posted
Can someone tell me why a gluten free diet? Also I read that sugar feeds lyme so i have been avoiding it but starchy food turns to sugar in the body(beans corn rice)should they be avoided?
Posts: 8 | From new jersey | Registered: Jul 2010
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TF
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 14183
posted
See pages 34-35 for the yeast control diet.
posted
If you make all your food from scratch, then a low carb diet avoiding grains will naturally be gluten free.
If you buy gluten free products in the store, they are generally very high in starchy carbs, made of corn and rice instead of wheat.
If you buy low carb products at the store, they often have wheat or gluten in them.
The carbs (which all turn to glucose) should be avoided in order to control blood sugar and inflammation, to lose weight if desired, to avoid encouraging the Lyme, and to prevent or combat candida.
On a low carb diet, you should avoid corn and rice. Quinoa contains a whole protein so is very valuable as a grain or seed or whatever it is. However, it does have carbs, so you should count them.
Since beans have lots of protein and fiber, you could eat a few once in a while, but in that case make sure you are counting the total grams of carbs (minus grams of fiber) that you eat in a meal and in a day, to keep it low, eat a small amount and don't eat beans too often.
"Low carb" is usually between 20 and 120g of carb a day. You have to find (by experimenting) the level that works for you to maintain, gain or lose weight as needed, and to keep carb cravings at bay. Surprisingly, I have LESS carb cravings, the less carbs I eat. I thought it should work the other way around, but it doesn't.
If you don't want to count, then just don't eat any sugar, grains or starch, and you can have all the protein and vegetables you want. Limit the kind and amount of fruit, eat it at the end of a meal, and skip it if it gives you a candida flare. Otherwise just eat a small amount at multiple meals rather than a lot of fruit at a time, and always eat it WITH a protein (cheese, nuts, eggs, meat, etc.) not by itself.
People with celiac disease need to avoid gluten because it gives them headaches, intestinal distress or other symptoms. Many people with Lyme develop gluten sensitivity and follow a gluten free diet to help with that. Information on that diet is at www.celiac.com.
Best for most of us would be to eat low carb/high protein and good fat AND gluten free, but it's difficult to do both.
People who are seriously sensitive to gluten need to eat gluten free 100% of the time in order for the diet to help. The low carb diet can be helpful in various ways even if you can't stick to it 100% of the time (I know this from quite a bit of experience).
I just discovered a food delivery service run by a chef in my area, who delivers low carb meals made from real food. She does not use sugar, flour, transfats, MSG, Nutrasweet, etc., so I don't have to worry about all the sugar and chemicals that might be in restaurant food or store food.
When people on a low carb diet say they "don't eat carbs," they really mean they get their carbs primarily from nonstarchy vegetables and low sugar/high fiber fruit. These have protein, fiber and nutrients, so they slow down the absorption of the small amount of carbs they contain, and give us other good things that we need.
If you miss bread and sweet things, you can make them with almond flour and stevia. Look for specific recipes because you can't substitute them directly for flour or sugar.
-------------------- Don't forget to laugh! And when you're going through hell, keep going!
Bitten 5/25/2009 in Perry County, Indiana. Diagnosed by LLMD 12/2/2009. Posts: 756 | From Inside the tunnel | Registered: Jan 2010
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posted
LightAtTheEnd, what great information. In addition to quinoa, I think millet and maybe buckwheat are also acceptable carbs. Is the reason for no rice (even brown rice?) and corn because of their sugar content? My LLMD suggested brown rice to help me gain weight. I find it difficult to maintain a healthy weight on a low carb diet and have been eating a little brown rice, beans, and tofu. Will quinoa also work to add weight-adding carbs? I do eat gluten free, and eat very little low-carb fruit or other candida-inciting foods.
Posts: 212 | From San Francisco Bay Area, California | Registered: Aug 2010
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Keebler
Honored Contributor (25K+ posts)
Member # 12673
posted
- Avoid: gluten; dairy; corn and soy for a while. You may be able to add back a little soy and see how you do but it's best to avoid gluten, dairy and corn for many reasons. They often cause pain from inflammation.
No processed foods. That simple rule cuts out simple carbs.
No artificial anything. That cuts out dyes, additives and artificial sweeteners, especially aspartame which is toxic to the brain.
MSG - google for all the names of that. Toxic.
Stevia (from a plant) is okay to use as a sweetener but be sure it's pure. Truvia is NOT.
Limit starchy vegetables but load up on all others. Low sugar fruits like berries and tart apples are necessary, actually, for nutrients and fiber. Best if eaten after a meal.
About every other week, someone posts that they are trying to go "no carbs" - but feel weak from it. Whether by too strict of a definition or whatever, "no carbs" can be dangerous. Vegetables of all types are carbs.
We NEED carbohydrates to live, brain tissue, especially needs the calories. It's the complex ones, though - not simple.
