My psoriasis cleanse and diet log

[schnauzerlover]

Hello everyone,

I have been plodding along here, sticking to my meal plan, keeping the psoriasis at bay. I have been finding ways to add sweetness to my diet, such as herbal (raspberry, mixed berry, blueberry, red zinger) iced tea, sweetened with stevia.  Having a glass to two after/during meals adds a nice sweetness to cut all the savoryness of most my meals.  Also, my yogurt flavored with lemon or key lime and sweetened with stevia is a nice treat after lunch.  Also water, with squeezed lemon and stevia, is a refreshing bit of lemonade.  Those treats help get me through the monotony of savory city.

Still doing okay with the coconut milk and grass-fed yogurt, no reaction after weeks of eating it, so I am guessing that they are okay.

Today I added some toasted sunflower seeds kernels to my salad, hopefully I will not get a reaction  I love them as well as toasted pumpkin seeds in my salads.  If the sunflower seed kernels do okay, then next I will try toasted pumpkin seeds.

As for the coconut milk, I have played with some additions to flavor it up and add benefits of fiber, healthy fats and superfoods.

Recipe one, includes 2 cups unsweetened coconut milk, 1 tbsp fresh ground flax seed (fiber/omega 3 fatty acids), 1/4 tsp alcohol free vanilla, 2 tbsp canned pumpkin (fiber),1 tsp pumpkin pie spice, 1/4 tsp stevia.  
Recipe two, includes 2 cups unsweetened coconut milk, 1 tbsp fresh ground flax seed, 1/4 tsp alcohol free vanilla, 1 tbsp shredded coconut (fiber), 1 tsp maqui berry powder/or acai berry powder (antioxidant/superfoods), 1/4 tsp stevia

I blend them up in my cheep food chopper, and they are a bit gritty, but I like them just fine.

My weight is maintaining at 108-110 lbs, and my weight lifting has bulked up my arms such that my son said that I could probably beat up any other mom out there.  LOL!  That's teenage boy think, for ya.  

Thanks for reading, and have a great day.

[artemie]

thanks for the update =] good to hear you're doing so well on the diet!

[jiml]

Good to see you are maintaining your weight and keeping Psoriasis at bay with the diet, keep it up and I hope you stay clear

[schnauzerlover]

Hello everyone.  I hope you're doing well.  A quick update.  I have been keeping the psoriasis at bay, however I did have one flare up which was connected to a bag of organic ground flax that I got from Costco.  This product must have been processed at a facility that also processes tree nuts, such as almonds, because I had a flare within 20 minutes of consuming it.  I normally get bulk organic whole flax seed from my local health food store and have had NO problems with it.  I was at the Costco and saw this bag of ground flax and thought I would give it a try.  It did not have any warnings on it saying that it was processed at a facility that also processes tree nuts so I thought it would be okay.  I soon discovered however that it must have been contaminated with tree nut particulate as I got an quick reaction to it.  The next day I went back to the organic whole flax seed that I grind myself, and I have not had any further reaction to that flax seed.  

So live and learn.  I was trying to save a few bucks and got kicked in the arse.  

On a side note, I still have yet to have any headaches, which were quite common for me prior to this diet.  Another thing I have noticed is that I no longer get canker sores in my mouth.  Now I am NOT saying cold sores, which are an entirely different thing.  So again, I am no longer getting canker sores, which is a pleasant thing for me as I would get them quite often, and they were painful.  I don't miss them one bit!  Additionally I have been a sufferer of adult acne, and that too has pleasantly subsided.  I do not have one blemish on my face.  YES!!!!

It makes sense regarding the canker sores and acne as I have read they may be connected to auto-immune issues, and the gut of course is the source of the body's immunity.  

Have a great day  

[artemie]

hooray, good news on your progress! Keep it up and thanks for the update =]

[Turnedlight]

All sounds very positive
I wonder if canker sores are what we call mouth ulcers in uk?
Not very pleasant..

