So after my food sensitivities test results and cutting things that were in the yellow/red for me, I've noticed my pain going from a 3-4 to now a 1-2 so yay!

On another note......I'm starving as of late since I've had to cut my two key fats, avocado(mildly reactive food) and nuts(due to hsv). I know fat is such an important part of this diet and typically I'd eat at least 1 avocado daily in addition to drenching my salads in EVOO and taking a few tablespoons here and there of coconut oil during the day. Now with no nuts and no avocado what other fats can I add? I'm only eating leaner cuts of meat like turkey/fish too due to the food sensitivities ramp up plan. I'll be adding back beef and chicken in couple weeks and pork is out for good (very reactive) but currently I'm like so hungry I could eat the house!

Aside from eating like 10 bowls of coconut oil a day, how else can I curb the hunger and get more fat?? I'm working out daily usually about 30 mins cardio so nothing too intense. Weight has been holding constant at 163 down from 185 when I started.

I talked about this in another thread, but I'm still having moments of extreme hunger too after I eat something. Last night I had a turkey burger w mustard, 1 large beet, huge shredded cabbage salad drenched in EVOO, and sea salt. Was pretty full. Then about 30 mins after dinner I ate a handful of raw cacao nibs and boom! 5 mins after eating that I was starving again! This also happened a few weeks ago after trying one of those coconut flour mug muffins as a snack mid afternoon. Ate that and was starving the rest of the afternoon right after.

Any insight into more fats to add to curtail hunger and also insight into the random hunger bursts is greatly appreciated.

Jason

fiber can be filling too

fatty fishes like salmon, tuna, swordfish

otherwise, for me its mostly EVOO and nuts, but you've mentioned them.

can you eat chocolate....chocolate is the number one culprit when the weight creeps up and i have to go on a no chocolate diet to lose the weight.

I eat tons of fish that you have mentioned but am still hungry due to having to cut the avocado's and nuts.

Chocolate is out too as I'm doing no sugar and chocolate is also one of the bad foods for my HSV as it's high in arginine content.

Any other suggestions?

How about cocoa butter, sweetened with pure stevia and flavored with oil-based flavorings (it's about impossible to get water-based stuff to mix into cocoa butter, unless there is also an emulsifier like lecithin)

what about high fiber veggies?

i find soups pretty filling as well.

i know how hard it is. i have the same problem about being hungry too much. for different reasons than you, but know how hard it is.

@SJLC- Good suggestion on the cocoa butter. I'll give that a shot....if anything I'll have silky smooth shiny skin!

@Sue- I eat tons of high fiber veggies already. My diet is pretty much lean meats (fish, turkey, chicken) and leaves. Do lots of cauliflower lately too.

thanks guys.

if you do cauliflower, i make a simple cauliflower soup:

head of cauliflower (cut up), saute'd onions in EVOO, herbs, in chicken broth. cooked for 30 minutes, then pure'd. soups are much more filling to me than a lot of other foods.

another soup, since you mentioned "leaves": escarole soup (aka italian wedding soup): onion saute'd in EVOO, escarole, meatballs (we usually make turkey meatballs, sometimes chicken, containing romano cheese). we just don't add the pasta to it. very filling with just the greens and meatballs.

other veggies besides "leaves". i don't find "leaves" very filling. however, love veggie stir fry. lately its been brocoli and shitake mushrooms with the seasonings.

if you can't have nuts, can you have flaxseed or other seeds?

if you can do dairy, yogurt maybe? i had to eliminate that from my diet.
yogurt with fruit?

i used to find cheese filling before i had to give it up (casein). i'd only eat 1-2 oz at a time and be satisfied. would eat it with an apple. i may still be able to do goat cheese. i need to have further testing, as i don't respond immediately.

coconut milk "ice cream"?

as for the lean meats:

to get more variety, been eating the fish, turkey, chicken in new ways. i especially like chicken sausage and our grocery store makes a seafood sausage that is primarily salmon plus a little shrimp for sweetness. both are very natural, very few ingredients.


just trying to think what i find most filling.........

sugar does that to me. maybe sugar does that to you as well. both of those items have at least some sugar in them, don't they? i'm less familiar with the cacao nibs.

see if its the sugar that turns on the hunger. for me, sugar does it first and foremost. complex carbs can do it to, but to a lesser extent.

i've even gotten to a point of rarely having sugar (sugar, honey, etc) in my tea.

Hey Sue-

Thanks for the suggestions, those all sound really good. I do love soup so I'll give them a shot for sure. Not doing dairy either right now since cow's milk came back as pretty reactive for me. For nuts, flax is probably okay, but not for a couple more weeks as I'm working through my food sensitivities test.

Unfortunately I used to eat a TON of broccoli, but it too came back as pretty reactive for me . I know I know right??

Regarding the sugar/hunger thing, I think there might be some connection, but the hunger reaction is inconsistent. The one example with the beets was a bad example, cause I had the same thing the night before (lots of beets) and no reaction. The cacao nibs are just raw cacao, no sugar at all. The mug muffin had zero sugar either as it was just coconut flour, egg, baking soda, cream of tartar, and stevia. I'm wondering if there is a mind map of chocolate/sugar for me since I used to eat so much of it. Even though cacao is non reactive for me, my mind associates it with "sugar" or sweetness and thus eating the nibs plainly triggered the reaction as my body was wanting the sugar that normally comes with it. Same with the mug muffin. No sugar, but it did contain stevia which might set off some sort of switch in my body that is looking for the sugar.

How's this for a kink......this morning I had one of my smoothies which is basically a tiny bit of frozen strawberries(3 pieces), cabbage, water, coconut oil, cacao nibs and guess what....no hunger at all after eating this. I won't even be hungry til like 2 and I had this at 8am!

LOL, i just realized you're the same person i'm having the cholesterol conversation with in the other thread.

one last thought:

when my gastritis was new and at its worst, i kept a food / symptom diary.

i think that's good general advice. even if our dietary restrictions are different, the food / symptom diary is a good tool for all.

sorry to hear you have so many food sensitivities. though you sound like you're being very proactive about the whole thing

i was lucky, only casein / dairy showed up as very high and eggs were low/moderate. everything else came out just fine. too bad about the eggs, as they are cheap good protein and fat. but really only dairy and eggs, i certainly can't complain.

and don't miss most of the starches either. the fruit / vegetable world is a fascinating place

and now that i'm dairy free, feeling good. though i could just be between flares. this is always the best time of the year for me. time will tell if kicking the dairy is making as big of an impact as i think it may be. and lucky that there are a lot of dairy substitutes out there. and since i'm LSD anyway and shouldn't be eating baked goods, not really too hard to avoid dairy.