J's new elimination diet

[VegSeekingFit]

48 + hours on rice! Still going strong! I'm hopeful!

Hi,

Glad you found a starch that you like and isn't causing symptoms. Wishing you well on your elimination diet!

Cheers,
Stephanie

[jamietwo]

Thanks OOnaOwl! No symptoms yet ... AND ... I haven't been noticing the joints in my feet when I get up at night! Coincidence? Who knows! Good luck on your next ED!!

Lyndzie, I will probably test other rices in the future, but I'm looking forward to at least having something to eat WITH my rice first! lol

Thank you Stephanie! : )

On this elimination diet, I'm planning to follow Jeff's recommendations from this thread: viewtopic.php?f=22&t=48950 ... one tiny excerpt which seem applicable here! "If in 3 days they have no reaction, then they can test the next food." Yea!!!

[jamietwo]

It looks like I didn't plan ahead well. I had planned to test kale or sweet potatoes next, but I don't have any in the house.

PLUS, in re-reading Jeff's full paragraph (from link in previous post), maybe I need to wait a week before I introduce my next food? (my bold)

"My preferred version of the full elimination diet is to base each meal on one starch food and one to two vegetables. This way, if they are still having reactions, it is easier to identify the offending food as there are only 3 foods. Sometimes, they need to go down to two or even just one food for a few days. Then, once we have had a baseline of foods that dont react to for a week or two, then start the process of testing foods. One at a time from the safe food list, for up to 3 days. If in 3 days they have no reaction, then they can test the next food. If they react to a food, eliminate it, wait 4-5 days, then add another food."

[OOnaOwl]

Thanks OOnaOwl! No symptoms yet ... AND ... I haven't been noticing the joints in my feet when I get up at night! Coincidence? Who knows! Good luck on your next ED!!

Lyndzie, I will probably test other rices in the future, but I'm looking forward to at least having something to eat WITH my rice first! lol

Thank you Stephanie! : )

On this elimination diet, I'm planning to follow Jeff's recommendations from this thread: viewtopic.php?f=22&t=48950 ... one tiny excerpt which seem applicable here! "If in 3 days they have no reaction, then they can test the next food." Yea!!!

Wow, that's great! Less inflammation is excellent progress! So far I have found Lundberg rices to be agreeable also.

[jamietwo]

I decided I am making this way too complicated! I deleted my post from Jeff's forum, and I'm proceeding.

Food Challenge 1 - Kale; introduced 3.5 days after eating only brown rice.

I went to the store this evening and bought kale AND sweet potatoes. I just cooked my kale in the instant pot, and then turned it to saute until it started getting brown. Super tasty (to me! - lol)! I am enjoying it over brown rice!!!

--------------------------

On a side note, I gave away my two uncooked butternut squash (that great deal from Aldi - haha), so they won't go to waste.

[jamietwo]

Kale and brown rice for a late dinner last night. Kale and brown rice for breakfast. Kale and brown rice for lunch. I need more kale! Which prompted a post to Jeff's forum (apparently I "must" make this complicated! ).

Does anybody know if it matters if I use the same type of kale on my ED? Last night I bought the last 2 on the shelf, and they were red, curly kale. So they'll probably only have green kale today - hope they're interchangeable!

[jamietwo]

I gave up and bought green, curly kale last night (4 big bunches!). I must confess that they had a couple of red, curly kales, but they didn't looks as good so I bought and cooked and ate quite a bit of the GREEN.

Then I saw Jeff's response to my question about whether or not different varieties of a vegetable can be reactive: "The odds are against it but yes, it is possible to react to different varieties of foods."

So after 1.5 days of eating only brown rice and kale (3 meals with red kale and 2 meals with green kale), my stools are getting progressively looser (from this point forward to be defined as *LS* to save on embarrassment! ).

But I'm wondering if *LS* counts as a reaction? So yes, I just posted that question to Jeff too. If it does count as a reaction, that could explain a lot since I've been LIVING on rice and kale (with a few other foods) for over 5 YEARS!!!

[jamietwo]

I had a work meeting at a local BBQ place today. I haven't eaten animal products for 18 years, but it smelled SO good! As usual, I ordered water ... on the rocks!

I decided I need to keep a better log of foods introduced, symptoms, if any, medication, and responses from Jeff to questions I ask. SO here's my list to date:

8/6/18 dropped my Plaquenil dose from 300 mg/day (hit and miss) to 200 mg/day to prepare for the ED.

