www.MichaelReid.ca

My Diet is Over ... for now

My 3 week elimination diet is over; which was actually 19 days, so just shy of 3 weeks. The last week was really good with definite improvements with my gastrointestinal issues. What this may mean is that I am allergic or sensitive to at least one (or more) of the foods that I have eliminated.

The next step would be to add one of the eliminated foods back into my diet for a short period and see how my body reacts. If the food I add back is really a problem I should then see/feel a difference in 1-3 days. If there is no negative reaction then I can add another food, but if there is a negative reaction  I will have to remove that food again till I am back to where I was at the end of the initial elimination diet.

Then I would try another one of the eliminated foods and continue this process.

As you can see, this may take several months to get through.

Of course, I am not doing this.

But, I think I have noticed one food which may be a problem and unfortunately that is eggs. During the evening of the 19th day of the diet, I consumed a lot of homemade gluten free cookies which had eggs in them but no dairy.

The next few days were not good, inte bra (Swedish), nem jo (Hungarian).

Of course it could be one or more of the gluten free flours used but I don't think so.

I went straight back to pre-elimination diet eating right after the 3 weeks period largely because I am on holidays for 10 days in Hungary and I am staying with the in-laws.

During this period it would be very challenging to continue my diet adventure when someone else is doing most of the cooking, although it is not impossible. I will continue my gluten free ways, avoid dairy, although I may indulge myself in some fresh raw milk from the farmer down the road and will try to keep eggs to a minimum. Most of the other food items I have eliminated will probably make there way back into my diet at some point during these 10 days.

When I get back to Copenhagen after these holidays I will keep eggs and dairy out of my diet plus some other stuff and continue on with this journey.

Be Well,

Mike Reid

www.michaelreid.ca

www.WaterPoloTraining.net

PS. I haven't forgotten that I still need to discuss the supplements I am taking (I have already written about fish oil). There are 3 more I need to write about and they are things that most if not all people could benefit from.

My Elimination Diet - almost 1/2 way done

Really not that bad so far and I am almost halfway completed. Although today I had a serious headache in the morning, it was painful just to move. The previous couple of days were headache free and I thought that I was finally over the caffeine withdrawal. Of course I could be over it with the headaches being from something else but I like to think it is the caffeine since I have been there before a few times over the years and the symptoms are similar.

Image by D'Arcy Norman via Flickr

One of the supplements I am taking is fish oil which I was originally taking in liquid form till I noticed the citrus oil in it so I am now using capsules. For now I am taking 2 capsules, 2x/day but I have usually take around 10/day in the form of liquid oil.

Fish oil is one of the supplements I highly recommend for everyone. There has been lots of news on fish oil (often also referred to as Omega-3 fatty acids) in the lay press and in the research.

Here are some of the broad benefits or areas that fish oil (omega-3 fats) can have a positive impact:

• improved heart health
• fat loss (~65% of North Americans are obese)
• Arthritis
• brain function / memory
• mental health (e.g. depression, ADD)
• anti-inflammatory /joint health

Sounds pretty good to me, I will take improvement in all those areas.

When I look at all these broad benefits of fish oil, it is obviously (or at least to me) meant to be a part of a healthy diet just like eating your fruits and vegetables.

For the skeptics out, when you go to PubMed, which is a central registry for all notable research journals and use the following key words:

• fish oil omega 3 fatty acids

You get back over 10 000 thousand research papers!

That is a s**t load of research.

Here is an example of one.

Schwalfenberg G. Omega-3 fatty acids: their beneficial role in cardiovascular health. Can Fam Physician. 2006 Jun;52:734-40.

OBJECTIVE: To examine evidence for the role of omega-3 fatty acids in cardiovascular disease.

QUALITY OF EVIDENCE: PubMed was searched for articles on the role of omega-3 fatty acids in cardiovascular disease. Level I and II evidence indicates that omega-3 fatty acids are beneficial in improving cardiovascular outcomes.

MAIN MESSAGE: Dietary intake of omega-3 fatty acids has declined by 80% during the last 100 years, while intake of omega-6 fatty acids has greatly increased. Omega-3 fatty acids are cardioprotective mainly due to beneficial effects on arrhythmias, atherosclerosis, inflammation, and thrombosis. There is also evidence that they improve endothelial function, lower blood pressure, and significantly lower triglycerides.

CONCLUSION: There is good evidence in the literature that increasing intake of omega-3 fatty acids improves cardiac outcomes. Physicians need to integrate dietary recommendations for consumption of omega-3 fatty acids into their usual cardiovascular care.

Download the entire article for free: http://www.cfp.ca/cgi/reprint/52/6/734

I am also taking other supplements which I will talk about next time I write in a few days.

Be Well,

Mike Reid

www.michaelreid.ca

www.WaterPoloTraining.net

My Elimination Diet - Day 3 & 4

Day 3

Day 3 was good, still had caffeine withdrawal and fatigue but managed to get in a good mobility session and a Water Polo practice.  For the team I play for, the Thursday night practice is more swimming then anything else and my swim conditioning is certainly something I am lacking.

One of the things I was working on in my mobility session was screwing the floor. It was quite fun working on something I can barely do and seeing progress in that one session. This drill requires good internal hip rotation, among other things, which I am greatly lacking so it is very challenging. At times it was painful which I need to be careful of because if you move into pain your body can negatively react and create more tension and decreased mobility (sometimes referred to as the startle reflex). Not what I am trying to accomplish with this drill.

In the video of the Russian instructor doing the screwing the floor, he does not show how you can regress the exercise. My friend Dennis Frisch, who is much better at this stuff then me showed me a very simple regression. The video of this regression will have to wait for another day (sorry).

