Food Is the Terrain: Why the Standard American Diet Makes Us Sick, Why Gluten Bothers So Many, and How to Eat Clean

Nutrition is the foundation of the terrain and of true longevity. Here's what Dr. Mark Hyman, Dr. Tom O'Bryan, Dr. David Perlmutter, Dr. Amy Myers, and Chris Kresser teach about the Standard American Diet, why gluten bothers so many Americans, grass-fed and grass-finished meat, organic food, and where we shop for clean food near MK.

MK Wellness InsightsFounded by Danielle Cordova, Cypress, TX

Every cell in your body is built from what you eat. Your gut lining, your immune system, your hormones, your blood sugar, and your energy all sit on that foundation. When the foundation is the Standard American Diet, everything built on it struggles, and it shows up most in autoimmunity, cancer, and metabolic health.

That's why we start with food. True longevity needs a strong foundation of nutrition. This guide gathers what the functional doctors we trust teach about the Standard American Diet, gluten, clean meat and produce, and where to find real food near MK.

The Standard American Diet: What Functional Doctors See

Dr. Mark Hyman describes ultra-processed foods as "chemically altered, stripped of their natural structures, and filled with additives, sugars, unhealthy fats, and preservatives, resulting in products that offer little to no nutritional benefit while contributing significantly to chronic disease" (drhyman.com). He calls processed food full of sugar, fat, and salt "neurochemically, biologically addictive" (drhyman.com).

And it's now most of what Americans eat. Chris Kresser, M.S., L.Ac., a Functional Medicine clinician and educator, puts it plainly: "almost 60 percent of the calories Americans consume come from ultra-processed foods" (chriskresser.com).

Here's why it matters so much:

• Autoimmunity. Sugar, additives, and gluten feed inflammation and a leaky gut, and a leaky gut is one of the preconditions for autoimmunity. See Autoimmunity From the Root.
• Metabolic health. Dr. David Perlmutter warns that the sugars and unhealthy fats in ultra-processed foods "can lead to insulin resistance and inflammation" (drperlmutter.com). See Dr. Bikman on insulin resistance.
• Cancer. In the research Kresser reviews, every 10% of daily calories from ultra-processed foods was tied to higher blood sugar, more metabolic syndrome, and more diabetes and cancer (chriskresser.com).
• Longevity. Energy, muscle, and a sharp brain all depend on what you feed your cells. See Mitochondria From the Root.

Why Gluten Bothers So Many Americans

Dr. Tom O'Bryan, one of the world's leading voices on gluten, says "only a small percentage of the population has been diagnosed with a gluten-related disorder, but that a very large portion of the population has symptoms that may be caused by a sensitivity to gluten" (thedr.com). His advice is direct: "ANY person with an illness or autoimmune condition should be tested for a gluten-related disorder" (thedr.com).

Official numbers put celiac disease at "between 0.7 percent and 1 percent of the U.S. population," but as Kresser notes, "it's possible that the actual incidence might be much higher" (chriskresser.com).

What changed in American food and farming

• Far more celiac disease than 50 years ago. Dr. Hyman and Dr. Amy Myers both point to a Mayo Clinic study that compared blood drawn from young Air Force members in 1948 to 1954 with blood drawn decades later. Undiagnosed celiac disease rose from 0.2% to about 0.9%, roughly four times more common (Gastroenterology, 2009). Our genes haven't changed in 50 years; our food and farming have.
• Modern wheat. Dr. Hyman explains that "we eat dwarf wheat, the product of genetic manipulation and hybridization that created short, stubby, hardy, high yielding wheat plants with much higher amounts of starch and gluten" (drhyman.com). Dr. Perlmutter adds that hybridization has favored changes in gluten while "greatly increasing the amount of gluten found in wheat-derived products" (drperlmutter.com).
• Glyphosate. Kresser estimates that about 300 million pounds of glyphosate-based herbicides, like Roundup, are used in the United States each year, about 90% of it on farm fields (chriskresser.com). Dr. Perlmutter warns: "Healthy soil is the foundation of productive farming, and as glyphosate undermines this foundation, it threatens the long-term viability of our food systems" (drperlmutter.com).
• The Europe question. Many people notice they can eat bread in Europe but not at home. Dr. O'Bryan explains that some people react mainly to poorly digested wheat proteins, but "if you've crossed the line, and you have elevated antibodies to wheat, you still get that immune response with the wheat in Europe just like you would with the wheat in the United States" (thedr.com).