[alan540]

Great news that you're keeping on top of it Amazing that one small thing can cause a flare up, for me at my worst even a small amount of milk in tea/coffee had the same effect. Keep up the hard work!

[schnauzerlover]

Hello all.  It has been a couple of months since my last post.  Since then I have found out some new information regarding lectins.  Lectins are found in many plants and are chemical defense that the plant has to deter it from being eaten.  By no coincidence they are found in many of the foods that are allergenic like: gluten, grains, nuts, peanuts and dairy products.  As for the dairy, it is probably due to the cows eating lectin containing feed, like corn and other grains and as such the lectin contamination ends up in the milk.  Grass fed dairy seems to be less of a problem for people as these cows do not eat lectins.   I have been using grass fed dairy and have no problem with flares.  

However, when looking at the foods with lectins list, I did discover that I have been eating one of them, and that is zucchini.  After reading that it made sense to me as I have been eating it while out at restaurants and thought that I had received other contamination possibly from nighshades while the chefs were cooking, as I would wake up with a small flare.  I have taken zucchini out of my diet plan and have had no more flares since. 

I also discovered that a herbal supplement that I was taking, ashwaghanda, is a nighthade and took that out of my plan about a month ago.  

I am now 5 months in to my diet, and I think that I have gotten the candida part of my problem under control.  As such, I am going to add low sugar fruits back into my diet, as they are beneficial for psoriasis.  I am going to start with blackberries, 3 times a week.  I have also added a coconut flour and flax flour bread to my diet and have had no reaction to them.  This bread is very filling, and I must say it is nice to have cinnamon toast back into my diet.  

It is hard to believe that I am 5 months in, it seems like just that long ago I started this diet.

I am back up to my pre-diet weight of 115 pounds.

Thanks for reading and have a great day.

[Caroline]

As always, very interesting to read of your progress. Certainly very positive.

[schnauzerlover]

Hello everyone,

It has been a long time since my last post, and a lot has happened.  This last couple of months I have decided to start adding some foods back into my diet to see how my psoriasis reacts.  So far so good as my psoriasis has been kept at bay.  I have successfully added bread(!), green bananas, peanuts, pistachios, grass fed cheddar cheese/cream cheese, shrimp, dark chocolate, nitrate/nitrite/hormone/antibiotic-free uncured lunchmeat, and even tequila(!).  I added them back one at a time and have tried to "limit" them once they were successfully reintroduced.  

For example,  I eat 1-2 squares of dark chocolate per day, that is 1/16 to 1/8 of a bar, to limit the amount of sugar/cars that I consume.  Likewise, I eat fruit (berries, or green bananas) every other day, and on the other days I will eat 1 bread item (low carb/sugar wraps for example) to try and aim at keeping my sugar and carb content to a minimum.  

Another example is that I will have tequila one day a week, on Saturdays and it will be 2 shots max, as alcohol can be a gut irritant.  Tequila has 0 carbs and 0 sugars, so it seems to be the best choice in alcohol. 

Has my gut healed???  I don't know, but it appears as though wheat and peanuts are not causing me problems, so maybe???  I am however not brave enough to try NIGHTSHADES, as I know for sure they are a trigger for my psoriasis.  I am still going to wait a while longer before trying those. 

I recently stopped taking L-Glutamine, am on my last bottle of slippery elm, and a while back stopped with the pantetheine, milk thistle.

I am still taking the vitamins, minerals, fish oil and probiotics.  I have however have added MK-7 which is a type of vitamin K, and magnesium to work with the vitamin D and calcium that I am taking, as they all need to be taken together and in the proper ratios to ensure calcium goes to the bones rather than to hardening the arteries.  

Besides that, I am still clear and am adding individual foods slowly back into the mix (~one per week).  It has almost been a year and the strict dieting has been worth it.  I feel I have become healthier and so far have remained clear of psoriasis.