I found this article I wanted to share. I am trying to find dietary facts that can help the majority of many of the readers.
I know that changing our eating habits can seem an impossible challenge, however Allergic and I have been working within our group to provide easy to access and understand how add or removing certain foods can reduce the inflammation associated with Lupus and many of the other A1 diseases.
There are several good articles in this magazine and many can be accessed for free online.
Please share your stories of removing or adding items to your current diets so that we may all see if diet plays as big a role in quality of life as current schools of thought are telling us.
I do know by removing peppers, tomatoes, mild curries anything like this in my daily diet for a start off as helped my IBS plus i've noticed it does'nt give the sjogren's cause to kick off with giving me the bile....these foods must be an upsetting process also for the system :) xxx
I'm happy for you that your health has improved over the past 20 yrs. It gives all of us hope that we can do the same. I agree with your thoughts on the food elimination being different for each individual. Over the past 20 yrs. I've dealt with food sensitivities. I have eliminated vast varieties of foods and after yrs of avoidance slowly reintroduced some of them back into my diet. When I slowly reintroduced them I found I was able to tolerate a moderate amount without the flareups. It is really strange but it seems to work for me. My daughter is lactose intolerant and since she has eliminated most of the dairy in her diet, she can slowly go back to eating pizza, ice cream, cheese. But, she can't overdue and have them daily. I agree with you, it is different with everyone and it is worth trying the elimination and then monitoring your symptoms.
Ann A. said:
As we enter 2013, I have not been to the emergency room for a lupus flare in over 20 years. My health and the overall quality of my life are much higher at age 66 than they were at age 46. My internal organs are all functioning within normal parameters for a 66 years old woman. My blood sugar level is fine. My blood pressure is borderline high, only when I have not been to the pool. My total cholesterol is ply slightly elevated - at the last test 211 when 199 is the top of the expected range - and my cholesterol ratio fell within the expected range.
I strongly believe that changes in my dietary patterns have had a great impact on the reduction in the frequency and severity of the lupus flares I experience. I also believe that these changes have helped to keep my blood sugar, my blood lipids, and my blood pressure from being problematic (This is important to me because so many of my close relatives have serious health problems as a consequence of diabetes and/or hypertension. One of my same age cousins has already died of kidney failure as a diabetes complication and her sister is on dialysis, while my mother died from stroke).
Here, however, I am only going to address my experience with "nightshades." Under the guidance of my nutritionist, I once removed each of the vegetables that falls into the "nightshade" category (and which are normally available in the USA) from my diet for an extended period of time, including a one month period in which I ate no nightshades at all. There was no change in the quality of my life when I removed the nightshades and no change in the quality of my life, my overall health, or my level of inflammation when the ones that I like to eat were returned to my diet.
According to the nutritionist with whom I was working when I tried the nightshade elimination, there is a component of nightshades which is most problematic for inflammation. Some people are sensitive to this component while others are not. I am not sensitive to the problematic component of nightshades.
My sister on the other hand can feel increased inflammation if there are too many tomatoes in her salad. She is one of the people who sits at a table in restaurants and takes tomato out of salads.
I think it is a great idea for people to try removing nightshades from their diets for a period of time to see if they respond more like me or more like my sister. My sister, by the way, can drink milk and eat ice cream. I am sensitive to lactase and milk protein while she is not. It is experiences like this which make me place such a high value on the concept of “biochemical individuality.” We are not all identical.
I am glad to see on your new discussion, that some members are sharing their personal experiences with food elimination and how the point of individuality was brought up. This is very supportive and will make a big difference in inspiring members to learn more about the effects of their diets on their health.
I have also gone through elimination of foods, and then adding them back in one at a time to see if they caused a flare or any negative effects. This has allowed me to pinpoint exactly which foods cause me problems. It is worth the effort to do this, since the positive long term benefits can be tremendous.
It was your story that was the inspiration behind asking people to take a closer look at their diets to see what may be causing thier flares. I am a believer that you are what you eat. And while I am sometimes something covered in chocolate LOL, for the most part I make myself aware of my food intake an make a note of anything that makes me feel better or worse. I continue to wait to hear more of your success.
Hugs my friends,
DeAnne
Allergic said:
DeAnne,
I am glad to see on your new discussion, that some members are sharing their personal experiences with food elimination and how the point of individuality was brought up. This is very supportive and will make a big difference in inspiring members to learn more about the effects of their diets on their health.
I have also gone through elimination of foods, and then adding them back in one at a time to see if they caused a flare or any negative effects. This has allowed me to pinpoint exactly which foods cause me problems. It is worth the effort to do this, since the positive long term benefits can be tremendous.
