You asked for it, dear readers, so here it is. My personal food log from Monday- Thursday this week. All comments welcome on my choice of fare – both positive and negative (as long as you are courteous). Please remember that I am off all grains (disaccharides) at the moment and have been for the past month. I don’t usually eat many grains anyway, but have gone off them completely to solve some lower back pain issues I’ve been having intermittently. Guess what? My back pain has completely gone (I’ve also lost 7 lbs despite my valiant attempts not to lose any weight at all), so my hunch that it was somehow caused by some minor gut inflammation spreading to my lower back area appears to be correct. My back pain was the ONLY clue or symptom I had that my gut was slightly imbalanced. I wonder how many folks realize that their back pain (and other joint pain) is potentially caused by gut imbalance?
I will continue to avoid grains for the next several months and then gradually reintroduce them sometime in the early Fall 2010. I have to say, though, that I feel GREAT completely off grains and all sugars (disaccharides cannot be fully digested if the gut is out of balance even if only slightly – toxins from the undigested food and pathogens that feed on it spills into the blood causing an unpredictable mix of symptoms). My goal is to definitely eat grains again, as they are truly a wonderful, traditional food. It’s just that in our modern lives, our guts may need periodic rest from them as they are so very difficult to digest unless your gut is in top form and only by going off them completely for a period of time can your gut fully heal. The fiber in grains is particularly harsh on the gut. Fiber from fruits and vegetables is a much more gentle type of fiber on the gut. I suspect that most people would benefit tremendously from a break from all disaccharide foods (grains, potatoes, sweet potatoes, all sugars except honey and fruit) to heal their gut wall unless you are fortunate enough to have been born naturally to a Mother with no gut dysbiosis herself, breastfed for an extended period of time, and never had antibiotics or other meds in your life! Very few folks would qualify based on that criteria! I’m learning a lot on this adventure and will be blogging more about it in detail in future posts.
**Please note that nothing I ate all week came out of a box or package. It was all made from scratch. This is definitely typical in our house. Boxes and prepacked foods generally do not make the cut to be in our pantry.
Monday, April 19, 2010
Breakfast: Smoothie (pint of raw kefir, 2 bananas, 1/3 cup organic peanut butter, 2 TBL raw local orange blossom honey, tsp or 2 of carob powder, splash chocolate extract)
Lunch: Half 8″pizza leftover from last night’s dinner (almond crust pizza with peppers, onions, organic pepperoni slices, cheddar cheese toppings), glass kombucha
Dinner: 3 egg omelet with provolone, pepper, onion filling, glass kombucha, blueberry cobbler (made with pecan flour) for dessert
Snacks: None
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Breakfast: Smoothie (pint of raw kefir, 2 bananas, 6 organic strawberries)
Lunch: Leftover omelet from last night’s dinner, glass kombucha, leftover blueberry cobbler
Snack: cup of alfalfa tea
Dinner: Turkey chili, baby green salad with homemade ranch dressing and pepitas, glass kombucha
Snacks: 2 raw honey,semi sweet chocolate mint patties from Heavenly Organics
Snack before bed: small cup of broth, cup of nettle tea
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Breakfast: almond flour pancake with butter and pure date syrup, glass of kombucha, small cup of chicken broth, cup of jasmine tea
Lunch: Homemade pizza (mushroom, onion, zucchini, yellow squash, peppers, organic pepperoni, organic provolone and organic cheddar cheese topping)
Dinner: Marinated chicken (marinated in traditionally brewed teriyaki sauce and raw honey), veggies cooked in butter, glass kombucha
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Breakfast: Smoothie (2 bananas, pint of kefir, 8 organic strawberries)
Lunch: Homemade pizza (mushroom, organic pepperoni, zucchini, yellow squash,red peppers, onion, organic provolone and organic cheddar cheese toppings)
Dinner: Meatloaf (made with grassfed beef), veggies cooked in butter, glass kombucha
Evening Snacks: Pear, whole grapefruit, cup of alfalfa tea
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
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{ 30 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi Sarah! How did you make the meatloaf? And wow, 2 bananas and honey in your morning shake seems like a ton of sugar, I know I could not handle that, but, we are all different, thanks for posting your meals!
May I come to your house for meals?? LOL I have my smoothie for lunch. I am not much of a breakfast eater. My stomach needs to wake up first. I usually just have my juice, vitamins, protein cookie and tea….. then I am too busy to think about food until lunch. I like sounds of the chocolate smoothie that you had on Monday. I will have to give that one a try. Thanks so much for taking the time to do this blog. I really have been enjoying it.
