Progress ??report on my elimination diet and test phase

[bevfromwa]

After 2 full weeks I was pretty happy about my results--actually somewhat formed or Norman-ish. So the first test was hemp milk, since I've ingested that every single day. Sticking to rest of elimination diet while testing. The only other different thing was a very small batch of spinach from my garden, sautéed with garlic and shallots in olive oil. Next AM lots of gas, slightly loose, but better in the afternoon. But by evening, very loose, almost D. Studying my food diary, I note that I've had 1/2 can of sardines on a couple of buckwheat crackers (one ingredient) for 4 days in a row. I usually have a fruit snack at 9 PM, it's been 1/2 pear, 1/2 nectarine. Had 1 C of blueberries last night. This AM it is almost back to square one, first D, later soft serve.

Information on what I've been eating: since it's difficult to come up with 3 meals a day, I have been using Dr. Mercola's Intermittent Fasting (even lost ten pounds!) where you go without food for 12-15 hours. It was much easier to do, so for a "brunch" at noon I've been using a grain--quinoa, buckwheat or millet, homemade applesauce with no added sugar, 2 bananas. Dinner has been a rotation of turkey, lamb, bison, rock fish or sole, duck breast once. Cooked veggies such as broccoli, yellow beans, yellow squash, and the one time of spinach. Yams have been the starch, then the fruit snack at 9. Under this plan I got steadily better.

So what could have caused this test failure? Are sardines close to tuna and therefore after the accumulation of 4 days worth a problem? I've often eaten sardines in the past, but maybe that was against a backdrop of an unhealed gut and therefore less noticeable. Was it the spinach? Was it the blueberries?

Any comments or suggestions always welcome.

Beverly

[Hopeful]

Beverly, I am no expert on this since I'm only in my 3rd week of the elimination diet! But I tried buckwheat during the second week (kasha is an all time favorite of mine) cooked very plain and tried beets the same day. Ate them both twice. Had the following day from hell with non-stop cramps, gas and diarrhea.

Beets are in the same food family as spinach, so I don't know. I haven't been able to do cooked or raw greens of any kind for months without a problem. Brassicas like broccoli give me gas.

Now I'm sticking to well cooked carrots, winter squash, sweet potatoes and no problems. I can eat rice and potatoes sparingly.

The first 2 weeks I craved EVERYTHING! from my "old life". This 3rd week, I feel full and satisfied with a very simple diet. Tex advises not trying to duplicate or substitute for your old favorites (like most grains) but to stick to the simple diet.

[UkuleleLady]

Canned sardines are high in histamine and if you have a histamine intolerance it could be those? It's possible you can tolerate them, but maybe not four days in a row.

Personally, I find spinach to be loosening and ditto on blueberries. I can eat most well cooked brassica/cruciferous veg, including beet greens, collards, kale, cauliflower etc. but I usually boil my greens then sauté them so they are well cooked. Brussels sprouts are, however, off the list as I reacted really badly to them once. And come to think of it I ate them with sardines that day.

Sometimes it's a threshold thing for me, where if it's too much of this or that, or two things together, I have a problem.

And if I eat some form of meat/fish at every meal, I do best overall.

I hope this helps and doesn't confuse.

Nancy

[brandy]

Hi Bev,

As you know this will be somewhat individualistic but here is my take based on my body.

1 cup of blueberries eaten away from a meal would be problematic and would be too many blueberries for me. I'm ok with like 20 blueberries or 12 grapes but eaten with a meal. I was at the beach this weekend and had about 20 grapes in the middle of the afternoon. Soft stool the next day. If I stick with moderate quantities eaten with a meal, chew well, I do better.
The exception is bananas and I can eat them wherever.

small batch of spinach from my garden, sautéed with garlic and shallots in olive oil

I'm okay with your recipe but it has to be overcooked spinach almost to mushy and eaten with a meal and chewed well. This might be something to retest in 5 months or so. Again....the meal thing holds for me....if I eat greens alone I have a problem but if I eat them with a meal and overcooked I am ok. Perhaps the fiber gets diluted mixed around in the stomach w/ a protein and starch?

What brand of olive oil are you using? I've switched to California Olive Ranch olive oil. It comes in a green bottle. It is pricey but it is going to be 100% olive oil. I use the bottle for flowers afterwards. In the US any Italian or Mediterranean olive oil is at high risk of adulteration. If you live in North America try to get a Californian olive oil. It will be olive oil. If you live Australia get Australian olive oil. If you live in Europe try to get an olive oil native to your country. There is a huge demand for "Italian" olive oil...in China, Asia, South America, North America, Europe.....there is now way Italy can grow enough olives for the demand.

How are the sardines packaged? Water or olive oil? I started buying the water packed due to the problem of olive oil adulteration and I'll add my own olive oil.

It sounds like you are working a good plan.

