Elimination diet

[Molly]

I had a visit with a nutrition doctor last week at a well respected medical clinic as I am having chronic muscle and joint pain. She put me on an anti-inflammatory elimination diet. Basically, I must avoid most everything I enjoy for a period of time and then start adding food back to see what triggers my symptoms.

This means no dairy, gluten, caffeine, chocolate, eggs, nightshade plants, and many other foods. After coming home in tears, I decided to make the best of the situation, so I am eating my new, bland food on my good china.

Has anyone else benefited from an anti-inflammatory diet? I would love to hear your stories. I need all the encouragement I can get. This will be worth it if it works.

[kib]

Sorry to hear about your woes, I hope you can find your problem foods!!

You did give me a new product idea. It might be a whole lot easier for people who need to do elimination detective work if they could have a premade 'food neutral' product that didn't include any of the common triggers. Just drink your Eliminade and stop thinking about food for a few weeks, rather than the unhappiness and deprivation of trying to come up with a workable meal every four hours that revolves around ... what? lettuce and apple juice? :(

[Rosemary]

My family did a full elimination diet almost 4 years ago. It has permanently changed the way we eat. Although I was focused on a healthy diet before our experience, eliminating so many foods made me rely much more on fresh vegetables, and I felt terrific. Now I can tell within a day or two of diet slips... especially when we travel and I end up eating more salt and sugar than normal.

As far as specific sensitivities, I did find some trigger foods that exacerbate my chronic reflux.

But the food does not have to be bland! Instead of focusing on what you must eliminate, list the foods that you are allowed to eat during this phase.
I have some logs of what we ate during that time. Your eliminations might not be the same as ours, but perhaps this will be useful for you.

Breakfasts
Homemade turkey sausage patties
Buckwheat-almond Pancakes with maple syrup (re-introduced this week)
Oatmeal
Fruit and nuts
Half avocado and apple
Random leftovers
Half avocado with banana
Oatmeal
Granola with unsweetened rice milk
Gingered black-eyed pea soup

Lunches
Chicken, lettuce wrappers
Broccoli salad with cashew-prune dressing
Salads
Red lentil daal
Chicken with lettuce or spinach leaves for wrapping
Broccoli salad with cashew-prune dressing
Mixed vegetable salads

Dinners
Cod and salad
Rice pasta, chicken sausage, steamed vegetables
Lamb pot roast, potatoes, carrots, streamed broccoli
Poached salmon, sugar snap peas, and salad
Lettuce leaf chicken-vegetable tacos
Salmon cakes, fried potatoes, and steamed broccoli
Turkey/veggie burritos on rice tortillas
Lamb Rogan Josh, Indian-spiced spinach, and rice with salad
Baked cod with roasted cauliflower, broccoli, and carrots
Roasted chicken with roasted potatoes and carrots, steamed green beans

Snacks
Watermelon
Apples, pears, bananas, mango
Granola and rice milk
Coconut macaroons
Almonds, walnuts, macadamia nuts, pepitas, sunflower seeds
Rice cake with almond butter
Mango, Apple, Kiwi, Banana
Coconut macaroons (date-sweetened, homemade)
Date-sweetened banana muffins (amazingly, free of gluten, dairy, eggs, sugar and nuts!)
Raw veggies: cucumber, carrot, red bell pepper, sugar snap peas
Banana-blueberry smoothie
Almonds, walnuts, and macadamia nuts

[kimberlyf0]

When I have a bad IC flare the rescue diet the doctor gave me allows white rice, green beans, carrots, pears, and simple white bread products (but not sourdough). It also allows eggs, chicken, and milk but I don't eat animal products and am allergic to dairy and poultry anyway. It is extremely boring but usually reduces the pain significantly within a few days (and shouldn't be followed for more than a week because it is deficient in nutrients). As a bonus it's an easy way to drop a couple pounds since I lose my appetite pretty quickly, lol, unless I allow myself potatoes (they don't seem to bother me although I don't tolerate any other nightshades). Gluten doesn't bother me (I was gluten free for five years and had some of my worst flares during that time, go figure), but caffeine in any form does.

Following the IC rescue diet and the level one food list I realized that I had far fewer aches and pains (I too have chronic muscle and joint pain), so I do think an anti-inflammatory diet can work.

Over time I've learned which foods work for me; my diet can be limited because of avoiding irritants as well as having had multiple food allergies since I was a baby, but I like simplicity anyway. I definitely experience joint pain if I sneak and eat chocolate. I don't tolerate citrus, or most berries, or nuts (that one is a combination of nuts I am allergic to and nuts that cause inflammatory symptoms), but I can use almond milk (my guess is that it had very little protein in it and that the almonds are blanched). Stone fruit is not my friend, nor are most leafy greens (I can eat lettuces though).

I do think that dairy was causing a lot of my muscle and joint pain; before resuming a vegan diet I was eating it because my allergy symptoms didn't see too bad but then I started having anaphylaxis and had to give it up completely. My massage therapist has noticed a big difference in the number of knots and crystals I get; there has been a decrease and also my muscles are more "supple" and the knots work out easier. Eggs could have been a problem too though, as they are rather inflammatory and I gave them up a little while after giving up dairy.

