A big challenge among many of my clients is figuring out what they CAN eat after telling them all the things they CAN’T eat when trying to rebalance the body. I always try to encourage them that removing toxic/inflammatory foods will help yield more positive results from their protocols and that it isn’t as overwhelming as it may seem. I thought I would share a bit about what I go over with my clients when the goal is to reduce inflammation, modulate the immune system and detoxify, especially when an autoimmune disease is present. I also want to talk about epitope spreading briefly (I’ve gone more in depth in previous posts/videos) as this is a big concern for those experiencing recurring flares in their autoimmune diseases.
Tip 1: Have a list of foods and recipes that you ENJOY
When it is time to start cutting out and avoiding particular foods, it’s important to begin the task of figuring out options for foods that are in the YES ZONE’ that you can enjoy and have readily available. I encourage everyone to build a repertoire of ‘YES’ foods, finding one recipe per week that’s a go-to hit for you.
Simply put, it’s much better to be able to say, “I want a cookie, so I’ll have a cookie made from ingredients that I can have.” If instead you don’t know how to make a good healthy cookie or where to buy cookie substitute, you’re faced with, “I want a cookie, but I can’t have one, so I’ll just not have anything.” The rest of that sentence inevitably turns out to be, “…until I can’t stand it anymore. Then I’ll have the cookie I shouldn’t have and get a symptom flare.” This is the biggest downfall of most people being able to stick to their diets and protocols and achieve lasting results. Not having alternatives for things you love causes you to get frustrated, upset and even resentful towards your own body and then often you end up “giving up” because it is too hard or “not worth it”. Setting yourself up for success BEFORE you even start is the ONLY way to stay on track.
Tip 2: Have ‘Celebration’ Alternatives on hand
Here is another reason it’s important for you to have options ready to go. Everybody has days they want to celebrate, typically including a food component of the experience. Celebrating birthdays, anniversaries, accomplishments of all sorts, date nights or even just seeing old friends, are all occasions that are centered around food (and drink). We all want to include food that we enjoy in those processes. It’s of key importance to the success of any case that you are in possession of recipes and related strategies that give you a way forward. Deciding to not celebrate an important occasion is not the best move. It’s much better to work on a daily or weekly basis to identify food options that are the ‘YES ZONE’ and that you enjoy. This way, when it’s time to celebrate, you will already have identified a repertoire of options that are your “go-to” ways of having fun with food. This will keep you on track and avoid periodically torpedoing your health.
I suggest Smart Sweets or Lily’s Chocolate for candy, sparkling water with 1/4 cup organic pomegranate juice and a squeeze of lime and some fresh mint for a “fancy drink” and then finding recipes on google (which are in the thousands) for cakes, cookies, etc that cater to your dietary restrictions whether it is KETO, paleo, glutenfree, vegan, egg free, sugar-free etc. Lastly, searching for restaurants in your area that have available menu items that you can enjoy and writing their names down is important when looking for somewhere to eat out. It is much better to have 1 or 2 go-to places where you know you will be able to find something to eat than go to a new random place where you can’t eat anything and either feeling frustrated as a result or just ordering something unhealthy off the menu that will cause you to flare. When finding a good restaurant, I suggest making sure you can get a good glutenfree, sugarfree, nightshade free option. My go-to is either a salad (and yes i bring my own dressing) with chicken breast and hold the dressing or steamed vegetables with a protein on the side.
Tip 3: Make a list of healthy food swaps!
This is something I do with all my clients during their first appointment. We find all their favourite foods and I give them alternatives! Below are a few examples of foods that aren’t ideal and healthy swaps instead!
- gluten-based baked goods – swap for almond flour or quinoa flour baked goods instead
- potato – squash
- oats – buckwheat or quinoa flakes
- kidney beans – lentils
- honey and maple syrup – yacon syrup
- erythritol – liquid stevia
- milk and cream – coconut cream
- dairy yogurt – coconut yogurt (i have a recipe for the cleanest homemade yogurt here)
- chocolate bars – lilys chocolate or eating evolved
- Sugary granola bars – welo bars (they are low sugar but not carb free)
- gluten crackers – simple mills paleo crackers
- chocolate milk – swap for a sugar free dairy free version (check out recipes on google that use oat or coconut milk, liquid stevia, cocoa powder and vanilla!)
….and the list goes on! Realizing you CAN eat things you enjoy (but with a few tweaks) will make this journey SO MUCH easier and less stressful!
Epitope Spreading
We have to be so careful with what we eat when we have autoimmune disease because inflammatory foods have a big chance of flaring up our symptoms. As Dr. Yanuck states, “The problem with symptom flares is, among other things, that they can induce epitope spreading. With an autoimmune flare, tissue is damaged, yielding tissue debris. Macrophages and dendritic cells will scavenge this debris to clear the tissue. But this puts self-tissue debris in the possession of immune cells that can present it as antigens to T and B cells in lymph nodes. This can yield the development of a new T cell clone reactive to the self-tissue target. If this T cell clone isn’t identical to the original T cell clone that was responsible for the autoimmune process in the first place, now you’ve got an additional T cell clone capable of attacking the self-tissue target. That’s epitope spreading. If this occurs, your previous baseline may be gone forever, as you will now have an expanded number of autoreactive T cell clones, each capable of driving autoimmune attack against self-tissue targets going forward.”
Avoiding epitope spreading in the first place is how we keep the autoimmune disease as mild as possible so that we can hopefully achieve lasting remission from our symptoms. to avoid the spreading of tissue destruction, we need to remove foods that trigger this reaction but in order to be successful with this longterm, you need to be ready and well-equipped when the cravings and social pressure come storming in!