Finally seeing improvement & what I learned...

[RanchGal424]

I am excited to report that I am FINALLY starting to see some improvements after feeling "stuck" for many months. I have been on the Stage One diet as described here for about four months now, but could not seem to get the extremely water D to go away. Frequency of bathroom trips, joint/body pain, bloating/cramps all got a little better, but I still knew something was just not right. I would eat the same things almost every day, but some days I would react and others I would not. I could not figure out what the heck I was doing wrong.

For years I've kept a food journal so I could track what I ate and my symptoms. Over the past few weeks, I started to also note HOW the food was cooked (grilled, steamed, smoked, pan fried, etc.), and WHEN I cooked the food I ate (ex. "breakfast: turkey, oven grilled, cooked Tuesday night").

A pattern began to emerge. I reacted worse on days when I ate leftovers. I REALLY reacted (battery acid D) when I ate some pork we slow cooked in the smoker, although I didn't react when I pan cooked the same pork a different night (meat from same pig, just cooked w/ different method). Then the pieces started really coming together- I quit drinking wine awhile back because it gave me horrible headaches, I get weird mouth and throat reactions when I eat bananas and avocados, tree nuts and peanuts are not kind to me (even as nut butters or milks), I felt awful after eating a bit of sauerkraut last month. All these foods are high histamine!

I have cut out high histamine foods and foods that trigger histamine response. No more bananas, avocado, processed sugar (switched to coconut sugar in my coffee), tea, pickled/fermented stuff, cinnamon, shellfish, tuna, smoked meats, or leftovers (I still eat leftovers, but I freeze them within 24 hours of cooking). I also cut out the bone broth as I understand this is also high in histamine. Some of the high histamine food lists are confusing, so I'm finding there's still a little trial and error.

These past two weeks I have noticed drastic improvement. The D that was nothing more than brown water now at least has a slight consistency. My stomach cramps are gone, and the episodes of feeling like my esophagus is shrinking and tightening (Eosinophilic esophagitis) are gone.

So, my advice to folks who feel "stuck" and like nothing is working is to look at more than just WHAT you're eating. Record HOW you are preparing it and WHEN it was cooked- it can't hurt, and you may start to see a pattern like I did. This has made a world of difference for me and I feel like I'm finally heading down the right path.

Yahoo!!

[tex]

Great detective work! Thanks for the insight.

Tex

[carolm]

Great post on fine tuning your diet. Thanks for sharing!

Carol

[Kari]

That is cause for celebrating for sure - kudos to you. I have been doing pretty much the same thing lately. Keeping a food journal is a great tool. I do it on and off, but mostly "on". My last 3 steps in healing have been 1. Not eating out 2. Dropping alcohol, white potatoes and all grains from my diet, and finally 3. Paying close attention to histamine and eating low histamine. It seems that these 3 steps have finally brought me into remission. Now the work is to remain in this good place.

If you are still having D., you may want to continue carefully examining what you eat in relation to symptoms. I spent many years feeling "relatively well", but still not well enough to consider myself in remission. I often took a break from my "investigative" work, but always went back to it until I finally hit on the right formula. It is different for each of us. Best of luck to you as you continue on your healing journey.

Love,
Kari