Through my doctor's office, the dietician is working with me on a "customized" eating plan. It looks like they start with different eating plans based on medical needs and customize the number of servings and distribution of them during the day of different categories of foods. As an example of the customization, the whole dairy category is crossed off my sheet due to inflammation indicators in my bloodwork. The perspective is that good foods will provide healing at the cellular level. I've done some internet research on this program, but not getting a lot of independent information. There are a couple of research studies, but they also involve "medical food" which I'm not participating in. (The medical food appears to be shakes and perhaps food bars by Metagenics) There are a lot of physicians in the US who are making the program available to their patients.
They start out with a Bioimpedance Analysis and of course your medical information and blood labwork. The foods and plan I'm on appear to be very close to the Mediterranean Diet (without the red wine
), but it seems very easy to follow as foods are broken up into very specific categories and I'm supposed to eat a given number of servings in each category daily, with unlimited vegetables (from a list). Also of course water and exercise. And logging of what I eat. For the first time ever (on a diet) I'm having a hard time eating everything I'm supposed to eat - and that's at about 1300 calories a day when I log it into FitDay.
During a 12 week period I will meet with the Dietician 4-5 times, have the Bioimpedance test done at the beginning, midpoint and end. And bloodwork again at the end. In my case, the objective is to improve the bloodwork and cellular health and not have to start taking medications. Some folks may be doing this to get off medications. There was at least a Gluten-free program also. Also, my insurance plan is covering this (except my co-pays) as it's to turnaround borderline medical conditions and keep me off medication (i.e., keep down their costs.)
Has anyone else heard of or participated in this plan? My doctor's office doesn't advertise that this is a Metagenics or FirstLine Therapy plan. But the name is on the sheet of foods is FirstLine Therapy.
BTW - it seems to be working. I'm losing weight. I'm not at midpoint yet, but a separate bloodtest I took showed some improvements already. I've slept through the night more times in 5 weeks than I usually do in a year. And it's easy.