drob31
Senior Member
- Messages
- 1,487
Before I get into my thoughts about diet, I wanted to mention that I think PR should have a diet/nutrition subform. Personally, I think diet is an extremely important factor for the treatment of any disease, and especially chronic diseases like CFS and autoimmune syndromes. Also, a diet should not be temporary, but rather, a lifestyle.
I'm not suggesting that diet and nutrition alone is a cure, but I think it's a necessary pre-requisite to reclaiming more energy and health and must always be in place in case your body is ready to return to normal. Since your body is primarily exposed to what you eat, drink breathe, and absorb through your skin, it's evident that diet plays a huge factor.
It's clear that everyone has a different biochemistry and is thus affected differently by certain foods, additives, chemicals, vitamins, macronutrients, and micronutrients. To some degree a diet will have to be individualized based on trial and error. This means some people will react negatively to certain foods, and they will have to be eliminated. However, there are certain foods that have been identified that may cause hidden sensitivities that may occur days later or are not even apparent at all. Some of these foods, like dairy, wheat gluten, and nightshades could be causing many problems when included in an individuals diet.
Another often overlooked area are GMO's. Of the 3 general types of GMO's, perhaps the gene promoting type are the most concerning. The gene activators in these foods could potentially influence our epigenetics and turn something on that should be left off.
I don't intend to make this a long winded post, but at the current pace it feels like I'm writing a book. The issue with a diet for some people with CFS is the preparation, cost and convenience. Clearly that's a major hurdle, and I challenge someone to come out with a CFS cookbook.
Since internal systems are so broken in chronic disease states, you clearly have to play by new rules. I think a template such as autoimmune paleo makes sense for chronic diseases. First of all, I would emphasize at least metabolic maintenance level of calories. Next, I would emphasize only whole foods that are home prepared with minimal ingredients that are on the acceptable list. Finally I would get organic where cost is reasonable.
I see allot of avoidance diets for salicylates, histamines, and so forth. I think these are crucial, but I think a template such as autoimmune paleo should be the baseline from which these additional adjustments are made. It's not just the foods that cause the obvious reaction that are the problem, but other foods that are proven in literature to cause an inflammatory response such as gliadin (glutens). You may be able to tolerate them, but they may have a very hidden or delayed intolerance. The mechanisms that cause this intolerance may take weeks or months of avoidance to shut off.
Finally, digestion may need to be aided due to hypochlohydria, or leaky gut. For these two, things like digestive enzymes, betaine HCL, and probiotics could be used to glean more nutrition from foods. The idea is to extract nutrition, and if your eating and not getting nutrition, there's a big problem.
Here is a great reference for the paleo autoimmune diet:
http://www.phoenixhelix.com/paleo-autoimmune-protocol/
http://www.phoenixhelix.com/2013/05/19/what-is-the-paleo-autoimmune-protocol/
http://www.phoenixhelix.com/
I'm not suggesting that diet and nutrition alone is a cure, but I think it's a necessary pre-requisite to reclaiming more energy and health and must always be in place in case your body is ready to return to normal. Since your body is primarily exposed to what you eat, drink breathe, and absorb through your skin, it's evident that diet plays a huge factor.
It's clear that everyone has a different biochemistry and is thus affected differently by certain foods, additives, chemicals, vitamins, macronutrients, and micronutrients. To some degree a diet will have to be individualized based on trial and error. This means some people will react negatively to certain foods, and they will have to be eliminated. However, there are certain foods that have been identified that may cause hidden sensitivities that may occur days later or are not even apparent at all. Some of these foods, like dairy, wheat gluten, and nightshades could be causing many problems when included in an individuals diet.
Another often overlooked area are GMO's. Of the 3 general types of GMO's, perhaps the gene promoting type are the most concerning. The gene activators in these foods could potentially influence our epigenetics and turn something on that should be left off.
I don't intend to make this a long winded post, but at the current pace it feels like I'm writing a book. The issue with a diet for some people with CFS is the preparation, cost and convenience. Clearly that's a major hurdle, and I challenge someone to come out with a CFS cookbook.
Since internal systems are so broken in chronic disease states, you clearly have to play by new rules. I think a template such as autoimmune paleo makes sense for chronic diseases. First of all, I would emphasize at least metabolic maintenance level of calories. Next, I would emphasize only whole foods that are home prepared with minimal ingredients that are on the acceptable list. Finally I would get organic where cost is reasonable.
I see allot of avoidance diets for salicylates, histamines, and so forth. I think these are crucial, but I think a template such as autoimmune paleo should be the baseline from which these additional adjustments are made. It's not just the foods that cause the obvious reaction that are the problem, but other foods that are proven in literature to cause an inflammatory response such as gliadin (glutens). You may be able to tolerate them, but they may have a very hidden or delayed intolerance. The mechanisms that cause this intolerance may take weeks or months of avoidance to shut off.
Finally, digestion may need to be aided due to hypochlohydria, or leaky gut. For these two, things like digestive enzymes, betaine HCL, and probiotics could be used to glean more nutrition from foods. The idea is to extract nutrition, and if your eating and not getting nutrition, there's a big problem.
Here is a great reference for the paleo autoimmune diet:
http://www.phoenixhelix.com/paleo-autoimmune-protocol/
http://www.phoenixhelix.com/2013/05/19/what-is-the-paleo-autoimmune-protocol/
http://www.phoenixhelix.com/