I will admit that I was terrible at adhering to a limited anti-inflammatory diet until my IC got so bad that I was basically bedridden. I did some good healing and then fell off the wagon again until I started developing anaphylactic reactions to allergens. Now I find it much easier. One thing I do is I usually eat before going to social gatherings, and then just nibble on the offerings based on what is safe. For a potluck I always take a couple of dishes that I know are safe for me. I also accept that there are days where what I eat will be bland and limited (I don't find the diet overall to be bland at all but the rescue diet is).

I wish you all the luck in the world! You are so right that it will be worth it if it works. Most days I can now go out in the afternoon and walk on the trails and a) not be desperate for a bathroom and b) not be in misery with my muscles and joints (and not pay for the activity later). Try to think of it as improving the overall quality of your life rather than decreasing your enjoyment in food. You will learn so many tricks and replacements that it will become second nature. Overtime it gets easier to explain why you aren't eating something and you stop worrying about what people think. I have gone to a restaurant and ordered only french fries because I dare not risk a salad with questionable ingredients in the dressing or a veggie burger made with soy. I don't care what the server thinks, and honestly, I don't really think they are thinking about me at all.

[lessisbest]

After suffering with all kinds of inflammation nearly all my life (arthritis since I was 14-years old, now 62), eliminating gluten 2-years ago has changed my life. It was difficult because I was the crazy person who milled their own flour and made all their breads and baked goods. Ironically, I had been developing gluten-free recipes for years, including cookie recipes for a local sorghum mill, and I made gluten-free items since my mother was diagnosed with celiac disease in the 1980's.

Any dietary changes are tough at first, so instead of thinking about all the things I have to do without, I concentrate on how I can "do different". I just put together a few recipes this morning so I can make low-fructose fudge (lowering my consumption of fructose is my newest elimination). I made all gluten-free, low-fructose, cookies for Christmas. Adding more fuel to the fire -- since gall bladder surgery this summer, resulting in Dumping Syndrome, I have a whole new list of foods I can no longer eat, but the list of foods I CAN eat is even longer. It helps to have some good cookbooks and other resources (check your local library); and stick to whole foods so you don't have all those hidden ingredients that can be triggers.

[Molly]

Kib - I would totally buy Eliminade! I'm already bored with the acceptable foods that I like. As for the acceptable foods I don't like, well, I find I'm having to force them down. It would be great to just drink the stuff and forget about it.

I think you're on to something! :)

[oldhat]

I'd really like to change my diet, but boy, is it hard for me. As a single guy who works FT, processed foods and take-out always beckon, and cooking just for myself always seems to involve more effort than it's worth.

The main problem, though, is that I just have a very, very, very tough time resisting foods that probably aren't good for me. Red meat, sugar, fried foods--you name it. I have had some success in moderating my intake of these things, and I've gone through periods when I would eliminate some category or other, but I've never been able to stick with it. I'm firmly convinced that different people have different addictions that are especially hard to kick, probably for reasons of brain chemistry that are still not fully understood. For example, I quit smoking more than 20 years ago after 15 years of a pack a day. It wasn't easy, but it was a cakewalk compared to trying to permanently give up sugary and fatty foods.

Still, I haven't abandoned hope. I'm off work through Jan. 5, and I want to use some of that time to assess my diet and try to come up with a plan for improving it.

[awakenedsoul]

Ditto for me, seven or eight years ago. But keep in mind that if you are having food sensitivities, it's a symptom, not a root problem. The root lies in the nervous system, which is what responds to stimuli. I'd suggest working with a holistic doctor, one who really understands the autonomic nervous system as well as nutrition. You can eliminate as many foods as possible and maybe find a culprit or two, but then what? At some point you'll want to figure out why those foods are a problem.

This is how I feel, too. I noticed that when my hip started bothering me, I started having flare ups after eating certain foods. It made me wonder if food intolerances are symptomatic of problems with the nervous system. When my nerve pathways are open and operating well, I don't have the extreme reactions to foods. Since acupuncture, I've had some major releases and openings in my hip joints. They had been locked for years.

My ballet teacher said that after her daughter worked on her, (her daughter is a chiropractor,) her food allergies disappeared. That made sense to me. It's not natural to be so food sensitive. (I don't mean this as a judgement, it's just something I realized with self assessment.) I also think menopause has a lot to do with it. Your body changes so much. I believe that men go through a male menopause, too. Their hormones also shift, as do their bodies.

[pinkytoe]

That does sound tough. What would bother me the most is that food is supposed to bring joy and having to think about what I ingest at every meal would be draining by itself. I experienced some recurring hip pain and it was diagnosed as simple bursitis. I never thought of myself as having food sensitivities but notice that some mornings it hurts much more than others. Very often, it is completely absent. I'll have to keep a food log and see if there is a correlation since that sounds interesting. If it helps in the end, it will certainly be worth your trouble.

[Molly]

Pinkytoe - I agree. I resisted an elimination diet for years for that reason. It was only until I became incapacitated from the pain that I agreed to do it (and that was only last week). I have a friend who had a similar problem and it took almost a year for her to be restored to full functionality, so she is my inspiration. Had I not seen results in a month or two, I would have assumed it didn't work. Now I understand that it might take much longer.

I have been active and athletic my whole life so this incapacitation is killing me. I am regretting not trying this diet years ago. I only hope it's not too late.

[creaker]

An elimination diet can be difficult, especially if you're not used to cooking with real foods (not processed/pre-made foods) but it's really the only way I know to identify food sensitivities.