I’ve never been a fad “dieter,” but I believe the food we eat has a strong impact on our mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual lives.

One of the first commandments God ever gave to human beings involved the foods they should and shouldn’t eat (Genesis 2:16-17). Before Samson was born, God gave special instructions as to what the pregnant mother and the son born for the deliverance of Israel should avoid eating (Judges 13:2-5). Of the few details we know about John the Baptist, one significant detail is the surprising simplicity of his diet (Matthew 3:4).

The food we eat does impact multiple spheres of life. Diet is involved in weight, heart health, longevity, brain health, memory, emotional health, and even spiritual acumen.

On this site, we talk specifically about scrupulosity — that is, religious OCD. So the question arises — if diet can impact all those areas of life… ??

Can diet affect our OCD, as well?

Join me as I embark on a journey to find out.

Diet and OCD: A Real Can of Worms — Uh, Beans.

I eat pretty healthy. Sort of.

I’ve eaten a vegetarian diet most of my life, but it hasn’t always been a healthy one. See, my mom used to work in a deli, and she got grossed out by the compromised integrity of meat handling practices.

As a kid, we replaced real meat with fake meat and tofu, and heaped on the carbs.

As an adult, I remained vegetarian, and married a fellow vegetarian (half our family on both sides is vegetarian or vegan — so it’s not a “scrupulosity thing,” it’s a lifestyle choice we feel is meaningful.)

My vegetarian diet isn’t perfect. I eat a lot of carbs, and probably a bit too much oil and sugar.

But I’m fairly healthy. As a “responsible” adult, I eat a salad every day. I eat fruit with my breakfast cereal. About a third of my diet is fresh fruits and vegetables. I use olive oil instead of nasty oils. I eat nuts and seeds instead of dairy to get my calcium.

Not perfect, but not bad, either. It never really crossed my mind that diet might be implicated in obsessive-compulsive disorder.

An Intriguing Idea

A few months ago, I came across a fascinating article on Medium. The headline boldly declared, “I Had Severe OCD for Decades, and then I Changed my Diet,” by John Zoshak.

Surprise of surprises, Zoshak didn’t have just any old OCD — he had scrupulosity (which is what we’re all about here at scrupulosity.com)!

After contracting Crohn’s disease, Zoshak made some dietary changes to deal with gut health and noticed a very significant decrease of symptoms. He says,

I did all of these things in hopes of healing my chronic physical illness — what I did not expect was a near complete elimination of my OCD symptoms. About three months after initiating the new diet, exercising, meditating, and adhering to my drug regimen — I woke up one day and realized I wasn’t experiencing any symptoms. I wasn’t stuck in my head anymore, and I found that although weird thoughts occurred, I could more easily set them aside. I was incredulous. OCD was a specter haunting my life for decades and then one day, it vanished. What could have caused this to happen?

John Zoshak

He hypothesized that his dietary changes were responsible for this incredible lifting of symptoms. A follow-up article described his new diet: low carb, high protein, high fats (the good kind), and lots of fresh fruits and vegetables.

Somewhere he mentioned the word “paleo,” and my vegetarian bias kicked in.

This isn’t for me, I thought. I can never eat animals.

If an OCD diet meant chomping on meat, I figured I would have to just suffer through my obsessions. I filed Zoshak’s article in the back of my mind and moved on.

A Non-Inflammatory Diet for OCD

Until yesterday. I stumbled across an article entitled, “Brain Inflammation and OCD.”

It piqued my interest.

The article described a study done with 40 participants — 20 who had OCD, and 20 who did not. They scanned their brains for signs of inflammation, and discovered that the people with OCD had 32% more brain inflammation than those without OCD.

That statistic is HUGE!

I quickly googled to find out what can cause brain inflammation, and the data was all there. Everything that Zoshak cut out of his diet is the stuff that causes brain inflammation.

Refined carbs. Sugar. Bad oils and fried foods. Processed foods.

I couldn’t help but do a little self-reflection. Sure, I don’t eat much fried or processed food, but I eat a lot of refined carbs and sugar. Could it be possible that the foods I eat cause brain inflammation? Could this be exacerbating my OCD symptoms?

I decided this data was too good to let it slip past. I had to find out.

The OCD Trial Diet

One day of thinking and a shopping trip later, I’m ready to dive into the experiment.

Here’s the plan.

Four weeks. Lower carbs, higher protein, higher fat. Lots of intentionally anti-inflammatory foods like nuts, leafy greens, and turmeric.

And we’ll observe — what happens to the background static of OCD?

Does it go down? Does it remain the same? Yes, I’ve had my scrupulosity under good control for some years now, but the background noise is always there, always needing a bit of maintenance. If there’s something I can do to improve even more, I’m ready!

