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Try the Koufman Low Acid (and low fat) Diet Part 1 of 2

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Posted 1/29/2012 11:58 PM (GMT 0)
Sunbeam, I had a few good days before the diet but I never had one when I could say I didn't really notice any burning at all. I have had couple of days since I have been on diet where I didn't notice the burning at all one day and the other it was minimal. Right now I have a slight sinus infection going on so my throat has the scratchy/burn/ little sore feeling but it's not like the burn that I usually have.....so... I can say I'm not having much of the usual burn.....unless I'm just not noticing due to the sinus infection.

Thanks sooo much for the potato recipe! It sounds really good and I will being trying it tomorrow night! My 2 weeks will be up on Thursday so I will let you all know how I'm feeling then. I see my Gastro doc this Wednesday. I haven't talked to him since my endoscopy back in October last year. We will be discussing what I have been trying since I decided to no longer take the PPI's. Not sure how he will feel about the Naturopathic doctor.

And I have a confession to make. I have not cheated while on this diet but last night I was with friends and I had 2 mixed drinks. I know that wasn't smart but I will say...whenever I have had a drink it has never caused me to have any burning. I can go to bed and wake up during the night..no burning. The next morning I always feel fine. No problems at all. I think it's very odd because you would think that would definitely make it worse! But it never has.

BTW- Have a great vacation!
Posted 1/30/2012 1:50 PM (GMT 0)
Outdoorsgirl, I am so glad you are seeing some improvement. I think you had healthy eating habits before, so you shouldn't find staying on this diet difficult. My ENT said I was light years ahead of his other patients. Make sure you bring a list of everything you are doing. Alcohol is hard with GERD for some different reasons. After the induction phase, Dr. Koufman does say that a glass of wine with a meal is OK.
Posted 1/30/2012 3:02 PM (GMT 0)
Good Morning Sunbeam,

I know your thread is very popular with many of the members as well as newbies, however, it has gotten rather lengthy and I am wondering if you would want to start a Part 2 with a link to part one posted in the new thread ?

Our rule of thumb :

When threads get long, they become paginated, which means that members have to click on a Page 2, or Page 3 link, etc. to see more posts in the thread. When posts gets to 3 pages or more, it becomes a hassle to navigate and could be resolved by starting a new thread on the same topic. Moderators may decide what threads are getting too long, but a good rule of thumb is any thread over 100 posts is a good candidate to be locked.

I like to talk with the original poster before making the decision to restart a Part 2 of a thread especially when the topic is current and members are posting daily to the thread.

Please let me know how you feel ?

Posted 1/30/2012 5:59 PM (GMT 0)
Hi all, new member here. I've been dealing with the "silent relux" cough now for several years ( and now that I'm learning more about it I realize I've suffered from various symptoms of acid reflux for nearly 20 years)

Got a copy of the "Dropping Acid" diet, and have been on it for nearly 28 days now. I can say it has made a difference in the severity of my coughing fits, although I still cough & hack mildly. People have even noticed I am coughing less now. Not entirely cured, but am definately seeing a cause/effect with my diet and my throat problems.

Now I am in the process of discovering which foods effect me badly, even though they are listed as "ok".
Had anyone else had negative results after drinking milk?
(I've been drinking 2% milkfat Lactose free milk, and have started having more severe coughing again)

thanks, & good luck to those of you who have started the diet,
Posted 1/30/2012 10:34 PM (GMT 0)
stkitt,

the only issue is search ability. I think its easier to find the thread if its one big thread. Rather then split up.

When i use the search feature, sometimes its hard to find other users posts.

I like one big thread when it comes to search limitation on this forum.


-J
Posted 1/30/2012 11:55 PM (GMT 0)
It is hard to respond to multiple posts on my Kindle while I'm on vacation, but I will try.

Mgaffin, welcome to this thread! I would switch to fat free milk. Lactose does not make reflux worse, but fat does. But maybe you also have lactose intolerance, that is possible. Dr. Koufman does allow low fat milk, but I would personally rather get the little fat I eat from other sources.

Jimbo, welcome to the Koufman diet thread. Have you started the diet yet, or are you just thinking about it?

