Kickas.org Forums Treatments, Drugs and Alternatives NSD and diet-related; Tried LSD for 2 months - leave away more food?

Thank you for adding me to the forum.
I have been trying the LSD/NSD since about two months (which is also when I was diagnosed with AS) but unfortunately do not see any real improvement so far. Of course I know that some people only feel the effects of the diet after 3 months and you got to be patient, but from reading mostly here and also at other sites I understand that finding the right LS/NS diet for yourself can be very tricky. Up until now I have been eating meat, dry sausage, fish, vegetables (sweet peppers, broccoli, zucchini (courgette), cucumber, spinach), salad (with Balsamico vinegar and olive oil), hard cheese, low-fat yoghurt (which I had tested with starch) with Stevia, apples, oranges, pears and grapes. From what I have read now, dry sausage, fruit juices and Stevia can also contain starches and be problematic. About vegetables I have read on another place that they can become dangerous when cooked. In any case I thought it could be a good idea to leave everything away but meat, fish, eggs, salad and apples for some days to see if I notice an improvement.
Does anybody of you know about starch in vinegar? (It's hard to test with iodine.) Should I always use apple cider vinegar and not balsamic vinegar? And how about coffee? I hear cheap coffee from the machine could be problematic but how about "normal" coffee at home? Coffee is really something that I rely on up until now and that I would find hard to give up. And do NSAIDS really have to be avoided to see a difference? I find it hard to go to work without them some days. Is there any other advice that those of you who are already experts in the LS/NS diet would like to share?

Thank you very much for all your help and your advice and for maintaining this forum....!


Horizon

Hi Horizon,

Looks like you have made a great start - and I hope that you feel a difference soon.

I think many people will tell you that each person seems to have different trigger foods and that you need to experiment by cutting various things. Try googling "kickas.org" and the name of a specific food to see whether other people have had problems. I found a few suspects that way!

For me personally, I decided to cut back on anything with:

• vinegar (except cider apple)
• yeast
• honey
• milk and dairy (goats cheese is OK)
• echinacea
• raisins (and red grapes)
• cabbage (especially raw cabbage)
• raw onion
• artificial sweetener

And the big one:

• pepper and peppercorns (I think this really has a big effect on me!)

So from your diet, I might try cutting:

• hard cheese --> replace with goats cheese
• Balsamic vinegar --> go with olive oil
• low fat yoghurt --> try goats yoghurt or make your own lactose free (http://www.breakingtheviciouscycle.info/knowledge_base/detail/yoghurt-how-to-make-with-yoghurtmaker/)
• grapes --> peel the red ones before eating
• sausages --> look carefully at the ingredients here - obviously you want to avoid starch, but try cutting pepper too
• fruit juices --> I heard that citrus fruits can have starch (through the pith), so try apple juice, cranberry juice, or delicious pomegranate juice

I am not sure about coffee because I don't drink it, but you could try switching to peppermint tea - which I think is safe (for me).

In my personal case, I was feeling a lot better (and mentally as well as in terms of pain), but had not quite got pain free. I will be back on the diet in about four weeks (after a break to eat gluten for a celiac test) and will keep experimenting.

I did not stop NSAIDs yet, because I felt that I needed them! I was going to try and stop them when I had reached pain free - but only after discussion with my doctor.

Anyway, I hope sharing some of that will give you some ideas to try. Keep reading what other people are doing, keep cutting things to see if it has any effect, and let me know how it goes!

Gureamu

I can tell you that sweet peppers, broccoli and cucumber have very little starch so I personally keep them out...also some apples have starch, a lot of members have issues with pears...

Hello Horizon

I moderate vinegar, at first I had to be very careful with sausages, now after years I can eat them a bit more. I read some have issues with seeds in cucumber.

If still having issues, may want to eliminate dairy.

NSAIDS if effective do not need to be avoided for diet to work, but it may be best long term to try and limit/eliminate them if you believe in the leaky gut theory. I took NSAIDs at first with diet, but then did so well I eliminated them.

Best

Tim

Dear all,

First of all, thank you very, very much for your tips and your words of encouragement! Your are really a great bunch of people...!

A little update from my side:
I reduced my diet to beef, turkey, fish, eggs, green grapes, yellow peppers, tomatoes and green salad. As I did not find apple cider vinegar I bought some "alcoholic vinegar" that I am using together with olive oil for the salad now. I also cook everything with olive oil. I am kind of distrustful of apples, as they always get very dark when I apply the iodine test, and green grapes did not test starchy with the test, so I end up eating a lot of green grapes now. I use no spices except for salt. I still drink about 3 coffees a day (now black), this is something that I would really find hard to give up, also because coffee leaves you less hungry I have the impression.

The effects: Morning stiffness seemed to be reduced a lot from the first morning I got up after having started the diet! It was really amazing! Also, getting up from a seating position at the office had become much easier. Almost unbelievable, isn't it?
However, I also got intensified pain in the left groin and knee. Now I am since about a week or so in a situation with less morning stiffness than before, but still some pain in the lower back and hips and - after getting up from a seating position - in the left inguinal area. Sometimes the inguinal pain gets so bad that I start limping very badly again, I think this is when I walk or exercise too much or get into the rain and all wet.
Also, I have sinned a few times lately (white chocolate or ice cream) and I could not observe any effect.

So, it seems to me that the diet has had a positive overall effect already. Now I am asking myself what to cut out next to see if I react badly to it. I already cut out dairy. Could it just be the oil or the coffee? Or should I try cutting out the eggs? I would find cutting the eggs out hard, because I find them very filling and they are easy to prepare and feeling hungry could then really be a problem. But from my guts feeling I guess I should try tackling the eggs.

Thanks again for all your tips and help so far and if you have any more advice, please let me know...!



Best,

Horizon

I have found that certain kinds of chocolate seem to trigger pains - possibly because of the milk. So you could try going with chocolate without milk - and preferably with natural sugar. And you could go with sorbet instead of ice cream.

I am not a coffee drinker, so I'm not sure if that is a trigger for some people.

Glad you have had some success. Hope you keep seeing improvements.

Gureamu

Hello Horizon,

Any updates on your trials?

For me.. eggs never presented an issue. Dairy at times does.

Tim