Discussion Board

Day 6

Thanks goldilocks, I'll note that walnuts and mushrooms were a deviation from what I was eating, and I had pain that night.

B - Pancakes** (whole wheat pastry flour, baking powder, maple syrup, unsweetened soy milk, vanilla, cinnamon) with a banana
S - banana
D - Assorted steamed veggies with brown rice, and some sweet potato biscuits (whole wheat pastry flour, baking soda/powder, banana, sweet potatoes, cinnamon)**

**I'm house-sitting at a friend's house and they have waaaaaay more appliances and neat kitchen stuff than I do, so I went a little crazy with using the equpiment, hence the pancakes and biscuits which were absolutely amazing.

First time eating wheat/gluten today! Any adverse symptoms from that? Wow, you'll be so lucky if you can eat gluten!

I had some pain in two of my knuckles this morning, but not very much. I didn't notice it throughout the day. It's a bummer that I had knuckle pain yesterday too :/

Today, 3-4 hours after breakfast (oatmeal with bananas, mango, apple, and a sweet potato) I was really bloated, and I still kind of am. I wonder if it's the gluten from the night before...?

Hi Brandon
CHecking in to see how it's going with your elimination diet. It looks like you have already seen some positive results as far as pain reduction (awesome!) and are possibly have some reactions to gluten.
Figuring out gluten has been kind of tricky for me, I might take up to 48 hours to react to it. I THINK it may be causing a weird pressure/tingly sensation in my hands and feet.
Keep posting! I'm very interested to see what foods turn out to be problems for you.
BLue

Just a suggestion, veganteen, but I see you are eating a lot of raw bananas. In Dr. Barnard's Foods That Fight Pain, bananas are on a list of common triggers along with meat, wheat, dairy, chocolate, soy, tomatoes, citrus fruit and a few others I'm probably forgetting. One of the things I deal with is fibromyalgia and I find that raw banana can trigger an inflammation response for me. So do the larger citrus fruits like orange and grapefruit. He says these same foods can be triggers in various auto-immune conditions. You might want to take the book out of the library and see if any of it speaks to you. He doesn't have a chapter on lupus or multiple sclerosis (which I also have) but I still found it helpful in working the puzzle of sorting things out for myself.

This might seem weird but baked and toasted, deeply browned grains also seem to trigger more pain for me, or make it more difficult for pain to resolve. They also are harder to digest for me than whole, steamed grains. I also have to avoid gluten.

I also want to lend my best wishes to your efforts--good luck, it is great you are willing to be a food detective in this way.

moonwatcher

Moonwatcher,

Thanks for the ideas and the support. I do eat lots of bananas, maybe I should try cutting those out and see what happens because I can't remember a time when I went without a banana for more than a day . Also, the grain idea makes sense. When I eat oatmeal I feel pretty bloated afterwards. I'll try and find that book, But I just ran out of bananas so I won't buy them and see if I can see any progress.

Day 7

Still pain in the two knuckles, but not a huge amount.
Felt very bloated throughout the day

B - oatmeal with banana, mango, apple and one sweet potato
Skipped lunch because I was so full/bloated
D - 1lb bag broccoli/cauliflower/carrots with kale, black beans, sweet potatoes
D - banana, sweet potato

As per moonwatcher's observations, I am going to try cutting out bananas since I eat them so frequently and see what happens

I'm glad you found that banana observation and the book referral helpful, teenvegan. You can try cutting out the bananas and see. Eliminate the bananas first and then the oats at a separate time so you can tell the difference between them. I use gluten free oats and have no problem with those. Oats do not contain gluten, but they can be contaminated with gluten in the harvesting and packaging process, unless they are processed and packaged separately from grains that contain gluten. More expensive, but that way I can have my oatmeal!