Kitt, I want to do whatever would help the site work best, but I'm not clear on why two threads are better. I have a lot of info on the first post of this thread that is critical for anyone interested in the diet. The split would make individual stories harder to track. As moderator you need to do what you need to do, but Im not seeing the advantage. It is very easy to just clicking on the last page if that's what I want, or to go forward or backward from the current page.
Posted 1/31/2012 12:41 AM (GMT 0)
Sunbeam,

We will let your thread ride then but let me know if it gets to the point where sifting through the discussion becomes overwhelming.

Enjoy your vacation !

Kindly,

Kitt

Posted 1/31/2012 11:21 AM (GMT 0)
Thanks, Kitt. I would welcome the voices of others who post on this thread at any time.

It has been a warm winter in the Northeast, but it is much warmer here. We saw dozens of alligators and countless beautiful birds yesterday in the Everglades.
Posted 2/1/2012 1:07 AM (GMT 0)
Well, I hate to sound like Eeyore, but I'm feeling mighty gloomy today. I started the Koufman diet Jan. 15, and I haven't strayed far off the path since then. I do have a small coffee in the morning, with almond milk and a packet of acid neutralizer, but that's about the only sin I can think of, aside from maybe eating too much for lunch. And herbal tea today, which may or may not be on the list.

Anyway, it's been one step ahead, two steps back, it seems. I'm not getting the awful nausea, but yesterday I was wheezing, and today my throat has been sore all day. I had to give a presentation to a group of seniors this morning and found it put quite a strain on my voice. Tonight I sound like Louis Armstrong,  and on the rare moments when I try to sing, I'm like a 95-year-old lady, all croaky and wobbly, especially in the lower registers. It's like trying to push the sound through a blanket  of fog.

I had a couple of acupuncture treatments, which did wonders for my mental health, if nothing else. My acupuncturist is on holiday for a couple of weeks now, unfortunately. 

I've given up wheat, wine, dairy, anything fatty, never did drink soda pop, don't smoke, am not overweight, exercise most every day, eat organic, am kind to animals, old people and children. And still...can't sing.

I'm so desperate at this point, I'm just about ready to pop those PPIs, except that I keep reading that they aren't that helpful for LPR. And I know from experience how unpleasant it is to try stopping them.

If I could be excused for one more whine, I have the Koufman book and have consulted the website but do not find the blog at all helpful. It's full of questions, many of which I also would like answered, but there are NO answers.

So there.

Hope you all are not tired and cranky like me.

Seagull

 

Posted 2/1/2012 4:12 AM (GMT 0)
hi seagull,

Sometimes you need to combine PPI with the diet. Thats what i had to do, in the beginning i had to take max dose PPI of 40mg nexium 2x a day (more some days) and the induction diet for a month or more before i got a results.

The diet is just a foundation, In order to get better from LPR you need to have DISCIPLINE. what does that mean? for me it meant stopping coffee completely, eating less before bed time, raising my bed, eating a certain times of day.

Now all these changes didn't take two weeks, You need to learn what you can and cannot eat. bad eating habits take time to break. Its not gonna be an easy road, but if you ask me it is totally worth it.

my suggestion is too go see a good ENT, have him do a strobe your throat so can get good picture of the damage there (if any) and prescribe the correct PPI.

don't worry about taking PPI, if you have LPR you probably need them, you can stop them, u just need to learn how scale out of them slowly.


everyone different. for example i can't eat fish right now even though its listed in the induction diet.

all the little things that seem to have no effect, do have a big affect after a month or so.

stop the almond milk, i love it too but, it causes me to belch which is bad for LPR.

eat small portions, eat slowly, eat half of what you usually eat in a sitting.

You need to keep a Food log, its somewhat of the pain, but for me it saves me from the bad LPR throat burn. after u get 1 bad burn thats like another month setback, i figure it takes me 1 or 1.5 months to heal from a bad throat burn.

follow the all the other GERD rules.

read this thread from the first post, alot of members have posted really good tips in the past.

Don't feel too bad LPR was a one step forward, two step back path for me at the get go...but after alot of EFFORT, reading alot good posts on healingwell, talking to a bunch of doctors, i am feeling alot better.

