TOPIC:

I really want to change my diet, perhaps do an elimination thing for allergies. I've been having some symptoms- itching, swelling. Its not a drug allergy- eliminated all drugs. I think it may be histamine intolerance or food allergies. Spoke with my doctors, they don't really think its diet related- oh come on. I love the video Fat Sick and Nearly Dead by Joe Cross, though I'm not interested in fasting but perhaps eliminating something- wheat dairy? for a while. But hey, I'm weak when it comes to food!! haha I do love my comfort foods. I'm a slave to buttered toast and caffe latte.

I'm off sugar which is a minor miracle for me. I feel better and have lost 20 lbs, but its not so much about the perfect weight now, i care more about being healthy. My blood glucose is good. But am back on the prednisone so that makes me want to eat everything is sight! Hoping to be off the pred soon, but for now its helping me with itching/swelling along with platelets.

I am looking at eliminating histamine causing foods to hopefully reduce inflammation and allergic reactions. So I'm off seafood, and most meats- don't love beef anyway. Also fermented foods, aged cheeses, processed foods. Tree nuts and avocados cause me to having an itchy mouth- I eat them anyway- hah (you can see what I'm like with diets). So I am doing my best to not eat those things. Will be increasing my veggies and fruits. I've been loving my carrot soup- just a bunch of carrots onions potatoes veggies- whatever you have, cook and puree.

Anyone else out there making changes? Or like me, wanting to but need motivation? thanks

No. I eat what I enjoy but I do it in moderation [except sometimes dessertsw]. I watch sat fat - and will not buy anything with trans fat, which no one should eat. In fact right now I'd love a big juicy tenderloin steak - last one I had was at least 6 months ago and it was just absolutely delicious - but I eat a lot of chicken which I do not like much.

The orange cheeses are the ones that aren't too good for you.

Feeling rather Blah after recent Christmas/New Year period which included too many processed treats. Fortunately here it is summer, with plentiful fresh fruit, salad & vegetables available. Feeling much better with avoiding sweet snacks, & less cheese platters . . . It is very hot so not exercising as I should just now. Not an early morning person & too weary at day's end!
My husband has allergic skin swellings - large, raised, red & itchy patches. Specialist seems to think it is 'angio-oedema' - an autoimmune condition. We don't know what causes it, & you can imagine the speculation!! (from hot chips to celery) Takes non drowsy antihistamines when he feels a suspicious patch coming on. I suspect 'stress' is involved but is emphatically denied. . .
Enjoy your winter soup. Yum
mj

Ha, I was going to suggest the Paleo diet, but you already eliminated most of the foods that are on that diet. I went Paleo for 3 months and felt better than I had for a long time, but it got too time consuming and expensive so I stopped. I want to try again though. My daughter eats Paleo and it helps her too. I have heard nothing but good stories about Paleo.

The problem is that nothing is ever really healthy. Maybe organic, if it truly is organic. Most foods are tainted in some way and the sad thing is that nothing is really good for us. We live in a toxic world.

I need inspiration to start again. I saw that Fat Sick and Nearly Dead 2 is on NetFlix (saw the first one). I really need to watch that. I cannot break the sugar habit. I don't eat a lot of junk food but I do drink a lot of iced coffee.

Thanks for the replys, very helpful. I guess the idea of histimine intolerance is that as we get older some people may not be able to process the histimine in foods the way they used to, so it builds up and expresses as an allergic reaction. The only reason I am looking at that is that my "angioedema" seems to happen first thing in the morning on an empty stomach. So I read that it could be from seafood or whatever the night before. Or the histimine has built up from several meals? I don't know its very mysterious. And the angioedema is very random, no pattern at all- I mean I don't find any particular foods causing it. YES, MJ I think stress has a lot to do with it too. I bought some antihistamines today and will try that.

Glad you mentioned Paleo, Sandi. I have heard good things about it too. I have a book and should read it again. Have you heard of people having good success with autoimmune issues by changing to Paleo? I guess you did say your daughter. Someone recently told me a story of a young guy in their office who has had autoimmune issues(not sure what) since he was a child. And he has had good results from going Paleo. Threes months is a good amount of time to find out if something works I think. My diet has always been heavy on the bread, tortillas and wheat- I can see where less of that could be healthier.

