I am not a physician or scientist. My experiences may not be applicable to anyone else.
bmengel wrote:I am also going to cut out all tea and lower my salt - though I don't use much salt I will try to bring it further down.
If my memory still serves me, the only drink allowed on the elimination diet is water; and salt is the only flavoring allowed on the elimination diet. If you are also cutting down on salt, be sure to examine the salt content of any prepared foods, especially Asian ones. You probably won't be eating any prepared foods on the elimination diet.
Suggestion: The elim diet is very tough for most people. Don't worry about cutting down on salt until after you have tried the ED for a couple of weeks or more. Salt makes it acceptable. If the ED doesn't help you by reducing your arthritis symptoms, then try cutting out salt
completely. That is the true way to test things. It won't be pleasant, but you will have more confidence in the test results.
Dr. McDougall does not list any beans on this diet. Do you think I can eat lentils and adzuki beans?
Doublecheck the list and follow it exactly. My memory tells me that the only bean or pea allowed is green beans. Eat no others. Nearly all beans are acid-producing, and thus, I think, suspects as causes for -itis problems.
By the way, you do
not need to eat beans or peas to get plenty of protein. You can get all the protein you need from a wide variety of fruit, vegetables, and rice (for example).
Also, do you think quiona is alright?
Do you mean the grain,
quinoa? If so, the answer is, as far as I can remember,
no, you shouldn't eat any grain except rice on the ED. But doublecheck the list yourself.
Personally, based on my experience, I would drop the brown rice from the elimination diet, and either substitute white rice or eat no rice at all.
My experience, based only on my particular needs (which may not apply to anyone else) is that any food which is acid-producing is a possible source of -itis problems. However, of all the grains, white rice is the least acid-producing. I describe my personal experiences here:
www.aristotleadventure.com/anti-itis and that site includes a link to a table of foods based on Potential Renal Acid Load.
BTW- My diet is low fat.
That is good. Many vegans have terrible diets. Is your diet also low protein? Too much protein might be contributing to arthritis problems.
