elimination diet *more questions and update in 16*

[believer]

I started eliminating the following foods:
1.Soy
2.Corn
3.Gluten
4.Dairy
5.Sugar and artificial sweeteners
6.Eggs
7.Peanuts

as part of the Virgin Diet - see this thread (http://www.gentlechristianmothers.com/community/showthread.php?t=497804) if you want to.

I only have the cookbook, not the entire diet book and I have some questions about the whole elimination thing.

First of all - you are supposed to do it for 21 days and it says you will lose 7 pounds in 7 days - I did not. I told my dr and he said that changing foods makes no difference - you must change caloric intake - and thinking about that, I realized that I substituted the same amount of calories probably.

Anyway, I lasted 10 days and then could not take it any more and have added a few foods back into my diet in small amounts.
In the past two days I have had corn and some sugar and yesterday I had sourdough bread - so that would be gluten I suppose.
I had noticed that for the first few days I was totally craving sugar and it was really bad at first, but I got over it. I have only had small amounts of it since then and have not had the cravings return.

I have actually noticed that I feel more clear headed if that makes any sense. But, with eliminating so many different things, I have no idea which of the foods that I eliminated did that.
Does that make sense?
So, how do I know which food that I eliminated caused the foggy headedness?
Could it have been any of them or a combo?
Do I just add one food in at a time and see?
Are some of those foods more likely to be the culprit than others? :shrug3
thank you

[SilverMoon]

Add them back one at a time, giving yourself at least a day or 3 between each addition. Sometimes the reaction is immediate, sometimes it takes even 2 or 3 days to happen.

I also reject the idea that calories in equals calories out to lose weight. if you are allergic to food then inflammation will totally skew that calculation. I'm trying to find an article for you that I just read last week or this weekend about inflammation and weight.

[believer]

thank you. I have added in corn and a little sugar. I can cut the sugar back out and I did have a piece of bread yesterday - it was good - but I can cut that back out too for a few more days.

[SilverMoon]

Reintroduction should be slow so you can tell. It's so HARD to wait because it can feel like forever since you had a favorite.

---------- Post added at 02:04 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:23 PM ----------

I found the article. Ignore the doctor's name. Or snicker, it's ok.

http://drhyman.com/blog/2010/04/20/are-your-food-allergies-making-you-fat/

[mom2boys]

I read a wonderful book called "the plan" that talked about how each body is unique and somethings are ok for one that isn't for the next. It talks a lot about how to recognize what a reaction is in your own body.
I got it from my library, so yours might have it too. :)

[NurseKristie]

The weight loss from an elimination diet is due to loss of inflammation triggered by offending foods. Most mainstream MDs don't really understand that.

[believer]

The weight loss from an elimination diet is due to loss of inflammation triggered by offending foods. Most mainstream MDs don't really understand that.

So, since I lost no weight at all while I had all the foods eliminated, does that mean that none of those foods is "offensive" to me? I actually gained a pound at first due to the stupid vegan protein powder shakes that I drank on recommendation of the book and then lost that when I stopped drinking those. Now that I have no appetite and some nausea due to the med that I am taking for shingles, I am losing a bit of weight, but that is because I am eating so much less - not from eliminating anything. :shrug3

---------- Post added at 03:15 AM ---------- Previous post was at 03:13 AM ----------

I read a wonderful book called "the plan" that talked about how each body is unique and somethings are ok for one that isn't for the next. It talks a lot about how to recognize what a reaction is in your own body.
I got it from my library, so yours might have it too. :)

They do have it - I will go get it soon. Thank you!

[WildFlower]

subbing because I think I need to do this.

[NurseKristie]

It's absolutely possible. If anything, the refined sugars may have been giving you that foggy head. That's a pretty easy one to cut out since there are so many good unrefined sugar recipes.

[SilverMoon]

Were you on steroids for shingles at the same time as the trial or was that at a different time?

[believer]

Were you on steroids for shingles at the same time as the trial or was that at a different time?

No, I just started the steroids on Monday of this week.

[believer]

Ok, I fell off the wagon and ate what I wanted. I could not sleep well last night because my nose was so stuffy. :-/ I don't think I have a problem with corn or eggs. I know I am sensitive to dairy, so I am going to cut that back out and I will pull the wheat back out too. For me, the whole gluten thing is more difficult to remove than dairy, but I suspect that it may be a factor for me. :sigh Yesterday I made a breakfast cereal of steel cut oats, millet, quinoa, a little bit of short grain white rice (the kind for risotto) and grits. I had soaked it overnight and then rinsed it again and cooked it. I had it with sheep's milk feta (I love that cheese - it comes in a two block pack at Costco). I tried some brown rice tortillas that I got at whole foods. I am returning them. They are disgusting.

[SilverMoon]

I will look for that feta. Stinky to have reaction but glad you have some answers.

from my phone

[NurseKristie]

Have you ever heard of the book Wheat Belly?

[NurseKristie]

The best GF tortilla's I have found are Rudi's. They are fairly processed though, so I usually skip it and go with corn.

