Where this one started.
This began in June 2018 as an episode of the practice's radio show. Dr. Randall Gates, D.C., DACNB and an old friend sat down and talked about what had made each of them want to change the way they lived — not the theory of it, the actual turning point. The conversation wandered, the way those conversations do, into whether eating well has to wreck your budget, what food really does once it is inside you, and a genuinely unresolved question about how many pancakes one man can eat in a single sitting.
The recording itself is not posted on this page. The questions it raised are worth answering properly, though, so what follows answers them using public health and government sources you can open and read for yourself. The original June 26, 2018 date stands. Nothing here has been backdated, and no author credit or clinician review has been attached to it.
Wanting to change is a stage of its own.
If you have been thinking about eating differently for months without doing much about it, you may feel like you have been failing at something. The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases describes that period as a stage in its own right. In its account of changing habits, contemplation is when "you are thinking about change and becoming motivated to get started." Preparation follows, when you are making plans and thinking of specific ideas that will work for you. Then action, when you act on the plan. Then maintenance, which NIDDK marks as having kept the changes up for more than six months.
That framing changes what the thinking-about-it phase means. It is not the absence of change. It is the front of it. NIDDK suggests using that time to weigh the pros of changing your habits against the cons — the things that genuinely get in the way — rather than waiting to feel ready.
The other thing NIDDK is blunt about: healthy habits are lifelong behaviors, not one-time events. That is worth sitting with before you start, because it quietly rules out the version where you fix your diet in a decisive fortnight and never think about it again.
Does eating well have to cost more?
This is not an abstract worry. The USDA's Economic Research Service reports that 13.7 percent of U.S. households — about 18.3 million — were food insecure at some point during 2024, and 5.4 percent had very low food security. Cost is a real constraint for a lot of households, and any advice that ignores that is not advice.
What the evidence does support is that several of the things that protect your grocery budget are the same things that improve what ends up in the cart. MedlinePlus, from the National Library of Medicine, is specific about it: plan your meals before you shop, which "ensures that you have what you need to make healthy choices throughout the week," and make a shopping list, because "having a list reduces impulse buys." It also advises against shopping hungry — you will make better choices after a meal or a snack.
On produce, the cheap option is frequently not the compromise people assume. MedlinePlus states that frozen fruits and vegetables can be good choices as long as there is no added sugar or salt, and that canned fruit is fine when it is packed in water or juice rather than syrup, with no sugar added. The label is doing the work there, not the price tag.
- Decide what you are actually eating this week before you go, not in the aisle.
- Take a list. It is the cheapest anti-impulse tool there is.
- Eat something first.
- Check frozen and canned produce against the label — added sugar and salt are what matter, not whether it was frozen.
- MedlinePlus also suggests shopping the outer aisles, where produce, meat, and dairy usually sit.
What food does once you have eaten it.
The honest answer is less dramatic than most of the internet suggests, and more durable. The Dietary Guidelines for Americans, as summarized by MedlinePlus, are built around five major food groups — protein, dairy, vegetables, fruits, and whole grains — and encourage minimally processed whole foods that are naturally high in nutrients. The claimed payoff is not a feeling on Tuesday afternoon; it is risk over years. MedlinePlus states that eating whole grains can help reduce the risk for many long-term chronic diseases, and that eating fruits and vegetables lowers your risk for heart disease, obesity, and type 2 diabetes.
Some of the mechanism is well established. A diet high in saturated and trans fats causes cholesterol to build up in your arteries. On sodium, MedlinePlus cites the American Heart Association's recommendation of no more than 2,300 milligrams a day — roughly a teaspoon of salt. For grains, the guidance is that whole-grain foods make up at least half of your daily grain intake. And a healthy diet and lifestyle can reduce your risk for heart disease, heart attack, and stroke.
Notice what that language does and does not promise. It is about risk, not certainty, and it describes a pattern of eating rather than any single food. Nothing here can tell you what is going on with your own body, and no article can — that takes someone examining you, not a description of someone roughly like you.
The part that does not make the highlight reel.
Most people do not fail at eating well in the grocery store. They come apart at 9 p.m. on a bad day, which is why MedlinePlus advises paying attention to your feelings of hunger and learning the difference between physical hunger and habitual eating, or eating as a response to stress or boredom. It suggests looking for the triggers that repeat most often in your week and addressing one or two of them, rather than all of them.
It also puts a ceiling on ambition, which is unusual and useful: small steps lead to more success in making long-term changes, and it is a good idea to limit your focus to no more than two or three goals at one time. And on the timeline — it took a while to form your current habits, and it may take just as long to change them.
NIDDK adds the line worth keeping somewhere visible: "Remember that a setback does not mean you have failed." Everyone has them; the move is getting back on track as soon as you can. It also suggests planning around your real week rather than an idealized one, and marking milestones with a nonfood reward.
Questions worth asking when you call.
Gates Brain Health is a functional neurology practice in Reno, Nevada. People sometimes call after reading something like this wanting to know whether what they eat has anything to do with the symptoms that brought them looking in the first place. That is a reasonable question, and it is a conversation, not an article — whether this practice is a fit for you gets decided on a call or an evaluation, not in advance.
If you have a medical condition, take medication, or someone is already directing your nutrition, general reading like this does not replace that. Talk to the clinician who knows your history before you make changes on the strength of a web page. And if something is acute — chest pain, trouble breathing, sudden weakness on one side, a sudden severe headache — that is a 911 call, not a question about diet.
The office answers Monday through Friday, 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM, at (775) 507-2000. Please keep medical details to the phone or an in-person visit rather than sending them through the website.
- Which of my symptoms, if any, would you expect to have a dietary component?
- What would you need to examine before answering that?
- Is this something you work with, or should I be talking to someone else?
- What should I bring, and what would a first visit actually involve?