Terry Wahls Diet for Chronic Pain & Autoimmunity. An INTERVIEW on The Wahls Protocol

For those of you who are still not familiar with Dr. Terry Wahls Diet and who are looking for an optimal dietary regiment to better manage autoimmune diseases and chronic conditions, today I have the honor of introducing you to an incredible woman and researcher, the creator of the Wahls Protocol!

Dr. Terry Wahls is a clinical professor of Medicine at the University of Iowa where she conducts clinical trials.

In the fall of 2007, she created the Wahls Protocl, a program of intensive nutrition and exercise that allowed her, within one year, to walk again and even go on an 18 mile bicycle ride, and now she pedals to work every day!

Dr. Terry Wahls diet is very similar to the Autoimmune Protocol and GAPS Diets, but with a stricter focus on specific and copious amounts of vegetables (6 to 9 cups a day), to provide the body with optimal amounts of nutrients. The Wahls diet also stresses a lot on maximizing the vitamin, mineral and essential fat intake per calorie while reducing the toxin exposure.

What an honor it was for me to interview Dr. Terry Wahls! It was 2014 when I first saw her famous Ted Talk on how she beat Multiple Sclearosis naturally… and that talk inspired me so much to start digging deeper into the connection between our health and the food we eat.

To make it easier for you guys to access all the information you want to know about Dr. Terry Wahls diet and protocol, I wrote down all the questions I asked her below, with all the time stamps that correspond to the exact moment in the video in which we address that specific topic.

Make sure to share this interview with anybody who might benefit from it. The Wahls Protocol is powerful and Dr. Terry Wahls diet is definitely something you should look into if you are struggling with chronic conditions and autoimmune disease.

Enjoy and let me know your thoughts in a comment!

1. [1.26] Hello Dr. Wahls, for those listening who don’t know about you yet, can you give us a little introduction to what the Wahls Protocol is, who it’s for and how you discovered it?
2. [4.31] I know that the dietary program in the Wahls Protocol has 3 levels: Wahls Diet, Wahls Paleo, and Wahls Paleo Plus. What are the foods to include and avoid during these 3 levels and how should one progress through them?
3. [5.50] What should my goal be if I start the Wahls Protocol? Should I aim to reach level 3 “Wahls Paleo Plus” or should I settle on level 1 or 2 if I notice significant health improvements?
4. [7.15] Do you think that following this protocol is only good for people who are suffering from an autoimmune problem or also from other diseases?
5. [8.35] A question I receive very often from my readers is: “How should I balance my nutrients in my plate? And I know that you like to talk about that, and especially about the importance of fat in out diet.
6. [11.03] Talking about the ideal composition of a plate in terms of macronutrients, what percentages of fats, carbs, proteins should I put in my plate?
7. [12.36] Would you recommend to anyone who has an autoimmune disease to avoid gluten?
8. [13.41] You were talking before about the different kinds of Omegas. I have done the AIP, the Autoimmune Protocol and they usually recommend to balance out the Omega 6 intake with Omega 3s, because Omega 6 fats are not as good from my understanding…. Is that right?
9. [15.07] What about the omega 6 fats in chicken? Because from my understanding, that’s one type of meat that you should try to limit or balance out with fish.
10. [15.55] I know that in all the healing protocols that there are today, like the GAPS diet and the Autoimmune Protocol, diet is not the only thing we should be concerned about. Stress has a massive impact on your health and your success in achieving good results from these protocols if you are trying to heal from a chronic condition.
11. [18.38] I feel that stress is one of the sneakiest dangers for our health because nobody thinks they are stressed, and I feel like we always associate stress with being overworked, and then people are like: “no, I am not working too much… so I am not stressed”, but stress has many faces.
12. [19.58] You mentioned just now the importance of detoxification. What is it that we need to detoxify from exactly?
13. [22.07] What is the best procedure to get rid of these toxins?
14. [23.09] That’s amazing how powerful food is! And what we can achieve with it without even using supplements or medications!
15. [24.06] What was the difference that made you see that improvement? Because you said that wit the paleo diet you couldn’t really see improvements and, only when you stepped up to your customized Wahls Protocol, you saw significant changes… What were the most important modifications that you added to the paleo diet?
16. [25.16] I feel that one of the biggest mistake that people make when it comes to following healing diets is that they only limit themselves to staying away from the foods they know they shouldn’t be eating, but then they don’t want consume the “so called” healing foods, like bone broth or organ meat.
17. [26.12] The benefits of eating liver.
18. [27.17] The best types of liver: rabbit and lamb.
19. [27.29] Terry Wahls “Transform Your Health Tour” in Australia in Spring 2018.
20. [29.00] How to win a free ticket to the live stream of Dr. Wahls Seminar in Australia.
21. [30.26] The Wahls Protocol is not just for Multiple Sclerosis but for ALL autoimmune conditions and chronic diseases.
22. [31.16] Dr. Terry Wahls Diet for cancer
23. [32.35] Terry Wahls Diet and Ketosis
24. [32.53] Pet therapy as a strategy to reduce stress
25. [34.00] Feeling privileged and grateful for the health we do have

The information you’ll absorb during this interview is priceless, but to learn even more about Dr. Terry Wahls diet make sure to get a copy of her books: The Wahls Protocol: A Radical New Way to Treat All Chronic Autoimmune Conditions Using Paleo Principles, and of her the cookbook The Wahls ProtocolCooking for Life: The Revolutionary Modern Paleo Plan to Treat All Chronic Autoimmune Conditions.

Enjoy the read and don’t forget to share!

Ambra