Foods and pain

[ninjamom]

I have been focusing more on my diet over the last few months as my pain has become more intense and frequent. I've always felt like my symptoms were pretty random, but I thought I'd see if I could identify any specific triggers - other than stress and overdoing it. For a long time, I didn't think what I ate (since I eat a pretty Fibro friendly diet) was directly affecting my body aches/pains and now I'm still unsure because it's not very clear cut. It seems I can eat the same thing on different days and feel completely different. Sometimes I definitely have the typical IBS issues after meals, but other times, I do not have digestion issues, but only pain in my arms, legs, etc. or nothing at all.

So, my question is... Have you discovered a direct link between certain foods and muscle/nerve pain throughout your body? If so, how soon did you begin to feel the pain after you ate the food? What foods trigger the pain?

I do not have any specific food allergies. Very, very slight sensitivity to 4 foods. I eat minimal gluten, dairy, sugar.

 

[sunkacola]

It's pretty difficult to pin down culprits when it comes to food and FM. I have tried to, and not had much success in establishing any certainty that certain foods have certain effects. I think part of the problem is that with FM, how our bodies react to many things varies so much that it's hard to predict. One day I can do XYZ and be fine, the next time I do the same thing I am in a lot of pain the next day. So, did doing XYZ cause the extra pain, or would it have happened anyway, since I can also not be doing XYZ and suddenly wake up to have a super painful day.

some things are obvious, (I know I cannot eat gluten, but that's not part of fibromyalgia, and I know if I over do it on yard work I will have a painful back the next day, and so on), but most things aren't, even activities, which are in my experience easier to track results than food is. Unless something is very obvious and happens the same way every single time over a fairly long period of time , you cannot be sure that this food is causing that reaction. One of the many frustrating things about fibromyalgia is it's unpredictability.

 

[ninjamom]

Thank you. You describe the experience perfectly! It's nice to know it's not just me :}

 

[Creola17]

Six years ago I woke up in agony. Couldn't get out of bed my feet and legs were very swollen. Went to multiple doctors (have some sad and funny stories about drs) finally after a month and a half of pain and begging to die I found these alternative doctors. They had me completely change my diet. I thought they were nuts after reading what I had to stop eating but I was desperate so I did everything they said. Brain exercises and a paleo based diet
No sugar, grains, alcohol, also night shade veggies, legumes. And then after I could start moving without pain I could add an item like chicken peas, no problem, then I tried tomatoes, instant flair up. There are times when it's not the food.
It's really trial and error
After watching programs about how bad our food has gotten, I'll never eat grains again. Not because of gluten but because of the poison they spray in wheat.
So I believe that food has alot to do with how you feel.

 

[Creola17]

I forgot no dairy. I'm loving goat milk ice cream!

 

[JayCS]

Have you discovered a direct link between certain foods and muscle/nerve pain throughout your body? If so, how soon did you begin to feel the pain after you ate the food? What foods trigger the pain?

I've got to know pretty much every trigger for every symptom over the last year, and would say: no. I changed my diet 3x, as far as poss. due to loads of intolerances, that made no difference. Food gives me hyperacidity and stomach problems, and occasionally a few other things, I'm on an extremely healthy Mediterranean diet to keep blood fats down, but no difference in pain. And pain is triggered by what I "do", not what I eat.... - as far as it is possible to tell...

 

[sunkacola]

If you think food has, or could have, a component in your pain or other symptoms, you can find out by cutting out all of one food group for 2 weeks to a month and see if anything changes. If not, cut out a different one, and so on. Or, you can do as Creola did and cut out a lot of things at once and see if that helps. I think that is harder than doing one group at a time, but what works for you is what's important.
I certainly agree with Creola that cutting out alcohol, sugar, and caffeine is a good place to start because those things exacerbate symptoms in most people with FM. Best of luck!

 

[Creola17]

I understand how you feel when someone says you need to stop your favorite foods but you don't. I find so many great substitutes that I never feel deprived. More and more paleo friendly foods keep showing up in stores. I find it exciting. I never had a problem with weight but my husband has so he really loves that he can eat his usual amount and lose 30 lbs. We do eat outside of the paleo diet as long as the food is non gmo, organic, etc.
Look up the foods you currently eat to see if they cause inflammation or have been sprayed with poison.
We also worried about the cost but finding places that sell in bulk has made it easy. Even discount stores carry some if the flours.
It doesn't hurt to try.
(((gentle hugs)))

 

[itrade]

For more than 20 years I never paid attention to how my diet might affect my pain levels. A couple of years ago I tried eliminating gluten to see if it would help my reflux and bloating. It did. ...literally 100%.. I then experimented with no sugar then no dairy. I was paying attention to how I felt along side dietary changes for the first time in my life. Anyway, one day i grabbed a bag of marshmallows and ate a ton of them. At this point I was eating a much simpler diet, fresh cooking meats and vegetables, no processed, and no gluten.. Later in the day my leg muscles ached terribly. I did nothing different that day diet wise (nor physical exerting myself), but eat the marshmallows. I decided to see if I could replicated the pain on a later date by eating lots of marshmallows. I did several times. After experimenting with other high sugar foods I discovered that, for me, if it ate high amounts of sugar it would lead to very sore legs the same day. I hoped to myself that if I eliminated sugar that I might perhaps be able to eliminate my pain. But I was not able to do that. However discovering that, for me, high amounts of sugar always leads to unmistakeably high levels of pain was a huge discovery.

 

[Creola17]

I just posted this somewhere else but it's worth repeating.
There is a book called FOOD AS MEDICINE and will help you find the right food for yourself. Because w

 

[Creola17]

I just posted this somewhere else but it's worth repeating.
There is a book called FOOD AS MEDICINE and will help you find the right food for yourself. Because we're all different no one diet works for everyone. This is not a new idea.
Might be worth a try.

 

[peater_walker]

As high levels of blood sugar can contribute to nerve damage in peripheral nephropathy, patients should avoid foods such as candy, ice cream, soft drinks, fruit juices, and pastries.