Most Restrictive Diet Possible

[soulflower]

I mean I'm eliminating all classic food offenders, NO gluten dairy grains nuts etc... even cut out all vegetables since I've had them the whole time and they might be the cause (who knows) so basically just proteins and sweet potatoes/avocados/coco products/lettuce and dark chocolate - and I'm STILL feeling worse every day. How long after trying the diet would you feel changes ?

Twice I saw you list sweet potatoes and then once you said no alcohol. I assume you meant "booze". But I want to share my experience as I can't drink it nor eat it - ie sweet potatoes have enough mannitol to trigger me. Same with things like cherries - especially cherry juice which has sorbitol. So I wasn't sure if you meant grain booze or sugar alcohols - both are bad triggers for me.

I also found all lettuce of all types was immediate trip to the bathroom. (I do miss salad but now I Make it without the lettuce). It's easy to dismiss a whole food group but dangerous so I try to avoid doing that myself. Cherries may not be okay but I can eat all the wild blueberries I want - even blueberry juice is okay, but after a few days and few handfuls of fresh cherries or a bit of the juice and I can feel my body start locking up, heart going crazy etc. Took me quite some time and detective work to figure out what works and what didn't (Years) and sadly it changes at times. The food journal really was the only way for me as we are so different. And it took a long time because once you have reacted, you almost have to wait until it passes to try new food items. It seemed I got on a ten day cycle. if I had a bad reaction - it was ten days before it was gone and I could try a new food. I fasted for days and then started off with potatoes because I was intolerant of everything else at the time, even rice.

For me everything you listed is a trigger - I don't digest the fats in avocados well, though I have grown increasingly tolerant of them and keep trying them for the fat component. LOVE chocolate but it never loves me back. I don't eat meat personally but I have also read that protein in the form of meat from grain fed animals can trigger people - so maybe consider protein from non grain fed animals if you haven't considered this already.

I still go through periods where it seems the only thing I can eat is non-gmo organic potatoes. I roast them and pile them high with fresh herbs like rosemary and tyme and sea salt. The one nice thing is my grocery now carries three kinds of these potatoes - red, white and yellow! I take what variety I can get these days.

I sense the frustration and sadly can relate all too well - people kind of laughed when I would say no food seems to agree with me. But that is really TOUGH spot?? We need to eat? It truly is not a laughing matter - I hope you find something that works for you soon. If it helps at all - I can now eat all kinds of foods (again within reason - no gluten dairy sugar alcohol etc) BUT yesterday I made gluten free apple fritters and I still feel okay from them!! There is hope - it just takes time.

 

[Jo86]

Twice I saw you list sweet potatoes and then once you said no alcohol. I assume you meant "booze". But I want to share my experience as I can't drink it nor eat it - ie sweet potatoes have enough mannitol to trigger me. Same with things like cherries - especially cherry juice which has sorbitol. So I wasn't sure if you meant grain booze or sugar alcohols - both are bad triggers for me.

I also found all lettuce of all types was immediate trip to the bathroom. (I do miss salad but now I Make it without the lettuce). It's easy to dismiss a whole food group but dangerous so I try to avoid doing that myself. Cherries may not be okay but I can eat all the wild blueberries I want - even blueberry juice is okay, but after a few days and few handfuls of fresh cherries or a bit of the juice and I can feel my body start locking up, heart going crazy etc. Took me quite some time and detective work to figure out what works and what didn't (Years) and sadly it changes at times. The food journal really was the only way for me as we are so different. And it took a long time because once you have reacted, you almost have to wait until it passes to try new food items. It seemed I got on a ten day cycle. if I had a bad reaction - it was ten days before it was gone and I could try a new food. I fasted for days and then started off with potatoes because I was intolerant of everything else at the time, even rice.

For me everything you listed is a trigger - I don't digest the fats in avocados well, though I have grown increasingly tolerant of them and keep trying them for the fat component. LOVE chocolate but it never loves me back. I don't eat meat personally but I have also read that protein in the form of meat from grain fed animals can trigger people - so maybe consider protein from non grain fed animals if you haven't considered this already.

I still go through periods where it seems the only thing I can eat is non-gmo organic potatoes. I roast them and pile them high with fresh herbs like rosemary and tyme and sea salt. The one nice thing is my grocery now carries three kinds of these potatoes - red, white and yellow! I take what variety I can get these days.

I sense the frustration and sadly can relate all too well - people kind of laughed when I would say no food seems to agree with me. But that is really TOUGH spot?? We need to eat? It truly is not a laughing matter - I hope you find something that works for you soon. If it helps at all - I can now eat all kinds of foods (again within reason - no gluten dairy sugar alcohol etc) BUT yesterday I made gluten free apple fritters and I still feel okay from them!! There is hope - it just takes time.

