Anti-Inflammation Diet

[Happyflowerlady]

I try to eat more raw foods on my diet, and to cut out the ones that seem to cause a flare-up in the pain. Two that work really well for me are cherries and raw pineapple. I also think that taking either coconut oil, or eating the fresh coconut seem to help me a lot with their anti-inflammatory properties.
I don't have much freezer space either, just a plain older refrigerator, with the crosstop freezer. What I do is try to shop for fresh foods, and then eat them while they are still fresh. I have found that during the week, some stores put their produce on clearance, so they can restock before the weekend shopper rush, and I try to shop midweek and look for sales, or at least, the senior discounts on my groceries.
I think pineapple is my first go-to food for a natural inflammatory , and when I am really stove up, that is all I eat until I start feeling better, and can get around without using my crutches.
I found a great video that tells about some of the health benefits of pineapples, as well as how to pick a ripe one, and an easy way to slice it up to get all the health benefits from it.

 

[SulaBlue]

Interesting video. I have to limit my intake of pineapple due to it's glycemic effects (Blood sugar up through the roof, no matter what she says about "regulation of blood sugar") but if I'm going to have it, fresh is the way to go. Unfortunately, what she doesn't mention, is while that core may be healthy, it tastes really, REALLY nasty. I have to admit, I have NEVER seen anyone cut a pineapple quite like this. At first I thought she was bonkers, but when I realized what she was doing as far as making it pretty, the extra work made more sense.

I take the top and bottom off. My understanding is that to get it to grow you need a bit of the pulp, but either way it's going to be about 2+ years before you get a pineapple, so I don't bother saving it . I stand it up on its end and cut the skin off by shaving down the sides as close to the skin as I can then cut it in four, remove the core, then cut it into chunks. I found this to be WAY quicker, and less messy than trying to cut it into wedges THEN skinning it because you end up with bits of the skin and eyes all over the place that then end up sticking to the part you actually want to eat.

 

[SulaBlue]

So it's been almost a month now. I've recently added a turmeric supplement to my diet as well within the last week.

I honesty can't tel if the diet and supplement are doing a whole lot as I started them shortly after I started taking gabapentin.

I do know that I've lost about 4 pounds this month. I've been doing a little more, and I'm in slightly less pain, but on the other side I'm more frequently just utterly exhausted and end up face-down in my dinner plate almost. I tried giving up sodas but haven't -quite- managed it, though I do drink more sparkling water and less soda. I think I do notice it on the days where I'm just too exhausted to even manage to make dinner and we order out, but with fibro it's just so hard to untangle things.

 

[jennylazzaro]

Hi everyone,
I try to make sure daily that we are eating right because our bodies react to what we eat. There is so much information out there, just about this alone and I will be doing lots more research as I continue down this road. I was diagnosed three years ago, but I am just now, within the last year and a half understanding how much our diet affects what how our bodies feel. We can help our own inflammation and decrease our pain, eating natural. I am into muffins right now in the morning! Bran, flax seed, wheat germ, and whole wheat mixed with all types of berries! - That fight inflammation!

 

[MassageGnome]

Hi, Can you be more specific about what your diet is? There are many anti-inflammatory diets like FodMaps, IBS, Fibromyalgia, Are you doing a gluten and dairy free? I have found for me that not eating dairy and wheat products or white potatoes and green peppers are all it takes to control the dietary inflammation. It is different for everyone but overall I would say don't go into something so fast. You will get discouraged in like a day or 2 and start eating out again. For us, we got rice noodles and started with that. Get rid of all wheat pasta in your diet but start by rotating them in and out one day in then the next out. You will allow your tastes to gradually change over. Now we actually prefer the taste of the rice pasta over the goopy wheat pasta. Does this help? With Fibro it is important to eat fresh, nutrient rich foods. I have found spinach, kale and stuff like that to be essentials. I have really changed the way I view meal times now. Let me know if I can help you or if I didn't actually answer your question.

 

[kat744]

I also have not yet completely tried the diet, but I have minimized my red meat intake to at least twice a week. Its not easy to let go of your favorite foods. It so happens the foods you like are the foods to let go.

 

[SulaBlue]

Oof. I kind of fell off the face of the earth there. Not much time for being online lately.

I've cut out, as much as possible, anything pre-packaged foods. I am not going gluten free but I do limit my intake of breads, baked goods, chips, etc. to no more than 1 serving, most days. I do eat whole grains like bulgur wheat, pearled barley, pearled barley and quinoa.

Most of my produce comes from my CSA (Community Shared Agriculture) allotment. I'm making NO attempt at avoiding nightshades, and in fact eat quite a lot of tomatoes. We've also been getting collard greens, swiss chard, kale, onions, cucumbers, zucchini, yellow squash, spaghetti squash, pattypan squash, butternut squash and acorn squash quite frequently. For awhile we were getting strawberries and/or blackberries every week but now we're moving into melons as the summer progresses and it's too hot for berries to be grown locally.

Almost all of the meat we eat is from local, pasture-raised, grass-fed beef, pork, goat and lamb along with pastured/free-range chicken eggs. I just found out that Trader Joe's carries Organic/Free-Range chicken raised on organic/non-GMO vegetarian feed for around $3 a pound or so, so we may be adding chicken back in slightly more often. We've also began eating fish more often, usually at least once a week, and try to stay to wild caught cold-water fish that are rich in Omega-3 fatty acids.

About one dish a week includes tofu, though as I avoid most packaged foods I don't get soy from other sources.

I have not omitted dairy but have gone, as much a possible, to raw-milk dairy. I buy a gallon of raw milk and it takes me about 2 weeks to go through it. I also purchase raw milk cheeses from Trader Joe's and whole foods.

I've started cooking with more anti-inflammatory spices such as turmeric, cayenne pepper, cinnamon, ginger and garlic. Indian, Ethiopian and Moroccan dishes have been making frequent appearances.

I'm doing my best to avoid Sucralose, aspartame, and other artificial sweeteners. It's hard, as I'm also diabetic, but I'm actually learning to bake with stevia. We purchased a SodaStream and I have severely curtailed my intake of artificially flavored/colored/sweetened sodas. Instead I am using the SodaStream to carbonate water and then flavoring it with liquid, flavored stevia drops made by SweetLeaf.