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 | Permanent Link | Comments (4) |