Lupus Recovery Diet

[jm_jazzy]

Hi All,

I was just wondering if anyone had tried the Lupus Recovery Diet and if so how successful and hard was it?

Some of the claims on the site seem a little excessive but I am not on any medication and am looking for other answers.

Thanks and bye for now.

Jodie :flowers:

[Lind126]

Hi Jodie,

I've heard about it very recently and decided to give it a go. I think that in my case (very mild SLE) it cant really hurt to try a couple of days of juice fasting and then vegan diet. I need to loose the weight anyway!!
Cris

[Sodasmom]

Jodie,

I have decided to try it as well. My acupuncturist is always hammering me about diet, and although I eat pretty well I don't think it will hurt to try...My Rheumy says just to eat a balanced diet...So, I am going to try it for 1 month and see if I feel any improvement.

Let me know if you decide to try it and how it works!

Cori

[hattycat]

What is the lupus recovery diet?
Can anyone explain? :oops:

[raggedyann1]

Hello all,

Hatty,
It is a diet that someone has created for lupus people. I don't think it has had any medical reviews done on it tho. It shows as a pop-up or banner ad on the internet.

I do not want to be negative but a word of caution is in order I think. If you are on medications for your lupus discuss in detail with your doctor. Ask if it is ok to be on a fruit and vegetable fast? or anything else that is "extreme" in nature. It is possible to truly harm yourself doing some of these things. Make sure your doctor understands what the "diet" involves.

Karen

[Sodasmom]

Karen,
Thanks for the advice...I will ask my doc about it next week...I didn't realize it is a fasting diet, and anything harsh that I do to my body flares me up...so that is out...but I will take a look at the diet and maybe just try to incorporate the foods in the diet into my lifestyle. I have heard that dairy is bad for us, but I just love cheese so much! I don't know if I can give it up!

Cori :rolleyes:

[Lily]

Hi sodasmom,

Dairy isn't bad for all lupies and we need our calcium. Of course if you are truly lactose intolerant then it's bad :) and alternatives should be explored preferably with a dietician. But limiting and balancing your consumption of animal fats is not a bad idea. I try to get my daily calcium in the form of low fat yoghurt, milk and cheese. The low fat is not a bad idea either. And the bulk of my diet is fresh fruit and veggies and only small amounts of meat. Same as the normal populations diet should be. So there's no big secret to eating well with Lupus, avoid things you are allergic to but make sure you get the recommended healthy diet requirements and limit fat intake.

love
Lily

[Clare.T]

I am very dubious about the publicity and claims made by the author.

She refers to toxic medications with side effects worse than symptoms which I call scare tactics. She clearly implies that this diet will eliminate kidney disease. She says the recoveries are not spontaneous remission . Just her word for it.

This could be dangerously misleading

Big claims need big proofs in my book.

Juts imagine, $ 20 a throw for the online copy, a neat little income there.
Eating a healthy diet will always make people feel better, if they have been eating badly.

Try cutting out sugars, animal fats and preservatives, additives and colourings.
How many of us eat 5 cup servings of fresh fruit and veg a day.

If fasting, you have to rest up. It is debilitating Fasting is very controversial but a lot of the appeal seems based on the notion that you can cleanse yourself of disease. Or "cleanse" your liver and "de tox."

Vegans risk a number of deficiencies so care is needed. Care is needed always with this sneaky disease.

Clare

[Sodasmom]

Lily,
As far as I know I don't have a food intolerance to dairy. I don't want to take dairy completely out of my diet because I just love cheese!...However I do watch my fat intake very carefully and try not to over-indulge on anything. The one thing I have almost completely eliminated from my diet is sugar, and that has helped me tremendously. I also stopped caffeine as soon as I got sick 2 years ago...and I don't drink alcohol anymore...I guess I am pretty boring!

I have been in a flare for almost 2 months now and I think I am reaching for things because my medication isn't kicking in like It did before. I am just going to stick with my regular diet and exercise and pray that I start feeling better soon. Otherwise, I am going to drive myself crazy trying to pinpoint certain foods as the "enemy" :D

Thanks...your post had moderation written all over it and it is what I needed to hear!

Cori

[redrose77]

Is dairy problems an issue with lupus? I ask because until my syptoms started more than 10yrs ago (I was in my mid-teens) I could handle dairy with no problem but now dairy is horrible. I react like I am lactose intolerant only worse and feel just aweful after dairy food. If dairy is affected by lupus is there anything that can be done? I love cheese and yogurt and the occasssional ice cream but it means days of missery. forgive my typing my hands are very bad tonight.

[Lily]

Hi redrose,

It's possible to become lactose intolerant even if you weren't before. But the symptoms of lactose intolerance are quite marked with fairly severe diarrheoa (sp?)
There are dairy substitutes, lactose free that you could explore with.

I find if I eat the full fat dairy I have stomach problems and they make me feel awful, so whether my body has adjusted to low fat and won't accept high levels now I don't know. But I find I can eat low fat yoghurt, milk and even cheese. My downfall comes when I eat a full fat cheese, let's face it cheese was meant to be full fat :lol: then I have problems with tummy etc.