Especially if there’s something in my journey that will help you.

That’s why I’ll be sharing a four-part blog series as I go through this experiment. I don’t think it will be easy, but maybe you’ll send me some cheers in the comments to keep me going!

(I mean, if only you could see how much kale I just bought.) ??

I don’t have an exact diet I’m going for. I’m not really a big fan of labels. What I can say is that I usually eat about 60% carbs, 15% protein, and 25% fat. I’m hoping to bring that to about 40% carbs, 40% fat, and 20% protein. I’ll be removing most grains from my diet — including

• Bread
• Pasta
• Rice
• Baked goods and sweets
• Breakfast cereal

I’ll also be removing sugar. That’s right — no sugar for an entire month. Thankfully, since I already don’t eat much processed food, it’s pretty easy for me to isolate sugar sources in my diet. This includes

• My daily Mars bar (noooooo…) ?
• Condiments like ketchup or salad dressings
• Sweetened beverages
• Added sugar to sauces and recipes

I’ll be removing nasty oil sources, such as

• Fried foods
• Vegetable oils
• Hydrogenated margarine

But I’m not merely subtracting. For a healthy OCD diet, I’m also adding. I’ll be emphasizing foods that are helpful for reducing inflammation:

• Leafy greens (especially kale)
• Cruciferous vegetables like cabbage and broccoli
• Fruit (especially those high in antioxidants, like citrus and berries)
• Cholesterol-free protein sources like beans and soy (cholesterol is known to increase inflammation, so it’s important to continue avoiding it)
• Egg whites (the cholesterol in eggs is only found in the yolks — however, the egg whites are a nutritious vegetarian source of protein)
• Nuts, seeds, avocado, and olive oil for healthy fats
• Superfoods for inflammation, such as turmeric, ginger, and garlic

The Experimental Diet Begins

It’s August 18 — day 1 of the anti-inflammatory OCD diet.

For breakfast I made a bowl of unsweetened chia pudding, just by mixing chia seeds and soy milk and letting it thicken in the fridge. I added chopped nectarines and had a dozen almonds and a grapefruit on the side.

Surprisingly, it was tasty, even without the added sprinkle of sugar. And I didn’t get my first hunger pangs until noon.

For lunch, I made a gargantuan kale salad and topped it with sautéed mushrooms, which are a surprisingly rich source of ergotheonine, a substance that protects against cell damage. I also added a handful of toasted sunflower seeds, a few strawberries, and a cup of gorgeous green edamame. Instead of a sweetened dressing, I splashed a simple olive oil and lemon mixture on the whole salad.

For dinner (which is usually light), I’m planning on an egg-white omelette full of vegetables and colored yellow with turmeric (since I’m removing the colorful but cholesterol-y yolk).

So far, it’s been tasty and satisfying. I am excited to see if an anti-inflammatory diet makes a difference for my anxiety. But I have two main concerns:

1. Will I lose weight? and,
2. Will I get unbearable carb and sugar cravings?

I know it sounds uncommon to hear a woman say so, but I don’t want to lose weight. This morning I weighed in at 52.5 kg (about 115 pounds). Since I’m 5′ 4″, that gives me a BMI in the lower-middle side of “healthy.” Losing 10 pounds would put me in the “underweight” category. But I’ve been around 52 – 54 kgs for most of my adult life, and I have a positive body image. I like the way I am.

I don’t want to lose weight, and am a little worried that cutting my carbs might make that happen.

My other fear is that I’ll get such terrible food jealousy while I watch my husband eat bread and pasta that I’ll ditch the whole experiment. I’m an HSP, so yes — I do get hangry. I hope I will still manage to feel satiated during the course of the trial!

And if not… ?

Conclusion

Stay tuned, and check back to read my progress over the next four weeks. I’ll try to put out progress reports on Wednesdays to let you know what I’m eating and how it’s affecting my OCD awareness (if at all).

Remember, the brain is an organ. Just like the kidneys and liver and heart need special care, the brain does, too.

I have a colleague in the seminary who likes to say, “we’re not brains on sticks.” What he means is that any form of dualism that places the physical in one box and the mental/emotional/spiritual in another box is inappropriate theology. The brain has no way of interfacing with the world except through our bodies, and thus, the things we do in the body — eating, sleeping, exercising, experiencing life — affect the mind.

I hope you’ll join me on this journey to understand a bit better how we can help our OCD brains achieve strength and wellness. What do you think will be the results after four weeks? Have you ever tried a diet to help your OCD? Let me know about it in the comments below!

Best wishes on the journey,