LPR is a tough and serious disease.

hang in there. worrying just makes it worse, so try to be positive.




-J
Posted 2/1/2012 6:50 AM (GMT 0)
What comes after the two week induction phase of the diet? Maintaining the low acid, low fat diet by selecting from this list (http://www.arrowscientific.com.au/educational-material/ph-values-of-foods-and-food-products.html) food that do not go lower than ph5?

I'm in my second week of this diet now (even quit coffee and tea and didn't include oils even if a bit of olive oil is allowed) and there has been significantly less belching, less hyperacidity and less heartburns but I don't know what's going to come after the two week induction phase.

Is it going to be an experimentation phase where you try food (except the obvious trigger foods) and see what you can incorporate in your diet?

I'm grateful for any kind of advice as i don't have her book (even if i wish i do , i dont really have the money right now and it's not in the bookstores i checked.)

Also this bottled Aloe Vera juice says it has grape in it and citric acid in the ingredients label. I guess i'm better off not drinking that because of the citric acid?
Posted 2/1/2012 12:19 PM (GMT 0)
Thank you, SK.

I don't want to give the impression that I'm lying here on my fainting couch waiting for a miraculous healing.

I've been on the internet almost every day for a month, searching every single post that I can find on LPR, on this board and others, plus every article that looks remotely promising.

My bed has been raised for over a year.

My eating patterns have changed dramatically. I eat a very small amount -- usually just a slice of bread and a small bowl of homemade soup made from greens -- at supper and nothing after 6:30 p.m.

I've keep a detailed food and supplement diary since Jan. 15, with notes on changes, in any, in my health. I still haven't been able to spot the suspects.

I've started using the fantastically expensive Manuka honey Koufman promotes.

I've followed to the letter ALL of her food prescriptions in the induction diet, including oatmeal in the morning, low-acid everything (except for that one cup of neutralized coffee), almost no fats, lots of greens.  I don't know how she feels about almond milk, as it's not mentioned in the book or on her blog, but it is low-fat and presumably low-acid. I do not tolerate cow's milk well and avoid soy, so my options are somewhat limited.

I'm not sure how much more "discipline" I can exercise, with the possible exception of eating less at noon. As it is, I'm getting pretty skinny.

I have an appointment with an ENT, who I'm sure will tell me to go home and take PPIs.

Seagull

 

Posted 2/1/2012 11:45 PM (GMT 0)
Rats! I just composed a long post, but lost it because the signal here isn't strong, and I lose the connection. I'll try again in the morning.
Posted 2/2/2012 12:04 AM (GMT 0)
whitecat:

thats great news.

i think her blog has some tips on when to shift out of induction.

i would do it slowly, like adding one new food every 2 weeks, seeing if any thing bad happens.

you basically want to keep seeing progress month to month... if you get worse then you take a step back and make the diet stricter...

Sometimes when you are feeling better you might want to over eat, try to fight the urge and keeping being strict... you want to give your self time so your digestive system can heal.


If you want to drink aloe, you can try George's aloe, its PH level pretty high i think it was like 7.8 when i tested it. It also taste like water...

keep us posted on your progress.


seagull:

you might want to get the Endoscopy, Manometery and PH Study dual probe. If diet alone is not working, you probably need to have some diags done to see what is or not working correctly. LES, UES, etc.

for me switching around the type of bread i eat and veggies i ate made a difference. for example eating spinach rather then broccoli. It really is a trial error process, it took me about like 8 months to get 80-90% healed... it wasn't a linear process, lots of set backs.



as far diet the following approaches might work for you:

Vegan
Low carb (hi protein) - only issue is you need to be able to tolerate some fats doing this.


-J
Posted 2/2/2012 10:00 AM (GMT 0)
Jesse, thanks so much for your posts. It is better info than I would have thought of. You are great at analyzing all the info that's out there related to eating. It gives us all hope, but it is not easy.

Seagull, I also fought taking ppis but I think I wouldn't have gotten better without them. Then as my stomach symptoms got better my LPR symptoms got worse, so I found out about this diet at the perfect time.

