FASST or Food As Simple Sustainable Therapy is a nutrition plan we developed after helping hundreds of patients prevent and reverse disease through diet.
Why
Practicing family medicine for over 20 years, I have seen the rapid increase of preventable chronic conditions such as type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease and obesity. And during the first 10 years of my practice, despite my best efforts, I was unable to make a dent in the increasing incidence of these ailments in my own patients. Many times I felt frustrated and helpless as I watched my patients develop high blood pressure and diabetes while under my care. Even more disheartening was the fact that many of my patients were exercising and eating the way I recommended. They exercised 5 days per week and followed the nutritional plan I recommended which was handed down from either the American Heart Association or the American Diabetes Association. In the end, I was left only to prescribe medications for my patients new onset hypertension (high blood pressure) and impending diabetes.
I then discovered the power of diet! Surprisingly, they don’t teach nutrition in medical school (OK, a 2 hour course). I was first introduced to the power of a truly nutritious diet from one of my diabetic patients. She had been working to improve her blood sugars but we couldn’t seem to get her HGA1C (a lab that evaluates blood sugar control – normal 5.6 and less) under 9 despite being on 2 oral medications and 36 units of insulin daily. However, in 26 days, she had lost 10+ pounds and her blood sugars were completely under control and …. she was off all of her medications! I knew diet made the biggest impact on blood sugar, especially people with diabetes, but I did’t know that such profound results were possible with diet alone. From that day forward, I have approached my practice with the intention to improve my patients health through proper nutrition first…..and medications second…. and only when necessary.
The Plan
The FASST Plan is the result of 6 years of the research and experience treating patients through nutrition. I have listened to my patients for 20 years talk about diets they have tried with varying success, but rarely with sustained results. All of this was incorporated into the philosophy of the FASST Plan: Sustainable from day 1. The FASST Plan divides foods into Always, Sometimes and Avoidance foods. Note that we don’t have a Never foods category. Because that isn’t reality. Never is black and white, meaning there is no room for gray. The problem is if you don’t adhere to NEVER, then you fail. Failure is not an option in the FASST Plan because there are no hard and fast rules, but rather guidelines…..much like the pirate code of Captain Jack Sparrow (sorry, couldn’t resist).
The Guidelines
The FASST Plan has 5 basic guidelines:
- Try to eat 3 meals per day
- Try not to snack in between meals (you’re not in kindergarten, you don’t need a snack)
- Cut out highly processed foods, added sugar, refined carbohydrates and refined seed oils
- Drink 64 oz of water daily (or 1/2 of your body weight in oz, whichever is less)
- Move your body 30″ every day
The Core 4
The core 4 is the hallmark of the FASST Plan and helps to make up the Always foods. These are foods that meet the needs of every human being and together maximize good health by:
- Fueling your body without spiking your blood sugar
- Containing the proper nutrients needed for proper cell function, repair and replacement
- Providing fiber to build a healthy and diverse microbiome and thus decrease systemic inflammation
Protein
Healthy Fat
Leafy Greens
Non Starchy Vegetables
Provide the building blocks for healthy muscles and cells
Thermogenic – requires energy to breakdown and digest
Provide the building blocks for hormones, vitamin D and bile
Aid in the absorption of vitamin A, E, D and K
Great source of energy
Rich in vitamins and minerals, including calcium
High in phytonutrients that protect cells from the damaing effects of free radicals
Help to stabilize blood sugar by decreasing sugar absorption from the gut
Provides food to the microbiome (prebiotic)
Healthy source of carbohydrates
Always Foods
Always foods contain the Core 4 in addition to starchy vegetables, fruit and cultured foods. These foods satisfy the necessary elements of nutrition to sustain good health. These are foods that should make up the majority of your diet. Some foods should be consumed more than others such as the non starchy vegetables vs starchy vegetables, but each promotes good health.
Sometimes Foods
Sometimes foods include legumes and non-gluten grains. These foods are listed in the somewhat category because their ability to raise blood sugar outweighs their nutritional value. Meaning, they will raise blood sugar much more than the amount of vitamins and nutrients they provide. That is why we have made recommendations about how much and how often they should be consumed. However, everyone has different nutritional needs. An athlete will need more carbohydrates than the average person and so will need more carbohydrates to use as energy; therefore, they will need more of the sometimes foods. Whereas, someone who has diabetes or is trying to lose weight should consume less of these foods.
We have included alcohol in this category as well. Clearly we cannot make a blanketed statement about the amount of alcohol one should consume. There are some who don’t drink because they don’t like the taste or the effects of alcohol and then there are others that don’t drink because of previous abuse issues. Alcohol provides wasted calories that, if consumed in excess, have detrimental effects on your health. Overall, 0-3 drinks per week is a middle ground where one can either not drink at all or have a drink 1-2 times per week.
Avoidance Foods
Notice I didn’t say NEVER foods. This is deliberate. Once someone feels they can’t have something…..well, then they want it. We get it. Never is not reality. Are you never going to have a cookie again? No. But having an understanding of how often you can have something from this category, without guilt, can provide enough clarity so these foods don’t feel so out of reach. And just a side note, guilt is a meaningless emotion. It serves no purpose but to degrade one’ self worth. I could talk about this all day….but that would be an entirely different blog post.
Of all of the categories listed in the Avoidance foods, Added Sugar is probably the most important. This means all form of sugar. Table sugar vs coconut sugar vs Agave. It’s all sugar! Any natural food that is processed down to its sweetest form, i.e. Stevia, has lost all nutritional value and can spike your blood sugar. Best to avoid added sugar as much as possible. Unless you make a conscious decision to have a treat with added sugar. Then have it and thoroughly enjoy it. But just don’t make this a daily occurrence, rather 1-2 times per month. The best form of sugar will always be whole fruit.
I want to take a minute and touch on dairy. It is important to know that milk is a language between a mama cow and a baby cow. And the language spoken is….hormones. Hormones are a vehicle of communication throughout the entire body. We have our own hormones and don’t need to consume those of another species. Even the cows understand it. They stopped drinking milk after just a few months of age.