Diet... Where do I start?

[tigereye92]

So I believe it now I should try the GF diet. I will do anything at this point to get my energy levels up... I'm exhausted!! But I'm overwhelmed with just the GF diet.... Do I exclude milk and soy and eggs and nuts and all this other stuff all at once too? Or do I just start with the GF diet?

AmyNicki

[jessica329]

Do you keep a food journal? It's very helpful. I've been DF for years before my LC diagnosis. I'm concentrating on GF and tracking how I feel after I eat my meals. I can't eat nuts anyways due to an oral allergy and rarely eat eggs. If you do currently eat all the foods you listed, try one thing at a time so you don't feel so overwhelmed and can accurately track how you feel after complete elimination for a good amount of time.

[Bifcus16]

This is hard to answer, as there is no single 'right' way to do this. Everyone has different tastes. I am an all or nothing kind of person.

During my last bad patch, my preferred approach was to go back to basics with a very minimal diet. In my case I went with rice, eggs, honey and chickenbreasts. I cooked some of rice in my homemade chicken stock, and ate it with the chicken and lots of salt and pepper. I zapped the eggs in a bowl and just ate them straight. I cooked some of the rice plain (overcooked appealed to me) and added honey as my sweets. I ate as much as I wanted, whenever I wanted so some honey rice, followed by a piece of chicken if that was how I felt. I drank Chamomile tea or water. I stopped all vitamins.

I felt I needed protein, hence the chicken and eggs. Rice is pretty safe for most people and honey has some good impacts and is not a common allergen. I have found by accident that I should 'come good' after about four days. When I didn't, I also stopped taking my HRT, and found that was the magic trick. most people don't get well that quickly, but I have certainly heard of others taking a similar timeframe.

I think it is so hard to eliminate just a few things, as you could easily be taking in something else that is making you unwell. It is also harder to avoid contamination - eg, if you decide to have some strawberry yogurt, is it the dairy that caused problems, or the gluten in the flavouring, or the strawberry seeds, or the fructose?

Other people have had success by cutting down slowly. I don't have the patience for that. In part it depends on how desperate you are, and how you cope best.

[tlras]

Hi there,

I felt a lot better as soon as I went GF but was still having WD so I gave up the dairy a month and a half later. I found it easy to go GF once I found out what to look out for but dairy was more difficult for me. My food list was dwindling! I think if you are having D, dairy should go out for awhile anyways. Dairy-free helped me but didn't totally get rid of the D. I haven't gone soy or egg free yet, but do eat a lot less of it just in case. If you are having D, your exhaustion probably won't go away. Some of us take more Vitamin D and B-12 as our bodies are not able to absorb them as well with LC. I got my energy back once I got on Pepto and my D went away.

I mainly eat chicken/veggie/rice soup, lots of meat, some well cooked squash, zuchinni and some spinich. I have a little applesauce but we need to go light on the fruits. I do well with bananas.

Good luck with the GF diet, just remember that gliadin antibodies have a long half life and it could take a while before you notice anything. That's if you are intolerant to gluten and I believe most of us are. I'm a Celiac as well and being GF since July 1 has lowered my anti-gliaden antibodies but they are still hanging around.

I hear soy is probably the hardest one to give up if we react to it. It's in everything it seems. Try GF/DF, no nuts, low fiber, no raw veggies or fruits and see how that goes. No processed foods for awhile either. Though I still eat GF bread and Quinoa pasta.

I highly recommend Enterolabs if you can afford it to find out your food intolerances.

Good luck and if you have any questions, please ask. I've learned a lot from this forum and Tex's book!

Terri

[gluten]

Ten years ago a g-f diet was difficult for many people. You had to shop at a health food store to find g-f products. Today, you can find many items in a supermarket and at lower cost then the speciality stores. You can call the local supermarket you shop at and ask for their g-f food list. Also you can call the manufactrers and they will send you list and sometimes coupons, I can cook any meal from any cookbook by substituting with a g-f ingredient. Before I went on a g-f diet my weight dropped to 162lbs. Being very tall, my idea weight is 200lbs. I gained 35lbs in a couple of months. I am also refined sugar, diary and soy free. Except for the teaspoon of Colostrum every morning. If you need a list of foods just ask. Jon

[JFR]

For me the simplest way to go gluten free is to eat only single ingredient foods, plain meats (with nothing injected, no natural flavors etc), organic vegetables, plain nut butters, etc. I have eliminated soy, dairy and eggs as well as gluten and a number of other foods. The enterolab testing was very helpful to me in figuring this out. I am a better safe than sorry sort of person and really kind of like my simple diet. I also don't eat out which avoids problems too. Once I accepted that this is what I had to do to get well, it has really not been so hard. I much prefer a simple diet to a life in the bathroom.