[brandy]

Hi Bev,

I agree with Nancy's comment.

Sometimes it's a threshold thing for me, where if it's too much of this or that, or two things together, I have a problem.

And if I eat some form of meat/fish at every meal, I do best overall.

Brandy

[brandy]

Nancy said,

but I usually boil my greens then sauté them so they are well cooked

I do better with boiled greens and never thought to saute them afterwards.....I'm going to start doing this.

Brandy

[tex]

Hi Beverly,

Your elimination diet appears to contain quite a few foods (as elimination diets go), but if it works for you then it's fine. If it doesn't quite work though, then it can be difficult to determine what is causing a problem because of all the foods involved, and that defeats the purpose of an elimination diet.

Assuming that it works for you though, I agree with all the suggestions and observations made by Hopeful, Nancy, and Brandy. The thing is, if the elimination diet was working correctly, there shouldn't be any question about which food is the problem.

I note that some of us cannot tolerate buckwheat, and a whole cup of blueberries (by themselves) would have probably caused problems for me while I was recovering (because of the 4 grams of fiber). Blueberries do have one thing going for them though. Like bananas, they are low in sugar alcohols, so they should be much better tolerated by MCers in general, as long as we don't overdo the fiber (based on our stage of healing — as we heal, we can usually tolerate more fiber).

I may be barking up the wrong tree here though, because the fiber in blueberries is soluble. Insoluble fiber is a much greater problem for us, and that points the finger of suspicion at buckwheat and certain vegetables, which are relatively high in insoluble fiber. Sources of insoluble fiber include things such as whole grains, bran, seeds, nuts, barley, brown rice, zucchini, celery, broccoli, cabbage, onions, tomatoes, carrots, cucumbers, green beans, dark leafy vegetables, raisins, grapes, fruit, and root vegetable skins.

Tex

[bevfromwa]

thanks for all the responses. I do agree that I was living too high on the hog--although no pork since that is a 2+ meat for me. Chicken and beef as well, plus tuna is 3+. Enterolab said salmon is probably off limits also, but not tested for. The meats I was using were ones that weren't tested for by Enterolab, which doesn't of course mean that I'm not reactive. These are ones that I'd never or rarely used, but guess there were too many of them. For 2 weeks did well, but then maybe introduced too many things at once.

The sardines I used were Season brand, Morocco, in olive oil from Costco. They're a bit pricey but go on sale periodically (like this month) so went on the theory that they were ok. Just maybe not every day at this stage. I also use Costco's Kirkland brand Extra Virgin Olive Oil.

I've read that beets cause D in a lot of people, so wouldn't try them at this stage.

So maybe if I discontinue all the meats other than rock fish, sole, and maybe lamb, which is supposed to be easily digestible, and don't throw anything else at my system for a while, I'll do better.

thanks again for your help.

Beverly

[UkuleleLady]

Nancy said,

but I usually boil my greens then sauté them so they are well cooked

I do better with boiled greens and never thought to saute them afterwards.....I'm going to start doing this.

Brandy

I think you will like it, Brandy. And if you can eat bacon, they're wonderful fried up in pieces of bacon and bacon fat.

[Leah]

Hi Bev. You probably won't like what I have to say, but here goes. Two weeks is not nearly long enough to heal your gut enough to test new foods in. You were feeling much better, so my advice would be to stick to the foods you were eating on your elimination diet for at least two MONTHS. This is the time you need to heal. I really do understand how hard it is to at the same things all the time. We all do, but it's so worth it to just eat as simply as you can for as long as you can. I did it for 6 months before I even tried potatoes. The good news is that three years later, i can eat all vegetables ( raw and cooked), beans, and smaller quantities of fruit….. by the way fruit was the last thing I could tolerate, but blueberries are one of the easiest. Melon, the worst.

We are all very different, and I don't know if you have found out whether histamines are an issue for you, but spinach is very high in them 9 not to mention the fiber) . if you want to find out if they are an issue, just try an OTC antihistamine like Allegra and see what happens to your stool consistency. if it's better, you may have another piece to your puzzle.

Leah

[tex]

Beverly,

I agree with Leah that you might not have given your system time to become stable on your new diet.

Looking at your foods (and your options), and considering that you saw significant improvement (at least for a while), I believe that if I were in that situation, I would stick with most of the meats that you mentioned (possibly rotating them and keeping records in your food diary) except for the bison. It's virtually impossible to find any bison in this country that does not have DNA from domestic livestock, so if beef tested at 3+, then there is a good chance that you might be reacting to the bison.

And the antihistamine experiment that Leah mentioned is a good idea also. It might not work (if you are reacting strongly to a food), but if you see significant improvement from taking an antihistamine, then you definitely have a histamine issue, and you may need to address that problem in order to achieve and maintain stable remission.

Obviously you're doing something right, to show the improvement that you experienced for a while.