What the research shows about gluten

• Gluten loosens the gut lining in everyone. In Dr. Alessio Fasano's research, gliadin, a protein in gluten, made the gut lining more permeable in tissue from people with celiac disease, people with gluten sensitivity, and people with neither. The authors concluded that "increased intestinal permeability after gliadin exposure occurs in all individuals" (Nutrients, 2015). As Dr. Myers puts it, "gluten triggers this response in everyone, not just those with celiac disease or a diagnosed gluten sensitivity" (amymyersmd.com).
• Wheat sensitivity is real. People who react to wheat but don't have celiac disease showed signs of damage to the gut lining and an activated immune system, and those markers moved toward normal on a wheat-free diet (Gut, 2016).

What to do about gluten

1. Test first. The celiac blood test only works while you're still eating gluten. Our Autoimmune Support Toolkit lists the tests to ask for.
2. Then go completely gluten-free, especially with any autoimmune condition. Dr. Myers recommends that every one of her patients with autoimmune disease go completely gluten-free: "If you have an autoimmune condition, the question is not whether to go gluten-free. It's how soon can you start?" And she's clear that "going gluten-free halfway does not work."
3. Skip the gluten-free junk food. A gluten-free cookie is still an ultra-processed cookie. Swap in real food instead.

Clean, Non-Toxic Protein

Grass-fed and grass-finished

Dr. Perlmutter says meat from grass-finished cattle is "far more nutritious, beneficial, and safe than meat sourced from grain-fed cattle," and that grain-fed cows produce meat "dramatically higher in inflammatory omega-6 fats and deficient in healthful omega-3s." Grass-finished beef also "doesn't contain toxic remnants of the antibiotics and hormones" used to raise grain-fed cattle (drperlmutter.com).

• More of the good fats. Kresser notes that compared with feedlot meat, grass-fed beef, bison, lamb, and goat have "two to four times more omega-3 fatty acids," plus more conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), vitamin E, and beta-carotene (chriskresser.com). A review of the research found grass-based diets raise CLA and omega-3s in beef, along with precursors to vitamins A and E and other antioxidants (Nutrition Journal, 2010).
• It shows up in your blood. Dr. Stephan van Vliet, a nutrition researcher at Utah State University, told Kresser that in randomized trials the "blood omega-3 profile goes up when people eat grass-fed meat" (chriskresser.com).

How to read the labels

Dr. Myers explains that the USDA loosened its grass-fed standard in 2016: "As long as the cow was fed grass at any point of its life before it was slaughtered, it can be labeled as 'grass-fed' beef." Grass-finished means the animal ate grass its whole life. For meat raised without antibiotics or hormones, she says "the only way to ensure your meat is free of antibiotics or harmful chemicals is to make sure the label says 100% organic grass-fed beef" (amymyersmd.com).

• Look for "100% grass-fed and grass-finished," not just "grass-fed."
• Know your rancher when you can. Kresser points out that "the 'organic' label does not have anything to do with whether an animal product is pasture-raised or not," and that when you know the farmer's practices, "it is preferable to choose the non-organic, grass-fed source over the organic, commercially-raised alternative" (chriskresser.com).
• Choose pasture-raised eggs and wild-caught fish, and pasture-raised chicken and pork when you can find them.

