Diary of putting my family on the RAPH diet

[tigerlilly905]

I honestly can't seem to find the time to type all this stuff out so here's a quick scan.  Hopefully you can read it alright. If I'm not supposed to post scans here, please feel free to delete.

It's a section from "Gut and Psychology Syndrome" By Dr. Natasha Campbell McBride : http://www.amazon.com/Psychology-Syndrome-D-D-D-H-D-Schizophrenia/dp/0954852028/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1315273259&sr=8-2  I can't say enough how much this book has helped our family. My mom is reading it as we speak, and having an "ah-ha" moment (as Oprah would say.. )

You really have to read the whole book to get the entire concept, but here's her thoughts on Salicylates (and Phenols):

HtH

[EloysH]

thanks for the scans of the pages will take a look....

Kim, you can buy meat from the butcher as long as it was lsughtered less than 2 weeks ago (whihc most are)  Then once the meat is cut off the carcass it must be bought same day and either eaten or frozen in your freezer.  Most butchers will not sell meat that they cut the day before but some do, so it always pays to ask.


Supermarket meat is usually not as fresh and you can't ask these qwuestions, that is why I didn;t buy me meat from the supermarkets.

Mkae sure you ask for preservatve free mince.  Sausages are definantly out unless your butcher makes them gluten free and preservative free. Even then they will still use onions and spices.  So I was able to make my own sausages with failsafe ingredients and then take to the butcher and ask them to make into sausages, - they charged a bit of money for doing that though.


Very fresh white fish is fine too.  You must cook it same day or freeze. No canned fish yet. it is hig in amines. No cooked prawns, as they have chemicals in them and fresh are high in amines.  you can have fresh squid and oysters, they are low in amines too.
Salmon is moderate amine, so that must be left for later.

[EloysH]

Rebecca, interesting about the neutralisation technique mentioned - the drops of phenol under the tongue. I am interested to searhc out a practicitioner that would do that. I have already done a course of NAET for Kai and it did not resolve his sensitivities al though I think have helped.

 Kai is also on a wide range of supplements specifically aimed kick start the detoxification processes in the chain of reactions that need to occur. My naturopath is a "genious" in this area I pretty sure.  But he has been on these for 10 months or so... but before he was not able to eat any salicylates, now he can eat quite a bit, but not enough for my liking.

We just sent off his stool sample today to get analysed by a biomed lab... it will cost an arm and a leg, but will show alot about the state of his gut and good/bad bacteria balance.  I can't wait for the results - 4 weeks away though.

I will read that book in the next few months too - thanks Rebecca. Right now I can't handle the idea of grain free, really I can't.  I am clinging to the gluten free grains I am.  I would not know what to feed kai for breakfast, he currently rotates between gluten free french toast, gluten and dairy free pancakes, omelete, buckwehat prridge with rice milk and mashed bananna, gluten and dairy free zucchini and bokchoy waffles, and a dairy free smoothy with egg yolk and flaxseed oil.  He always has pear for breakfast too. You can see we rely  heavily on grains to get some goodness into him!

 I will go there if the other things we are doing don't help though.  I really don't know what you could feed the kids being grain free 

[hrk]

I actually paid an arm and a leg for just a package of xanthum gum. Which we haven't used much off. A little goes a LONG way.
We do rice noodles with the meat sauce recipe that is in the allergy book. It is actually pretty good and we have it often. I'll give you that recipe if you like and it's super easy. Do you have any citric acid?

I have xanthan gum, too, from our short lived wheat free run.  Lately, I have tried to avoid xanthan gum, as it is a corn derived or can be an issue for those very sensitive/allergic to corn.  My "soap lady" told me a story about someone's son that was having skin issues, and she finally realized that xanthan gum was corn derived.  They got rid of it, and his skin has been clear.  Xanthan gum is in a lot of beauty products, too.  Just something for others to keep in the back of their minds, if you have anyone sensitive/allergic to corn.  And I have an aunt who is very sensitive to corn.

