The Autoimmune Solution - Amy Myers and Susan Blum books

lessonlearned

Thanks for that. It's all very interesting.

I've stopped eating potatoes for a while now, so cutting out the rest of the nightshades won't be a problem, just the caffeine and sugars to go.

I've been advised not to go cold turkey with either the caffeine or the sugars so am doing it gently. I'm still struggling though, the headaches are vicious.

Got physio today so hoping that will help with neck and back pain. My neck is really bad so probably not helping the headaches.......

I can do this. If it works as well as cutting out grains did then it will all be worth it in the end.

gettingready

I will have a problem with tomatoes to be honest.

How can you make bolognese or chili without tomatoes?????

Sighhhhh

Found out there is gluten in soya sauce - how is one supposed to know.

Labels, labels, labels - for all the hidden ingredients.

Morning coffee , loads of tea daytime - out?

Sugar - out?

Still reading...

lessonlearned

Tomatoes. - apparently it's raw tomatoes that are the worst offenders, cooking them destroys the toxins - up to a point. Unless you are allergic as opposed to intolerant or sensitive then I would think using tinned chopped tomatoes in bolognese is fine in moderation. Say no more than once a week???

A lot if it is about moderation.

The problem with gluten For example is that the average western diet contains so much of it..

Example cereal and/or toast for breakfast - 2 portions
Bagel or muffin mid morning - 1
Lunch sandwich - 1
Afternnoon snack - kit kat or similar 1
Dinner - pasta - 1
Evening snack - biscuits or crackers - 1

That's 6 or 7 portions of wheat without even trying very hard.

The problem is as we all know it's all carbs, very little protein, so you end up hungry again very quickly, you get an insulin spiike followed by a blood sugar crash and you end up craving more carbs. Throw in all the caffeine from the tea and coffee .......

re the couscous. Apparently you can get gluten free Cous cous. Better still try quinoa - it's made from seeds. You can buy it ready prepared which is a bit pricey but ok now and again if you're really pushed for time - microwave 1 minute......or just buy it the dry version which takes a few minutes. The dry version us plain so you can add your own herbs and spices. I do a Moroccan syle chicken dish with Cous cous,my ery similar to your version. Dead easy.

My difficulty is going to be coffee. I can't just give up caffeine cold turkey, I'm going to have to do a slow reduction. I like herbal teas.

I think the only way to be really sure is too cook from scratch as much as you can. Just try to eat "clean" and avoid processed foods as much as possible.

lessonlearned

Gluten free soy sauce https://www.souschef.co.uk

There is usually a substitute for most things. Just google.

skint_chick

Lessonlearned - it's coconut cream in a little can from Tesco - it's usually with the flavoured oils and speciality ingredients. There are recipes on pinterest for no tomato bolognese sauce -'nomato' sauce. Chillis and peppers are nightshade veg so if they're causing you issues maybe try a coconut milk based turmeric sauce instead. Be super careful with gluten free products as a lot of them use potato starch instead of flour to solidify them - sausages, cakes, breads. It's easier to avoid with chocolate bars - I can still eat Galaxy and Wispa :j The cutting out of sugar is very difficult I was miserable for well over a week and felt very emotional - there was an incident in the supermarket where I was crying in the sausage aisle about the sheer unfairness of it all.

lessonlearned

Wahay......My Galaxy is safe. :rotfl:

Thanks for info on coconut cream. I probably won't buy many gluten free products. I m going to avoid as much processed food as possible. I want to get to grips with Paleo baking and see what I can come up with in the bread, cake and biscuit dept.

I'm quite happy to do without, I have had no difficulty in giving up grains. I just feel so much better without them that I'm not even tempted now. IT is my son who is the cake, pasta, pizza, noodle fiend and I want to get him eating more healthily.

I looked at some Free From foods today and a lot of them still have a list of ingredients that look more like a chemistry experient than real food.

I've come to the conclusion that if you need a chemistry degree to understand what you eating then maybe you shouldn't put it in your body.

I've tried Genus gluten free bread, I'd rather eat cardboard......:D and the ready made cakes and biscuits are too sweet for me.

Luckily I don't have a sweet tooth, so giving up sugar shouldn't be a problem. On the other hand Going caffeine free is going to be torture. I discussed this with the nutritionist and she said do it very slowly.

This might indicate that it's actually caffeine that's my Waterloo, and that's the substance that I am most sensitive to and which is causing a lot of my problems.

It makes sense because of the problem with my adrenal glands. My neck glands are permanently sore and swollen and the CFS is a real problem. I think it's all adrenaline/noradrenaline related due to prolonged and extreme stress and too much caffeine.

Thanks for the tip about "nomato" bolognese, I will definitely take a look.

I had to smile at your melt down over sugar. I agree it does seem unfair that some people seem to manage these kinds of foods with less of a reaction than we seem to have.

However, I don't think a diet high in refined carbs, ie grains, starches and sugars is a healthy one, even if the person eating them feels no adverse effects. I'm sure over the long term it's a way of eating that puts a lot of stress on the body.

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

Longstanding RA with features of Psoriatic Arthritis here.

If I followed every elimination diet recommended, I would be avoiding all;

Meat
Fish
Dairy
Grains
Fruit
Vegetables
Salads

The 'acid' diet was the one that made me laugh the most. Avoid all acids present in foods. But take apple cider vinegar (apples - malic acid, vinegar - acetic acid) and that'll cancel out the acid in your body by being alkaline? When it's an acid? Purleease!

Then there was the 'high hydrogen water'. Apparently counteracted too high acid by being alkaline. I barely resisted beating that evangelist about the head with a secondary school chemistry book.