Produce: Organic Where It Matters Most

• Less pesticide, more antioxidants. A review of 343 studies found organic crops had more antioxidants and less cadmium, a toxic metal, and that pesticide residues showed up four times as often on conventional crops (British Journal of Nutrition, 2014). Dr. Hyman's take: "you can greatly lower your exposure to pesticides by eating organic" (drhyman.com).
• Use the Dirty Dozen and Clean Fifteen. Dr. Hyman points readers to the Environmental Working Group's yearly lists of the most and least sprayed produce (EWG). Buy organic for the Dirty Dozen, and save on the Clean Fifteen.
• Organic matters most for moms and kids. Kresser says it's "particularly important for young children and women who are trying to conceive, pregnant, or breastfeeding to eat organic" (chriskresser.com).
• Wash everything well, organic or not.

How We Eat, The MK Way

• Build every plate around protein, vegetables, and fruit.
• Add sweet potatoes, rice, or potatoes for energy (sweet potatoes are Dani's favorite).
• Keep pasta to an occasional small side. We're gluten-free, so we grab ours at Victoria's Natural Market, which carries gluten-free, non-GMO pasta imported from Italy.
• Skip seed oils, food dyes, and sugary drinks. See seed oils, sugar, and cellular stress and food dyes and additives.
• Choose organic, pasture-raised, and grass-finished, and wash produce well.
• Start with breakfast. Kresser's tip: "If you change nothing else, changing breakfast alone can shift a significant percentage of your daily calories away from ultra-processed sources."

Where We Shop for Clean Food

Health food stores make clean eating easier: more organic produce, better meat and eggs, and staff who know what they carry. Near MK, these are two of Dani's favorites:

• Sprouts Farmers Market (sprouts.com), where Dani shops for everyday groceries.
• Victoria's Natural Market and Farm in Tomball, a "farmer's market style storefront" that seeks out "the highest quality local meat, milk, eggs, produce, cheese, and honey" and keeps "direct relationships with all of our farmers and ranchers." It's at 20158 Bauer Hockley Road, open Thursday through Sunday (victoriasnaturalmarket.com).

Farmers markets and local ranches are worth finding too, and buying directly lets you ask how the animals were raised.

Eating Clean Without Spending a Fortune

• Upgrade what you eat most first: meat, eggs, and dairy.
• Buy organic for the Dirty Dozen, and conventional for the Clean Fifteen.
• Use frozen organic fruits and vegetables. They cost less and keep.
• Buy meat in bulk from a local rancher and freeze it. Splitting a quarter or half of a grass-finished cow with friends brings the price down.
• Cook at home and batch-cook for busy days.

If You're Living With Autoimmunity, Cancer, or Metabolic Issues

• Autoimmunity: start with celiac testing, then go completely gluten-free and follow the gut repair steps in Autoimmunity From the Root and the Autoimmune Support Toolkit.
• Cancer: see the Lower Your Cancer Risk toolkit and Dr. Eric Berg's diet strategies for cancer.
• Metabolic health: see Dr. Bikman on insulin resistance and metabolic flexibility.
• Longevity: see Peter Attia's Outlive and Mitochondria From the Root.

What to Know Before You Start

Questions to Bring to Your Practitioner

Where MK Wellness Fits

Food builds the foundation, and our therapies support everything built on it. Clients often pair a clean-eating reset with our Inflammation protocol, Autoimmune Support protocol, or Metabolic & Weight Loss protocol. Ask us at your next visit, and we'll help you build a plan.

Go Deeper

• Books: Food: What the Heck Should I Eat? (Dr. Mark Hyman), Grain Brain (Dr. David Perlmutter), The Autoimmune Fix (Dr. Tom O'Bryan), The Autoimmune Solution (Dr. Amy Myers), and The Paleo Cure (Chris Kresser).
• The doctors' free education: drhyman.com, thedr.com, drperlmutter.com, amymyersmd.com, and chriskresser.com.
• Our guides: Dr. Hyman's functional medicine, Dr. Saladino's animal-based diet, holistic foods and supplements, and the non-toxic home.
• The experts we learn from

MK Wellness services are non-medical and not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any condition. This article is general education, not medical advice, and includes no doses or protocols. Store details come from each store's own website as of October 2026. Talk with your doctor before major changes to how you eat, especially if you have a health condition, take medicines, are pregnant, or are feeding children.

The Inflammation Protocol at MK Wellness

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