I really dislike rice noodles.  :-(  Any tricks for using them?  I have bought the TJ ones, and they all stick together (even if I use a bit of oil).  I end up wasting food when I use them.  I usually do a bag of noodles at a time and use them over the week for different things to save time.  They are good for less than 15 minutes after you make them!  Ok that may be a slight exageration, but not by much.  :-(  I think going wheat free could be as difficult as going dairy free.  I wish there was an easy fix for the bread texture that Lyle preferrs.  H can be that way, too.  He likes the finer texture.  But he will eat it if he is hungry enough.

H has dropped his milk intake by quite a bit on his own.  Part of it is that I did find that pitcher for him to pour, so it is a new big boy thing to do.  I think I will try to measure out 20 oz to give it a go.  What is the recommended daily amt?  Or is that the daily amt for dairy including yogurt/cheese/, etc?

I do have citric acid.  We use it for canning; the extention office recommends using it to make your tomatoes safer when you can your own.

  

[hrk]

I am currently reading "Your Skin, Younger" as it is written by two dermatologists and an ND.  It is incredibly interesting.  It also has a chapter on the gut and skin connection.  Of course it talks about the leaky gut syndrome.  Super interesting read about the good vs bad intestinal bacteria and how it is critical to your skin.  I am still working on H's skin, and it is hard to come by a book that has a dermatologist's credentials but is also from a more ND angle.  

I don't know that I want to go salicylate free again, though, to get to baseline.  We did that for a year without improving the skin; I mean we really were on the very low to nonexistent end for a long time before we tried every low/moderate fruit/veg he would eat. We have reduced the histamines that seem to trigger a response (particularly grapes/strawberries).  And to be completely histamine free, well then I can't do yogurt/fish/fermented foods.  

I am leaning towards pumping up those good bacteria (and I can't really do that with the low sals, as I need the fiber for the good bacteria).  I agree with you Eloys.  It seems like conflicting approaches to reduce the amts of good foods to accomodate the food intollerance or use the foods (despite the sensitivity) to build up the gi.  

And an interesting side note for anyone is using splenda, it also reduces good gut bacteria (we don't use it).  And it also leaves environmental effects, as water treatment plants can do little to remove sucralose.  I didn't realize the part about the environment.  Lots of soft drinks still use it, I think.  

[sherry lynn]

Kim - we are actually pretty close to each other. I leave about 30 minutes east of Athens, GA.
The Amines have been the hardest to abide by. And we just do the best we can. I recently heard of a butcher about 45 minutes from here, but I haven't looked into that yet. What we did was buy some grass fed hormone free beef from a local farm. It's not fresh, but it is frozen right after they process it. So I think that's the safest we've come up with. Sometimes we are able to get a fresh chicken from a local farm, and sometimes not.
Luckily, it doesn't seem that any of us a really big amines responders.

Jean, thanks for all that good info. I didn't know bout the environment angle about sucralose but that's another reason to just stay away from it.

Elo - good luck on finding out more clues for Kai.

[kim&savannah]

Jean, with the rice noodles, I've found the same problems.  To reheat them as leftovers, I actually cover them with water in the bowl and warm them up that way--they come out great, kind of like recooking them, but its faster than starting from scratch.

Sherry lynn, that's funny that we're so close.  We have some good friends who just moved to Watkinsville, so we might make it down to your neck of the woods soon, whenever Henry decides to learn to sleep in the car.  I think our beef is also frozen quickly after processing, but couldn't find out on their website--I need to call the farm.  I just worry that if it is amines he has a problem with (no reason in particular to suspect that, just no idea what is bothering his gut), then I'll never figure it out this way.  I can get chicken day after slaughter--it just costs a lot more than I'm used to spending for chicken, even organic chicken.  But it could be a treat a couple times a month.  I wish money was no issue.

I'm going to hold out for another week or so, but then I think I'll be changing my diet a little to try to target some different things, I just don't quite no which way to go.  But I can't keep eating so little variety for much longer.  I just am unsure what the likely culprit is--I really thought it would be something like gluten, eggs, corn, chocolate--a whole food, but I think from what I've read, those things clear out sooner than the chemicals, so I should probably be seeing results by now (its been 12 days).  I did just start both of us on probiotics (took awhile to get to the health food store), so we'll see if that will maybe help speed the changes along.  We had a lot of mucous yesterday. . .

[tigerlilly905]

Great article on Sucralose! I hadn't heard of the environmental impact as well...I agree w/ Sherry Lynn, all the more reason to stay far away from it! 

