I got my food sensitivities test back today and it's confirmed some things for me, and also surprised me in some ways too.

I'm highly reactive to most the nightshades but the only two foods that were in the "red" for me were pork and tomatoes. Avocados are in the yellow which is a shame since I eat so many of those to get that full feeling. Broccoli and lecithin are also high up for me so no more eggs for now. Cows/Goats milk are in the high yellow as is parsley, mushroom, oregano, shrimp, lamb, zucchini, and cashews. Cane sugar and honey were very low for me but I'm still avoiding those as I believe I'm having candida issues.

I'm going to incorporate this into my current regiment which is still LSD. I have no doubt of the food/disease/pain connection, I'm just trying to refine it for me. I realize many of you here went strict NSD right from the start due in large part to your pain levels which I totally understand.
For me though it's a bit different as I don't have a ton of pain. The only thing that ever hurts me is my ribcage and only when I sleep. Usually is about a 5-7 before starting the diet and would wake me up each night. Since going LSD it's more like a 3-4 and it's tolerable. I still eat some rice every now and then, and on certain weekends I still find myself at a deli having a sandwich.

For me, I don't have these immediate or painful reactions other than my ribs doing there thing at night a little more than usual. The weird reaction I seem to get is extreme hunger. When I eat something suspect, I get SO hungry around 10pm at night I could eat a horse. The other night I had just finished a huge tuna steak and mixed greens and was so full. I decided to have a 1/2 cup of the quinoa my wife just cooked to test it and almost immediately I went from being stuffed to deathly hungry after those 4-5 bites of quinoa. I became so hungry I had to eat a cup of nuts and tablespoon of coconut oil just to feel full again. What's that all about??

Then there was the infamous time I went snowboarding all day and came home to a huge spaghetti dinner. That night, I had zero rib pain and slept the best I had in years. Perhaps my body needed all those carbs after the exhausting day I had and calories I burned or I was just too tired to notice?

I continue to experiment, refine, and experiment. Again I have no doubt of the food/pain connection but I think for me it's not quite a simple as just no starch period. Sweet potato is one I don't seem to have issues with in small quantity and white rice too.

At this point I'm going to take all this new information into account and continue doing the LSD as I have been.
Supplements I'm taking are Glutamine, magnesium, calcium, Vit B, C, cod liver oil, ultimate flora probiotic, and inflazyme. I just started the inflazyme at the recommendation of my dietician recently and I noticed a slight drop in my pain at night (just slight) so I'm going to continue with that as well. I've read rumblings on here about the ultimate flora probiotics being bad or containing FOS, but I haven't noticed much difference taking it other than I'm using the bathroom more regularly as opposed to my once every 3-4 days which I think is a good thing.

My weight has dropped prettty significantly and I'm back to a healthier range now. Started around 194 about 10 months ago and now I'm at 164 and I'm 5'8" so much better! Ideally lose about another 5 and I'd be thrilled to be at the lightest I've been in 12 years!

That's it for now. Thanks so much for all your posts and feedback, it really makes this much easier having this forum. I wish everyone continued health and pain free days!

Jason

I am right there with you on tomatoes!

I miss them dearly, but not enough to feel painfully inflammed for them!

I like to think maybe one day my gut will heal back up and I can eat them again.... but thank goodness I can eat nut based pesto sauce in their place!

Also, I used to make a cherry based BBQ sauce that was out of this world, using cherries instead of tomatoes.

-Andrea

That BBQ sauce sounds delish Andrea! Care to share the recipe??Cherries was my lowest reactive food on the fruits list!

one idea: gastritis?

for me, my gastritis gives me severe pain, so i know when i have it. i'm lucky as i think it helps me treat it before it develops further, into an ulcer. (based on knowing that my relatives in the past all had ulcers)

but others can die from a bleeding ulcer and not even realize they have one due to lack of pain.

so maybe you have gastritis (the suspect food inflames your stomach lining) but you don't have the kind of pain i get from it.

anyway, when my gastritis is flared, i'm always starving so easily. hard to fill me up and not feel hungry. and the worse the gastritis, the hungrier i am.

but when i am on prednisone, i'm not hungry at all. my stomach quiets down. its great

just one thought.

may be way off the mark for you, i don't know.

I LOVE Cherries!! Each summer my husband and I go and pick 75 pounds of cherries (for $1.25/lb) and put them in our freezer - so I like finding different ways to use them. Last year we picked another 90 pounds with a friend and made cherry wine - which is currently aging.

So a couple of years ago, I just kinda made up this recipe:

Sweet Cherry BBQ Sauce

1 small sweet onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
2 cups cherries, pitted and halved
1/4 white vinegar
1/4 cup honey
1 tsp mustard powder
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp chipolte
salt and black pepper to taste
1 tbsp olive oil

Saute sweet onion and garlic in olive oil for 8 minutes. Add cherries and vinegar, bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer unconvered for 20 minutes. Add honey and spices and simmer another 20 minutes. Puree in a food processor or blender. It should come out nice and thick, feel free to add more spices to your liking!

*To make this recipe NSD, one would just have to use home-ground mustard seed & sub in a real hot pepper for the powdered spice, and whether to use garlic is a personal choice for some. If I made it today, I woudl personally try subbing in medjool dates for the honey I think, but then again some honey sometimes seems okay.

I was on the SCDiet in 2010 and blogged about cherry picking here: http://farmgirldiet.blogspot.com/2010/07/cherry-picking.html
The SCDiet is pretty similar to the NSD & Paleo Diets. I am now all about more fruits & veggies, nuts & seeds, and plant oils - whereas SCD is more heavy into meats & homemade yogurts. I remember feeling better on SCD, but now I actually feel like my body is happy and healing.

(I hate to say it, but I just realized this kinda breaks my number one food combining rule, but um, it's really, really, really good, so I think that makes it okay, plus ya know, there really isn't much fruit in the ratio to meat and well, everyone in a while.....)

-Andrea

@Sue- Interesting theory that I had not considered before. Do you think the gastritis could be causing my ribs to hurt or is that just the AS? I'll definitely look more into that!

@Andrea- This looks so delish, thank you for sharing! I'm going to wait a bit to try this one since there is hot peppers (capsaicin came up yellow for me) Although if I were to make it I'd probably cut the cayenne, chipotle and sub the dates for the honey. Boy do I love me some BBQ!

i had gastritis and IBS for 5 years prior to the inflammatory arthritis. my ribs didn't hurt until the inflammatory arthritis kicked in. so i think the rib pain is rib pain. my opinion.

and i know i didn't have rib pain back when it was just gastritis and IBS because the ultrasound wand going over my ribs didn't hurt back then. whereas now, i can't go through that procedure without my muscle relaxant and even then i have to ask them to be as gentle as possible.


i also had another thought: carbs make me "hungry". the more i eat of them, the more i want of them. more like a craving than a hunger, perhaps. but when i eat protein and/or fat and/or veggies, i feel full and satisfied. i have insulin resistance and so have read about how carbs, sugar in particular will do this to someone with insulin resistance. can't remember if it applies to everyone. and can not remember the reasoning behind it, but it made sense at the time.