Dr. Terry Wahls Reverses MS Through Plant Based Diet
Terry Wahls is a medical doctor who has overcome multiple sclerosis through diet, alternative medical treatments, meditation and exercise, and teaches others to do the same
Dr. Terry Wahls is my idea of a heroine. I admire her because she’s a conventional medical doctor who had the courage to step outside of the medical box, and the determination to persist until she found a better way to treat her MS.
Thanks to Savvy Vegetarian supporter Dee Davis for letting me know about Terry Wahls story via the Food Matters website.
I first heard about Dr. Terry Wahls a couple of years ago through a friend who lives in Iowa City, who went to one of her lectures, and sent me a copy of Dr. Wahl’s first book, “Minding Your Mitochondria”. In that book, she outlined her dietary protocol, explaining mitochondria and how it’s affected by nutrition.
Terry Wahls is a clinical professor of medicine at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine., Iowa City IA USA, where she teaches internal medicine residents in their primary care clinics. Dr. Wahls also does clinical research and has published over 60 peer-reviewed scientific abstracts, posters and papers.
The following is a text excerpt from her TED talk in Iowa City, Nov. 2011.
“Yes, it will cost more to eat these beautiful vegetables and berries.
But I assure you, you are going to pay the price. You will pay the price now for food that restores your health and vitality, or you will pay the price for doctors visit, prescription drugs, surgeries, missed time from work, early retirement and nursing home care. The choice is yours.
I am the canary in the coal mine, here as a warning to all of you. We have a choice. We can continue to eat that delicious, convenient, tasty processed food and watch ourselves and our children grow steadily more depressed, overweight and diabetic.
Or, we can continue to watch health care costs balloon out of control, bankrupting us individually and collectively as a country.
Or, we can eat for our mitochondria, eating vegetables and berries, organic grass fed meat, and seaweed, and have more vitality.
We all have a choice. I choose to teach the public about the healing power of food, and to conduct clinical trials.”
The Wahls Diet looks to me like a Paleo diet adapted to the needs of those wtih chronic neurological disorders in the 21st century. It includes organic grass fed meat, organ meats, seafood and seaweed as well as heaps of fresh organic vegetables. Dr. Wahls also recommends going gluten and dairy free to eliminate likely food allergies.
Although I suspect that The Wahls Diet could be made vegan, and it would be interesting to hear from vegan health experts on the subject, that’s beyond the scope of this article. But, from watching Dr. Terry Wahl’s TED talk I realized that even committed health consious vegans need to eat a LOT more veggies!
The Wahls Foundation is currently testing Dr. Wahls dietary interventions and others. The foundation is raising money privately to complete the clinical trials.
Dr. Wahl’s Books and CDs are available on her website, and the sales help to support her resarch foundation.
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As a guest on your blog, I will be very respectful in pointing out that the nutritional makeup of a typical vegan diet consisting of highly processed wheat and soy products is not in any way consistent with the diet that Terry Wahls recommends. Yes, Terry does consume large amounts of vegetables. By volume that would appear to make it a ‘plant based diet.’ However, even 9 cups of vegetables contain relatively few calories. One must get her/his calories from somewhere, and Terry gets a significant portion of hers from animal fats and proteins. Especially important are essential fats only obtainable from fish and shellfish. For more information check out Jack Kruse’s ‘Brain Gut’ series. Of course, if what you are doing is working for your lifestyle, then that is great. Thanks for your consideration.
Her dietary suggestions are very similar at the core to Dr. Joel Furhman’s Eat to Live plan, which can easily be vegetarian.
Its ok suggesting to eat more healthy foods but as always its down to cost for the majority of us. I’m sure of us would eat more when the costs come down to a more affordable level.