I did just start both of us on probiotics (took awhile to get to the health food store), so we'll see if that will maybe help speed the changes along.  We had a lot of mucous yesterday. . .

What probiotics are you using? Double check the ingredients for "extras", like FOS ect... you want to try and get something as pure and natural as you can. A lot of probiotics unfortunately have undesierable fillers which can cause tummy troubles..  

Hang in there Kim.. it does take time for the intestines to heal and for the mucous to subside. We still aren't getting 100% perfect poops here, but we're getting there slowly. 

Ah, can I just say again how much I'm loving Nourishing traditions!!! I'm still reading through it, but man! Soooo good!! Especially from a natural healing standpoint! wow! I just read more about the healing powers of homemade bone broth. It's like a miracle elixir

[EloysH]

Rebecca, Nourishing traditions was my first book on nutrition and cooking from a wholefoods perspective, and it opened my eyes to another world.  Pretty amazing dtuff isn't it?  That booked prompted me to soak our grains and make organic chicken stock once a week, we cook all Kais grains in it, stock pots and soups and yse it sparing for ouselves where possible!  I am convinced he is also getting good calcium from it too.

Interesting about the skin stuff Jean 

[kim&savannah]

We got a pretty much mucous free poop today!!!!  We'll see if it sticks, but I'm feeling hopeful.  Good timing--we hit 14 days tomorrow and I was getting discouraged.  And I made brussel sprouts tonight--probably the most flavorful food I've had since starting--they tasted so good!

[EloysH]

That is awesome Kim, may the gut healing begin 

[sherry lynn]

Kim - you will almost pass my house on the way to Watkinsville, I believe. We live very close to 85, which is what I think you would take to get to Watkinsville. Great news about the mucus free poos.

I really need to get a hold of the nurturing traditions book.

[kim&savannah]

This a.m.'s poop was full of mucous   But it can go back and forth as it clears out, right?  I just keep hoping we're there whenever it looks a little better.

So, if I alter the diet to the more moderate level instead of being so strict, do you think the meat I'm eating (about one serving of chicken a day) is okay?  Sherry lynn, you went ahead and ate meat even if it wasn't as fresh as the guidelines, right?  How long did it take for you to get to baseline?  (And yes, I think we take 85 south to get there--one of these days. . .)

[tigerlilly905]

Sherry Lynn - http://www.amazon.com/Nourishing-Traditions-Challenges-Politically-Dictocrats/dp/0967089735/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1315530922&sr=8-1  AND only $15!!

Sorry to hear the poops are up and down Kim. It does take a long time for the gut to heal. We still aren't completely there yet either.

I really don't know what you could feed the kids being grain free

I forgot to answer this. It really isn't so bad once you get used to it. I could be lucky though, bc Ds1 is still young enough that we only had to go through about 2 days of him asking for his toast before he forgot about it  There's "bread" substitute recipies that are completely grain free (although, high in sals) Dh and I eat one that is basically 3 eggs, 2 cups almond or coconut flour and 1/4 cup of fat (ghee, olive oil, coconut oil ect.) I mean, it's not real bread, but it does the trick. For Ds1 though, breakfast is usually a smoothie made w/ avocado,blue berries, goat yogurt, kefir, soft boiled egg yolk & 1/2 banana and 1/2 tsp fish oil. Might sound funny, but he LOOOVES it. Or we will do an omelet w/ veggies. Lunch is almost always chicken soup now. It's his favourite thing. Sooo messy, but sooo good for him! And then dinner he has whatever meat/veg/lentils combo we have. Snacks are fruits/veg. Between The recipe section in the GAPS book, and Nourishing traditions I find we have lots of variety.  There's some great recipes for "pancakes" made w/ shredded squash, but those are a little time consuming. Here's some really good grain free recipes I've been looking through too, (there's breakfast/lunch/dinner ideas)  http://www.healthhomehappy.com/gaps-recipes  But again, if you're working within a limited Sals guidelines you might have to make some substitutions.

[tigerlilly905]

ohh, and here's a super easy grain free breakfast on low/mod sals: http://www.healthhomehappy.com/2010/08/banana-pancakes-grain-free-protein-rich-crepes.html