Yes, I have read stories about people going Paleo and had improvements in autoimmune disorders.

Bread and wheat are the worst foods. It's hard to avoid them though.

I have yet to see any correlation between what I'm eating and what's happening with my platelet counts. However, due to other problems I started avoiding or minimizing certain kinds of foods (wheat in particular) back in the 1990s, so maybe I'm just not in a position to notice.

I tried a paleo approach but I seem to not handle that much protein/meat particularly well. There are a variety of conditions for which the paleo diet in any form would be strongly contraindicated (e.g.: UCDs, porphyrias), and others for which the outcome seems to be variable. Unfortunately books by the likes of Loren Cordain and Rob Wolf are a bit too enthusiastic about the benefits. All that said, I do know people reporting success with it.

Another issue to consider: the gut microflora. I've been reading a lot about this in the past few months, including one report of a person with ITP having a remission after a fecal transplant. I hesitate to make any suggestions because the research is still early days.

Aoi:

Getting a balance on Paleo is possible. It's just hard to stick to such a strict menu. Eliminating sugar and gluten is probably the top priority.

So I went out today and bought some food. I got: Wild orange roughy, wild Sword fish, fresh pineapple, organic lettuce, spinach, kale, cucumber, fresh beans.....now I have to figure out what to do with it.

Sandi:
I never quite managed that, but my digestion is very irregular, unstable, and unreliable. I have an underlying connective tissue disorder, so that's probably why. Gluten was simple since I don't particularly like it. I still eat sweets from time to time, so sugar is still part of my diet.

Your dinner possibilities are vast with those ingredients. I'll be having salmon with broccoli, peppers, and sweet potatoes. Maybe some pumpkin seeds in there too. And my usual supply of vitamins and minerals in pill form.

Aoi wrote:

I never quite managed that, but my digestion is very irregular, unstable, and unreliable. I have an underlying connective tissue disorder, so that's probably why.

Me too. Supposedly sugar is the worst as far as autoimmune disorders and the gut go. Sugar increases yeast and inflammation.

I figured out the food. Last night I had a blackened swordfish steak. Right now I am having a great salad with all of my weeds. I used to be strictly an icerberg lettuce person, but I do like the spinach, kale and iceberg mixed. Also added eggs, onion, tumeric and a bit of shredded cheddar. Tastes great!

The salad sounds great. I never met a leaf I didn't enjoy eating. I eat lots of Romaine, baby greens, spinach, and herb salads, as well as kale, chard, watercress, and so forth. Even my cat enjoys lettuce leaves.

My current approach to sugar is to only have it in easily recognized desserts. No added sugars in anything else I eat or drink (for instance, the naturally occurring sugars in fruit are fine). At least this way I'm not being fooled or misled about what I'm consuming.

My added complication is that I'm pre-diabetic. I really have to stop!

That is challenging complication. My PCP just checked me for pre-diabetes and fortunately I'm okay. I'm sure you know all the tricks for increasing insulin sensitivity and reducing refined carbohydrate (or GI/GL if you prefer). I hope you can find a combination that helps.

Aoi:

My problem is that I have so many issues that doing one thing contradicts others. I'm so confused. I really should see a nutritionist. I think I'm okay eating what I bought for this week, but that will eventually get old.

That makes it very complicated and frustrating. I've gone through something similar but for different reasons, and I'm still trying to sort it all out. I'd be perfectly happy opening a can of "human food" and eating that. But human digestion and nutrition are more complex that the feline case, though I still envy my cats.

I have three dogs. I worry about what I feed them too. If people food is so bad, what do they put in pet food? There are always recalls on pet treats and dogs are dying. I used to make them boiled chicken and cooked carrots for dinner a few times a week. I don't think that was any better for them since chicken is so full of steroids and antibiotics.

new to ITP and are looking into dietary changes. I have booked myself in for a food intolerance test because I figured that was a good place to start. It will be interesting if it comes up with anything....in the meantime I'm enjoying bread while I can!

