Dietary Limitations

Dietary Limitations blog post by Iris Carden

I used to look at people who were on specific and complicated diets, and wonder how they managed to keep track of what they could and couldn’t eat, and how frustrating it must be whenever they went out.

That was before I realised my reflux was worse when I ate dairy products, and found avoiding lactose made it more tolerable.

Then my GP suggested I give up gluten, which made my irritable bowel less terrible.

Sinus issues and constant post-nasal drip left me having to give up even lactose-free dairy products.

I learned about the anti-inflammatory diet for lupus patients, recommended by a highly respected rheumatologist. I tried it and felt far better than I had before.

Finally, a dietician looked at all of that and made some suggestions and a few tweaks to accommodate diabetes.

That’s how I come to be eating vegetarian sausages on a gluten free bread roll, spread with a high omega 3 margarine, accompanied by a cup of calcium-enriched soy hot chocolate.

If someone had told me when I was in my 20s that I would give up milk, regular bread and red meat (mostly), I wouldn’t have believed it.

None of the issues affecting my diet are life-threatening. Sometimes, especially when I go out, I decide to just eat what’s available, or whatever I feel like, and deal with the consequences.

Often the consequences are unpleasant. However if you offer me a medium rare filet mignon, with a piping hot jacket potato topped with sour cream, a crusty real bread roll with real butter, I’ll eat, and savour, it, and consider the consequences well worth it.

Most of the time, however, I’ll just eat what doesn’t make me feel sick. I’ve adapted to that.

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Reference: The Lupus Encyclopaedia Blog: The Anti-inflammatory diet.