It Appears that there seems to be something of a consensus about the right kind of diet for ME/CFS.
Check out Dr. Myhills low allergen, low glycemic index diet Stoneage Diet:
- Any meats: choose from chicken, beef, lamb, pork, turkey, duck, 'game' meats such as venison, pheasant, goose etc. Bacon and ham. Salami. Liver, kidney and offal are fine too.
- Eggs - an excellent source of lecithin (eat soft yolks), which reduces blood cholesterol levels.
- Any fish: salmon, mackerel, cod, haddock (care with smoked fish which often contains dyes). Tinned fish in brine or olive oil is fine. Tinned shrimps, prawns, mussels, cockles etc.
- Any green vegetables
- All salads: lettuce, tomato, cucumber, celery, peppers, onion, cress, bamboo shoots etc.
- French dressing: make your own from olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, mustard.
- Any low CHO fruit: apple, pear, orange, grapefruit (no sugar!). Berries are excellent. Seeds: sunflower, poppy, sesame.
- Nuts: peanut, brazil, hazel, cashew, pistachio, walnut etc.; nut butter spreads, tahini (sesame seed spread).
- Use cold pressed nut and seed oils liberally such as sunflower, olive, sesame, grapeseed, hemp. linseed, rape and so on.
- Soya products
- Spices and herbs: chilli, cumin, ginger, coriander, pepper, cloves etc
- Herbs, salt (ideally Solo - a sodium reduced sea salt), olives, pork scratchings
- Allowed drinks in the day Bottled or filtered water
In the evening you can eat all of the above, plus modest amounts of higher GI foods
- Rice and potato e.g. rice cakes or puffed rice from health food shops.
- Root vegetables - carrots, parsnip, turnip, celeriac
- Specific grains: millet, buckwheat, sago, quinoa.
- Some high carbohydrate fruit: banana, avocado, grapes, melon
- Dried fruit: sultana, apricot, prune, raisin, fig, date etc
- Pulses: lentil, butter beans, chick peas, flagolets etc
- Mixture of nuts, seeds, dried fruits
- Arrowroot flour: for thickening gravies
- Diluted fruit juice: Grape juice, pineapple juice, apple juice, tomato juice - best drunk diluted.
Here's Dr. Natelson's Even More Restrictive Diet
- No; alcohol, Rice, potatoes, corn, bread, cake, deserts, fruits, carrots, beets, tomatoes, beans
- Yes: meat, green leafy vegetables, eggs, low-fat dairy, soy products, eight glasses of water a day
Then there's a kind of generic Leaky Gut Diet
- Low carbs
- Increased vegetables
- Reduced or no fruit
- High meat intake
They're all low carb, high vegie, low fruit, high meat diets. Is this THE Basic Diet for ME/CFS?
While I think that Myhill has a lot of good information, I think this diet recommendation is garbage. Everyone feels differently and reacts differently to foods.
1) Many people on this board react strongly to dairy and gluten. I, myself was on a strict gluten/dairy/soy free diet for about 7 years and it never made me feel better. Now that I've reintroduced dairy and gluten back, I don't feel any different. Other people get severe reactions from small amounts of gluten or dairy or corn or whatever.
2) Soy is garbage and can not even be digested by the human GI system. Traditional cultures have no history of eating much soy (Asian cultures use only small amounts, and only fermented, which drastically increases digestibility)
3) Salami and bacon are extremely high in nitrates (natural nitrates are not better) and considering that many CFS 'experts' believe there is a disregulation in the Nitric Oxide/peroxynitrite cycle, consuming nitrates COULD be a bad idea.
4) Salads (and raw vegetables) can be ok in small amounts. For me, eating large salads were a major IBS-C trigger. My system does not handle raw insoluble fiber well at all. However, I do extremely well with soluble fiber.
5) Nuts, seeds, beans, whole grains: have high levels of anti nutrients like phytic acid that bind to nutrients which prevents them from being bioavailable. Traditional cultures spent a lot of time preparing these foods to eliminate the anti nutrients (by soaking or fermenting) to make them digestible. Plus, nuts that are not in their shells are likely already oxidized by the time you buy them and also contain a ton of nasty chemicals (California passed a law a few years ago that all "raw" almonds have to be fumigated with propylene oxide gas (which is a racing fuel). This chemical is a known carcinogen that is banned in the EU, Mexico, and Canada.
6) Fish, while containing a lot of good things, also contain a lot of bad things (namely heavy metals and who know what kind of pollutants). Plus, much of our modern fish is farmed nowadays and pumped full of antibiotics and hormones and farmed in extremely polluted waters. Not sure eating lots of fish is a great idea.
I myself have tried EVERY kind of eating regiment under the sun (and I do mean everything from no/low carb paleo to high carb Ray Peat) and I never experienced any improvement. This is not to say that other people won't feel better following some of these recommendations, but ultimately everyone needs to figure out what they should eat and what they shouldn't. Just because someone else can't tolerate corn or cucumbers doesn't mean I should avoid them. However, just because I can't tolerate lots of salads doesn't mean someone should avoid them if they have no problem with raw veggies.
I could keep going on, but I'll get off the soapbox now. The point is, some people may do well on this diet, but probably just as many people won't. I believe that healthy eating is critical for good health, but there is clearly no one right way to eat for CFS. If a healthy diet makes a big difference, then you probably didn't have CFS.
