Sunday, March 12, 2006

AS Diet Summary

A brief summary of what I eat and what I can not eat..

==== The foods I react to are: ====

roots, grains, legumes / beans, dairy products, caramel (sugar cooked with butter, dairy, or even coconut), some nuts, vinegar.

I suspect yeast derivatives to be a problem for me, for example: alcohol, vinegar (foods containing vinegar include tomato sauce, salad dressings, pickles, mustard, etc), cheese, etc. Vinegar is definitely a problem for me.

==== Foods that are safe are: ====

leafy greens, many vegetables (cabbage, zucchini, capsicum, tomato, capsicum, brocoli, cauliflower), meat, fish, eggs, dried fruits (sultanas, currants, figs, dried apricots, etc), most fresh fruits (especially apples, pears and grapes), tofu, coconut cream, coconut fibre, oils, sesame, tahini, olives, baba ganouj, yogurt (avoid products with additives/thickeners/gums/inulin!)

Some people can tolerate rice in moderation, however this should not be tried until all inflammation has cleared.

=== Iodine Testing ===

Test everything with iodine!. This is especially important when you are first starting the diet. Foods will turn black if they are high in starch (eg: bread). If the food has no significant starch content (and almost certainly safe) then the iodine will remain a nice amber colour (brownish orange colour really). Starch is often hidden in sauces and other processed foods. Also if a fruit is picked too early then it can also be quite starchy. Iodine can easily be bought from a chemist, it is a very common item.

Check this thread for more info on iodine.

=== A.S. Food Ranking - The Procedure ===

This section is only for sufferers on Ankylosing Spondylitis.

I have been trying to rank foods on a 0 to 5 scale for the last month or two. I will start listing out some of my results here. A ranking of 0 means that the food causes me no inflammation, whilst 5 would be the worst inflammation possible. (The scale may be extended in future to zero to ten)

==== the procedure ====
I can get 100% relief if I stick to fresh fruit, vegetables, greens, tomato, eggs and meat for three days or so. Once you have reached this pain free state by the use of diet restriction all that you have to do is add one food every day or two and make note of how much pain that food caused. Typically you will notice an increase in pain within the next 5 hours. Depending on the food, you may find that the worst pain is 24 hours after eating the offending food.

I repeat, in order for your results to be accurate and useful you must restrict your diet to the point that you are almost 100% free of inflammation in order for the results to be accurate and useful. What is more, if I take NSAID’s or other anti-inflammatory drugs, then these will mask any possible food reactions and once more give inaccurate results.

The results of my testing are here (click this link)

Posted by zarkme at 00:30:33
Comments

4 Responses to “AS Diet Summary”

  1. zarkme says:
    May 7, 2006 at 3:29 am

    === changes in pain level ===
    If I eat bread I always feel it.. unless perhaps I used an antibiotic / cortisone / NSAID. A change in pain level can be very obvious. Going from virtually zero pain to having sore tender hips, shoulders and ribs, a limp, sore back, etc.. It leaves no question as to what went wrong. It is the stark contrast in pain levels that I rely on when testing foods. Going from moderate pain to slightly worse pain is far more difficult to judge.

    When I eat something starchy I find my muscles start to get really tense within about an hour. Not sure how consistent this reaction is. All I know is that sometimes after eating out I start to feel my muscles tense up and I just know that I am going to get sore. .. others probably do not have the same reaction ?? I don’t know.

    If I eat something that I react strongly to (like wheat) then I can feel it in just a few hours. Lets say roughly 2 or so hours till I get a small amount of noticeable pain. However if I eat something that is only a mild problem (eg: in my case dairy products) then it takes longer for the pain and inflammation to build up to a point where it is noticeable - in which case it might be 4 or more hours before I can tell. Typically (for me at least) the inflammation reaches its peak after about 24 hours and slowly subsides from there.

    === the process / methodology ===
    Forgive me if I am stating the obvious here.. :-)

    When I cook for myself I can tell which food I reacted to as I only try one ‘unknown’ at a time. I wait till I am relatively pain free and then I will try a large amount of a new food that I am not sure about.. eg. I might try one of the following: coconut fibre, onion, asparagus, etc… and then I write down my observations in an index. A couple of months later I might repeat that test and again write down my observation in the same index. Good to double check and triple check my observations in this way and weed out any errors.

    I need to write the observations down because I simply can not remember that far back. It needs to be indexed by the food I was testing, otherwise it will be too time consuming to dig through piles of notes searching for the last time I tried a particular food (eg. an onion). Using an index I can find what I am looking for in seconds.

    There are some foods which cause me only a small amount of pain. These are more difficult to figure out.. but it is still possible using the process I outlined above.

    Some people who have managed to improve their gut flora / gut health can eat small amounts of starchy foods occasionally without a noticeable reaction. I am not like that..

  2. Wendy says:
    October 26, 2006 at 9:22 pm

    Hello. I am somewhat new to this AS stuff. I am 36 and have suffered a great deal of pain all througout my life. As a child I was sold “it’d growing pains”. At the age of 21, I was diagnosed was RA. At 33, Fibermyalgia. Finally, after not accepting Fibermyalgia for a diagnosis I was tested, studied and diagnosed with AS. I haven’t really payed close attention to my diet, however, I have noticed that sugar and caffine seem to trigger severe inflamation / pain. I will pay closer attention as time elapses and let you now. My question is, is the diet prety standard for all of us with AS?

  3. zarkme says:
    November 29, 2006 at 6:54 am

    Hi Wendy, yes I too react to coffee. Coffee is an odd one as at first I experience a small reduction in pain (probably due to changes in adrenaline or cortisol?) but after a few hours my AS does worsen noticeably.

    Excess sugar, well I feel kinda sickly when I eat too much sugar / dried fruit / etc.. so I try to moderate it.

    Is the diet standard: pretty much. Of those who have success with the NSD, practically everyone has problems with roots, grains and legumes. Many react to dairy but not all. A small number react to FOS / Inulin.

    If you have any more questions the best place for answers (you will get a much quicker response!) is at kickas.org :
    http://www.kickas.org/ubbthreads/postlist.php?Cat=0&Board=starch

  4. Anonymous says:
    November 22, 2007 at 1:06 pm

    == adaptation to fringe foods ==

    I used to react moderately strongly to both garlic and onions (which are both high in a carbohydrate called Inulin). I had tried large amounts on a number of occasions and reacted every time. Later I tried eating a small amount regularly (small enough that I could tolerate it) and found that my body adjusted to both garlic and onions over a period of about 2 weeks. Now I can eat large amounts of garlic / onion without inflammation.

    I am glad to be able to add onions and garlic back to my diet :-). What now interests me is whether some other ‘fringe foods’ can be adapted to, eg: other nuts, low starch seeds such as linseed, etc. I don’t expect to be every able to adapt to grains and beans…

    z

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