Sarah,
THANK for doing this! This is great seeing what you eat as I very much respect your approach to nutrition and your practical attitude about it. When you say that you are off of sugar, are you referring to white sugar? I see that you have honey, date syrup (what is that?) and the semi sweet chocolate mint patties.
thanks again
Rick
Hi Juliann, made the meatloaf with 1 1/2 lbs grassfed ground beef, some tomato puree, 2 eggs, 1/4 cup almond flour, teriyaki sauce and some sea salt. Yes, bananas cause issues for some folks. I do very very well on them though when I pair them with a lot of fat like what is in the kefir. If I eat them alone, the sugar would nail me .. but having with high fat lowers the glycemic factor tremendously. Raw, unfiltered honey is a superfood, so I do use it on occasion in my smoothies because it is so very nutritious. Also, my smoothie is HUGE and I tend to sip it all morning and even have what is left as an afternoon snack sometimes.
Hi Rick, all sugars are disaccharides and cannot be digested if the gut is imbalanced in any way, so I am off of all of them – even maple syrup, sucanat, molasses etc. I am only eating a bit of raw, unfiltered honey and some fruit as my sweeteners currently. I do not plan to be this way forever, just for 6 months or so.
Oh, and the date syrup is made up of fresh dates, that's it. The mint patties only have raw honey in them. No disaccharides in either. If someone has candida issues, they would need to be off all fruit and honey as well, but I do not have that problem .. am only trying to heal my gut wall which is a different approach.
One other thing… I've seen your videos… how the heck can you lose 7lbs? Did you lose an organ?
That is too funny. The main reason I haven't gone off grains before is because I knew my weight would drop like a stone and weight loss was not my goal (I've suspected that they were a problem for some time .. actually several years). Interestingly, my husband says I really don't look that much thinner .. I just have more muscle definition. Perhaps most of the weight I lost was bloating and water as gut health improved? A good friend of mine who runs a Crossfit gym says that a 5 lb or so weight loss is typical when someone goes off grains.
You eat very well and I am not surprised that you lost weight and feel so good. I just seen a new documentary last night on public television. It is called 'Food, Inc.' I knew a lot of the facts but many more things were an eye opener concerning the food manufactured for us to eat. It went into the grains, all meats and other additives like high fructose corn syrup and also talked about GMOs. It was a very good show. You can watch the trailer on truefoodnow.org. Have a good evening.
When you cook with cheese (I am guessing you baked the pizza, right?) do you just use organic cheese or do you use raw cheese? I am new to this stuff and trying to figure it out.
I get raw where I can find it .. hard cheeses like cheddar are raw but the provolone is organic from the store but not raw. Not sure if provolone can be made raw. Some cheeses (like mozzarella and perhaps provolone as well) must be heated to make them.
Hi Sarah,
Thanks so much for the food log! One question: I noticed that most of the milk you drink is in the form of kefir. I do the same and wonder if I'm missing out on some of the benefits of unfermented milk. Would love your thoughts!
Fermented milk like kefir, yogurt, clabbered milk is much more digestible than raw milk in its unfermented state. Lactose, milk sugar, is a disaccharide and for folks with even mild digestive imabalance, cannot be easily digested and usually feeds pathogens even if the cows get no grain at all. Better always to ferment the milk so the lactose is all used up before you consume it.
I would suggest you be very careful when you went back on grains. They may cause damage that will be silent for a while, then pop out with something very painful that will take longer heal the second time around. That was my experience. So I just don't see the point of going back on grains if you feel so good without them. We lived just fine as a species without them till 10,000 years ago. We were healthier without them. They are tasty, convenient and will keep us alive if we don't have enough meat and fat. But they are not necessary in the context of abundant food.
I would guess that your Vitamin D3 level is good…I recall you take fermented CLO. I found that my intermittent back pain improved when I spent more time getting regular sunshine. I think that back pain is improved when when we aren't deficient in Vitamin D. I haven't heard of it being related to gut health….I hope this works for you.
I highly recommend Dr. Stephan Guyenet's Whole Health Source blog.
I will be blogging more about back and joint pain and how gut health affects them greatly in the future.
Dr. Tom Cowan MD wrote in Wise Traditions Journal a few issues back about a lady who went off grains for awhile and felt great but after she healed from her symptoms, she started to have other issues and by going back on grains, they were solved. Dr. Cowan MD believes that there is a time to go off grains and a time to come back on them that is unique to the individual and that avoiding them your entire life is not necessarily a wise thing to do.
I would like to take a break from grains but wonder about it's safety as my 9 month old still primarily nurses. Unfortunately said 9 month old keeps me too busy to do the kind of research into it that I would like.
I've been reading lots about excess PUFA in our diets contributing to an imbalance of Omega6/Omega 3. Generally speaking, nuts have high PUFA…Pecans, almonds, peanuts…(but also especially industrial seed oils)
Good blog, Sarah.
