Anti-inflammatory Food Plan

February 10 will mark six months of amazing changes in my endocrinology. According to my rheumatologist, my RFnegPA is in remission for the first time since 2011. One considerable factor in those changes was the start of an anti-inflammatory food plan.  

The anti-inflammatory food plan is based on the recommendations of the Arthritis Foundation, which has published a lot of information on how food affects arthritis. But they try to write in a warm, fuzzy way that does not make it sound like a form of torture. I'm writing it like it is. Also, I am so far from qualified to tell anyone what they should eat that you should really not listen to me. Read the whole thing. Then check with your doctor. Then eat your last ice cream sundae and get to work.

Do not eat any of the following as they cause inflammation:

• Sugar in any form except whole fruit.
• Saturated fats including cheese, full fat dairy, pasta, red meat, and grain based desserts.
• Omega-6 including all oils except avocado oil, olive oil, and coconut oil (only when a solid fat at room temperature is required).
• Refined carbohydrates including white flour, white rice, potatoes, and processed cereals.
• MSG.
• Gluten including wheat, barley, and rye.
• Casein including all dairy.
• Nightshades including eggplant, tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, and turnips.
• Caffeine including coffee, tea, and chocolate.
• Artificial sweeteners.

Test in a food by eating it two times per day for three days. If you develop discomfort, stop the trial food until symptoms disappear. Then reintroduce the trial food a second time. If the same symptoms reappear, stop the trial food. When symptoms disappear, introduce a different food.
 
Eliminate for at least a month, then test in one per week in whatever order you choose.

• Bananas
• Citrus
• Soy
• Chicken
• Eggs
• Brown rice
• Non-peanut nuts
• Peanuts
• Oats
• Corn
• Shellfish
• Pork
• Fish

This is not written in stone. If the prospect of never eating chocolate for the rest of your life is more than you can bear, then by all means, test in chocolate. But consider the more vital nutrients, like protein, first.
 
To objectively assess the foods you test in, you need to track your pain, GI symptoms, mood, and compliance with the plan.
 
To track pain, I use the Pain Scale app. If you have been coping with pain by trying to avoid thinking about it, consider doing a body scan meditation before recording your score.

To track GI symptoms, I use the Poop Log app.  The gastrointestinal system is the canary in the coal mine of inflammation. So while this will make you literally consider your own feces more than what is socially acceptable, it is the key to fine tuning your food plan to your unique needs.
 
To track mood, I use the Moodscope website. Food, mood, and inflammation are intertwined both biologically and psychologically. If you use food as a mood modifier, you will have to look for alternative mood modifiers once you start the anti-inflammatory food plan.
 
To track food plan compliance, I use my own chart that includes whether I ate 6 servings of vegetables, whether all my meals in a day were vegetarian vegan (edit: the only animal products I intentionally eat are eggs and fish, now that I have tested them in. I track this not to be like "Yay, Vegan," though it is fantastic for the planet. I actually track this to make sure that it is not a lack of protein causing any health fluctuations. So if I have a long stretch of Vs in my chart and my mood numbers are lower, then I make sure I eat a hard boiled egg from one of our happy chickens.), and whether I consumed only foods on the plan.
 
I take all of the daily data and collect it on one monthly graph so I can see how things go over time.
You should track for a month before you start the anti-inflammatory food plan so you have a baseline. During this month, ramp up your vegetable intake to a full 6 servings daily (check those serving sizes).
 
Then, track for your first month on the meal plan to see when your baseline shifts. This is important to know how long you will likely have to go back to basics if a test food fails or you eat something inflammatory or you have some other cause of inflammation. This can also help you identify inflammatory foods unique to you. For example, I noticed a spike in pain and loose stools after eating cucumbers. So I abstained from cucumbers until my baseline was good and tried testing in cucumbers.
 
Then, when you start testing food in, you can look back at the week's data to figure out if the food test was successful, inconclusive, or a failure. I have attached the chart I use to track testing foods. 

For more information check out:
Anti-Inflammatory-iversary - Sarah's Smoothie

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