Recipes and Cookbooks

Hello, has any body tried the Lupus Recovery diet? Lupus Freedom cookbook? Or does anybody recommend any good lupus cook books/recipes? I am trying to change my diet to help ease any luus flare ups.

Thank you

[Calafia]

Hi Nikki,

I had great success with eating the way recommended in Wheat Belly. Long story short, eat foods that don't cause inflammation which is about all that used to eat. Now i've learned to make pizza and even ice cream with ingredients that don't set me off. Nope, wasn't easy, but is worth it.

All the best,

Calafia

[Hidden in reply to Calafia]

Thank you. I actually got some gluten free flour to make pizza! I will be experimenting with this! Do you eat red meat? Diary food?

Thanks again x

[Calafia in reply to Hidden]

Oh, wish I was there for dinner!

I found gluten free not really great for me. All the rice or tapioca flours got to me, too. So tried making the crust with cauliflower and cheese...which sounds funny, I know, but didn't bother me very much compared to substitute flours. I also tried a crust made with einkorn wheat which is supposed to be easy to digest as more like wheat that mother nature intended. I tolerated it well, but didn't eat a great amount of it either. It's kind of pricey, but a nice indulgence once in a while.

Dairy is not my friend. I can get away w/ a bit of cheese certainly enough to make pizza worthwhile. I read that the process to make the cheese ends up making the dairy protein easier to digest and therefore why cheese is more tolerable than milk. I do drink goat milk...which one again sounds funny but it only bothers me a bit and I like my hot chocolates. The goat milk protein is supposed to be easier to digest. If I can find cheese w/ out coloring and a bunch of additives that works well for me as well as sheep or goat cheese once again.

I do eat simple meats. Probably a bit too much red meat, but after giving up so much wasn't too hard on myself about it and my cholesterol is still testing fine after a year of eating this way. Meats with a lot of sugar or nitrates or even too much sodium mean I will be in misery.

I also started making smoothies and putting in a scoop of powdered wheat grass. For me, this is like the fire department showing up and putting out a flame. That stuff really calms my inflammation as well as all the veggies (kale or spinach) in the smoothie.

I could go on and on. Want to help others feel better based on what I've discovered.

Enjoy your treat tonight and feel well!

Calafia

[Hidden in reply to Calafia]

Thanks again, I guess it's all trial and error. I am looking at smoothies too and looked into wheatgem, I am going to try your brilliant idea and I am going to try soups. I will see how I get on and maybe share some recipe ideas?

One more question.... How do you know when something you eat is not good for the lupus? How do you pin point it?

Thanks again

[Calafia]

Well, I was "lucky" in that about 3 hours after I eat, my hands start feeling like someone is holding a lighter up to my knuckles if I eat certain foods. There are other issues for me, like my wrist pain increases, my knee ache returns or gets worse, the shoulder ache comes, but the hands are the first place I'd have a reaction. My fatigue also increases when eat certain foods, but this takes a few days to catch up with me.

My blood tests are too infrequent to know a correlation so I am going by how I feel and that when I do have blood tests my body is showing improvement in antibodies and red blood count. I was cautioned not too read too much into the antibodies test since people that aren't diagnosed w/ lupus can also have positive readings or high numbers.

I applaud you for trial and error and for embracing a change in food. I hope it helps you as much as it did me. I would recommend avoiding wheatgem as read it has gluten. Wheatgrass does not have gluten. As you said, you have to do what works for you, so just my .02.

Soups, yes! I tolerate that well. I would get soup bones from the store. These have bone marrow in them and cook up veggie soup. The bone marrow is supposed to be really healing for your body. If nothing else, eating soup is comforting.

Would love to hear your future recipes and what is working for you!

[MargaretGail]

I followed the Lupus Recovery Diet for 3 1/2 months and felt no better for it. It is very strict and difficult to stick to.

[Hidden]

I stick to a low protein, raw food diet with no coffee, alcohol or fizzy drinks. I try to avoid processed foods where possible and I can tell immediately when I have eaten something with preservatives or additives as the fatigue hits like a brick wall immediately. Salad and veggies are my staples. Sounds boring but I actually enjoy it now.

[Cann in reply to Hidden]

I know what you mean and I am the same, but I use Hashimoto's muscle test to see what to eat and drink. I had six sips of milk this morning to see if I am OK, but generally I can't take dairy. I steam my lettuce for a few minutes sometimes when my gut is bad. I find eating food separately rather than too many mixtures is best for me, too, and little and often rather than a big meal - all sounds hard work and it was to start with and others think I'm weird, but I do what helps to keep up my energy and lessen the flares. I know that weather changes affect me, too, I am very sensitive to all stresses especially ES, so don't stay on here for too long.