The way oatmeal is usually cooked, which is boiled, is not so much the problem, unless you end up having a problem with oats. To clarify, what I meant about baked, toasted grains is, for instance, the oats ground up for muffins, waffles, or pancakes, or toasted in the oven and browned-- any grain made into bread, crackers, chips, etc., cooked this way may be aggravating in insidious ways if it is browned too much. You might be helped by restricting grains cooked in that style. Sometimes with things a little is okay, sometimes not. You have to find your own tipping point, as well as which grains you can tolerate, and which ones you can't, no matter how they are cooked. It's a spectrum of experimentation. Hope that makes sense.

Happy Food Detective Work to you!

moonwatcher

It makes sense to me that your bloating and knuckle pain might be due to gluten. You didn't have either of those symptoms before you ate the wheat flour, and you got both after you consumed the wheat.

I know regular oats have a very tiny amount of gluten, and I buy gluten-free oats since I have celiac disease. But I do sometimes eat regular oats and oat bran, and I've never noticed any adverse symptoms from them, so I think the amount of gluten is really really small. I'm pretty sensitive too. And since you were eating regular oats previously and you were pain-free and bloating-free, I'd guess it is not oats.

I'd also guess that bananas are not a problem for you giving that you were eating them and feeling fine earlier this week. But obviously you won't know for sure until you test them carefully.

Thanks for the insight Goldilocks, I think I'm going to avoid wheat and bananas for a while, and then add the bananas back in to see if those give me any trouble.

Also, I forgot to add that yesterday I did eat white potatoes. That might be a factor, although I ate potatoes on day 3 and experienced no pain on day 4. This is tricky..

Day 8

After having some pretty terrible pain in my knuckles throughout the night, some of the pain persisted throughout the day. Now (about 8pm) it is starting to become unnoticeable.

B - sweet potatoes
S - mango, corn tortillas (home made)
D - this is a little tricky. I planned on making veggie burgers (beets, bulgur, lentils, mushrooms, cashews), but they turned out AWFUL. I realized that bulgur was actually just wheat after I started making them, so I went ahead anyways. I ended up eating a few bites and throwing the rest away :/ and just had a couple sweet potatoes, some of that leftover soaked bulgur, and the rest of the cashews... (terrible for me to have cashews in the house, exemplified by me eating about 14oz of it in one sitting...)

So, I hope there's no pain tomorrow cause that would mean that maybe wheat isn't the problem.

Although I'm gonna need to hit the gym pretty hard tomorrow to work off those cashews...

Day 9

knuckle pain subsided, a little bit jumped around my hand but not too much.

B - 1 cup steel cut oats with flax, cinnamon, blueberries
L - carrots, homemade corn tortillas, sweet potato, smoothie (spring mix, mango, blueberries, flax, unsweetened almond milk, applesauce - f.y.i. not very good)
D- broccoli, asparagus, red/yellow/green bell peppers sauteed in water and a dash of braggs liquid aminos, sweet potato

A ton of bloating at night :/

Hi Brandon
How many days are you waiting between additions? I ask because it took me 2 days to react to some foods. I waited 3 days between additions, and longer if I had a reaction and needed some time for things to calm down before adding the next food.
Blue

Blue -

At this point, I have a lot of accessible foods that could very well be triggers, so I'm just recording what I eat and seeing what happens. I know of foods that I'm eating that don't (because they shouldn't, as per everybody's observations) cause these problems, like sweet potatoes. Right now I am to cutting out wheat and bananas and looking to see if there's any difference. I understand that how I'm eating is a pretty unproductive elimination diet, but most of the foods I eat and have eaten for a while are possible triggers!

Day 10 -

today the hand pain was barely noticeable, but I did have new knee pain. It seems to be jumping around everywhere

B - Green tea, steel cut oats w/ blueberries and flax
L - carrots, sweet potatoes, mango, oranges
D - Broccoli, asparagus, red/yellow/green bell peppers, black beans, corn tortillas, sweet potatoes

I know the oranges was a bad idea... I had some indigestion after lunch today, so I think citrus has a negative effect on me. Also, bowel problems tonight.. no bueno.