As I always say, it's always interesting to read other people's inputs. Thanks for taking the time.
I'm glad to read you went back to a "normal" diet.

If anyone else feels like just droning on about their intolerances and things of that nature, I'm glad to read it !

 

[Seven7]

How has that worked out for you ? I mean I'm eliminating all classic food offenders, NO gluten dairy grains nuts etc... even cut out all vegetables since I've had them the whole time and they might be the cause (who knows) so basically just proteins and sweet potatoes/avocados/coco products/lettuce and dark chocolate - and I'm STILL feeling worse every day. How long after trying the diet would you feel changes ?

Very soon much better but do have the worst tummy in history ( this always the case pre cfs) so I showed allergic to
Everything on the test ( except eggs) so even onion and garlic so was very hard for me.
The great thing about rotation is that you use the quimestry to your favor. It takes certain things for the body to be Abel to mount a reAction, so if you work with the body chemistry, is a win. I will PM you some resources.

 

[Timaca]

Jo86~ I feel your pain. I went on an elimination diet back in 2012 (I think it was then) and cut out most foods except sweet potatoes, turkey and some vegetables. It took me a LONG time to figure out what foods were problematic for me...but like Melissa I now eat vegan (whole food plant based, gluten free).

Back then, I discovered that I had a histamine intolerance and the only animal protein I could eat was really fresh fish (other animal protein had been dead too long by the time it came to the store and thus the histamine content was too high for me.)

My mercury levels went high due to the fish consumption so I stopped that.

It took my body awhile to adjust to eating foods again (read bloat) but probiotics helped.

Now for health reasons, the environment and for the animals sake I eat plants. And the only one I can't eat is wheat (I get a bad headache.)

I'm happy with my current diet and I feel like I get a lot of nutrients from the whole foods I eat.

I don't know that my experience will be helpful for you, but just know that I've been where you are and it does get better.

 

[Jo86]

Jo86~ I feel your pain. I went on an elimination diet back in 2012 (I think it was then) and cut out most foods except sweet potatoes, turkey and some vegetables. It took me a LONG time to figure out what foods were problematic for me...but like Melissa I now eat vegan (whole food plant based, gluten free).

Back then, I discovered that I had a histamine intolerance and the only animal protein I could eat was really fresh fish (other animal protein had been dead too long by the time it came to the store and thus the histamine content was too high for me.)

My mercury levels went high due to the fish consumption so I stopped that.

It took my body awhile to adjust to eating foods again (read bloat) but probiotics helped.

Now for health reasons, the environment and for the animals sake I eat plants. And the only one I can't eat is wheat (I get a bad headache.)

I'm happy with my current diet and I feel like I get a lot of nutrients from the whole foods I eat.

I don't know that my experience will be helpful for you, but just know that I've been where you are and it does get better.

Interesting. It might be the animal proteins, I've NEVER tried cutting those out completely for a good amount of time... you say you had a histamine intolerance, how did you discover that exactly ? There are many different tests and methods, some of which certain people don't believe in, so...

 

[Timaca]

I discovered the histamine intolerance when I ate some oranges and then some spinach close to each other. (This was after I eliminated a lot of foods.) I got itchy and even a bit of a rash. That got me wondering. I realized I could eat very fresh fish, but not fish that had been frozen or smelled fishy. Older fish gave me a headache and also made me itchy. At that time I was eating (animal wise) fish and turkey. I cut out the turkey....didn't eat it for a couple of weeks, then went to the store and talked with the meat person and got the freshest turkey they had. I ate just a couple of ounces and ended up itchy and with a bad headache. The same thing happened when I tried red meat. I talked with the butcher about that and by the time red meat gets to the store, that animal has been dead for some time....so the histamine content is going to be higher (that is my understanding anyway.) And now for health reasons, environmental reasons and animal reasons I am very comfortable not eating animals (except maybe fresh fish on very rare occasions).

Interestingly enough, my body seems to have healed of the histamine intolerance. Now I notice it rarely. The last time was over a year ago when I was on a cruise and was served a lot of cooked spinach. I ate it all. Later, I got itchy and wondered why....then I thought of the spinach. It takes a lot of fresh spinach to make a cup of cooked spinach and that is about the amount I ate!!! I have no problems eating fresh spinach at all....

I don't know if I healed by leaving out animal products, wheat or adding in some probiotics (or all of that). I have a friend who also has a histamine intolerance and she found help using a Jarrow 299v probiotic. That probiotic gave me heartburn.

Good luck and let me know if you have any further questions!!

