Folks have asked me about the autoimmune Paleo protocol that I've been following, with fairly good success so far. So I thought I'd give a brief description:
This diet focuses mainly on meats and fishes (grass-fed and wild-caught, if possible), lots of vegetables, some fruit, and fats/oils (no vegetable oils - mostly animals fats, coconut oil, avocado oil, olive oil, etc).
This is a list of foods to avoid, at least initially:
All grains, including quinoa
Legumes/beans
Dairy products
Nuts and seeds
All nightshade family plants - tomato, potato, peppers, eggplants, chili powder, paprika, curry, etc
Eggs
This diet avoids most of the common foods that people can be sensitive to. Once your symptoms significantly improve, you can start testing the foods (one at a time) to see which ones are giving you problems and which ones are OK for you to eat. Many folks also have to test themselves with other foods not on this list, as everyone has different food sensitivities.
This protocol can be done as a NSD or LSD, or you can eat more starch if you choose (such as sweet potato, bananas, winter squash, etc). I've had to add more carbs/starch to this protocol than many people, as I have major adrenal issues and going near a ketogenic state can be life-threatening for me.
Some people, such as Andrea (bettyrawker) have found that doing a juice fast for 1-2 weeks can quickly get them to a pain-free state. From there, it is much easier to determine which foods can aggravate your pain.
One great online resource about using the autoimmune protocol can be found at this website:
http://www.thepaleomom.com/autoimmunitySarah is using this diet to help heal her form of psoriasis. I've found her blog posts very helpful.
Another person with useful information on identifying your own food sensitivities for arthritis is the author of "Conquering Arthritis", Barbara Allan.
My own pain levels dropped quite a bit after starting the protocol on July 1st. I tested 1/2 egg one morning early last month, and my pain shot up badly before sunset, and my eye inflammation also flared up that same night. Took a week to improve again. Since then, I've tested various nuts, with no signs of problems with them.
But I've been dealing with a respiratory infection for weeks now, and I'm not testing anything else yet until I get better. But my pain has increased again this week, and I think it's from a new supplement my Functional Medicine doctor prescribed - it has soy lecithin in it, and I suspect that's the culprit.
Anyway, even on the full protocol, I still have some residual pain and inflammation - just not enough to need any pain meds, as long as I don't overdo my activities. So I think I need to expand my search for more food sensitivities. I plan to conduct a juice fast myself, supervised by my new doctor, in the hopes to reach a pain-free baseline before I test more foods. I have to be extremely careful because of my life-threatening adrenal problem.
Anyway, this protocol is pretty close to the NSD/LSD, and some people have good success combining them. Hope this information helps. Let me know if you have any questions.
