I tried this last year, but don't even think I made it through the first week.
I really don't want to lose anymore weight and I am an eating machine these days with quite a few food sensitivities (like most of us) so that already limits what I can and cannot eat.
This being the beginning of the year and all I am recommitted to doing as many things as I can to increase my chances of beating this thing down (gluten-free, low sugar, etc).
Food for all of us is a very personal, frustrating thing. Before I start making more sacrifices in this area I am really interested in knowing if anyone has tried this (following the specified foods for the specified amounts of time) and really seen marked results.
The foods overall make sense and I follow these already, but I curious as to the effectiveness of the elimination and staggered slow reintroduction of things even if for the most part you are already eating the way you are suppose to.
Thank you!
[ 01-09-2010, 11:26 AM: Message edited by: Flyinpiker ]
Posted by METALLlC BLUE (Member # 6628) on :
Personally, I have no idea. Diet never made a big impact on me. I mean it is a really smart thing to avoid foods that cause you to react, but in terms of feeling better otherwise? I just never saw it. I still would try it if you haven't done it before. Eating better does improve health in the long run.
Posted by canefan17 (Member # 22149) on :
Changing my diet has helped tremendously. And understanding nutrition has helped me even more.
If you are a Lymie... you have gut issues. End of story.
The first place these doctor should be looking is at the patients diet. Then go from there.
Posted by Flyinpiker (Member # 19589) on :
Just to clarify (and for those just joining the thread I did edit my original question to include following the levels & foods,etc). Thank you for the responses thus far!
The diet makes sense 100%. Eliminating certain foods from my diet has been the only blatantly obvious thing that has shown results for me...antibiotics included.
As a whole all of the foods listed in the diet just make sense.
My real question is the importance of following the different levels of the diet for specified amounts of time that will supposedly reduce inflammation.
I'm trying to determine if I fell off the wagon over the holidays will starting from square one (level one) be a good thing for the gut overall or is just going back to my healthy ways good enough.
There is definitely no way around restricting your diet to healthy foods. Wish my doc would have told me that 3 years ago...I didn't find it out for myself till about a year ago when I first read this book.
Posted by MariaA (Member # 9128) on :
I think the hard part for a lot of people is reducing carbs and junkfood. Carbohydrate-rich foods are often the easiest to prepare (pasta, potatoes, etc) and we're all so fatigued it can be hard to cook healthier meals, plus even healthy people get major sugar cravings and possibly other carbohydrate cravings when they try to reduce sugar and cracker/bread/pasta intake. I took it very slowly and reduced down by first cutting out candy and major sources of sugar, and then took the 'cut out bread and pasta' steps much later after sugar cravings were gone. The rest of it was pretty simple to me after that slow approach.
One major reason for reducing carbs is that they feed candida, which a lot of people with Lyme have in addition to Lyme.
People who have severe weight loss with Lyme have a much harder time with this of course. When I was losing weight (due to babesia) I gave up on my strict low-carb diet and just ate whatever seemed good (well, not candy, but other stuff that was not low-carb) as it was a matter of keeping pounds on (ice cream was a big one). I was also very fatigued so preparing 'shakes' of various sorts was easier than cooking vegetables. I have gone through phases with my illness where to deal with adequate nutrition while fatigued or while having appetite loss, I would make these thick, all-purpose vegetable shakes with lots of protein powder of some kind, yogurt, fruit, AND hide some vegetables in it (the result is slightly chunky but good, and still tastes like fruit. Obviously the fruit adds a lot of sugar).
Once you can get your diet away from high carbs or sugar, the rest of the Inflammation Diet is pretty easy because most low-carb diets are fairly low-inflammation by default- the additional things Dr S's book suggests is to avoid fried junk foods, potatoes, tomatoes, and eggplants, and a few other things that aren't all that hard to avoid IF your diet is already not based around wheat pasta, junkfood, and fast food. I know how hard it is to get to that point if you've been sick and fatigued and don't have energy to cook and nothing tastes good.