I have watched people spend years on elimination diets that made them anxious, miserable, and socially isolated, and still not feel significantly better. Food became the enemy. Every meal became a calculation. The stress of the protocol was doing more harm than the food they were avoiding.

This is not that. The approach here is gentler and, in my experience, more effective over the long term. Rather than cutting things out completely, the question is simply: what, if consumed a little less consistently, would give the body meaningfully more room to settle and recover? For most people with chronic back pain, tension, and nervous system sensitivity, the answer comes down to three things.

The framing

Less of these three things is not a diet. It is not a protocol. It does not require willpower or tracking. It simply means being a little more conscious, a little less automatic, about three specific inputs that tend to add load to an already loaded system. That is all.

The three

1

Refined seed and vegetable oils

Canola, sunflower, corn, soybean, cottonseed, and most generic vegetable oils are extremely high in omega-6 linoleic acid. This is not inherently harmful in small amounts. The problem is that these oils are in almost everything processed, fried, or packaged, so the average person consumes vastly more omega-6 than the body is designed to handle.

A high omega-6 to omega-3 ratio is one of the most consistent dietary drivers of systemic inflammation in the research. For people with back pain, nerve sensitivity, or a nervous system that is already running hot, this chronic background inflammation adds a layer of load that makes everything harder to manage.

Cutting back does not mean never eating anything fried again. It means checking what oil is used at home and switching to olive oil, butter, or coconut oil for cooking. It means being aware that restaurant and takeaway food is almost universally cooked in seed oils, so eating it less often has a real effect.

Instead Extra virgin olive oil for dressings and low-heat cooking. Butter or ghee for higher heat. Coconut oil if you prefer a neutral flavour.
2

Added sugar in its less obvious forms

Most people already know that soft drinks and desserts contain a lot of sugar. The less obvious places are the ones that matter more here: flavoured yogurts, breakfast cereals, bread, sauces, condiments, sports drinks, and most commercially produced snack foods. In these products, sugar is present in amounts that drive blood glucose spikes without the eater particularly noticing, because the product does not taste especially sweet.

The consequence of frequent blood sugar spikes is cortisol release. Cortisol is a stress hormone. In people with chronic pain, cortisol levels are often already elevated. Adding repeated dietary cortisol spikes on top of that keeps the nervous system in a subtly activated state through the day, increases systemic inflammation, disrupts sleep quality, and makes the body measurably more pain-sensitive.

Cutting back here does not mean avoiding all sugar. It means becoming familiar with where it hides in ordinary foods and choosing versions without it when there is an easy alternative. Full-fat plain yogurt instead of flavoured. Oats instead of cereal. A piece of fruit instead of a snack bar.

Instead Check labels on sauces, condiments, and packaged snacks. The sugar is often listed under glucose, fructose, maltose, dextrose, or syrup.
3

Alcohol, particularly in the evening

This is the one most people resist hearing. Alcohol feels like it helps. It relaxes the nervous system in the short term, softens the edges of a stressful day, and makes sleep feel closer. The problem is what it does after that first effect wears off.

Alcohol disrupts the architecture of sleep significantly, reducing the proportion of deep restorative sleep even when the total hours look normal. It increases intestinal permeability, which allows inflammatory compounds into the bloodstream that would otherwise be kept out. It suppresses the liver's ability to clear inflammatory cytokines overnight. And it tends to elevate anxiety and pain sensitivity the following day through rebound mechanisms, which is often misread as a reason to drink again in the evening.

Cutting back does not mean abstaining. It means being honest about the frequency and timing. Three evenings a week instead of five makes a noticeable difference. Finishing earlier in the evening matters. One drink instead of two or three changes the sleep architecture meaningfully. Small reductions here tend to produce some of the most obvious changes in daily energy, morning pain levels, and general nervous system tone.

Instead Sparkling water with a slice of lemon in the evenings you skip it. The ritual matters as much as the substance. Having something in the glass helps.

How to approach this without making it complicated

Pick one. Not all three at once. Pick the one that feels most relevant to where you are right now and make one small adjustment this week. One swap at home with the cooking oil. A check of the yogurt label on Sunday morning. One evening this week where alcohol does not feature.

Then notice. Not obsessively, just quietly. Does the body feel any different over the following few days? Is sleep any cleaner? Is the mid-afternoon energy any steadier? These shifts are often subtle at first, then more obvious over weeks.

The honest reality

None of these three changes will eliminate back pain on their own. Food is one part of a system. What it does is reduce the background inflammatory and nervous system load that makes pain worse and recovery slower. Less load means the breathing practice, the touch work, and the rest of the Sunday reset have more room to work. That is the role food plays in this.

What this is not

It is not a clean eating plan. It is not a protocol with phases. It is not something that requires tracking, logging, or following with rigour. It is three gentle nudges toward less of what tends to add load, applied at a pace that feels manageable rather than punishing.

If food has been a source of anxiety, restriction, or guilt in the past, treat this lightly. The goal is a body that feels steadier over time, not a perfect diet. Comfort is the guide here, exactly as it is in the breathing and touch work.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need to cut these things out completely to see a benefit?
No. That is the whole point of this approach. Meaningful reduction is enough. The body does not require perfection. It responds to consistent, sustained shifts in the average. Less seed oil most of the time, less hidden sugar most of the time, less alcohol most evenings, moves the baseline in a direction that matters over weeks and months.
I already eat fairly well. Will this still make a difference?
It depends on where these three things currently sit in your diet. Many people who consider themselves healthy eaters are still consuming significant seed oils through restaurant meals and packaged foods, and moderate evening alcohol that disrupts sleep more than they realise. An honest look is worth doing even when the overall diet feels reasonable.
Should I change all three at the same time?
Not necessarily. One change made consistently is more valuable than three changes made half-heartedly. Start with whichever feels most accessible, settle it into routine, and then consider the next one. There is no timeline to this.
Is there anything I should be adding rather than reducing?
Yes, and that is covered in other articles here. The Sunday health snack is a good place to start for adding things in. The approach throughout is addition before subtraction wherever possible. This article focuses on reduction because these three specific inputs tend to directly counteract the work the rest of the practice is trying to do.
The Self Care Sunday principle

Small actions done consistently are more powerful than big resets done rarely.

One oil swap in the kitchen. One less evening drink this week. A glance at the yogurt label on Sunday morning. These are not sacrifices. They are small acts of care for a body that is already working hard. Done consistently, they add up to a meaningfully different baseline over months. That is enough.