The Anti-Inflammatory Diet

I completed the three tests in the three days following my visit with Dr. Redd.  I was fully prepared to begin the anti-inflammatory diet on Saturday, February 16th.  I had been researching recipes, made a grocery list and menu and thought I had it all figured out.  Both Dr. Redd and Dr. Gage told me it would only be for a couple of weeks or until the food sensitivity test results came back.

Below is the anti-inflammatory diet I was given.  The actual booklet given to me was 25 pages had a list of foods I could eat, as well as the foods I was to avoid and included recipes.


Foods to Avoid:
Any food that you know you are allergic to
DAIRY:  including milk, cheese, yogurt, butter, margarine & shortening
EGGS
GLUTEN:  including wheat, oats, rye & barley that are typically found in breads, pasta and cereals
TOMATOES, tomato sauces and anything containing tomatoes
DEHYDRATED FRUIT
RICE, CORN, POTATOES (WHITE, RED, YELLOW)
ALCOHOL
COFFEE, BLACK TEA AND SODA:  caffeine and caffeine free
FRUIT JUICES
IODIZED (TABLE) SALT
SUGAR and NATURAL & ARTIFICIAL SWEETENERS: including agave and honey
SOY or products containing soy: including soy milk & tofu
PEANUTS:  including peanut butter & peanut oil
BEEF, PORK, SHELLFISH, COLD CUTS, BACON, HOT DOGS, CANNED MEAT, SAUSAGE

Foods to Eat:
HERBAL TEAS AND DECAFFEINATED GREEN TEAS
QUINOA AND BUCKWHEAT (NOT with wheat or gluten additives)
FRESH FRUITS and VEGETABLES
SEA SALT and Spices *Individual Spices are less likely to have intolerable additives
PEAS (split, fresh & snap)
BEANS:  including navy, white, kidney, garbanzo, black, etc.
FISH:  except shellfish
MODERATE AMOUNTS OF SWEET POTATOES
MODERATE AMOUNTS OF CHICKEN, TURKEY BACON, TURKEY SAUSAGE, GROUND TURKEY, and LAMB
MODERATE AMOUNTS OF OLIVE OIL, COCONUT OIL
UNSWEETENED ALMOND MILK
THESE NUTS (RAW):  cashews, almonds, macadamias, pecans, walnuts and sunflower seeds

Being something of a "foodie", I was a bit reluctant to try some of the recipes.  They just didn't sound good to me.  Looking at the list of foods and recipes, I kept telling myself that it wasn't forever, it would only be a couple of weeks.

Now that you've seen the list, you're probably wondering, "What CAN she eat?".  Well, that's a really good question.

For the first two weeks, I ate a lot of quinoa.  It was the closest thing to a grain that was on the list of foods I could eat.  I made pizza crust out of quinoa, salads, side dishes and even attempted a breakfast version made with almond milk and cinnamon.  I ate vegetables with hummus, I starting incorporating fish into my diet on a more regular basis, and I found a gluten-free chicken sausage that was quite tasty on my quinoa pizza crust.  I ate leftovers for breakfast.  I was getting pretty good at it.

I tried making some crackers from Buckwheat flour.  They were not good.  That's all I can say about that.

I wasn't noticing any huge improvements in the way I felt, my energy levels or the lessening of my headaches.  I don't think I mentioned in my earlier post but my head hurts every day.  Some days I wake up with a headache, some days it comes on late in the afternoon but I go to bed with a headache every single night.  Sometimes, the headaches last for days and cause nausea.

In addition to the anti-inflammatory diet, I was taking three supplements, drinking a detoxifying shake and using a hormone cream daily.

My doctors use the Apex Energetics brand of supplements.  Here's the list of what I took for the first two weeks:

ClearVite (powdered, mixed with almond milk or water) 3x per day before meals - detoxifies the liver
Methyl-SP (pill) 3x per day - methylates and detoxifies the liver
Metacrin-DX (pill) 3x per day - hepatic detoxifier
Bilemin (pill) 3x per day - supports healthy bile synthesis
Oxicell (cream) applied 2x per day on the throat over the thyroid area - antioxidant cream

The shake mix tasted terribly organic.  Like dirt.  The first time I drank it, it just about came back up and made me shudder to finish it. The second time I drank it, I tried adding cinnamon but it did nothing to help the flavor.  Eventually, I got used to the taste and by the time I finished it, I didn't mind it at all.

The pills weren't a problem whatsoever.  I didn't experience any side effects or notice any outward difference in taking them.

I lasted about 5 days on the cream.  Its primary ingredients were flower-based and I had a histamine reaction to them.  The skin on my neck became welted with hives.  After talking to the clinic about it, they suggested trying it on my feet and/or the inside of my arm but the hives on my neck didn't go down after doing that.  I went off the cream completely and got my money back.

During the first two weeks, I had a long-awaited trip to Las Vegas planned.  I didn't think too much about the food issues until we were actually in Las Vegas.  Cross-contamination was a concern.  I was sure I could ask for a grilled chicken breast and steamed veggies or have a salad with olive oil and vinegar just about anywhere I went.   That was not the case.  Applebee's seemed to be the most helpful and accommodating.  I'm still not convinced that there wasn't some cross-contamination - now that' I've researched more and read other people's experiences.  The buffet was a nightmare.  There was no salad dressing that I could eat on my salad (which consisted of lettuce, cucumber and carrot).  I was grateful that we had gone to the store early on in the trip and I picked up a few things there I knew I could eat.  We also went to the Whole Foods while we were there.  That was quite the experience - one I'm actually going to save for it's own post.  I did the best I could and for the restrictions I had, I did PDG (that's pretty darn good in case you didn't know).

Despite the diet and whatever else I was feeling at the time, I just kept telling myself that it was short-term.

Right before leaving for Las Vegas, on February 26th, I got the food sensitivity test results back.  It seemed as though the anti-inflammatory diet would be a bit more permanent than originally planned.