Nutrition

To us, Path to Whole Health represents a health restoration process that involves the identification and subsequent removal of obstacles to healing. Path to Whole Health likewise emphasizes the importance of close clinician-patient collaboration and active-patient participation. The majority of our patients suffer chronic, and oftentimes, multiple conditions. The configurations of their health disorders are complex and require step-by-step “detective work.”

One of the first steps to resolving a health disorder is understanding nutritional deficiencies—common “road blocks” along the path to whole health. Of note, we view “nutrition” in the much broader sense of the word: we need to consider not only the quality of our food, but also the quality of our thoughts and feelings that “feed” intellectual, emotional, and spiritual dimensions of our being.

As distinct individuals, genetics and environmental influences determine our unique “constitution” and nutritional needs. Chronic illness adds a layer of complexity to determining nutritional needs. Accordingly, an initial therapeutic meal plan is largely restrictive, involving complete removal of certain foods from the diet for 4 to 8 weeks. During this time, changes in symptoms and metabolic trends are closely monitored. The outcome of each dietary intervention gives me “food for thought,” in terms of the next logical step. In other words, each dietary intervention has both therapeutic and diagnostic attributes. Eventually, the meal plan gets gradually expanded, though most of my patients must remain attentive.