Tex

[JFR]

Two weeks is not nearly long enough to heal your gut enough to test new foods in. You were feeling much better, so my advice would be to stick to the foods you were eating on your elimination diet for at least two MONTHS. This is the time you need to heal. I really do understand how hard it is to at the same things all the time. We all do, but it's so worth it to just eat as simply as you can for as long as you can. I did it for 6 months before I even tried potatoes. The good news is that three years later, i can eat all vegetables ( raw and cooked), beans, and smaller quantities of fruit….. by the way fruit was the last thing I could tolerate, but blueberries are one of the easiest. Melon, the worst.

I agree with Leah. Eat a few safe foods and stick with them for a few months at least. You have to give yourself time to heal. It was the approach I took and now I find that I can eat vegetables, both cooked and raw, without any problems. I don't eat any grains or beans. The only fruits I eat are berries and in small quantities (1/4 -1/2 cup). Also, as others have said, canned fish is very high in histamines. Simply the thought of eating them makes me feel slightly sick.

Jean

[Gabes-Apg]

Bev,
a thought to keep in mind.

When we break bones, it takes 6-8 weeks for a healthy person to heal and then it is reduced use for a few weeks - (and way longer for those who are not healthy)

it is kinda the same for our gut, it needs at least 6-8 weeks of consistent low inflammation, low fibre, nurturing foods and lifestyle (low stress, relaxation, yoga or tai chi etc etc) to get some good healing. trying new ingredients too early, causing inflammation will interrupt the cycle and like the snakes and ladders game, you can end up at the start having to do it all again....

I know that mentally, sticking with the bland, not many ingredients eating plan can get boring and tiresome - a drag on the social life etc. Hang in there, it is worth it!! it sets up the awesome foundation our guts need to heal and to be healthy and productive.

[carolm]

Hi Bev, to add to what the others are saying, you really need to establish what I call a 'baseline diet'-- foods that you are 100% sure are safe. Then when you challenge a new food you can be sure that the reaction (or lack of) is due to the new food.

I would challenge a food for 3 consecutive days, selecting all other foods from my baseline/safe diet.
Believe me if I was going to react, I usually knew it after the first serving. If I made it to day 4 and had no problems from my 3 day food challenge, then that food would be added to my safe list. I would have 1 day of my baseline diet before I would challenge another food. It's like you are running a research experiment and you have to keep your conditions clean in order to be able to interpret your results.

Looking at your diet, my first thought was the same as Tex-- fiber could be an issue. When you are inflamed, fiber is not your friend, especially insoluble fiber. I would suggest you ditch the blueberries for awhile and stay with low fiber foods. As others have said you may be able to add them later, but right now your need to heal.

I was told here and by my GI doc to expect it to take 2 years to heal and I believe it took every bit of that. I am now 3 years post diagnosis and my biopsies in August 2014 show marked improvement and a great reduction in lymphocytes (in fact, to the average range). It's worth taking your time. I know it's boring and painstaking, but the pay off is significant.

Hang in there,
Carol

[bevfromwa]

It's been more than 2 weeks since my last update--I really appreciate all the helpful responses. I've cut way down on the number of things I'm eating. Bison is out, have settled on turkey 2 times a week, lamb also twice, and fish 3 times. Usually it's rock fish, our West coast equivalent of the East Coast's red snapper. I'm always baking it in foil, with herbs, a tiny amount of ghee which doesn't seem to bother me, a little lemon, s & p. I did try the antihistamine experiment, didn't seem to do anything.

For my combined breakfast/lunch I'm doing a grain, 2 bananas & applesauce.

The quinoa I got at Costco seems to be ok for me. I do have a friend who bought their red quinoa when the regular took a jump in price, and she, who doesn't have MC, and another friend who does have gluten sensitivity both reacted. So will stay away from that and keep my fingers crossed on the regular.

Now here comes the big "However!" or maybe it's "be careful what you wish for." I must be healing because I'm approaching C, but it isn't at all hard. I remember reading a post a few years ago about problems with bowels because of the long term D. I think basically mine has lost all its muscle tone, or maybe atrophied because BMs are extremely difficult to pass. So I think I got kind of impacted if you can get that with something that's still relatively soft. Then it seemed that it was pushing against my bladder or urethra and I couldn't urinate. This went on for hours, finally called my insurance nurse hot line, they wanted me to go to ER because of the danger involved, but suggested first trying an enema to help things along and remove the pressure. So got a mineral oil because they said Fleet are contra indicated for inflammatory diseases. Didn't help much, but good old Google had a post about a warm bath to encourage urination, which did the trick and saved a trip to ER. Today the log jam broke and passed a great deal of volume, everything else fine.

Of course everyone suggested fiber to avoid recurrence, but I said for MC that's like eating a Brillo.

Needless to say any suggestions to avoid reruns of this will be appreciated.

Beverly