Anyone tried the Banting diet and did it help?

[Eisbaerin]

Hello everyone and happy new year,

Been quiet for a while as I'm doing relatively ok without any treatment at all at the moment but now got a question.

I got talking to a fitness trainer in early December at a party I was at and she mentioned that she trained a few people with arthritis and that they have found the Banting diet helpful ( it's a high fat, low carb diet avoiding certain things like seed or vegetable oils). I think it's very similar to Paleo or Atkins. For Christmas my other half who had been with me at that party got me the book "real meal revolution" that the trainer had suggested. I read all the info in there and although it seems to make a lot of sense in general, it is mainly aimed at people trying to lose weight ( which wouldn't do me any harm but I'm not much overweight) and only mentions diabetes a bit and suggests it can help with other health problems.

So now I'm wondering if anyone has any experience with this. I have started it last week and it seems quite easy in general, just a bit "faffy". I'm not expecting miracles but if it keeps me off medication and from getting worse I'd be very inclined to keep this up.

[Karen77]

When I follow a strict paleo diet I feel much better. From everything I've read about following a paleo diet, people who need to lose weight are able to lose weight and people who need to gain weight are able to gain weight. I think it's really about optimzing your diet and getting nutrients your body can absorb. It's really about recognizing that chocolate bars, candy, and chicken nuggets are not actually food - even if they taste good - and once your body is no longer used to that junk, it will no longer taste good - you'll actually prefer the "real" food. I followed paleo pretty strictly for a year and then tried the auto-immune protocol (AIP) of the paleo diet for 3 months and felt really good during that time (emotionally/spiritually - I was actually in flare for a lot of it and didn't feel that the diet helped me get through the flare). Some major stressors - pneumonia, death in the family, travel overseas, etc, led to my drifting away from paleo, but I certainly think it's the best approach and am mostly paleo these days.

All to say, I don't actually know the Banting Diet, but paleo also eschews vegetable and seed oils (olive, avocado, red palm and coconut oil are okay).

I say give it a go. It can't hurt. The only problem I had is that so much of social life revolves around food, so it can be hard to find a good restaurant, you end up saying no to your workmate's cookies, that sort of thing.

[Eisbaerin in reply to Karen77]

Thank you very much for your reply. I'm certainly going to give it a good try as I don't think it can hurt to eat good food

Interesting that you had a flare that was not helped by diet, I'm not flaring often and thankfully not very badly too but hoping to keep them at bay nevertheless. I shall see if this will do this or has any other positive effect.

[Matilda7 in reply to Eisbaerin]

Let us know how it goes. I've had a look and it has too much emphasis on fat for me, and as I'm a non-meat eater would be difficult to do I think. But it's always interesting to hear about alternatives to pharmaceutical approaches to our problems!

[Eisbaerin in reply to Matilda7]

Will let you know but I think it needs a few months of insight before I can say anything. So far I find it not too hard to do and lost 4 pounds in a week and a half. I think it'd be harder for a non- meat eater but not impossible. Already tried a few vegetarian recipes and they are yummy too.