Hello to all fellow kickasers !
I've just started the NSD diet a few days ago, and I've got a couple questions, if anyone could answer them, I'd really appreciate it :
- I can't make my mind up about the "dextrin"/"dextrose" family. I know that I'm not meant to have anything that says "wheat dextrose" or "maltodextrin" on the label, but what about when it says just "dextrose" or "dextrin" or another component with those words ?
- What about the Enumbers ? Are there any that should be avoided as they contain starch ?
- And last but not least, I've struggled a bit with the iodine-testing. It's simple enough on some foods (bread...) but how do you do it with dark foods (ie, i wanted to test my balsamic vinegar ??) or foods that absorb the iodine straight away. Are there any tips ? (Think of it as "Iodine-testing for dummies").
Thank you in advance for your help, I'm trying to do it as well as possible so i can see quickly if it's for me or not.
Marion

Hi,

Hopefully somebody else will chime in with a more comprehensive answer but I remember reading on here that any E numbers over 1000 are starchy. I have tried looking for the post but I can't find it.

Re Iodine testing I think if you dilute the dark liquids with water that should help it show up and foods that absorb the iodine should still change colour if starchy I would have thought. It can however take ten/fifteen minutes or even an hour or more for some foods to 'turn'

I can't help you on the dextrin or dextrose. I believe it is a form of sugar again someone more knowledgeable will let you know. I try and avoid anything with additives where possible and if you are trying the diet to see if it works I would recommend you are very strict and if you can, prepare everything from scratch then you know there are no sneaky starches.

I hope this helps somewhat until someone else replies.

Avoid E numbers in the 1400 range - they are all starches

http://www.starch.dk/isi/applic/E-numbers.htm

I agree with Miss Grumpyally.

Just make everything from scratch. I am so senstive to food additives, that I just make all my own yummy goodness from scratch for ultimate healing & health. Or else I just don't feel good, and my body gets a bit haywire.

I personally eat mostly raw vegan, and LOVE it, but here are some more common low/no starch foods to ease into this diet with:

Saute up some broccoli. Cook yourself some eggs. Broil Fish. Eat sliced apples with almond butter. Make a homemade salad dressing, or just toss vinegar & oil over a big plate of veggies like lettuce, cucumber, celery, radishes, sauerkraut, carrots (I do fine with carrots), some raw walnuts, sesame seeds. Or saute some kale and mushrooms. Make a scramble with avocado & crab. Make homemade guacamole for dipping veggies. Saute shrimp and veggies. Saute some swiss chard with garlic and basil. Eat a plate a of pineapple. Eat a grapefruit. Make a homemade snack mix with raw almonds, raisins, sunflower seeds, cranberries. Broil some asparagus. BBQ a salmon. Make a pureed veggie soup. I also have a whole website full of yummy anti-inflammatory recipes.

My best advice, and the fastest way to start feeling better is to stay away from any products with a list of ingredients that you don't know what they are. Those products by law can have other added ingredients at low PPM, that aren't even listed on the label and likely contain MSG and other icky perservatives that destroy the food, and make the nutrients less accessible to your body.

Best of Luck on This New Adventure!!

Hello everyone and thank you for your replies !!
As I started reading about all the diets around there, I noticed there are several that are sort of close, but overlapping quite a bit : some allow you dairies, other don't, some allow you peanuts, other don't, etc, you get the gist !
So I decided, to start off with, to focus on Carol Sinclair's diet, as it is specific for ppl with AS. I try and eat mostly stuff that are "unprocessed" such as fruit, veg, meat, fish, eggs, some nuts, oil... However, Carol Sinclair's diet recommends also foods that you have to buy already prepared such as bacon, ham, ice cream, mustard, crème brûlée, chocolate, wine, yogurt, etc... And unfortunately those products do contain additives, so I'm trying to figure out which ones to stay away from.
I'm not saying Carol Sinclair's diet is the best, but I decided to start from there and then start tweaking it if needs be. I'm keeping dairies at the minute (although I'm trying to avoid cow's milk product and choose goat or sheep or buffalo milk's product as I think they're meant to be less "aggressive"). I might try taking out dairies alltogether at some point to see if it makes a difference.
Also I'll have to go and see my GP, as there is added starch in my methotrexate and my birth-control pill. I'm dreading that a bit, as he might think I'm crazy (people in France always take a while to get used to new theories...), and dismiss my request.
So it is quite an adventure, as there are so many things to get your head around, and it is so different from everything I thought I knew about diet !!
Oh, and Betty, by the way, I saw you drink quite a bit of homemade juices, is it only the vegetables juices that are beneficial or fruit ones as well ?? Cause I don't like much the taste of veggie juice...
Right I'll stop going on and on, thanks again and hope to get some more input/opinion...
Marion

Sounds good! Starting with Carol Sinclair's book sounds like a good idea. I also read it and it helped me get all the starchiness out of my diet. I just wish her book didn't include so much inflammatory sugar & dairy recipes. Depending on the progress you feel, you might do fine just focusing on getting the straches out of your diet. Seems like overall for most of the people I run into on here and other forums, they find that getting the refined sugars out of the diet has been really healing for in addition to removing starches. I believe and keep reading how refined sugars and refined starches are at the root of so many diseases in the body.