Good luck,
Jean

[CathyMe.]

So I believe it now I should try the GF diet. I will do anything at this point to get my energy levels up... I'm exhausted!! But I'm overwhelmed with just the GF diet.... Do I exclude milk and soy and eggs and nuts and all this other stuff all at once too? Or do I just start with the GF diet?

AmyNicki

I started with GF and when my symptoms continued took out the dairy and soy. I also had to eliminate sweet potatoes, corn, whey, and artificial sweetners. My MRT test results confirmed all of this. If you can afford to have the Entorlab or the MRT testing down, it can help point you in the right direction. I can't have sugar either but had been trying to eliminate that from my diet for a while. Good luck to you. I remember being in your spot and how overwhelming it was. You might want to just try the GF first, see how you do and then go from there.

[Leah]

I agree with Bifcus16.

We all approach our healing in a way that we can deal with , but I have to say that if you decide to only remove gluten ( or one thing at a time), then the road to recovery will be slower. The more simple and pure you go with your diet, the faster you will heal.

I went free of gluten, dairy, raw veggie ( salad), beans, tomato, peppers, potato, processed foods, alcohol, coffee, tea FREE all at once. I mostly ate proteins, cooked veggies, sweet potatoes, rice, canned peaches, applesauce, rice cakes with almond butter, Rice/corn Chex with almond milk, corn chips in small quantities, and herbal tea with honey.

Now that i am off all drugs except for an antihistamine, I have tested and added many things back into my diet. I really feel as if some true healing took place during those six months and now I am reaping the benefits of being able to eat salad, beans, a little fruit, potatoes, and chocolate with no ill effects. I can even drink some white wine now!

So, what I am trying to say is that my philosophy is: There is time down the road to eat some of these things again, but now is the time for healing..... but that's just me. Everyone here has given you some great advise also. Do what you think you CAN do.

I hope you find success soon.
Leah

[tigereye92]

Thanks for all your great advice!! I think for the next few weeks I'm going to stick with bland... Chicken and rice, eggs, cooked veggies and a few canned fruits. And gluten free pretzels :) What about regular soda? Regular Coke and peanut butter crackers have always been my comfort food. (sigh). They never seemed to hurt me but who knows. The D hasn't been so bad lately... just a lot of gas and abdominal pain I guess from a week of Entocort. But the fatigue is killing me! All I can do anymore is stay in bed, work (if I can make it 8 hours) then straight back to bed. Oh... does the Entocort interfer with your sleep? I'm waking up in the middle of the night tired but wide awake and I'm having problems falling asleep even though I physically feel exhausted.

Sorry for all the questions! This is all so confusing :)

AmyNicki

[tex]

AmyNicki,

Yes, Entocort makes some people hyper, and interferes with their sleep. The fatigue will gradually fade away, as your intestines heal from the diet.

Regular soda is safer than diet soda, because most of us seem to react to most artificial sweeteners.

Regular crackers are loaded with gluten, but you can buy crackers made from rice flour that are safe. Edward & Sons distributes several flavors that are free of most food sensitivities, and other brands are also available. Some people like to use rice cakes for spreads. Rice Snaps (by Edward & Sons) can be found at most health food stores, and certain mainstream stores, and they are very tasty, but be sure to read the label, because they make many different types, with different ingredients.

Be sure to buy a "natural" brand of peanut butter (without all the additives), because many/most of the mainstream brands contain soy or other ingredients that can cause problems. If you can't tolerate peanut butter, almond butter is a good substitute, and other nut butters are available in health food stores.

Some members are able to reduce the adverse side effects of Entocort by reducing the dose (provided that a reduced dose will still control their symptoms).

If you need any recipes that are free of gluten, dairy, and soy, but are still just as tasty, (or in some cases even more tasty than conventional recipes), Dee, who is a professional chef, has assembled several hundred great recipes here.

Tex