Hi Me, why don’t you instead read my comments on the vegan baby death? http://www.savvyvegetarian.com.....baby-death. I have no problem at all with your following a Paleo diet. I would just like you to return the favor and show the same tolerance for my dietary choices. :-)
I know I am on the wrong page, because I am Paleo and not vegetarian. Just don’t shoot me :)
I have never been a vegetarian and never will be. However, I want to share an article that I found - if you are a vegan I hope your read this and think about this:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....iency.html
I am currently trying out Dr. Walhs’ diet, because I became very sick eating whole grains (so much for following USDA guidelines) and was diagnosed as gluten intolerant (and I have developed other health problems connected to eating gluten all my life being gluten intolerant).
Anyway, something to think about.
I’m amazed, as always when this happens, as it inevitably does (so why am I amazed) that my article about Terry Wahls ended up in comments as a flaming match between the vegans and the carnivores - which nobody can win, and which leaves bad feeling. And it’s all because I innocently referred to her dietary protocol as “plant-based”. Even though it includes meat, it’s mostly plants, which makes it plant based. But so what! Isn’t anybody else impressed as hell with Dr. Wahls defeating MS through alternative medicine, meditation and DIET, rather than conventional medicine? Even though she’s a conventional medical doctor, and teacher of doctors? That’s huge, and far more important than vegan vs carnivore. It’s something that everyone can celebrate. Dr. Wahls isn’t Mother Theresa of course, merely a highly intelligent, educated, determined and courageous woman. who climbed outside a big strong locked box to do something her training told her couldn’t be done. As for her statement that she doesn’t think veg diet will do it, it’s possible that she hasn’t looked into it enough, or tried it, because what she’s doing is working. On the other hand, she’s not attacking vegetarians and vegans. So please let’s clap hands for Dr. Terry Wahls and leave it at that.
AK please don’t tell other who are doing it, eating vegan successfully, that it can’t be done. Because we are doing it!
AK. From my experience of no meat for over 25 years, I assure you, I am getting all the protein and essential fatty acids that I need. All the tofu, beans and nuts and seeds I eat have no given me an “inflammatory” condition. In all my years of eating I have become sensitive. Never have I felt that rice and beans were “toxic” in anyways. That food leaves me clear headed, strong, satisfied. On the contrary have you not read how meat and animal products are some of the most inflammatory foods? My diet is “risky” and “disease provoking”? Have you read The china Study? If you did you would see that diets heavy in animal foods are the true disease producers. Not saying other foods are not as well…like sugar, alcohol, etc but animal foods are the prime cause of diabetes, heart disease, many cancers, etc. I am really surprised I have to write this…this has been confirmed over and over.
Also, stone age man is not the ideal human! Yes, they were carnivorous but we were given intelligence, creativity, intuition, wisdom, etc. We were meant to grow from stone age man not try to emulate him! I am certain we were meant to grow crops as it was then that true civilization started. The ability to grow our own food was a turning point where time was freed up to develop our minds, souls and we did, thank god. We are far removed from the cave man as we should be going on to ever greater accomplishments and being.
I think it’s amusing the lengths people go to deny the truth about veganism. To say it is “unethical”…that’s a new one. To me, and most other fair minded individuals, the decision to eat with the least harm to other beings is the most ethical choice hands down.
Dr. Wahls is a very sensible woman!
AK, I didn’t invent vegetarian diet, it’s been there all along. Large groups of people throughout the ages and in all parts of the world have thrived on it since long before science was invented. I feel completely comfortable following it myself, and supporting others who choose to follow it. My intent with this post is to publicize Dr. Terry Wahls, her personal heroism, and her work with MS. I have not said that I think a veg diet would be better for people suffering from MS. I simply don’t know if that is so.
Going by what I’ve read, the scientific basis for the Paleo diet is sketchy at best. And personally, I can’t think of any good reason why people should eat the way their human ancestors did in the stone age. Humans have evolved, or perhaps devolved, and aren’t what they were then. Even if the details of that diet are accurate (many doubt it), there are good reasons why it’s difficult for most people to undertake such an extreme diet. However, if Dr. Wahls chooses to describe her diet as Paleo that’s fine with me. If it works for people with MS, that’s wonderful, and I applaud what she’s doing.
