Diet Question

Hello all,

Can you please share with me what all you've eliminated from your diet?

I am gluten/dairy/sugar free. Mostly caffeine free (coffee occasionally). I eat non GMO and try to buy as much as organic as I can. The only processed food I eat is organic rice cakes. I've been eating this way long before Lyme.

Shouldn't this be enough to help my Lyme/co-infections and prevent gut issues as well?

I am curious if others avoid starchy vegetables, night shades (I avoid for the most part), fruit (I only eat green apples and berries), gluten free grains and beans.

I think I need to go fully on Autoimmune Protocol. I've started getting stomach aches more frequently (on antibiotics for close to 4 months now). I am sure I already have yeast overgrowth as in my last pregnancy (4 years ago), I tested positive for Group B Strep...I've read that's a sign of yeast overgrowth?

I tried low carb years ago...it doesn't work for me. So, I count on sweet potatoes/winter squashes/plantains for my carbs. I have a plant based protein shake on some days (Amazing Meal, it's organic, non GMO, and gluten/dairy/sugar free). I eat really, really clean. Vegetables make up most of my diet. And Some meats. I eat rice and quinoa on some days, and beans 2x a week.

I am frustrated that as well as I eat, I may need to make further changes. I get stressed now even eating a bowl of blueberries, because of the carb and sugar content ☹️ Anytime I eat, I analyze and stress
Over my choices. The fact that I've been trying to fix acid reflux for so long, and now treating Lyme just overwhelms me when I am eating.

I forgot to mention, as per my functional integrative dr, I am as
Egg free, as she feels my chronic, daily and persistent acid reflux (I've had this the past 5 years) could be resulting from eggs. We are also a nut free household, due to my son having nut allergies. We are fortunately able to have sunflower/almond butter, and I can cook with coconut oil.

Does anyone subsist on veggies and meats only? I do eat lots of olive oil/coconut oil and avocado.

I am also just above 100 pounds in weight, so I am also easily stressed by keeping weight on.

Thank you for reading all of this! Just looking to see what others are doing with their diet.

are you following any lyme treatment ? herbs/abx?

are you sure you just have acid reflux? Bartonella is known to cause h-pylori negative gastritis. watch the presentation i shared earlier. have you run some coinfections tests and followed some treatment ?

Have you considered being food allergy tested? My Lyme symptoms started in my gut - my ND tested me with the US Biotek Standard Food Panel IGG. Boy was I surprised with the results! There were so many high reactivity things on there that I ate all the time. I cut it all out and over about a 6 month period, my gut started to heal. I'm not quite 18 months in and I've started slowly adding. back things and have done well. Maybe this is something you can talk to your doc about? It really was an eye opener for me and I thinik it was absolutely instrumental in my healing process.

Good luck to you!

Jenny

Because of food allergies, I've had to cut out foods that contain soy or MSG. I avoid potatoes mostly, because they make me feel very bloated.

Something else you should check is make sure that your acid reflux is from too much acid - sometimes it's caused by too little stomach acid. That's what I have, too little stomach acid.

With as small as you are, you need to be super careful to not eliminate too much from your diet. You likely need all the help you can get to keep weight on.

I don't mean to scare you, but you really want to be taking care of your gut. The GI issues are NOT fun, especially when combined with the TBI and other things that are common around here.

Take the suggestions given, do what you can, eat what you can, make safe choices.

Not too much sugar and/or carbs, but still an adequate amount (enough for sufficient calories), if you can handle them AND do not have a problem with dysbiosis - though you mentioned you are worried about one, so I would look into that. Some things will have to be cut, but you don't wanna starve either, trust me.

High quality probiotics.

L-glutamine/collagen/bone broth.

Consider digestive enzymes, unless contraindicated by something someone else said - I am not an expert.

Make a conscious effort to chew and enjoy your food more, even if the meals seem bland and/or unfulfilling. I cannot afford all the products I would like at the moment (the enzymes being one), and I know I have slow digestion, so I basically turn every bite to liquid from chewing so much.

I really wish I could say, "do THIS and you'll be good as new," but I can't.

I just hope something that's been said has answered some of your questions and/or has brought you a few steps closer to finding those answers.

I really want that for you, 'cause like I said before.. the GI issues are a real bother.

Also, I wasn't going to share, because it is sad, and I try to avoid sharing my sad things with people here, but you asked, so.. as for me, what do I eat..

It's not too far of an overstatement for me to say that I cannot eat anything without suffering in some way. If it is not one condition causing it, it's another.

Best wishes.

HI SummerLindsay,

I eliminated a lot from my diet from the food allergy testing such as all cruciferous veggies, eggs, corn, cucumbers, pears, plumbs, pineapple, avocado, pecans, bananas, cranberry, lemon, ALL DAIRY, yeast, sugar, and onion.

I had no allergies to wheat, but noticed I had issues when I ate non-organic wheat, so only stick to that now if I do eat it. I noticed that I had issues digesting grains, so I cut those out of my diet for a few months completely and was basically on the paleo diet.

At this point, I may add that I had also cut out all caffeine, all sugar except stevia products and was preparing all of my own food from scratch at home. I ddin't eat anything pre-prepared or from a restaurant for about a year. The closest I got to anything pre-prepared was orgainic chicken stock and organic tomato paste. Any sauces, seasonings or gravy I made was all prepared at home so that I knew exactly what was in it. I'm a sweets lover, so I got very creative and made my own treats at home.....sweet potatoes make amazing energy balls, it's not so hard to make chocolate chips at home after all and you can take almost anything and make it into a muffin IMHO! It was a lot of work at first, but once you get going and find your groove, it's kind of fun and challenging.

Keep in mind that everyone's food intolerances and allergens are different so what worked for me may not work for you. The test I took was a blood test and it took a while for the results to come back finally.

I wish you the absolute best and would recommend you check out pintrest for receipes. If you find somethig in there that you think you'd like, it's usually pretty easy to alter it for your personal health needs. There are loads of really good sugar/dairy/gluten free recipes already available too.

Take care!
Jenny

Hi!
Just out of curiosity have you ever been tested for SIBO? I know one of the big symptoms is Acid reflux. I was just diagnosed although I have almost zero GI symptoms. So it's a tricky buggar. I too will be doing full AIP shortly, ugh ;)
http://www.siboinfo.com/symptoms.html

Post Edited (TrialbyLyme) : 2/14/2016 4:08:33 PM (GMT-7)

Lindsey,

Here's what worked for me. I researched which foods are natural antimicrobials, and as it turns out, most foods / herbs that cause heat in the body are those. So, I began adding turmeric, raw garlic, coriander, cinnamon, cloves, etc to things I would bake and cook. Every single time. I made sure that all meals were serving the singular purpose of curing lyme.

The point is that Lyme causes the body to be cold and thrives in what you could refer to as a damp environment within the body. Much like a house with mold is unhealthy for you to live in, so is a body full of mold and bad bacteria unhealthy to live in. Bacteria / candida thrive in wet, cold environments within the body.

The way to cure them (in my experience) is to put warming, antimicrobial foods into the body, because the foods are on a search and destroy mission for all bad bacteria - including Lyme. Eating millet, quinoa, cabbage, leeks, onions, garlic - all cooked, mind you - because the heat makes all the difference.

This is how I am nearly cured of lyme after a few months on this diet.
Make every ounce of food going into your body serve one purpose - to heal you.

Good luck!