I will concede that I cannot tolerate cow's milk. It makes me nauseous. So I don't have it. But nothing has actually stopped the over active immune response other than medication. And I have genuinely tried all suggestions.


On a purely anecdotal basis, there was one period where I had absolutely no symptoms. And it coincides with medical reaearch. A number of studies have found that, in the case of inappropriate immune responses such as arthritis, asthma, eczema and the like, one of the major common denominators is the presence of domestic animals. Cats and/or dogs. So that one is unworkable for the foreseeable future, as the Idiot Cat may be a flaming liability and may very well be triggering some of the excessive immune response, but I'm not binning the muppet, any more than the OH is binning me because he's had to learn how to give me injections whilst my hands are too swollen to manage the chemo shots myself. OH has Psoriasis, by the way. His is fine eating the same stuff as me, it gets worse when he's stressed and doesn't eat properly. And it's down to just a few tiny patches since the Idiot Cat was consigned to his own bed in the hallway rather than being allowed in the bedroom at night. He's always had cats, too. Except for six years when he first left home, when it completely cleared up.


I'd suggest that anyone with symptoms of tiredness, low mood, bone, joint or muscle pain has their vitamin D level tested. Probably as a result of following all those daft elimination diets, mine was so low as to constitute a true deficiency. So I was given a very high level dose for no more than four weeks before it was retested along with calcium and B12. Don't bother with self supplementation, unnecessary overdose is dangerous and, at under a tenner for a prescription of 60,000 IU/week in the event of a true deficiency, compared to £40-odd from the health food shop, it's uneconomical.


In the meantime, of course there are books promising miracle cures through simple procedures and restrictions. They make the authors fortunes, just like a newspaper headline with 'Miracle Cure For Arthritis/Diabetes/Cancer' always increase sales.

Don't eat processed crap every day. Eat vitamin rich foods of all kinds. Get some sunshine every day you possibly can. Stretch and move about rather than hiding under the duvet in the darkness. Don't go and make a lot of people very rich when you could be spending that money on food you actually enjoy eating. Take prescribed medicine. It's not offered for the fun of it or out of a Machiavellian desire to make you ill and the drug companies rich; the NHS would far not spend over £500 a month on my medication if they could genuinely fix things by telling me not to Eat or to lose weight. And I'd far rather not be taking it in the first place.

And treat all claims of wonder cures and secrets with a handful, never mind a pinch, of salt. Even if the wonder cure purveyor says salt is bad for you.


That isn't meant to sound as dismissive as it probably does - but I've had this since childhood, and every miracle cure, especially those that say doctors are part of the problem, has only ever been snake oil.

gettingready

Long time no see Jojo xxx

Actually my D was very and I mean VERY low and yes, I was on a prescription doses of this (and iron) for a while so yes, aware of that and also aware not all GPs are happy to test for vitamin D levels.

Bit all over the place as Zara is due for cruciate ligament surgery on Friday and brought her home after Xrays doped up on morphine plus got my own MRI check up (you around Guys tomorrow???) tomorrow but will come back here as soon as things are a bit calmer.

xx

gettingready

Jojo_the_Tightfisted wrote: »

On a purely anecdotal basis, there was one period where I had absolutely no symptoms. And it coincides with medical reaearch. A number of studies have found that, in the case of inappropriate immune responses such as arthritis, asthma, eczema and the like, one of the major common denominators is the presence of domestic animals. Cats and/or dogs. .

Any links to this research please? Would love to see/read this one. Honest. Txs

lessonlearned

Jo - interesting post, especially the bit about cats.

After a lifetime (I'm now 63) of stomach problems, duodenal ulcers, IBS GORD and over 10 years on Omeprazole I decided to eliminate all grains. I no longer take any stomach medication and am symptom and pain free.

I also was severely allergic to cats. I now have a cat - a stray - I had no intention of ever getting a cat, he just moved in. :rotfl: He sleeps on my bed, I now have no allergic response.....

I've also had fewer problems with hay fever and allergic rhinitis since giving up grains.

The only outstanding health issues now are headaches and fibromyalgia.

Eliminating grains is not a faddy diet, and it poses no risk to health. There are plenty of alternatives to wheat, white rice is just starch and I can live without oats, although I'm partial to flapjacks .... However I can live quite happily without them.

As for The nightshade group, I only ever really ate potatoes, tomatoes and peppers on a regular basis and there are plenty of other vegetables I enjoy. In fact since going grain free I have been eating a much wider choice of vegetables so i dont think I'll be lacking in nutrients. I've also broadened my horizons with meat, fish etc. eating a much wider choice than I did in the past. By comparison my diet is far healthier, no shoving a pizza in the oven because I can't be bothered to cook.

So really the only things I shall be eliminating, without finding an alternative, are sugar, alcohol, and caffeine. Sugar, well no one needs sugar, it has no nutritional value whatsoever. I enjoy the odd gin and tonic, wine and cider. I shall be sorry to see them go but who knows I might be able to reintroduce them later, if not then going tee-total won't be the end of the world.

Which just leaves caffeine. I do actually really enjoy coffee, good strong italian coffee is one my little luxuries. Perhaps once the dust is settled I might be able to just have one a day....

Actually I bought some Taylor's half caff italian to try so well see how we go.

I'm sorry that modifying your diet didn't work for you. I think it's all trial and error and what works for one person might not work for another.

So far my attempts have been very successful. After a lifetime of stomach problems it's wondeful to be pain free at last. I'm just hoping that further modifications will help clear up my outstanding health issues.

I'm just going to keep an open mind and see how I go. I've nothing to lose.