation, just placed it on hold. Still waiting for the Paleo Approach book. Our county must be a hot-bed of Paleo and real foods advocates, the library system has been buying every book I and other Real Foodies request.
( the counties around the cities are increasing in sustainable farm land, quite a strong movement)

Liver Pate is my gateway food to organ meats. Love the easy Balanced Bites recipe for it. I get the dark red pastured chicken livers from the farmers market, and load that baby up with butter. I can use it for a fat fast it is so rich. The other suggestion is grinding up heart, liver etc into your ground beef for meatloaf, etc. so you don't taste it. Brandy in the pate could mask it even more.

Right now I need to lose a few pounds, and am low on veggies, but the minute I am happy i'll add back as many veggies as possible. Spring is around the corner here, so looking forward to the new crops.

Compare 150g of meat to same amount of veggies, see just how nutritionally dense those veggies really are. When it comes to nutrition density, meat is king. Otherwise, that diet looks exactly like any other LC plan. I see no fundamental difference, so I expect no difference in results.

Never say never... but to be sure that all that "nutrient density" from those phytonutrient-rich vegetables is actually a plus, you'd have to test the diet vs a diet without those vegetables.

Acceptability of the diet is always a good thing, though. For most people, high veggies plus coconut oil is probably an easier sale than just a ketogenic diet--and to be therapeutic for MS, the needed ketogenic ratio might be extreme enough to make people's willingness to even do the diet a real issue.

:thup: IMHO "nutritional density" is defined different ways depending on the bias of the plan/person/salesperson. But the healthy eating plan one can stick to is bound to be the one that works.

This is her Ancestral Health Symposium presentation: http://youtu.be/wg216KCuXSM

What is interesting is that Dr. Wahls had signs of MS in the 1990s, having been a vegetarian for 20 years. In 2002, after diagnosis and decline, she followed Dr. Cordain's The Paleo Diet for about five years. As she continued to decline, she researched nutrients needed for brain health, first getting them from supplements, and then later realizing it would be better to get them food. There was some improvement with the added supplements, but it was when she added those same nutrients from whole foods (various colored vegetables, sulfur containing veg, seaweed, bone broth, organ meats, etc) that her decline started to reverse. So while a low carb Paleo Diet with vegetables was helpful, it was not until specific whole foods nutrients were added and carefully dosed if you will, did she really have the improvements seen in her lecture.

Dr Wahls follows the "Paleo Plus" level of her diet, but there are two less intense versions. At its core, it is no gluten, no dairy, and sadly no eggs. 9 cups of veg in 3 categories, which is lowered on the most strict diet because that has additional required nutrient foods and fats.

How ironic that vegetables would be so instrumental in what cured her.

However, the nutrients she was missing would not be on a vegetarian diet, I'm guessing. Such diets are very low on saturated fat and very high in PUFAs, from my experience. The opposite of what her body needed.