We also need the fiber that good carbs provide. Without that fiber, we become more toxic. The antioxidants in vegetables are also invaluable to helping control pain and inflammation.
And there are some very good non-gluten whole (complex) grains that have such great mineral and protein content that they can work very well for lyme patients, in the right proportion and with vegetables, proteins and good fats.
Here are some good cookbooks & sites - adaptations can be easily made with these. You might consider growing kitchen herbs so you have fresh rosemary, basil, fennel, etc. at your fingertips. --------------------
CHRISTINA COOKS - Natural health advocate/ chef, Christina Pirello offers her comprehensive guide to living the well life.
Vegan, with a Mediterranean flair. Organic.
She was dx with terminal leukemia in her mid-twenties. Doctors said there was nothing more they could do. Among other things, she learned about complementary medicine and she learned how to cook whole foods. She recovered her health and is now a chef and professor of culinary arts.
She has program on the PBS network "Create" a couple times week. Check your PBS schedule.
To adapt: in the rare dishes where she uses wheat flour, it can just be left out for a fruit medley, etc. Brown Rice Pasta can be substituted (Tinkyada or Trader Joe's). Quinoa and the dark rices can also be used.
But she focuses mostly on very filling vegetable dishes and garden herbs.
Regarding her use of brown rice syrup, just leave it out and add a touch of stevia at the end.
From Nina Simonds, the best-selling authority on Asian cooking, comes a ground-breaking cookbook based on the Asian philosophy of food as health-giving. The 200 delectable recipes she offers you not only taste superb but also have specific healing . . . .
. . . With an emphasis on the health-giving properties of herbs and spices, this book gives the latest scientific research as well as references to their tonic properties according to Traditional Chinese Medicine and Ayurveda, the traditional Indian philosophy of medicine. . . .
THE CURE IS IN THE KITCHEN, by Sherry A. Rogers M.D., is the first book to ever spell out in detail what all those people ate day to day who cleared their incurable diseases . . .
FROM CURRIES TO KEBABS - RECIPES FROM THE INDIAN SPICE TRAIL - by: Jaffrey, Madhur
==========================
Also look for MOOSEWOOD Cookbooks and THE ENCHANTED BROCCOLI FOREST
==========================
MEDITERRANEAN DIET (minus the wheat and the wine) is also good. It's many vegetable based, with delicious herbs in the meat dishes. Quinoa, dark rices - and unsweetened pomegranate juice can be substituted.
Look up Black Forbidden Chinese Rice & the Red Bhutanese Rice. The nutritional content is excellent and these will help fill and fortify you, even in moderation, along with lots of vegetables.
posted
If most of are symptoms are not associated with pain is it ok to add in some dairy and brown or black rice?
I never eat white rice but I do eat brown and wild from time to time. Also, I eat quinoa crackers from the store and have yet to have a problem.
Posts: 286 | From St. Louis | Registered: Dec 2009
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Keebler
Honored Contributor (25K+ posts)
Member # 12673
posted
- I think dairy is never okay. It can really gum up the ears and the immune system (See the book "Don't Drink Your Milk") -
However, a thick Greek yogurt seems to do well for me now and then with a special recipe. Only organic yogurt, though, to avoid the hormones and antibiotics that most dairy cows are just loaded with and we want to avoid. Organic cows are USUALLY in a better environment (but you'll have to check that out). You don't want yogurt from cows that never get to see the light of day and are jammed into a barn all the time.
And, even with yogurt, see how it dose for your throat and ears. If you get phlegm at all - that's not good.
As for the grains, I think the darker non-gluten grains are necessary, absolutely necessary. Vegetables fade too fast in the body. The dark grains help carry the nutrients through for a longer time to have that nutrition available to your cells.
The darker the grain, usually the better but that can fool you so study the nutrition labels for what you consider. Just never white rice, as you know. For rices, I think the BLACK rice is best - or WILD rice. But it's important to not eat the same thing everyday - to rotate. And, grains would be the smallest portion with vegetables still being the guest of honor at every meal (even breakfast). Lentils and other legumes, too, are excellent sources of key nutrients and the complex carbohydrates help even those with diabetes to manage glucose stability for hours after a bowl of lentils. Our bodies need that kind of fuel.
Now, there is difference of opinion here about any grains at all. I passed out many times trying to avoid them. I've also seen people drop like flies trying to avoid all carbs. I don't think that is healthy. Whole food, complex carbs are a true gift of nutrition and we need all sorts of variety for many reasons, along with good proteins and good fats.
My views on all this do vary from many others here. So, take it all in, study it, read the cookbooks above and dive into a world of culinary pleasure. Find the gourmet cook that is inside of you - as your foods start to really give you their gifts. -
Posts: 48021 | From Tree House | Registered: Jul 2007
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