The down-side to being on a low chemical diet is that a few important foods may not be as easy to get or be in short supply. The up-side is that you eat your own favourite shorter-than-average list of foods. Changes may mean you test some low risk useful foods you may not have been eating, just because they are available. I will include some easy recipes you may like.
Make a check-list for groceries. Here we will consider main energy and protein needs.
What is your list of staple foods as your main energy source? You can probably tolerate rice, potatoes, pasta (do you need gluten-free?), and tolerated bread. Do write a separate list for foods you may only be able to get when you go to a big shopping centre, such as the low FODMAPs bread or the pure sour dough bread. This might be a time you test wheat as plain water-cracker bits over days. If you do not have eczema you can enjoy creamy oatmeal porridge with tolerated milk. Look in your cupboards for foods you can use up such as sago (tapioca). Remember to soak it overnight so it cooks more quickly. Add some to thin soups, or cook sago plum pudding (recipe here). Other foods to test include different varieties of sweet potato.
Your shopping list also needs to list your favourite proteins. Have you checked you can obtain fresh meats, chicken and fish, just enough so you don’t have to hold them in the freezer for more than a month. And if you have not tested them yet, do test canned fish. At present the supply is low so you know fish is not aged by being held long in the shop! As well remember to use nuts (except almonds!), and peanut paste is a useful protein. You could even treat yourself to pure cashew paste – a wonderful taste when you are not buying luxury foods you would be having if you were not on a low chemical diet, such as chocolate or wine.
Use plain canned beans as a useful protein to have supplies of. You can make tasty potato, pumpkin and lentil patties using 3 cups of cooked mashed potato with two cups cooked mashed pumpkin and one 400gm can drained lentils. Sprinkle tolerated flour on top of the mixture and on your hands to take spoonfulls out and pat all over before placing in a hot frypan to fry off on both sides. Use a mixture of oil and butter (where tolerated) to minimise overheating the great taste of butter, but not browning too much. You can have your oven on to keep some hot while cooking others.
Use this time to carefully challenge low risk foods such as canned two-fruits or guava nectar. You can check out Tolerating Troublesome Foods for tricks for testing so you maximise the likelihood of tolerance. It has several useful recipes for important foods on this diet. Remember it is available on AmazonKindle too https://www.amazon.com.au/Tolerating-Troublesome-Foods-Investigating-intolerance-ebook/dp/B00I7DS87O
Everyone is different in what they tolerate. Try foods you like and you may surprise yourself! I will provide further hints on managing at this time in another post.
Thanks, Joan! I’ll check out the recommendation.
Re:bread, I forgot about FODMAPs…
Failsafe resistant starches:
beans and lentils
cooked and cooled rice or pasta: rice salad, pasta salad, fried rice
cooked and cooled white potatoes: potato salad, baked potatoes
overnight oats (or overnight buckwheat, millet etc.)
barley, rye
cashews
glass noodles
(and green bananas, which should be low even though they’re not on the RPAH lists).
As with everything, to be started slow and built up. It’s best to include them at every meal. Take a look at the scientific literature on resistant starch and different sensitivity symptoms.
Dear Leen, You will really enjoy all the detail in Your Diet for Your IBS. I will note that there does not seem to be an effect on eczema related to resistant starch. They are reported to help with gut flora but we need to apply info on what is good for the general gut with what works for food sensitive people, such as fermented foods which often cause strong bad reactions in food sensitive people. There is much we do not know yet. You can read my talk on the Known Knowns Known Unknowns Ockham’s razor
http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/ockhamsrazor/food-sensitivity-and-the-known-unknowns/9185042
Do continue this conversation in a few months when you have done more challenging with whatever you feel you want to. Joan
Thanks for the tips! Why no oatmeal for eczema? It certainly works in creams :).
Oatmeal has been reported as aggravating eczema since I was a baby with over 70 years ago! Most wholemeal grains, including wheat and rye but except rice, are reported to aggravate eczema. I remember a Mum who was careful who accidentally bought shredded wheatmeal biscuits and her infant’s eczema came back. The effect maybe related to change in the gut [rather than soothing changes on the skin surface] as wholemeal grain food also cause looseness in those inclined to have loose bowel motions. So it is more important that fibre from allowed vegetables and fruit are eaten every day. As with everything individuals very. Each person should challenge with foods they like and see what is tolerated. Joan
Interesting, thanks for your reaction! We have been suffering from eczema that’s slowly healing thanks to (gut-friendly and Failsafe) resistant starch. We’ll see if leaving out wholemeal makes a difference. One of us suffers from constipation, though. We both (used to) have IBS.
So those reacting to bread could in fact be reacting to:
– wholemeal grains,
– sourdough (amines),
– preservatives,
– seeds, fruits vinegar or other added ingredients,
– or gluten.
Thanks for continuing the discussion Leen. Take care not to mix up recommendations for what is good for the gut in the general population and what is good for food-sensitive people. You can still test foods, one per week and see what you get away with. Remember that having the right diet may not show in eczema until after a month when the new skin comes to the surface. But having the wrong food can show by 7 days with itchiness, or redness. Thanks for the reminders re bread. Note that tolerance of amines differs in different people so various amine-containing foods can be tested, and the amount of vinegar in bread is small, not not often reported to cause symptoms. Re constipation remember that grain fibre increases the volume of bowel motions. It does not increase the frequency. In my new book Your Diet for Your IBS I wrote with my wonderful colleague Ashleigh there is information written especially for those with constipation. It also has much on doing challenges to personalise your diet. See https://foodintolerancepro.com/buy-food-sensitivity-products/ All the best with your diet detective work! Joan