Fibro Feelings – Elimination Diet
As promised in Elimination Diets, I am going to share more about what going through the elimination diet was like for me. I knew it would be tough, but I have strong will power, so I thought I’d be okay. I never did eat anything that I wasn’t supposed to, but I did begin feeling trapped. I felt trapped because of the limited food choices, but also because of how hard the diet made doing things away from home. I had to eat every three hours, so leaving home for longer than that was pretty stressful. I’m honestly not sure if I could have done this if I was working outside of the house. I did manage to go to a wedding and reception armed with a cooler full of foods I could eat.
I’ve never enjoyed recipes that are very simple in flavor and with such a small number of foods I was allowed to eat, things tasted simple. Foods that I was eating frequently, like roasted beets, started becoming sickening, literally. When I would think of eating those frequent foods again, I would start feeling sick. It got to the point where I preferred feeling extremely hungry to eating those same foods again. So, I was pretty much only eating to sustain myself and never felt full. I also had cravings for all sorts of foods, even ones I rarely eat. Fast food commercials that would usually look disgusting to me, started looking enticing.
One of my Twitter followers made a great point about the Spring and Summer being better times of the year to do an elimination diet than during other seasons. This is because more fruits and vegetables are available at those times and their prices are lower. It is also easier to eat cold/room temperature foods when you’re not feeling cold. Another thing I’d like to point out is that this diet requires cooking fully from scratch for every meal, which requires not only a lot of time and energy, but also a lot of grocery shopping and dish washing. The people who live with you probably won’t want to eat the same foods either.
The good thing that came out of the elimination diet was finding out what foods my body is sensitive to. Turns out I’m sensitive to soy, and either higher concentrations of casein or vasoactive amines. As I previously mentioned, my RD thinks I might also have an issue with yeast as well. While none of my fibromyalgia symptoms felt any better or worse through this process, my IBS symptoms did. That wasn’t surprising though, since most fats and all caffeiene and dairy were removed and they are known irritants.
What foods have you found to cause issues for you?
You may also be interested in reading: Elimination Diets
I used to love roasted beets, now we're on a break*
*Image Credit: from www.flickr.com by Ed Yourdon
Posted: September 8th, 2011 under Fibro Feelings.
Tags: Elimination Diet, Food, Soy
Comments
Comment from Miki
Time September 8, 2011 at 9:08 am
Oh my goodness Felicia I could not have said it better myself. My doctor suggested the Blood Type Diet back in February as she found it helped her autoimmune symptoms. It was very much an elimination diet, too. I am type A which is the most restrictive. I, too, noticed it helped my IBS symptoms the most. But I also have felt “trapped” (and that was the word I used, too!) It is so hard when your already fatigued to shop and cook ALL THE TIME. And the dishes…I am so sick of the dishes. It feels at time it has given me not time in my art studio and I am finding that is wrong. Even worse, I started getting food aversion to eating all together and have lost too much weight. So I know how you feel. I’ll be blogging about this at some point and I’ll send it to you. Thanks so much and good luck.
Miki recently posted: PARDON MY ILLNESS
[Reply]
Comment from Miki
Time September 8, 2011 at 9:11 am
Oh…sorry…I did not answer your question. The foods that are issues for me are wheat/gluten, soy, some dairy and night shade veggies. Eliminating tomatoes has been extra hard as I am half Italian and love sauce. I did find a good spaghetti though by Andean Dream. I of course can use different sauces that are part of the diet.
Miki recently posted: PARDON MY ILLNESS
[Reply]
Comment from Sarah B. aka Kiwikchat
Time September 8, 2011 at 5:22 pm
Hiya
I followed the candida diet and also tried cut out things like gluten and lactose which all helped reduced my gastro symptoms (mostly reflux and stomach pains). However I would still get bad episodes of reflux occasionally and not understand why.
It wasn’t until I went on the Prince Alfred Hospital (Melbourne) Elimination Diet that I found out I am intolerant to Salicylates which are in most foods and have a cumulative effect. So without eliminating them completely and following the diet (with decades of scientific research behind it) I would never have worked out what foods are problematic for me.
It is very boring though and while my taste buds have adapted, I know I’ll never accidentally overeat on this diet!
glad to hear that you are making headway with your diet and IBS symptoms.
Cheers
Sarah .B
Sarah B. aka Kiwikchat recently posted: IV’s, biological waste and adventures with Dad.
[Reply]
Felicia Fibro Reply:
September 9th, 2011 at 11:07 pm
It wasn’t until I did this elimination diet that I realized that food could have those accumulative threshold effects. I find it very interesting. Now that you avoid Saliclates do you still try to avoid yeast?
[Reply]
Sarah B Reply:
September 10th, 2011 at 2:07 am
I guess I just never added it back in. I’ve stayed off gluten so that eliminates most yeast products. So I have accidentally been avoiding yeast. I really didn’t get any gastro benefits until I cut out the salicylates.
Salicylates also increase stomach acid so cutting them out made sense for reducing reflux.
I did end up low on calcium and potassium so am careful to have lots of banana smoothies (bloody expensive in oz at the moment) and am taking supplements.
Its so good to find something that works for you, and sometimes it takes a lot of discipline especially if it has the word elimination in it’s name but it’s worth it.
[Reply]
Comment from Lee
Time September 10, 2011 at 11:40 pm
A sense of connection is so important and I also get that from the computer and fb
Felicia I think food is so important and so many people with fibro and other autoimmune conditions seem to have intolerances. I am very interested in these posts. Thanks.
Please call back into Fibro Bloggers Directory and grab a badge to add to your great site.
Lee recently posted: You can Help
[Reply]
Felicia Fibro Reply:
September 13th, 2011 at 11:35 am
Yeah, it definitely seems like it isn’t just sensory things we’re sensitive to!
[Reply]
Felicia Fibro Reply:
September 9th, 2011 at 11:01 pm
I feel like you and I have been on a journey together, even though we weren’t even going through it together. Thanks for sharing that you too felt many of the same things. When I started this diet, I never realized how much it would consume my life. Can’t wait to read your post!
[Reply]