New Eating Plan!!!!!

As some of you may know, LS is thought to be an auto-immune disease. Because of this, I am going to try an auto-immune diet for thirty days to see if I feel any better, and have less itching. I'm starting today!!!!!

In the last six weeks I've had two sinus infections, bronchitis, a huge cold sore outbreak and staph infection.  Because of this, I have been on antibiotics for almost a month-not good.

During the thirty day diet, I will log what foods made my mouth itch or seemed to cause more itching in direct relation to the LS. I already know I have some food allergies from when I was tested as a teen, but can't remember all of them. The most obvious are melons, raw peas and bananas. When I eat these, my mouth and throat itches like crazy-but I still eat them...probably not the best thing to do when your body is sending out signals. Doh.

While this diet will not cure my LS, it may lessen the symptoms, which sounds good to me! After much research, there seems to be many diets, opinions and so forth. My conclusion is, that every diet should be tailored for each individual and obviously mine will change once I get tested for food allergies. With that said, here is my 30 day game plan that I will strictly follow:

Good Foods

• Red Meat-A high-protein diet boosts healthy antioxidant levels, while low-protein diets induce oxidative stress.
• Meat, Fish & Fowl-beef, lamb, pork, fish, seafood, fowl, and wild game
• Eggs
• Coconut Oil
• Vegetables-Well-done, boiled, or steamed asparagus, eggplant, green or yellow string beans, red tomatoes, spinach, celery, peppers, or green or yellow zucchini squash. Raw vegetables are sometimes not tolerated by the digestive system because of the fiber. Cooking reduces the fiber content. I have noticed that some vegetables give me an adverse reaction such as cramps, pains, or intestinal gas (broccoli, cauliflower and brussel sprouts I am talking about you!), so I will be avoiding them.
• Coffee & Tea-Coffee is fine, but not decaf. Toxic chemicals are used to remove the caffeine. Peppermint tea is recommended.
• Nuts & Seeds-Only hazelnuts, macadamia nuts, and pine nuts because they have the lowest amount of omega-6 fats.

Forbidden Foods :(  LOL!

• Yeast, vinegar, mushrooms, cheese, and fermented products because candida yeast infections can be difficult to detect but may be present and these foods will not help!
• Sugar, sweets and honey (you can't hear me, but I am crying-Ha!)
• Alcohol
• Processed Meat
• Fruit & Fruit Juices-Fruit promotes the growth of pathogenic intestinal bacteria, candida yeast, and fungi....or so my research tells me. Please correct me if I am wrong!
• Starchy Vegetables-potatoes, yams, turnips, beets, radishes, carrots, pumpkin and winter squash.
• Trans Fats
• Omega-6 Fatty Acids-polyunsaturated vegetable, seed, or grain oils made from corn, soybean, canola, safflower, sunflower, cottonseed, almond, apricot, grapeseed, peanut, poppyseed, rice bran, sesame, teaseed, tomato seed, walnut, and wheat germ.
• Milk
• Processed Foods
• Wheat or other grains
• Carbohydrates
• MSG
• Anything labeled "Low-Fat"
• Fast Food-Obviously!!!!

 Wow! I don't know about you, but the forbidden list has a ton of stuff I am accustomed to eating. Who knows, I may even lose some weight while on this diet :) I will keep you posted with a weekly update. Please let me know if you have any comments on anything I listed above. I would love to hear your opinions, what research you have done, foods you avoid and so forth.

Hope you all have a great week! Tomorrow starts the last week in my online teacher training! Woo Hoo! ~S