Started my ED with butternut squash (purchased whole and cooked in my instant pot)
9/20 butternut squash B, L, D
9/21 butternut squash B … by this point I was super hungry and not feeling well (must not have been eating enough), but I couldn’t force down any more squash.
OUT: Butternut squash ** Test again later, if interested

9/21 Started my ED over with brown rice (lundberg organic short grain brown rice)
9/21 brown rice L, D
9/22 brown rice B, L, D
9/23 brown rice B, L, D

9/23/18 dropped my Plaquenil dose from 200 mg/day to 100 mg/day (actually 200 mg every other day). I hadn't planned to do this quite yet, but I was forgetting to take it every other day this week, so I decided the time was right! lol

9/24 brown rice B, L
IN: short grain brown rice **

9/24 Introduced red kale (Organic red, curly kale purchased fresh)
9/24 brown rice and red kale D
9/25 brown rice and red kale B, L
9/25 I asked Jeff if I have to test each variety of kale (etc) individually or if I can assume that one is interchangeable with the other. You can see his response here viewtopic.php?
9/25 Introduced green kale (Organic green, curly kale purchased fresh)
9/25 brown rice and green kale D
9/26 brown rice and green kale B, L, D (reaction: LS)
9/26 I also asked Jeff how to define a food reaction, and if I should be concerned with non-Lupus symptoms such as LS. You can see his response here viewtopic.php?f=22&t=58664
9/27 brown rice and green kale B, L, D (edited to add dinner to complete the day)

[jamietwo]

9/28 brown rice and green kale B (LS).

So I did some research on if loose stools are normal (wishful thinking!). Apparently they are not. Even though I had a LS this morning, I didn't have a BM at all yesterday, so I wouldn't classify this as diarrhea ... plus I feel good!

Next I googled if "too much" fiber could cause loose stools. According to webmd (https://www.webmd.com/digestive-disorde ... more-fiber): “Soluble fiber helps diarrhea by absorbing water and adding bulk to stools. Insoluble fiber, which is not digestible, may help with constipation but make diarrhea worse," says dietitian Hilary Shaw. The article lists several foods that have insoluble fiber, and brown rice and spinach are among the foods listed. I'm extrapolating that if spinach is on the list, then kale is too.

SOOOOOOO, instead of going back to brown rice only, I'm going to make a judgement call that kale is ok (for now), and introduce sweet potatoes for dinner tonight (which are on the soluble fiber list). If anyone has experience with this and thinks that is the wrong call, please chime in!!

[jamietwo]

9/28 brown rice and green kale B (LS)
9/28 brown rice and green kale L
9/28 sweet potatoes D

9/29 sweet potatoes, B (LS - leftover from kale?)
9/29 sweet potatoes and brown rice, L

I still don't know if I made the right decision or not regarding the kale, but I'm justifying it this way. One of Jeff's ways to begin the elimination diet is to "base each meal on one starch food and one to two vegetables", and I would have chosen brown rice, kale, and sweet potatoes as my first 3 foods. I've decided not to eat kale for a few days to see how it goes with the sweet potatoes and brown rice.

It is actually really cool here, and I baked 5 sweet potatoes in the oven yesterday. Its been a long time since I've had oven-baked sweet potatoes! I have 1 left, and bought 6 more today, so I will bake those later on. I got them at Sprouts for $.88/lb. If I lived on brown rice and sweet potatoes I wouldn't have much of a grocery bill! ha!

Got a LOT of sleep last night (unusual), and feel great today!

[jamietwo]

9/29 sweet potatoes, B (LS - leftover from kale?)
9/29 sweet potatoes and brown rice, L, D

9/30 sweet potatoes and brown rice, B (LS but improving - I still think its leftover from the kale)
before I got up, I thought I *might* be feeling some stiffness in my hands, but no issue now - will monitor. I introduced sweet potatoes tbe night of 9/28, so its just been a little over 1 day...

In retrospect, I probably should have lowered my dose of medicine to this level before I started - or waited as I'd planned - because doing so in mid-stream just adds another variable to the mix.

As of now though, I'm feeling good!

[jamietwo]

9/30 sweet potatoes and brown rice, B (LS but improving - I still think its leftover from the kale)
before I got up, I thought I *might* be feeling some stiffness in my hands, but no issue now - will monitor. I introduced sweet potatoes the night of 9/28, so its just been a little over 1 day...
9/30 sweet potatoes and brown rice, L, D

10/1 sweet potatoes and brown rice, B, L
I very definitely noticed joint pain when I got up this morning. Bad news that sweet potatoes, one of my staples, is out. Good news that I know which one of my staple foods is an issue. Or should I say which two? I'm thinking I should remove kale too, at least for now, because of the "LS" issue. The other bad news is that I still have 3 cooked sweet potatoes to eat, and I'm thinking about finishing them today before facing my rice only diet for the next few days to give my system a chance to recover before introducing.... broccoli?

Kale: OUT (for now)
Sweet potatoes: OUT

[jamietwo]

10/1 sweet potatoes and brown rice, B, L, D

10/2 brown rice, B, L, D

If they react to a food, eliminate it, wait 4-5 days, then add another food.

Sigh. Ok, if I wait 4-5 days to introduce a new food (after ruling out sweet potatoes), I can start broccoli (I think) on 10/6 (Sat) or 10/7 (Sun). Or does that mean I can start it ON the 4th or 5th day?! I can make anything complicated!

[jamietwo]

10/3 brown rice, B, L, D

Looking forward to Saturday when I can introduce broccoli!

[Lyndzie]

I am so impressed with your commitment to the process! This journal will be very helpful to so many people trying to figure out how to navigate an elimination diet, and also to review your path later on. I’m thinking kale is probably an ok food for you, just a little too much roughage considering how limited your diet is at the moment. It didn’t get the nickname “nature’s broom” for nothing!