White cat, after the two week phase you can balance foods that are a little more acidic with foods that are more alkaline, so what you eat is closer to neutral. For example, when I eat an apple I eat a few crackers with it. Adding foods back into your diet slowly and one at a time will give you the best information about what you personally can tolerate. The book is available from Amazon.com.

Post Edited (sunbeam48) : 2/2/2012 3:21:12 AM (GMT-7)

Posted 2/2/2012 11:30 PM (GMT 0)
Hey Everyone,

I thought that this diet didn't work for me but as it turns out I was doing it incorrectly. Yesterday was my first day of the induction diet and I am a bit confused:

1. Are sweet potatoes allowed?
2. Is fresh chicken soup allowed even though the broth is boiled with an onion?
3. Is every bottled water brand acceptable?
4. Are pretzels allowed?
5. Are we allowed to eat anything above a pH of 5 or do we have to adhere to the items on the induction list?

Thanks guys
Posted 2/2/2012 11:53 PM (GMT 0)
Hi Faith, anything not included in my first post on this thread is not allowed. Without looking at that list, I believe sweet potatoes and pretzels are not on it. Any pure bottled would be fine, but there are many water like beverages with acid preservatives that are not allowed. I'm guessing that any chicken broth would be likely to have some onion flavoring, so that would probably be ok.
Please also read sk55,s recent posts. They contain lots of great advice for managing food to improve your health when you have acid reflux.
Posted 2/3/2012 12:11 AM (GMT 0)
Thanks sunbeam!!! Hoping this diet helps me too!
Posted 2/3/2012 1:03 AM (GMT 0)
I wish you well, too, and look forward to hearing about your progress on this thread.
Posted 2/3/2012 2:36 AM (GMT 0)
Thanks sunbeam. Since the diet allows us to use two tablespoons of olive oil, can we use this to sautee any of the food items on the list? For example, can we cook potatoes or eggs on the pan using the olive oil?
Posted 2/3/2012 10:09 AM (GMT 0)
I think you can use that olive oil any way you like. I make tuna salad, oven roasted vegetables.
Posted 2/3/2012 10:10 PM (GMT 0)
What am I missing?

I've read the book, and I've read the blog, and I've read some of Dr. Koufman's papers, and I still can't understand why a low-acid diet would prevent reflux.  Or does it? Perhaps it's only that acidic food on the way down reacts with the refluxed pepsin. But meanwhile, if acid in the stomach is spewing upwards, does it not activate the pepsin anyway?  Or are we supposed to use PPIs to stop the natural acid-producing function?

Or is reflux prevention the job of the low-fat part of the diet? I know that most experts on GERD/LPR warn against eating fats, or at least fried food....and yet low-carb diets can be quite high in fat, but still are often successful in preventing reflux. The trick is sticking to the diet. All very puzzling.

I'm not being deliberately obtuse here. I understand the part about processed foods being acidified; she explained that in detail. But I really hoped that the book would connect the dots better. 

Posted 2/4/2012 1:54 AM (GMT 0)
Thank you for your response sunbeam!!! =)
Posted 2/4/2012 1:58 AM (GMT 0)
Seagull,

I am confused about how this diet can stop reflux too. However, in her book she discusses how we reflux pepsin and that pepsin is activated by acid. She goes on to discuss how limiting acidic foods will allow the throat to heal when you avoid them and that part makes sense to me. However, I don't really understand how it can help with what's coming back up and possibly cure reflux as the title suggests?
Posted 2/4/2012 10:34 AM (GMT 0)
Hi Faith,

Thanks -- I thought it was just me! On the whole, I found the book disappointing -- a glitzy, expensive production with lots of white space and full-colour photos and more pages devoted to recipes than to information. I can make up my own recipes, thank you very much, or get them off the internet (or from helpful folks like Sunbeam).

The last time I checked Dr. Koufman's blog, it was filled with questions from poor puzzled souls like us, but no answers at all.

Sorry to sound so cranky.  I think if I could get my mind to accept that this is a "cure," my body would behave.  I must say I have fewer episodes of nausea now.  My throat may have been damaged longer than I realized.

S

.

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