[believer]

First, I checked out the Virgin Diet book from the library - the one that was before the cookbook that I have - and I reviewed the Virgin Diet Cookbook - and my results are in the review The Virgin Diet Cookbook: 150 Easy and Delicious Recipes to Lose Weight and Feel Better Fast by J.J. Virgin (http://becauseisaidsothathswhy.blogspot.com/2014/02/the-virgin-diet-cookbook-150-easy-and.html) - basically I totally did not lose 7 pounds the first 7 days and I gave up on parts of it after about 10 days.
Since I quit following her plan I have lost a pound.
I think that most of those foods are not problematic for me and the diet was so restrictive that I was eating too many calories from the few foods that I could eat if that makes any sense. :shrug3

Anyway, I checked out the book "The Plan" from the library and it seems to make more sense because rather than limiting the problematic foods to the seven in the Virgin Diet book, the author claims that a wide variety of foods can cause us troubles and it varies from person to person and most of the ones she lists are not in those 7 foods from the Virgin Diet.
So, I was getting excited and wanted to try "The Plan".
But, she give a 3 day "cleanse" diet that she says you should stick to at the beginning and eat only those foods and not substitute anything for them.
One of the foods that is in her 3 day cleanse is onions.
Onions don't agree with me.
Since I have been older - and the author of "The Plan" states that we become more sensitive to many foods after age 35 and I passed that milestone 15 years ago -I cannot eat onions. It has gotten worse over the years and I have just decided it is not worth it and I am cutting them out of my diet. I burp and taste onion for hours after eating them. It is worse if they are raw, but even cooked ones really taste nasty hours later when you are burping and still tasting them. Sometimes even the next morning :sick. I am ok with that, but that is part of her first 3 days. I could cut them out and have less flavor and less fiber. Another thing she has is flax seed granola. Flax makes me burp and it tastes fishy - like fish oil. The flax seed granola along with blueberries is her breakfast for the first 3 days. If there is no substitute for that, then I guess I get only blueberries for breakfast? Her claim is that if you don't eat the exact foods that she lists for her 3 day cleanse then you will feel hungry and want to eat other stuff and that substitutions will mess up the whole balance of the cleanse or something. :sigh

Has anyone here done "The Plan" cleanse?

[NurseKristie]

I haven't done it, but if onions are a trigger food, just leave them out. For the granola, is it a recipe? I know she says no substitutions, but if you're making it, you could leave out the flax or replace it with chia since that is a very similar seed.

[believer]

I haven't done it, but if onions are a trigger food, just leave them out. For the granola, is it a recipe? I know she says no substitutions, but if you're making it, you could leave out the flax or replace it with chia since that is a very similar seed.

It is a recipe, but it is just soaked flax seeds with cinnamon and vanilla baked w/ dried fruits. I am not sure how that makes granola anyway :shrug3. I have some chia seeds, but I don't think they would make granola if I soaked it. :think
Here is her recipe http://www.food.com/recipe/flax-granola-496638

[believer]

Ok, I read the book "The Plan" and made her "flax granola" :sick and looked at the reviews online and many of them echo my feelings about it - it is confusing and too restrictive.
Here is my review:
The Plan: Lose Weight Fast and Forever by Eating the Right Foods for Your Body by Lyn-Genet Recitas (http://becauseisaidsothathswhy.blogspot.com/2014/02/the-plan-lose-weight-fast-and-forever.html)
I think the idea is interesting that each individual may react to different foods differently, but her "plan" for testing them is just not well laid out or easily doable.

[mountainash]

This may not matter but i just wanted to let you know that it really doesn't sound like you ever completely eliminated corn. Corn is in everything and was very likely in the protein shake and the sourdough.

[NurseKristie]

It is a recipe, but it is just soaked flax seeds with cinnamon and vanilla baked w/ dried fruits. I am not sure how that makes granola anyway :shrug3. I have some chia seeds, but I don't think they would make granola if I soaked it. :think
Here is her recipe http://www.food.com/recipe/flax-granola-496638

LOL...that sounds horrible. Quinoa would probably be a better "granola" substance.

[Dana Joy]

I went on a similar program this past october, and have felt so much better, but it was so tough!
thank you. I have added in corn and a little sugar. I can cut the sugar back out and I did have a piece of bread yesterday - it was good - but I can cut that back out too for a few more days.
If you have to have sweet, stick with coconut palm sugar or raw honey.

So, since I lost no weight at all while I had all the foods eliminated, does that mean that none of those foods is "offensive" to me?

The way it was explained to me (by my doctor) is that if you have been eating the food your allergic to for your whole life, your intestinal inflammatory response is in overdrive and all that inflammation leads to a other inflammatory foods that may not be an issue for you to pass through the gaps in your now chronically swollen intestines, leading to more inflammation (Leaky Gut Syndrome). That's why it's important to remove ALL inflammatory foods for 21 days, to give your gut a chance to heal, and the introduce the least likely culprits slowly.
Here is a list of all the major inflammatory foods:

Corn
Nightshades
Soy
Sugar
HFCS
Molasses
Lentils
Nuts (except almonds)
Peanuts
Shellfish
Nitrates (found in processed meat)
High glycemic fruits (bananas, melons, pineapples)
Dairy
Alcohol
Caffeine
All grains (even gluten free grains): wheat, oats, rice, barley, buckwheat, soy, corn, wheat germ, spelt, amaranth, kamut, millet, quinoa, etc.

If you can afford it, it is also worth your to take a gut repair supplement throughout the 21 days.
I took Repairvite (http://store.centerforholisticmedicine.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=00910&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc_feed&utm_campaign=comparison_shopping_feeds&gclid=CPKFqoaF6bwCFahj7AodWjIAdA) and removed all inflammatory foods for 21 days. I lost 22 lbs, have minimal bloating, am getting better sleep, have more energy and am so much more clear headed.
First thing I insisted on testing was the corn and caffeine.
Then I added in the rest one at a time for about a week each. At the end of the day I am unable to eat gluten, soy and dairy is iffy.

I could give you so many links and write so much more about what I found to eat, how it has worked out, when I cheated etc. etc, but for now I will leave you with this guy's explanation of leaky gut.
http://idahochiropracticneurology.com/repairvite