I have been at this diet for healing thing for going on 7 years. So I actually make my own mustards from scratch, raw vegan ice creams, all my own sauces, all from scrath. Some might say, "But doesn't that take so much time?" And I think, well, having an AS Flare up keep me bed ridden takes way more time out of my life. The better I feel, the more energy I have for making everything from scratch. But this is from 7 years of experimenting, and seeing which foods make me feel divine, and which ones flared up my colitis & AS. So I may be way more sensative than you to some of these perservatives. Another diet I embarked on to help get a food hold on all of this is the SCDiet. It is very similar to the NSDiet. Depending on how much pain you are in, how damanged you feel you gut is, etc. SCD can be a great option to look into. My gut was destroyed, in full inflammation mode, colitis, etc, so learning about the fundamentals behind SCDiet was a blessing for me and helped me on this journey. But I may have been in way worse shape than you too!

As for jucing. I usually add an apple or 2 to sweeten up my veggie juices. But mostly, I drink green smoothies. At least 1 green smoothie a day, but usually 2!

Anyhow, sounds like you are on the right track. And I look forward to hearing about your progress!!

And the last thing I want to do is stress anyone out when they first embark on a diet for healing! So I hope my comments don't come off as pushy, I am only trying to help and let you know what has worked for me.

I am also working on creating and publishing an anti-inflammatory diet plan that I hope will help people when they first jump into a new way of eating. Hope to self publish an ebook first with an easy to follow meal plan for someone just getting started, and then maybe eventually get a book into print. A healing diet has saved and restored my quality of life, so I can't help but get all passionate about it.

xoxo

dextrose is just another name for glucose, which is a form of sugar. If sugar doesn't effect you then dextrose won't. Dextrin and Maltodextrin contain starch and you should avoid those.

Thank you for your replies ! I didn't understand the distinction between dextrose and dextrin so thanks for clarifying that. I've found there is maltodextrin in Diet Coke so I'm guessing that'll have to go !! I knew all along it's not healthy but it was sort of my guilty pleasure. Oh well...
I am going to try and cut down on lactose and refined sugars. Are honey and agave syrup good alternatives to table sugar, or are they considered refined sugars as well ?
By the way, Betty your blog is really good, I'm gonna buy a blender and I'm gonna try some of the ice cream and juices recipes !!
Thanks to all !!
Marion

Sounds good!

I personally love honey, maple syrup, medjool dates, and my new sweetener favorite, low glycemic coconut sap sugar, available in liquid form (sticky like honey) or you can buy it dried much like a brown sugar. It is a great tasting low glycemic sugar, all natural, raw, and it's the sap they blead out of the cococnut flours. This company is my favorite, it's on amazon.com & in most health food stores: http://www.coconutsecret.com/

Also, I recommend avoiding agave. I came across different little articles on the internet, mostly in relation to the SCD diet, about why to avoid it, and one quote I found said "Agave feeds klebsiella like wildfire". This is due to the high concentration of inulin, a pre-biotic that feeds good and BAD bacteia. There is natural inulin in garlic, onions, asparagus, but in a modified and highly concentrated product like agave, it is not good for some of us. So I just totally avoid all agave, and I drastically felt better after giving it up.

ps: I still eat garlic ALL the time w/o issues. I also eat asparagus and onions all the time too, w/o issues. But I belive agave to be an artificial manufactured product, and it's a whole different ball game.

xoox

Hi,
I agree with 'Betty' on the agave issue I stick to honey, dates and occasional pure maple syrup. I used agave syrup a lot to start with in baking until I realised it wasn't such a good idea.

I too started with Carol Sinclairs book I think it is a good starter for easing you into something that can be such a drastic change and mindboggling to get used to. I then realised I needed more and did the GAPS intro which is similar to SCD and that made a big difference for me.

I now try to mainly stick too raw foods and juices I have a green juice every morning like 'Betty' adding one or two apples.

I still struggle with a dreadful sweet tooth though!

