Kickas.org Forums Treatments, Drugs and Alternatives NSD and diet-related; LSD or NSD for vegan - please advise

Hi,
I am going to have another go at diet modification to help with the AS. A few years ago I had a fail at sticking to the NSD. I was very strict with the diet, testing everything with iodine, etc. But as I am vegan (no meat, fish, eggs, dairy) and have an intolerance to soy products, I found it VERY difficult to have a well balanced diet. I didn't get much of an improvement with the paim levels after sticking to it rigidly for 4 weeks. But the reason I gave up is I had absolutley NO energy. (I am normally fagtigued with the AS but this was heaps worse - nothing in the tank at all.)
I am thinking of not being so strict, and have started a LDS (only been on it for 3 days so far.)
How many of you have had success in reducing pain on a LDS as compared to a NSD?
Any non-tofu vegan ideas would be appreciated.
Regards,
Constance

High-starch diet is the worst possible diet for us, so you're better off with low-starch than ignoring it. Even when taking daily NSAID, my high-starch holiday food indulgences used to make my inflammation shoot up late in the year. I preferred to blame feeling poorly in late fall/winter on the colder weather, but it turns out that it was entirely due to all the potatos, stuffing, yam, pies, etc etc that I was eating -- if I'm strict on diet over the holiday season I do NOT get worse.

Why don't you give a shot at Betty Rawker's low-starch/raw food diet? It has helped a number of people, and can more easily be adapted to vegan than NSD. You were probably getting rather malnourished with your vegan modification on the NSD, no wonder you didn't feel all that well.

I did the NSd for my RA for about a year and I cheated a lot because I never got my pain levels down low enough to not want to cheat, .I would feel sorry for myself because I could not eat whatever I wanted and then I would cheat. Then the starches or dairy would make nmore inflammation, horrible cycle.
Now after eating raw fruits and vegetables and being basically vegan -meat once or twice a week, I don't want to cheat becasue my pain levels are so low that I don't ever want to go back to that chronic 24/7 pain.
I did some juicing and try to juice everyday because I read that the enzymes from certain veggies like celery replentish the gut flora and is like having more enzymes to break up food and do what its suppose to do in a healthy gut.
I think if you just keep at it and don't give up you will be successful. I knew the diet would improve my health I just had to keep trying.
I watched a nice youtube video about a woman that is free of RA with raw fruits and vegeatbles etc diet, her name is "Pat Blair" if you watch her video, its only 10 minutes and she got off her meds and more importantly got free of debilitating pain of RA.Also the documentary "Fat Sick and Nearly Dead" is a good inspiration to eat your way to health.

Take care!!

Hey there!

I pretty much thrive on a raw vegan diet! I have been vegan off and on for 20 years, but when I added the "raw" element my whole world changed. It has been the most incredible way for me to fight inflammation in my body, I have long suffered from both Colitis & AS. My Colitis is like "gone" on the raw foods diet I am on, and my AS pain is way down, very minimal, and I believe I have stopped the disease from progressing.

I fell so in love with "raw" foods that I recently quit my day job and have started teaching raw foods classes all over NW Oregon, and the demand for true "comfort" food has been off the hook!

The current class I am teaching for the holidays:

Brazil Nut Cheezeball covered in Walnuts & Fresh Herbs
Savory Grain Free Stuffing & Herbed Gravy
Wilted Kale Salad w/ Shaved Fennel & Cranberries
Raw Pumpkin Pie (this pie is a life changing piece of heaven!)
Raw Caramel Candied Apples (pic below)



Anyhow, just trying to give ya an example of the comfort foods I am talking about! I have all sorts of recipes on my website & on the recipe section of the kickas forum, and if you want any other recipes, I will glady send them your way! And all of my recipes are all really low in starch, no grains, no white sugar, no dairy, no gluten, no eggs, no corn.... EVER. I think the raw pumpkin pie is as starchy as it gets.

I am so excited to hear about your next adventure and divine conquer in the battle against inflammation!

xoxo,
Andrea

And this short video by Dr. Terry Wahls has also been a huge life changer! http://youtu.be/KLjgBLwH3Wc

Thanks for your 3 posts of encouragement. I too feel that the low starch raw food route is the way to go. Since I have started on the low starch diet again, it has been a hot spring here with my inclination to summer salad mixes, etc. So I have actually been on a raw diet by accident.
I have a friend who's life has been transformed by raw food and she has been going to raw food classes and making a heap of varied yummy meals.
Andrea, I think the key to sticking with any diet is to have comfort foods, so I read with delight your post. I will check out your website and try some of the recipes.
thanks for the encouragement and I will commit 100% to this raw food vegan low starch diet. I'll keep you all posted on how I am going.
With love from Constance

andrea,

that all sounds so yummy!

and I'm a big fan of Terry Wahls as well.

Hi everyone,
this is an update after 2 weeks on a low starch plant based raw food diet. Good news. The pain levels have reduced significantly. Unlike previous flares, this one has affected my hands for the first time and made daily chores and typing extremely difficult. Now the pain is now only 4 in my hands which means that I am able to turn taps on now, etc. Pain in my spine has also reduced.
Best of all, for the first time on ANY diet, I no longer have desperate chocolate cravings and I am noticing that my energy is starting to be more constant throughout the day. Although it is still low, I don't have deeep troughs where it seems like too much effort to do anything.
Thanks Andrea for the recipes on the Betty Rawker site. They are great. I have tried a few and loved them.
Thanks again for all your support. I hope to go from strength to strength.
Love from Constance