Saturday, October 22, 2011

The Diet


This has been the big deal around my house lately. I've been doing crazy diets for the last six months, trying to rid myself of migraines. Well, they've all been leading up to this mega-diet. The short run down is, I need to give my liver/adrenals/gut a rest and figure out what food my body likes and can handle and which foods it hates and can't handle.

A lot of the symptoms I have are common to people with gluten intolerance and dairy intolerance. Sigh. Sometimes though, it's just that your gut is angry and once it's not angry, you'll be able to eat those things.  We know my gut is angry, because yeast have taken it over and are reproducing, not giving the good guys a chance to fight back. This explains many of my gastro symptoms. I'm hoping I'm not truly intolerant to gluten or dairy, but if I am, it won't be the end of the world. There are lots of alternative things I can eat. I won't die. (I keep telling myself this....I'm SUCH a dairy girl.)

All these angry things in my gut could be overtaxing the gut, which is an insult to the body, which could and would produce headache. So, this diet is an elimination diet. Everything that might be causing a problem, we took out of my diet. Oh, and we also have to kill off the yeast, so I can't eat anything that feeds them. Plus, I'm taking a probiotic so the good guys can move in as the bad guys die. Complicated, huh?


What I can't eat:
Dairy
Gluten
Sugar/honey/any sweeteners except for pure stevia
Certain veggies: corn, peas, white potatoes, bananas

Alcohol
Caffeine
Table salt
MSG

What I can eat in limited quantities:
Brown rice/quinoa - 1/2 cup 3x/day max
Raw non-roasted/salted nuts and seeds - a small handful 3x/day max
Fruits - apple, pear or berries only once per day
Tomatoes - once per week
Fish - twice per week
Mushrooms - limit

What I CAN eat:
Filtered water
Herbal teas with Stevia
Vegetables
Beans - green, black, kidney, lentil
Peanut butter (counts a nut serving for the day)
Brown rice crackers (counts as a grain serving)
Brown rice cakes with peanut butter (counts as a grain and a nut serving)
EGGS
Organic/grass fed red meat, chicken, turkey, venison, ham, pheasant, duck, pork
Almond milk
GOAT CHEESE <---- my new best friend
EVOO/unprocessed canola oil/coconut oil/raw flax oil
Apple cider vinegar/rice vinegar/balsalmic vinegar
Real sea salt or Dead Sea salt

I know many of you are shaking your heads, asking what in the world I am going to eat. Well, luckily Dr. Shaw had a cookbook that he emailed me. These recipes got me through the first week. Then I did some googling and realized that the diet he has me on is very similar to the GAPS diet. There are MANY sites with GAPS recipes. My diet also has many similarities to the Paleo Diet and there are also many free recipes for that. Plus, the cookbook I have, Nourishing Traditions, has many recipes that are ok on my diet and many others that can be modified to be ok. I'm eating, I promise.

Perhaps I shall post my first week's meal plan for you all. We'll see.

1 comment:

Ashley W. said...

Yeah! Post your menu! I'd love to see it... Maybe I'll take some ideas and try some recipes my self :)
You are eating VERY healthfully and I'm excited for what you're body will do. Sounds like a diet Adam and Eve may have had :)

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