The branch chain amino acids and essential fatty acids cannot be obtained from vegetable sources. These are crucial for repair and proper cellular function. The very foods vegetarians rely on for protein are the exact reason for the auto-immune and inflammatory condition in the first place. Not only do vegetarian protein containing foods (grains and legumes) contain the toxic proteins that were meant to protect the seed of the plant in nature, they are also loaded with glucose. To even try to call a paleo diet “vegetarian like” is very misrepresenting. Hunting tools and the ability for humans to hunt food was a primary reason for humans to be able to evolve bigger brains and survive over the past few million years. The paleo diet is based on archeology, human physiology and metabolism. We have to know who our ancestors were and how they lived in order to understand oursleves. They were far from vegetarian. They were pretty carniverous actually, especially over the recent 100 thousand year ice age. If you actually analyze the nutrient content of animal vs plant food you will notice that animal products are much richer in things like zinc, selenium, iron, healthy stable non-inflammatory fats, high quality protein, CLA, and many vitamins (including B12). I respect vegetarian goals of eating for health and to save our environment, but unfortunately the science and research doesnt back your approach. Its actually quite opposite, your diet is risky, disease promoting and unethical to promote in my opinion.
Here’s her response,,,
The Wahls Foundation
I am often asked about the vegetarian option for the Wahls diet. I expect that benefits will be much smaller without the meat. Consult with a nutritionist who understands functional medicine for guidance. At the very least - go gluten, dairy (and maybe soy) free and take vitamin B12 . Sprout the legumes, seeds and nuts. If not getting the results you want - go fully Paleo. For many it is a journey, step by step. Proceed at the pace that works for you.
Hi Nion, I stand by the words ‘plant based diet’ in describing Dr. Wahls dietary recommendations, because plant based diet means a diet that is mostly plants, not necessarily a vegan or vegetarian diet. Although it’s hard to say exactly from this distance what the Paleo diet consisted of, it’s my understanding that it supposedly was a hunter gatherer diet composed largely of plants, with meat and fish included. I’m not disputing the nutritional value of the animal foods in Dr. Wahls diet, although it’s also my understanding and experience that those nutrients can be obtained from plants. From watching Dr. Wahl’s TED talk, and having read her original book, Minding Your Mitochondria, it’s clear that she recommends eating a huge amount of vegetables, 3 heaping plates full a day, which is 3 times what most vegetarians and vegans eat. That doesn’t leave much room for meats, but it’s not necessary to eat ‘lots’ of animal foods to get the nutrients they provide, especially if they are the type and quality that Dr. Wahls recommends. Medical research has shown that most people eat far too much animal foods, and not nearly enough plant foods. We’d be a healthier society if more of us followed Dr. Wahls plant based Paleo diet.
Actually…it was a Paleo diet. Meaning lots of good quality MEAT with those veggies. This article is misleading. The vitamins, minerals and fats in the meat play a huge part in human body function.
Plant foods can provide all the nutrients you get from animal foods, and a whole lot more that animal foods don’t provide - many vitamins, minerals and scores of phytonutrients. The one exception is Vit B12, which is easily and effectively substituted as an addition to food. Just because Dr. Wahls chooses not to go the vegan route doesn’t mean that a vegan diet isn’t effective in preventing and reversing serious illness, as many researchers have already established. However, I don’t argue with her food choices as what she’s doing is working. She is after all eating mostly plants, and it’s her courage and intelligence that I most admire.
She also mentions that grass fed meat, particularly organ meats are integral and important. Omega 3 fish is also one of the foundations of the diet. I don’t think her diet could be done as a vegetarian or vegan diet, although it is definitely HIGH in plant foods. The animal foods provide nutrients that are not found in plant foods.