A common theme in many of my support groups, is people asking about diet. Which diet is best for Fibromyalgia? Has anyone tried keto, vegan, gluten and/or dairy free, this diet, that diet, the only breathe air diet? Okay, maybe not the last one, but it feels like it sometimes!
And the answers people give to those sort of questions is always varied. Some people swear by vegetarian/vegan diets, LCHF (Low Carb, Healthy Fat), low fat diets, carnivore diets, low salicylate diets, low FODMAPs, GAPs, Wahls – there are as many answers as there are questions.
I’ve tried a lot of them. Some made me worse, (like vegan and low salicylate diets), some made no appreciable difference (like FODMAPs and the blood type diet) and some helped me – Like GAPs, the Wahls protocol and metabolic balance.
I often write about diet, and I do this because I honestly feel it is a super important part of managing the FibroTroll. But I want to make one very important point:
There is no one-size-fits-all diet for Fibromyalgia.
What works for me, might be okay for someone else. But in all likelihood, they will need to tweak some foods to suit them.
It has been a long experiment, and it’s not over yet. I did many elimination diets, blood tests and stool tests. The GAPs diet made a huge difference to my IBS issues and helped resolve a few (unfortunately not all) of my food intolerances. The Wahls protocol helped a little with pain, but I gained weight, when I was already carrying a few extra kilos and that didn’t help the fatigue. Metabolic balance got me back to my ideal weight and helped me isolate some more foods that were causing issues.
Right now, I find I do best on a low carb, but not quite ketogenic diet. I don’t eat cow dairy (except for ghee) or grains. I avoid added sugar – I do have a little 85% chocolate as a treat from time to time, but as a general rule I avoid sugar. I have recently worked out that nightshades are not my friend, and I avoid the random foods that don’t fit into a category but that cause me problems – like pork and almonds and most, but not all legumes. I continue to mostly follow my metabolic balance plan, using principles from both Wahls and GAPs.
Most of my food is organic, with a few foods from the Environmental Working Group’s clean fifteen list included if the organic version is super expensive. The EWG is based in the USA, but its Clean 15 and dirty dozen lists are a good guide if you can’t afford all organic food. I also try as much as I can to stick to foods that are in season. I get most of my fruit and vegetables from Food Connect in Brisbane. Luckily, I can usually find a box that only has a couple of things that I can’t eat – which my wonderful Knight then consumes!
Due to this, I mostly bring my own food to functions. While I love to have people at my home and to feed them, bringing my own food to everything gets a little tiresome. While it is significantly better than having an IBS attack or migraine from the wrong food, it wears you down after a while.
I recently caught up with a friend for lunch for her birthday. I made an almost compliant (a bit higher in sugar than I would normally eat) chocolate tart in lieu of cake and she insisted on feeding me lunch. It was such a wonderful feeling, to leave the house not having to bring my own food. We had roast chicken and vegetables and it was delicious!
I had significantly underestimated the mental benefits of someone offering to feed me and taking my dietary needs seriously and making a meal that included me.
So to that end I have given myself a new challenge. Let people feed me. If they ask, give them a simpler version of what I can’t eat, let things be non-organic, and so long as it’s gluten free, don’t worry too much about contamination. I’ll always let them know that it’s okay to back out and say it’s too hard.
It’s a bit outside my comfort zone, but I think (and hope) it will be good for me. It touches a little on the mental health care that is the other thing I write a lot about.
Wish me luck!