Sensitivities don't always show up on tests. Gluten is one. A person can still have a sensitivity to gluten and not have Celiac's. I was tested for Celiac's and it was negative, but eliminating it did make an improvement in how I felt. I have not yet found a decent gluten free bread; I even tried making my own. I read an article the other day that stated that it may not actually be the gluten itself that causes problems; it might be the additives that are used in the wheat. So much of the food supply is tainted with toxic additives and it's very hard to truly eat healthy.

But - getting tested can give you a starting point!

Try kale crisps Sandi..they are wonderful. Even got my 2 year old grand daughter eating them

Are they good? Never tried them.

I'll second anything involving kale. I really do enjoy it. Fresh, steamed, crisps, etc.

I've been eating it raw. I'll look for the chips.

Really easy Sandi. Lots of different ways to do them out there online. I love them

Hello everyone! Update- I have lost 7 lbs since I last posted 4 months ago. I am still off sugar which is a minor miracle. I feel stronger emotionally to not be such a slave to sweets, as well as feeling overall healthier. I am now trying to make vegetables 50% of my total daily food. I try to eat organic when I can. its pretty easy to find in California and doesn't always cost much more. Farmers markets and a store called Trader Joes have prices that are similar to Safeway.

I couldn't lose weight while on prednisone but the dietary changes have helped me not gain weight. I've been on it this time for 9mos and have tapered down to 1mg. yay! The weight is starting to come off. I didn't tolerate it well this time, even lower doses of 10mg was driving me up the walls. So stressed out, couldn't sleep well, impatient, intolerant, and in a hurry. I have taken too much of the stuff. omg- its so nice to be able to sleep again!

I think the dietary changes have helped me with the pred withdrawl symptoms. Two years ago when I tapered off of prednisone I was suffering terribly with joint pain. Walking was a challenge. I remember having a hard time keeping up with a 92 yr old woman and had to get an 88 yr old to open a jar because my hands hurt so. I was expecting the same but haven't had much pain at all. I joined a gym and have been doing very gentle "work-outs" on the machines. (I do notice I get tired easily, my legs get weak and have trouble recovering my energy level- thats pred withdrawl). Also I know that the flu vaccine brought on an attack of joint inflammation 2 years ago- my immune system reacts badly to that vaccine. This past year I didn't get the vaccine so perhaps that has also helped my joints.

Lately I've had high blood pressure which I blamed on prednisone. But its remaining high even with the taper, so don't know whats going on there. I've lost 27 lbs in 2 years so shouldn't my blood pressure be lower? not fair, but I'm still over weight so always something to work on.

That's great news. I get a lot of my vegetables at Trader Joe's, though I'm partial to Safeway's organic frozen broccoli.

When you say 50%, I assume you mean by volume and not calories. Or are you counting nuts, seeds, starchy vegetables like yams, and high-calorie fruits like avocados? My family routinely comments on the vast quantities of vegetables and fruit I eat but also wonder where I get my calories from. But I'm partial to pumpkin seeds, yams, and walnuts, which helps a lot.

I find that the joint pain I have due to my connective tissue disorder bothers me less when I avoid dairy. I also find that the gastroparesis that comes with my CTD is less of a problem when I avoid gluten-containing grains. But YMMV here.

There was a great farmers market where I lived in Cali. I do miss that, though overall I live the Seattle area where I now live.

I was doing great on the Paleo/organic diet until this week (lost 8 pounds). I went about six weeks eating really well and then my mom happened. I've been spending hours with her every day and I didn't have time to keep up with the diet. I was there all day Monday going through 3 feet of mail, Tuesday at the ER with her from 2 to 9, Wednesday I cleaned and Thursday it took 5 1/2 hours to take her grocery shopping. Not kidding about that. Anyway, I fell off the wagon. The past three days, I've felt so sick I can't wait to start back with the vegetables. Food makes a difference. I even ate some of my favorite things and found that I don't really miss it.