I suspect many who come on here are also like me.

I enjoy what I eat most of the time, now, too.

[Hidden in reply to Cann]

That's what I am trying to do, eating little of certain foods to see how it goes, then try different foods - basically trying it and see what happens! I guess it's a common sense diet

[Cann in reply to Hidden]

Yes, it is, but so many get away with eating differently and I wonder why some of us suffer so much because of diet.

[Hidden in reply to Hidden]

Thanks. I lookin at eating more fruit and veg - salads, soup and smoothies, as well as trying dairy, meat, fish and wheat to see how it goes x

[Silvergilt]

My diet is a bit extreme but I'm mostly housebound and tired of being told everything will go away once I start losing weight, so I've adjusted my duet drastically to try and get GPs et al to see me and not the extra kilos. I drink a lot of homemade smoothies at the moment, have cut bread products out except god a once a week treat (but I have started to react horribly to those, so maybe will stop). I only eat one 'solid meal a day now, usually meat and vegetables of sone kind. I don't eat beef but a lot of my meat is wild, like venison, boar, pheasant - a little goes a long way and the iron is higher in these than just eating chicken all the time. I also take chocolate covered Brazil nuts. No more than four a day. They give me plenty of selenium (which I am always deficient in) and the chocolate is a nice treat so I don't feel deprived.

Smoothies are great -I can pack a lot if different stuff in one and because the blender does most of the hard work, they're very easy to digest. My fave in the morning is frozen berries, wheatgrass powder, linseed, ground oats and a raw egg (don't panic, I have chickens, and I know just how fresh my eggs are!). At night I make a smoothie with yoghurt and milk and whatever fruit I like as a calcium boost before I go to bed to help with restless leg issues. I measure all quantities; I don't just eyeball everything as it's too easy to overdo the food. All the fruit I get from the local produce stall gets measured and baggied so all I have to do is reach into the freezer, take out a selection and then pop it into the blender.

It wasn't a big adjustment for me as my issue is I'm rarely hungry, so I find myself eating toast all the time. Turns out the toast may have been doing me in! I feel better than I did before. It isn't a cure of course, but it certainly seems to be an improvement.

[Purpletop in reply to Silvergilt]

Hi, I'm looking into using more venison and game, particularly now that autumn and winter months are coming. Where do you get yours from, please? My local butcher isn't stocking much. Are you using any online sites?

[Silvergilt in reply to Purpletop]

Certainly can! I do all my shopping online. I don't have the energy for shopping. I can very much recommend wildmeat.co.uk. -they offer great value and are very mindful of quality. I'm very happy with them. I also live very close to bisonfarm.co.uk and get bison now and then but they are very pricey so I would mostly recommend wild Meat Co. I refer them as they stock high quality goat meat(great for Caribbean curry) and often offer deals for seasonal food. Pheasant is on special right now so I am stocking up. Pheasant with wild mushrooms, white wine, thyme and cream. .... Yeah, I'm a bit of a foodie. I make that one meal a day count! I also have a large chest freezer to buy in bulk, which is cheaper overall and means I always have a selection. Only need to shop my freezer on a bad day.

[Purpletop in reply to Silvergilt]

That's so useful, thank you so much! I'm definitely going to order from there, I will try both and see. I love casseroles for autumn and winter and game etc meat lends itself so well to that. Plus the meat is feeding on grass or at least they are not fed grain and antibiotics. Many thanks.

[Hidden]

Thanks silvergilt, the smoothies sound like a good idea, I haven't done any yet but will do now

[Silvergilt in reply to Hidden]

I'm really sold on them. One of the perks is you don't need 'pretty' fruit; spotty bananas, bruised peaches and frozen berries work just fine! So for someone who always forgets the fruit bowl, it's a good option.

[Hidden]

So just to make sure I am getting this right.... We need to eat food high in iron? Eat plenty of natural ingredients? Maybe cut out wheat?

Thanks everyone xxxx

[btvoicu]

My biggest issue was the gluten free and starbucks. But I found fresh fishc and eat vegies most are ok but I stuck with romaine and cucumbers and sprinkle with slic ed almonds or sunflower seeds there is a list and great recipes for gluten free on Pinterest easy to follow I use coconut oil whipped with almond milk in my nutrablst for creamer and many healthy smoothies with beets apples and pineapple to name a few