Healthy Diet?

[JoshPosh]

Has anyone here experimented on different diets to alleviate pain and discomfort? Something out of the ordinary that most doctors would advise you to do?

 

[Loftpat]

Fresh veggies (organic if your budget allows-particularly root crops), eliminate processed foods (if you don't recognize the ingredients, it's processed), eliminate refined sugar and artificial sweeteners, add turmeric to reduce inflammation, minimize meat unless you can find local or organic that don't use chemicals or antibiotics. Trial a diet without gluten to see if you have a sensitivity. Trial a diet without night shades: tomato, potato, pepper, eggplant, as these can cause inflammation. Although fibro is not caused by inflammation, you may find that reducing your intake will help keep ordinary aches and pains that are amplified by fibro at bay. Make sure you supplement vitamin D, calcium and magnesium. There are other ideas, but this worked for me.

 

[Donna Massage]

I agree wholeheartedly that nutrition is key . I am a Massage Therapist and sell health and wellness products that are all-natural and non GMO. I had 2 of my fibromyalgia clients take one of the supplements and their symptoms went away! I so was thrilled and happy that the added supplement to their diet helped them! So, food is the way to go!

Fresh veggies (organic if your budget allows-particularly root crops), eliminate processed foods (if you don't recognize the ingredients, it's processed), eliminate refined sugar and artificial sweeteners, add turmeric to reduce inflammation, minimize meat unless you can find local or organic that don't use chemicals or antibiotics. Trial a diet without gluten to see if you have a sensitivity. Trial a diet without night shades: tomato, potato, pepper, eggplant, as these can cause inflammation. Although fibro is not caused by inflammation, you may find that reducing your intake will help keep ordinary aches and pains that are amplified by fibro at bay. Make sure you supplement vitamin D, calcium and magnesium. There are other ideas, but this worked for me.

 

[Peninha]

I think that the main issue with all our diets is processed foods, once we manage to cut on those our health will improve a lot.

 

[Determined2014]

Has anyone here experimented on different diets to alleviate pain and discomfort? Something out of the ordinary that most doctors would advise you to do?

I am sure that eating organic foods, do make a big difference in everything, but the problem is that they are so expensive,, but they have lots of advantages to our bodies.

 

[Peninha]

Eating organic is good and I agree that they are more expensive, but another question to it it's to dedicate time to cook instead of eating previously made meals or from restaurants.

 

[DannyRao642512]

Green vegetables and fruits diet is more healthy but its very costly for normal person.

 

[Loftpat]

Even if you can't afford organic food (I watch sales and buy a lot of beans, carrots, squash and greens which tend to be less expensive), eating whole foods and getting rid of boxed foods can improve your overall health. Frozen veggies are okay. Meal planning in one pot or a crockpot works well for me: Soups, chili, rice and beans; and minimizes cooking/prep time on a daily basis. Curries are good, too, as well as stir-fry. I eat a lot of leftovers and freeze some for later meals.

 

[terbaer]

I'm not convinced. Sorry, I'm just not a believer that it's going to solve all of my problems. I've been eating gluten free for about 2 months (3 if you want to say "mostly"). I don't feel any different. Some have said, it takes several weeks. Now I hear a month. I've now had some say 6 months. I have never been one to eat crap on a regular basis. My problem has been lack of appetite so I don't eat enough food. Most of what I've always eaten is whole foods. I have the occasional bowl of ice cream or small handful of frozen almonds and dark chocolate m&m's in the evening if I'm in the mood. It's easy for me to forego desserts or cakes at parties. I used to have a glass of wine pretty much every night until about a year and a half ago. Now I don't really think about it much.

Don't get me wrong, I think it's worth a try for folks, but I do not believe it's a problem solver for all. I'm one who has not only fibro, but CFS, collagenous colitis, IBS, muscle spasms, insomnia, headaches and migraines. Amazingly, that isn't all. My physician from the university wants me to go gluten free, become almost a vegetarian (likely not going to happen) and buy a earthen pad for my bed. I haven't done that yet, but it's on my list. I've also bought a bunch of essential oils to try out. We'll see. The good news is mentally I'm pretty happy and upbeat. I've turned the corner from feeling guilty for not making it to the office, to feeling thankful that I'm at home because of the symptoms I still experience. That's my two cents for what it's worth.....