Definitely have to watch the PUFAs – no doubt about it and nuts can be one of the higher PUFA foods. But, then again, grains are high in PUFA too, so substituting nut flour for grain flour and eating moderately should be ok approach for most especially if no vegetable oil is consumed from other sources. Thanks for the kind words, by the way!
Interesting response from Dr. Cowan published in Wise Traditions Spring 2010 on page 14–The Omnivore's Dilemma. I know he is highly respected and I am only vaguely familiar with his writings but he seems to contradict himself in the brief article or I am not understanding it correctly. He states that the diet of prehistoric man was approximately 70% animal products and 30% plant products with the plants prepared in ways to neutralize the toxins. "They were subject to far less illness than we today and to virtually none of the chronic illnessess that so plague modern life" He then goes on to say that "as the consciousness of humanity evolved, we needed more sugar." and "we sacrificed some of our robust health and earthy vitality, but we also learned about who we are on a level unimaginable to prehistoric people." I don't see how grains and sugar will help me develop my "elusive sense of one's self as a separate spiritual entity". I must not be understanding something and would love to hear Sarah's expert opinion. As well as on the other excellent article in that journal–Living with Phytic Acid beginning on page 28.
I enjoy a steaming bowl of grits with lots of raw butter as much as the next person but have also noticed a reduction in joint pain and a better recovery from intense exercise from removing the few grains I did consume in only a 4 week period. I appreciate Sarah's blog in helping us understand the best route, the examples she sets and helping us to learn more in this area.
Paula, I have not yet even read those articles thoroughly, believe it or not! When I have a chance to go through them and think about them for awhile, will definitely blog about it. One thing I can comment on is that cultivation of grains was KEY to the emergence of the city state and civilization in general (where humanity no longer needed to be nomadic). In this regard, it has allowed humanity to have much more time to think about life in general. Perhaps this is what Dr. Cowan is referring to.
Hi Sarah, I'm in Canada and just found your site. Thanks so much for posting your menus as that sure helps for ideas on what to eat. I need to eat low carb as I have bad reactions to sugar now that I'm 61. Hard to give it up completely but I'm trying. Also trying to cut out grains.
Sarah, I just tried to buy Campbell-McBrides book Gut and Psychology Syndrome and it was 55$ on Amazon for the paperback! Why is it so much?
Thanks for your blogs on the gaps diet–I want to try it but am a bit taken back at the price!
Can I buy it on your blog store?
Jean
Hi Jean, I just checked and the prices started at $23.97 on Amazon. Go down to the recommended books section below and click on the GAPS book and see if you get the same prices I just saw.
Sarah,
I think I’ve seen nut flours at the store, but I can’t remember. If I were able to find them, do these go rancid like wheat flours do? Do you grind the almond and pecan flours yourself? Thanks,
Caitlin
Hi Caitlin, yes I recommend making nut flours yourself as the nuts are not soaked/dehydrated before grinding to eliminate antinutrients.
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist\’s last post: Monday Mania 3-14-2011
Hi Sarah,
I recently found your blog and boy am I glad I did! Lots of useful information and the videos help so much. Actually watching someone make something is immensely helpful! (And these recipes aren’t exactly on Food TV
) Even though I have been following WAPF principles for a while, I still picked up useful tips and things I could improve on!
I recently started GAPS after almost 3 years of WAPF. Originally started it to heal food intolerances, including intolerances to fermented foods but now found that other issues that maybe related.
My question is: I notice on your food log that you include several GAPS sweet things (honey and fruit) and nuts. When I originally read the book I know that she says to limit those and what you are doing seems to be along those lines. However, looking for support/more info, I joined one of the GAPS forums and there is a very big focus on reducing and eliminating GAPS sweets (fruit and honey) and nuts further from the diet in order to heal (maybe speed healing) down to none at all. Sometimes it feels extreme. But I do want to heal and the quicker the better but GAPS is already limiting as it is.
I realize that my issues are not as mild as yours but would really like your opinion. Is it really necessary to eliminate all GAPS sweets/nuts in order to heal? Do you think that eliminating these would speed healing? Have you heard of anyone else coming from WAPF to GAPS healing in the shorter end of the time range without removing fruits, honey, nuts for more than a little while?
Thanks,
Diana
Yeah, I don’t know how you could loose weight, but I know what you mean about loosing it from the swelling that grain may have been causing.
Thanks so much for sharing this. Very insightful I am off of grains and have been for two months and am on stage four of the GAPS diet but my back pain has actually increased?!? I’ve only had it for the past 6 months which is about the same time I started realizing I was suffering from adrenal fatigue (which your article on that helped me diagnose.) Anyway, I am noticing the coorelation between gut and back, so this article is perfect timing for me. I have candida issues which I read can be caused by mercury toxicity and that candida is actually a mechanism in the body to protect you from mercury so I worry if I am getting rid of too much candida… Any thoughts on this? I am excited to read your further thoughts on pain. Thanks!
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