Find your healthiest diet with the Whole30 program

In 2009, Melissa Hartwig Urban founded the Whole30 program

At age 16, Urban avoided her painful past by escaping with illegal drugs. For five years she numbed herself with her addiction and was not eating well or exercising.

During rehab, she decided to take control over every aspect of her life, including the food she ate. It was then that she came up with the Whole30 concept. It is not a diet. It is not about losing weight, measuring or counting calories (or inches).

Rather, it is a way to learn about your body and what makes it function best. Problematic foods such as gluten, alcohol and dairy are all eliminated for 30 days, along with all processed food. After the 30 day challenge, you reintroduce foods one at a time to see the results.

Unknowingly, many of us use food as means to reward, punish, numb, soothe and comfort ourselves and others Urban’s goal is to reset our relationship with food to simply be a means of fuel, nutrition and occasional fun.

The “craving” we’re experiencing is usually not a craving for a cookie, but a craving for connection. Food is used as a coping tool for dealing with loneliness, boredom or stress. This is how our health can take a severe turn for the worse over time.

The interesting part of the Whole30 Program: the different diet options which may result from it are nearly infinite. Some people discover they have more energy without the use of sugars. Others discover they sleep better without alcohol or they don’t miss meat.

Diet and nutrition experts agree that there is no one-size-fits-all nutrition guide that works best for every person. Whole30 is a way to listen to your own unique body’s needs and adjust accordingly.

By switching to whole, nutritious, fresh and unprocessed foods many people had great results right away and re-introduced very few foods following the challenge.

Bottom line: An intolerance you didn’t even know you had could be negatively impacting your quality of life. By removing foods which cause these negative effects, you can ensure that everything in your diet is working for you and not against you.