 

[racenutalways]

When I went gluten free my pains reduced by 95%, I no longer walk with a cane. The 20 yr pain in my neck is gone and it did not take long.
I felt good for about two weeks and noticed pains and headaches returned and removed all processed foods, we do not do well with MSG and if you are eating processed foods there is MSg in it. That includes M&Ms LOL. Had to remove all alcohol. All soft drinks. Many people, if not 99% of sufferers do no believe food can be the cause, and can not convince one single person. If I eat soy, my insomnia returns, remove soy and I fall asleep within 20 minutes. I eat one handful of Lay's potato chips, according to Lay's their regular chips contain 20ppm gluten, I have heartburn within 10 minutes, if I continue eating them, my neck pain is the next thing to hit me. If I continue still, I need to reach for my cane as the arthritis pain in my left knew is excruciating. I can not eat dairy unless it is lactose free, or leaky gut occurs. Once I removed gluten/dairy/msg/apartame/soy I realized something else was ailing me, salicylates, fruits and veggies were causing my shortness of breath, migraines and IBS symptoms. There are many articles online that discuss the 7 foods to avoid if you have fibro. Since I started with my new restricted diet 6 months ago, I feel better, although not 100%, but better. If you are taking meds or supplements, you may be adding MSG which undoes everything you worked so hard to do and will give up and say the heck with it and eat, well ice cream and M&Ms. Research about MSGs hidden names and check you labels on everything, including body washes, supplements, skim milk, cheese, toothpaste, you'd be shocked where you will find wheat and MSG.....

 

[Brock]

Fribromyalgia

Diet affects everybody differently. Here's what I've discovered so far. During the past few years I have tested different eating patterns. What I have noticed is when I regularly eat 'processed' foods (fast food, restaurants, anything I can order or pre-made and bake) I feel bad within a few days.

I feel better (and longer) when I do the following all together:
- I eat food prepared at home. I eat high protein, high fats, moderate carbs. Most fats are butter, animal fats, or coconut oil (max 100g fat a day). I don't pay attention to sodium but I don't over indulge
- I avoid caffeine after 12pm
- I avoid sugary drinks and packaged snacks
- Exercise three times a week for about 30 minutes each time

I use artificial sweetener when I need something sweet and no matter which one I use I feel the same. I feel fine. But if it's past 12pm then I feel better than using sugar or honey.

I thought maybe a lot of carbs could help or low carbs could help. With a low carb diet I feel exhausted all of the time and unmotivated. This is why I took up a moderate carb diet. With this being said, if I mess up my protein then my diet gets unbalanced and my body will hurt within 48 hours. So I need to keep it high protein (not easy), moderate carbs (easy), and high fats (easy).

Sometimes I go out one night with friends for some drinks, but I try to not get too intoxicated. Sometimes I go out to eat with friends and eat in moderation. Everything seems normal unless I do one of these (or combined) 2 times in a row.

If I drink more than one sugary drink, the next day I'm hurting. If I drink coffee or even diet soda after 12pm the next day I'm hurting. I think this is because my sleep is disrupted. If my sleep is disrupted one night, the next day I'm not concentrating on my health and it's easy to mess up which results in feeling sore and not able to sleep the next time and then a cycle begins. But if I eat just one fast food meal or eat too many cookies, ice cream, snacks, etc at one time (1 day) I'm OK.

My next plan is to document my intake of multivitamins and also how much ginger I eat per day. I never believed in multivitamins that much. But I see when my diet slips I can hurt and feel fatigue quickly so something must be missing.

It appears that my diet has some anti-inflammatory properties to it depending on what I eat. I used to drink a lot of ginger tea as well. But I need to understand which meats I'm eating and when, and how much ginger I'm ingesting and when.

I have not been affected by dairy or gluten or any allergy to foods. I feel happy that I can finally share my thoughts with people who don't think FM is a crazy person disease and I hope what I said helps somebody.

 

[racenutalways]

If I drink coffee or even diet soda after 12pm the next day I'm hurting.

Be careful with aspartame, artificial sweeteners cause me enormous pains, insomnia, fibro fog, irritability and a lot more...
I only drink decaf instant coffee, no additives added. I don't do well with caffeine, tea or coffee. There things that I can eat every 4th day without distress, but have chosen to not eat them at all. I can not take supplements as they contain additives, so make sure you research the ingredients on what they are and how they are made. Gluten is known to be an flamatory and causes pains if you eat too much. We do not have food allergies, we have food intolerance, which means, we can eat a little, not a lot. Think of it as a rain barrel, if your rain barrel is near the top and you eat toast, you will feel it, either in the next ten minutes or ten hours, we all are different. If you drink one diet soda every 4 days you may not feel it, unless that rain barrel is near the top. For example, I have developed an intolerance to salicylates(fruits and veggies), pears without skin are low in salicylates, I can eat 2 a day, any more than that I experience shortness of breath, dry throat, dry white hands and fatigue/lethargic. If that day I ate cukes, then those 2 pears will affect me. Make sense? Same goes for wheat, processed foods, Soy and aspartame.