That's good to know, cause agave syrup is commercialised to be a very "natural and healthy" alternative to sugar ! But I will steer clear of it.
I'm thinking of trying an apple fast at the week-end, although I read some ppl get worse joint pains when doing that so I'm still pondering.
After a week of NSD, the pain in my wrist (my most inflamed joint at the mo) had definitely gone down. I went from daily NSAIDS, to only applying Voltaren locally once this week. I wouldn't say the pain has gone alltogether, but it's gone from quite an acute pain (shard of glass in joint type of feeling) to being a bit stiff and having less movement.
It seemed an improvement, but last night my SI joint started playing up and that got me a bit worried as I haven't had any SI problems in a long time, my AS has been mostly peripheral in recent years.
I wish there was a clear guide with fool-proof directions : "DO THIS, DON'T EAT THAT...". I understand that everyone is unique and therefore needs to tailor the lifestyle to their own needs, but I feel very much like i'm stabbing at the dark. I'm worried about doing the wrong things or not doing the right things...

Hi,
It is a huge learning curve to work out what works for you and what doesn't.

If you do the apple fast check your apples aren't starchy as some people have trouble with finding properly ripened apples. I think some people use grapes instead.

I don't bother with tropical fruits much here as generally they have been cold stored and not ripened properly so the sugars have turned to starch.

Sometimes you will find your aches will get worse before they get better as it is the bacteria fighting back as a last stand. Die off symptoms can range from anything to a runny nose/cold upset tum or constipation and worsening of your original symptoms.

You will find you take one step forward and two back but if you look at it over months rather than days and weeks you will realise that you are improving all the time when you compare how you are to how you were. My backache and stiffness in the mornings went really quickly but then new areas started to ache and these took longer to go. You will make mistakes it is hard not to but just keep at it.
xx

Hi! If my memory is correct, I read that Elaine Gottschall, author of The Specific Carbohydrate Diet, said that maltodextrin is awful, due to its long chain molecular structure, and to avoid it at all costs. So, even though there are some differences between the low starch diet for AS and the SCD, still, I will avoid it.
If I'm reading a label that has dextrose in it, I tell myself I should find some whole food without a label. : )
I'm sure someone else has chimed in about adding milk to an item of food to help with the iodine testing.
Best wishes,

Hi Marion, try your best not to worry. Food is a wonderful part of life. We should enjoy it and have fun. I think many of us get into a pattern of worrying about starches in food and so on. We can only take a day at a time and do our best. I think starting with Sinclair's book is wonderful. I love her book so much. It seems like such a good beginning place, and then for me, what makes sense is cutting out sugary foods, and anything really unnatural, like soft drinks, and fast food, you know what I mean? Oui, vous me comprenez! Did I remember my french okay???

for me there are 2 rules:

rule number 1:
sugars are pro-inflammatory. so: avoid refined sugars. avoid fruits rich in fructose. avoid sugars of any kind.

rule number 2:
when you need sugars - i only use them in coffee or in my almond pie - use honey.

and those 2 rules helped a lot.

Thanks for your replies, it's so good to feel some support !!
@naj : your French was perfect !! About the dextrose, what I struggle with is finding some sliced meats (ham, bacon, pastrami...) that don't contain it... they all seem to have it, and i am quite fond of such foods as a quick & easy protein fix ! Do you reckon that if i buy those meats from the butcher's rather than the supermarket it'll have such additives as well ?
Based on everything I've read my plan for the next few weeks is :
- apple fast at the weekend (non starchy apples)
- after that : cut out all starches (apart from the ones present in my meds. I have an appointment with my GP about that but I've got a feeling he's not going to be helpful !)
- cut down on cow's milk : for yogurts, crème fraiche and cheese use goat's, sheep's or buffalo's milk. For recipes or sauces, try coconut milk or almond milk, although i've found the latter usually contains rice syrup, so will need to find a starch-free variety. Keep normal butter in small doses.
- avoid processed food (still in 2 minds about the ham & bacon though)and drinks (bye bye Diet Coke, 2 days without it and going strong...)
- avoid refined sugars, use honey in recipes, planning on making my own ice cream with coconut milk, fruit & honey.
Keep that up for a few weeks and then see how i feel by then. Hopefully there'll have been an improvment !! If not, I think I'll try later to cut out the following one by one to "test" : all lactose, nightshades, high-fructose fruit, wine (please, no ! Carol Sinclair recommends it and I don't think it sets me off, so hopefully I can keep my evening glass of vino !).
Btw, today SI pain has completely gone, however my wrist is giving me hell !! My symptoms are all over the gaff at the minute, so I think something is happening (and it might be like Grumpyally suggested a "last stand", the klebsiella sending in the big boys as it is under attack !!).
So fingers crossed (left ones though as the right ones don't wanna cooperate today !) and thank you so much to everyone, it is so wonderful to be able to talk to ppl who know and understand what you are going through !!
Xxx
Marion

just to make sure I'm seeing that right, dextrin is safe - correct?