 

[Jo86]

I discovered the histamine intolerance when I ate some oranges and then some spinach close to each other. (This was after I eliminated a lot of foods.) I got itchy and even a bit of a rash. That got me wondering. I realized I could eat very fresh fish, but not fish that had been frozen or smelled fishy. Older fish gave me a headache and also made me itchy. At that time I was eating (animal wise) fish and turkey. I cut out the turkey....didn't eat it for a couple of weeks, then went to the store and talked with the meat person and got the freshest turkey they had. I ate just a couple of ounces and ended up itchy and with a bad headache. The same thing happened when I tried red meat. I talked with the butcher about that and by the time red meat gets to the store, that animal has been dead for some time....so the histamine content is going to be higher (that is my understanding anyway.) And now for health reasons, environmental reasons and animal reasons I am very comfortable not eating animals (except maybe fresh fish on very rare occasions).

Interestingly enough, my body seems to have healed of the histamine intolerance. Now I notice it rarely. The last time was over a year ago when I was on a cruise and was served a lot of cooked spinach. I ate it all. Later, I got itchy and wondered why....then I thought of the spinach. It takes a lot of fresh spinach to make a cup of cooked spinach and that is about the amount I ate!!! I have no problems eating fresh spinach at all....

I don't know if I healed by leaving out animal products, wheat or adding in some probiotics (or all of that). I have a friend who also has a histamine intolerance and she found help using a Jarrow 299v probiotic. That probiotic gave me heartburn.

Good luck and let me know if you have any further questions!!

Interesting. Oh, gosh, I have to stop starting all my posts like that... I promise I'm not a robot.

I'd never thought of the freshness of meat, just looked into it, apparently you're right, the histamine levels rise big time in relation to the age of the meat. I've contacted a website here in France that apparently delivers "good" meat, i.e. pasture raised - not fed grains - no growth hormones or antibiotics - that is fresh. Ideally the meat should be frozen immediately after slaughter.

I've tried cutting out sugar entirely before, cutting out veggies entirely, dairy and gluten and grains... basically everything except the meat. And I've been on top level probiotics for months.

Would you say besides the itching you had gastro symptoms when you had the wrong foods, like a feeling of actual inflammation in the gut similar to an open wound from the inside ? Or more brainfog during or after consumption ? Or perhaps a feeling of nervousness or impending doom or depression from the food?

 

[Rufous McKinney]

Also listen to cravings too. I always heard that you're body craves what you need

Tri Tip.

Why...do I crave that so much. Why do I never crave a vegetable.

Protein I crave. Protein being digested here..in the body it seems. Few muscles left.

 

[Rufous McKinney]

I still go through periods where it seems the only thing I can eat is non-gmo organic potatoes. I roast them and pile them high with fresh herbs like rosemary and tyme and sea salt.

That sounds really good- making note to ADD FRESH HERBS to my potato roasting sessions..

I eat alot of potatoes...after years of NOT eating them over the Blood sugar thing. But now, I eat them fairly often because I do better on cooked root vegetables..it reduces WIND (pain in the joints, IBS-d is wind, its an imbalance...)

 

[Wishful]

Why do I never crave a vegetable.

Because they're nasty?

My body very rarely craves veggies either. Last time was several years ago when some lettuce in my neighbour's garden called to me.

 

[Jo86]

The craving thing is very misleading. There's surely lots of science to back this up, but as humans we tend to crave things we don't actually need just because of how whimsy we are, and Man's predisposition for irresponsible (and destructive) behavior. We'll crave totally unrealistic foods. We'll crave pastries like croissants or chocolate eclairs which are a ton of concentrated butter+sugar crammed into one compact piece of gastro-intestinal aberration. Maybe back in the days when humans were more primitive and nutrient rich foods were actually rare and a wealth, but nowadays we're creatures that sit on our butts all day and stare at damn screens with an abundance of ANY food at our disposal, it CERTAINLY doesn't help that you'd additionally stuff your God forsaken organism with organic time bombs.

I mean it's the same with the body as with the mind. Most cravings in the mind are for things like cigarettes, pleasure-eating (not at all a necessity of the body), sexual stimulation, playing games, getting drunk and partying, listening to sad nostalgic songs...basically without getting all philosophical: hedonism. We rarely crave responsibilities, chores, paperwork, reading up a long but important article...

 

[Timaca]

Ideally the meat should be frozen immediately after slaughter.

Even when the fish I ate was frozen immediately, it didn't work for me. I could only eat fresh fish. Nothing frozen.

Or perhaps a feeling of nervousness or impending doom or depression from the food?

Yes. Within an hour usually, I would start to feel that something was "wrong". And that would get worse...and then I would end up with sleepless nights and a wicked headache that could go on for days. I would also get brain fog. My GI tract was rarely affected.