Limiting sugar intake is a really good step too, I splurge every now and then and pay for it, we cant be angels always ;) And certainly high sugar/caffeine drinks are a no no on a consistent basis. I try to avoid sodas at every opportunity and limit my caffeine intake to only two cups a day. It would be ideal not to have any but I'm not a saint, especially in the mornings :)

Those things, along with what I mentioned above should go a long way to a healthy diet and weight control too.

Alfalfa sprouts is about the only real warning we get as far as exacerbating Lupus, because it contains a substance known to aggravate it. Apart from that the fun stuff in big moderation and the healthy stuff in abundance, lots of fruit and vegetables. Least that works for me, I look like the healthiest sick person around my doc says :lol:

love
Lily

[hattycat]

Can someone give me a diet plan for the lupus diet, because i don't understand what it involves..... :wacko: :sorry:

[raggedyann1]

Hatty,

There really isn't a diet plan for lupus, at least not according to several top lupus specialists. A healthy balanced diet with no extremes is the way to get started.
You may want to see if there are any foods that your body is "allergic" to or causes some of your symptoms to flare up. Some people find dairy does or sugar, or red meat, breads and other refined wheats. You would want to elimanate things one at a time so you will know for sure what might be causing you problems.

Take care,
Karen

[Maxx]

Hi Everyone,
I am sorry I haven't been on the message board or online in so long. I feel guilty coming to ask info when I have been away so long. I had a bad few months. i have had the holidays like everyone else, but also my daughter is expecting a baby girl anyday, my son is getting married next month. So, i have had showers, wedding stuff, baby stuff going on also. I just collapse for days at a time. I also can't reduce my prednisone because I am in a big flare.
Anyway, I was reading the info here because my husband just called and said he knows someone who "just found a cure for Lupus!" One of his co-workers wife has Lupus also. I have met her. She evidentally saw this show on TV about Lupus & yogurt and says it is working for her. Now I don't know if there was a show on. I did look on the internet and saw a few books FOR SALE claiming to have the answers to all the Lupus patients. I have a hard time believing claims like that, especially when the also offer books on other things; have more confidence,Be worry free. Anyway along that line! I try not to totally rule things out. i try to be optimistic, but I find it difficult to believe yogurt is going to change my life. I really need so back up. my husband is probabl at the store buying a gallon of yogurt on his way home from work! Any help would be appreciated. style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/Thanx.gif
I feel bad not staying in touch. How is Penny, Karen, Clair ?

Love, Deb style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wub.gif

[chantal]

I want to add my own little opinion here, I haven?t seen this ?lupus diet? but in my opinion a healthy balanced diet is the best way to go, which is hard sometimes when we have the munchies for everything junk from prednisone style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tongue.gif But unless you have an allergy eat a little bit of everything according to the food guide, I cant have gluten or wheat because I have celiac, as do many people with lupus for some reason, and things to avoid that might help you out in my opinion would be to limit your intake of sugar, fat, and caffeine (all the things that are not good even for a healthy person) and I have also read in many places we should avoid alfalfa sprouts (because they are an immune booster) and limit lamp shade vegetables such as potatoes (have it in moderation just like everything else) I think messing around with some diet will cause more problems then help
style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif
cya!

[raggedyann1]

Deb,

That probably comes from the belief that our intestines are full of bad bacteria and the acidopholus in live yogurt will get rid of the bad bacteria and make everything better. However there are medical studies that are finding that acidopholus and other "good" bacteria do help. I take pro-biotics everyday which contain far more acidopholus than a cup of yogurt does. They also contain other bacteria like bifidus and others that I don't remember the name. Probiotics help with bacterial overgrowth in the intestines of people with scleroderma. I can find the medical studies for you if you want. I like the probiotics because for me they keep my candida episodes spread apart and much less severe for me. Not sure what else they are doing but my rheumy is in favor of me continuing to use them.

However you know that there is NO cure for lupus. The "alternative" community would have us believe that the doctors and medical field are keeping things from us because they won't make any money from it. As we mostly know that is hogwash. If there was a cure it would be front page news on every lupus site and most of our doctors would tell us about it.


Karen

[Erskine]

i added my two cents last night in a chat, and as far as i understand the diet, it's nothing special. i've researched many similar claims extensively, and found no hard evidence to recommend them. i did find a study in 2001 in Alternative Therapies Magazine about a juice fast that showed phenominal results in a group of about 25 people, only five or so had sle, the others were more RA stuff if i remember correctly. unlike most studies, they did daily blood work and encountered a very important problem that you should be aware of: every single participant had to cut the fast short due to kidney distress. creatinine levels went through the roof. the upside was every person showed significant improvement in their autoimmune blood markers. many people assume because something is natural, it's less dangerous. but arsenic is natural too.

the conclusion of the study was it worked, but was not advisable outside an inpatient environment with daily and even hourly blood work to access the point of diminishing returns.

i did try some dietary changes when i was hospitalized, getting blood draws daily, and they did show some positive changes in bloodwork, but nothing seriously related to lupus. just the stuff other studies have shown.

hope this helps,
erskine