Dr. Terry Wahls is an Institute for Functional Medicine Certified Practitioner and board-certified internal medicine physician. She conducts clinical trials, testing the efficacy of diet and lifestyle changes in the setting of autoimmunity.
December 22, 2022As a functional medicine doctor who used diet and lifestyle changes to restore my health after I was wheelchair-bound with MS, I'm often asked what I eat in a typical day. The answer? It depends on the time of year.
I generally follow my Wahls Protocol—a nutrient-rich paleo diet that includes greens, sulfur-rich and deeply colored vegetables, berries, grass-fed meat, wild fish, organ meat, and seaweed. However, as the seasons change, I make some tweaks that work well for my body: During the winter, I'll eat the Wahls Paleo Plus version of my diet (the ketogenic version of Wahls Protocol), and in the summer, I'll follow a low-glycemic-index version of my diet plan.
No matter the season, I eat one or two meals a day in order to reap the mitochondrial benefits of a 12- to 16-hour fast.
Seasonal changes aside, here's what I eat in a typical day for vibrant energy and overall health.
My day always starts with a vegetable-based smoothie with greens, coconut milk, water, and ice. I drink it before work, or at lunchtime, depending on when I want to break my fast. I'll typically have another vegetable smoothie with dinner.
One of these smoothies will be primarily greens-based, while the other one will be centered around heirloom carrots or beets. I'm also very intentional about having a wide variety of greens for my smoothies: I love wild edibles such as dandelions, plantain, or lamb's quarters, and greens from my garden such as kale, bok choy, lettuce, spinach, radish greens, and beet greens.
I also use the herbs from my garden—borage, oregano, basil, savory, thyme, sage, lavender, lavage, parsley, lemon balm, mint, dill, and tarragon are my favorites.
During the winter, I often have soup. I'll start with a chicken bone broth base, then I'll add chopped vegetables, chopped greens, and a can of coconut milk and let it simmer for five minutes. (Most often these vegetables are frozen from our garden.) I'll add chopped pre-cooked meat, and serve. This meal is super easy—it takes just 15 minutes to prepare.