Day 4

Wow, I feel quite good this morning, no head aches or fatigue. Maybe I am finished with my caffeine withdrawal symptoms although I should really call it coffee withdrawal since I am drinking green and black tea. My shoulders ache a bit from the previous nights swim training but otherwise I am doing really well.

Overall, so far so good.

Be Well,

Mike Reid

www.michaelreid.ca

www.WaterPoloTraining.net

My Elimination Diet - Day 1 & 2

Below are some notes on the first two days; mildly unpleasant would be one way of describing it.

Day 1

The hardest thing so far is being without coffee. Caffeine withdrawal for me comes with a pretty intense head ache and some serious brain fog. I couldn't do any work on the first day, I was completely brain dead. Any reserves I had was to care for my 1 year old son.

Its weird though, I allow my self green and black tea which has caffeine in it and I was still brain dead for most of the day. There must be something else in the coffee that I am also experiencing withdrawal from or it could just be the psychological phenomenon of not having it; I do enjoy the taste.

Day 2

BUSTED!!!

Bad news, I broke my diet (accidentally). It is not like I ate a dozen donuts with a liter of milk plus a pot of coffee, but I did eat a food that is on my DO NOT EAT LIST.

It was actually a very honest mistake; this is what happened.

I live in a foreign country (Denmark) where I do not speak or understand the language very well.

Yes, I blame it all on the Danes!

I was buying frozen spinach the other day and bought one that was spinach with cream sauce. I meant to buy just plain frozen spinach. I didn't realize my mistake till after eating the first package with my chicken. Oops! Of course the entire package is in Danish but if I looked more closely I would of saw that the ingredients had more then just spinach on it and that would of raised a red flag for this product.

Another error I made in these two days was with my fish oil. I have been using liquid fish oil that is flavored with citrus oil. So, I will need to switch to capsules for the next three weeks.

I am also taking some other supplements that I will go into detail in a later post.

No, it's not the Danes fault, I only have my self to blame. It is my own personal responsibility to care for my own personal body, no one else. Anyway, mistakes are good, this is how you learn.

By the way my two mistakes came with somewhat processed foods. When on a restricted diet, the simplest way of avoiding these mishaps is to consume mostly whole foods. Actually every healthy diet should be focused on whole foods.

Whole foods are those that are unprocessed and unrefined, or processed and refined as little as possible before being consumed. They typically do not contain added ingredients, such as sugar, salt, or fat.

"Diets rich in whole and unrefined foods, like whole grains, dark green and yellow/orange-fleshed vegetables and fruits, legumes, nuts and seeds, contain high concentrations of antioxidant phenolics, fibers and numerous other phytochemicals that may be protective against chronic diseases." 

B Bruce, G Spiller, L Klevay, S Gallagher. A Diet High in Whole and Unrefined Foods Favorably Alters Lipids, Antioxidant Defenses, and Colon Function. Journal of the American College of Nutrition, Vol. 19, No. 1, 61–67 (2000) http://www.jacn.org/cgi/reprint/19/1/61

Be Well,

Mike Reid

www.michaelreid.ca

www.WaterPoloTraining.net

Better Health in 3 Weeks

I have had it, I cannot take it anymore.

I need to do something drastic and do it ASAP, no not "as soon..." but NOW!

What the heck am I talking about?

It's all about my health.

Ever since moving to Copenhagen, Denmark this past August (2009) I have been stricken with fatigue. Not all the time but more time then I would like. There have been times when I have had a low grade cold for 2 weeks before being able to shake it.

That is just nonsense.

So to get back on top of my health for the next 3 weeks starting Dec 1, 2009 (yes, that was yesterday) I will be on a very strict elimination diet. I believe many of my "problems" are gastrointestinal (GI) related and after all 70-80% of your immune system is located in your GI so if it is not functioning optimally then it is no wonder I have fatigue and illness.

Here is what I am eliminating from my diet, although some of the items have been out for a long time.

My Elimination Diet with some short notes

• Gluten (bread, pasta, ...) - I have been avoiding this for several years now, no big deal.

• Soy

• All Dairy - I say all dairy because the only dairy I have been using regularly is butter which is now eliminated. By the way, I love butter!

• Corn - non issue, don't eat it much anyway.

• Citrus - I like it but can go with out.

• Nightshade Vegetables (Onions, Peppers, Potatoes, Tomatoes, Eggplant, Beets) - I am taking these out because of their association with Arthritis and general joint pain. My elbow joints are constantly cracking and often lock up, my shoulders make crunching sounds all the time and I am incredibly stiff in the morning which kind of sucks because this would be a great time to train but I can barely move so I must wait for till at least late morning or later.

• Pork - my family eats lots of pork; this will only be an issue of convenience since sausages is one of the only processed foods I eat regularly.

• Eggs - Convenience, easy and quick to make is what I will miss about eggs.

• Peanuts - I love peanut butter but will substitute with other nut butters like almond or cashew.

• Coffee - probably the biggest challenge of all the foods. I have a serious caffeine addiction but i have gone off coffee before. I am allowing my self to drink green and black teas which is a small consolation.

My goal is to completely avoid all these foods for the next 3 weeks (Dec 1 - Dec 21, 2009). The dates actually work out perfectly because on Dec 21 my family and I are going to Hungary for holidays. When in Hungary, you eat pork, tomatoes and peppers (paprika) every day.

During this 3 week experiment, I am particularly interested in my bodies response to no nightshade vegetables and pork.

I will check back in every few days to give updates on how I am doing.

Be Well,

Mike Reid

www.michaelreid.ca

www.WaterPoloTraining.net

"The most important thing about goals is... having one." -- Geoffry F. Abert