Yes, me too. It's easier to just buy the whole foods instead of having to mess around looking into each packaged food that you buy and wonder "hmm, wonder what's hiding in THIS one?" The other thing to watch for is your supplement ingredients and processing. Lots have gluten in them and other offensive ingredients.
Ally
Ann A. said:
Sheila,
These new discussions about food made think of your earlier warning about MSG. MSG and MSG hidden behind other names is one of the reasons that I have come to eat so few prepared foods.
Allergic said:
Sheila,
Try clicking on this.... the same thing but I couldn't get the one above to work either, some gliche I suppose..
Salt or things we eat make inflamation worse.Like bread soda chips lunchmeat really fish Chicken fruits and raw veggies and drinking water is best lol but…I am gonna live and eat but the longer you have lupus you end up making better food choices I drink tea with splenda to make up for coke
Ann, I can imagine. They must all go home and tear through their cupboards checking everything in horror.
Ally
Ann A. said:
Ally,
I do a workshop on selecting the best nutritional supplements - you should see the faces on some of the participants when I show them what is in their daily multiple vitamin - Some of them tell me that they expected me to talk about ingredients that are widely known to cause an allergenic or other type of reaction in sensitive people.
It is the discussion of toxic excepients that make them cringe.
I wanted to let people know that in the group for gluten-free and anti-inflammatory foods, I added a list of substitutions for common foods, as well as how to create your own gluten-free products. Please take a look, join the group, ask questions to Allergic or myself,
I'm not able to take fish oils of any kind due to von willebrands bleeding disorder that I have, but I have learned that same is true with the gelcaps. The Omega 3 oil many times is only a small percentage in each one and the rest is filled with bad oils. Very deceitful marketing.
Thank you, yes, so far I've been ok and I limit use of the kombu. I've had my share of oopsies with the herbs though, such as nettle and black cohosh, and even bromelain....spontaneous bleeds. I drive my doctor buggy because I have so many limitations.
Ally
Ann A. said:
Since you have VWD, you may also want to be careful with sea vegetables such as kombu. Sea vegetables can reduce the ability of blood to form clots. Oh - how our chemical individuality makes it important to take our entire medical history into account in order to determine the extent to which some foods are beneficial.
Allergic said:
Ann,
I'm not able to take fish oils of any kind due to von willebrands bleeding disorder that I have, but I have learned that same is true with the gelcaps. The Omega 3 oil many times is only a small percentage in each one and the rest is filled with bad oils. Very deceitful marketing.
I've seen them all. King corn was the first, that should have been enough to see but I watched them all, geez, and the corn is from GMO seed. I spend some time in the midwest on farms and saw it first hand. The farmers won't eat their own crops, that's for sure. Saw the feed lots too. Disgusting. The organic farmers have it right but they do not get kickbacks from the government. Shame on it all.
Ann....food is medicine alright, if you can get your hands on the real thing, these days it's gmo'd to death, or stale, or polluted with toxins. It's down to informed selection.
Oopsies, yea, it's only by the grace of God that I am still here, since no doctor would listen to me and try to find out why I was bleeding all the time, not till I was fifty years old did I finally get diagnosed with VWD and the Hemachromatosis gene. But I'm here.
Ally
Ann A. said:
I guess that is why I keep pushing the concept of "biochemical individuality."
What is very good for the health of one person can be very dangerous to the health of another.
Food is medicine. And the medicinal properties of some foods are every bit as potent as what is behind the counter at the pharmacy.
Many pharmaceutical products are synthetic versions of compounds that already exist in nature - usually in plants and often in plants that are eaten (or in some cases definitely not to be eaten).
I strongly recommend that whenever possible people seek professional help to devise a dietary plan - including the use of foods as medicines. I am glad that you "oopsie" turned out well.
Allergic said:
Ann,
Thank you, yes, so far I've been ok and I limit use of the kombu. I've had my share of oopsies with the herbs though, such as nettle and black cohosh, and even bromelain....spontaneous bleeds. I drive my doctor buggy because I have so many limitations.
So glad that you ARE here. Your take on the importance of dietary influences of food are so very important to our group. Ann, I would love if you would contribute to that group as well. Your knowledge is so broad, I believe that there are so many questions that you could answer. I would be very pleased as I and Allergic can speak to our own experiences. I have Netflix, but haven't watched any of those documentaries. I have found that most have an agenda, and I would like your take on the subject.
It would benefit you to watch the documentaries. I found copies in the library. I don't have Netflix.
As far as them having agendas, their agenda is to open people's eyes to what is going on in the food industry and help them to make better choices. Awareness is everything, if you want to survive, and possibly see changes for the better. Watch the doctumentaries and then revisit your question. It may help you to understand why there is so much chronic illness in the population.
Keep in mind how much money the food industry is making by producing food on the cheap(with government subsidy to boot) and how much money the drug companies are making from our illnesses. It's diabolical.
