What foods do you eat to keep to low carbs and no sugar, and still keep regular (if you get my drift!)

[Pr0jection]

I eat prunes daily. I have done so since around 2008. These help enormously to prevent constipation. I have a brain aneurism and have been told to avoid getting into this state. I can't eat fish or eggs but most other things I can cope with. I read this morning that prunes are very high in carbs. Would really appreciate hearing other folks eating habits with either keto or anti inflamatory eating. Thank you.

[Kendrew]

healthunlocked.com/redirect...

Hi there,

This link gives you some info about low carb diets and what foods are involved. It's quite a comprehensive explanation but you'll get the gist and may help.

Without statins I would have very high cholesterol so to help keep my cholesterol level down, I eat a diet that's low in saturated fats. Perversely, in order to maintain a healthy weight whilst on steroids, you need to eat a very low carb diet which entails cutting out sugar but increasing fat intake so you still have an energy source! So, many of the foods that are helpful for one issue are not helpful for the other!

I've learnt to address both requirements by making compromises. So I eat as low a carb diet as possible but avoid saturated fats as much as possible.

So for instance..... I eat

- fresh fruit- berries mainly as they have lowest carb content

- fresh veg- (eg. cauliflower, broccoli, asparagus) not root veg though

- lots of salad ( spinach, watercress, avocado, red pepper, cucumber & some tomato)

- lots of protein (fish, chicken, eggs)

- natural, live yogurt

and I try to avoid.....

- all breads, pastries, rice, pasta

- fruits like bananas, grapes

- veg like potatoes, parsnips, carrots

Examples of compromises would include

- porridge (very good for 'mopping up bad cholesterol in body)

- cheese & other dairy ( calcium rich and good for bones)

- a small treat of a couple of pieces of 85% cocoa solids chocolate each evening.

- occasional sweet treats once in a while or the inclusion of something I've previously enjoyed like a small bowl of wholemeal pasta or a couple of roast potatoes.

Over the 4yrs I've been on steroids, I've put on a stone in weight but then managed to lose half a stone once I'd figured out a diet regime that seemed to work for me. I've been reasonably stable at 9½st ever since, with a couple of small 'glitches' in between.

So as you can see, it's often never straightforward when trying to find a way of managing what you eat when several medical issues are concerned.

All you can do is weigh up your own individual 'priorities' and formulate an eating plan that is the best compromise for you.

Hope this has helped.

[Pr0jection in reply to Kendrew]

Many thanks, will read through and digest (!) during today.

[Temeraire]

I have All bran 30 grams with a spoon of milled flax seed and natural live yoghurt and milk. Maybe some berries or pomegranate. It doesn’t seem to put my blood sugar up and works like magic when taken regularly.

[Pr0jection in reply to Temeraire]

Thanks for taking the time to reply....

[Saffron23]

Hi Pr0jection,

Linwoods cold milled, Flaxseed, Sunflower, Pumpkin & Chia Seeds & Goji Berries mix is fantastic eaten daily for keeping things moving along (if you know what I mean!) Good on porridge, cereal or in soups too. All the best to you. 😊

[Pr0jection in reply to Saffron23]

Thank you. Will try some of the recommendations..

[PMRpro Ambassador]

Providing you eat plenty of the right sort of vegetables you can get a lot of fibre - there is no fibre in meat, dairy or fish but what you eat with it is significant.

healthline.com/nutrition/22...

Obviously some of the foods listed there aren't good for low carb, especially the banana, apple and pear, but it then all comes down to amounts and how low carb you are aiming for. A large plate of salad with unpeeled cucumber, lettuce, tomato, nuts, seeds is lowish carb, high in fibre.

It is a real case of every little helps!

[Marijo1951]

There is another good reason to eat prunes, which is the strong evidence that eating six per day helps to preserve bone density in post-menopausal women. This is the main reason why I continue to eat prunes despite the high carbs. There are various articles about this for example this one:#clinicaladvisor.com/home/to...

[Pr0jection in reply to Marijo1951]

Thank you. Yes, I had read that and fairly recently too.

[Rugger in reply to Pr0jection]

I eat 5 prunes every morning on my porridge, as I have osteoporosis. I believe we have to decide for ourselves how low a low carb diet we want to follow. It's impossible to eat "no sugar", as there are natural sugars in vegetables, fruit and milk and any starchy foods are digested into glucose. I am careful to eat small portions of starchy foods, but I do eat fruit. I also include the seeds that others have mentioned and nuts for snacking, as well as 25g dark chocolate every evening!

I monitor my weight, my GP checks my blood sugar levels and after 7 years of pred, I've gained no weight and don't have diabetes. To avoid constipation, it helps to drink plenty of fluids. I have a glass of water with lunch and evening meal, as well as 5 or 6 hot drinks daily.

[jaycee444]

I eat prunes every day whilst keeping to a low carb diet in most respects. I also eat full fat authentic Greek yoghurt each morning. I have done this since first prescribed steroids and I havent put on any weight. My cholesterol did go up whilst on a higher dose of Prednisolone but has dropped back again now I am am tapering down.

[Pr0jection in reply to jaycee444]

Thank you. I'm doing much the same as you.

[piglette]

Recently I saw a programme on TV about diet and they showed someone a table full of all the food they had eaten in the last week. In fact the table was a load of “beige” foods. So I wondered what the food I ate looked like and decided to photograph it and put it on Dropbox. Because I had to photograph everything I found that in fact I am eating less, as I am aware of the quantity I eat and also by seeing the food in photo form I am probably eating better to make it more non “beige”!

[Gardenbay]

I eat bran flakes with kiwi fruit cut up in small pieces, it certainly helps.

[Hidden]

Hello,We have a handful of bran with our breakfast cereal with fruit and try to eat green vegetables. I used to eat dried figs, but I don't know about the carb or sugar content of these.

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to Hidden]

"The dehydration process of drying this fruit results in a higher concentration of sugar relative to weight, so dried figs have a higher concentration of carbohydrates—mostly in the form of sugar—than fresh figs. For instance, a 60 gram serving of dried, uncooked figs has 6 grams of fiber and 29 grams of sugar."

That is about 6 figs according to nutrition data - I couldn't eat 6 fresh ones so struggle to imagine eating 6 dried ones either.

[Hidden in reply to PMRpro]

Yes, I stopped eating figs, though I wasn't aware of just how high the sugar content was. Thanks for your information. Marvellous for constipation though. Formerly I used to have one or two a day. A relative takes bran for constipation problems, so we now have this with breakfast, so far so good. Green vegetables are also excellent.

[Rugger in reply to Hidden]

One fig would contain only 5g sugar. As PMRpro says, it would be quite hard to eat 6 figs at a time.

[Hidden in reply to Rugger]

I would certainly hesitate to eat 6 figs at a time, I should imagine the result might be quite dramatic 😀. I have only ever had one or two dried figs a day. However the bran etc. seems to help regularity and I have stopped eating the figs.

[Pr0jection in reply to Hidden]

My mother gave me syrup of figs when I was a child. Also rhubarb pills.

[Hidden in reply to Pr0jection]

Hello,Yes, I remember syrup of figs, not the rhubarb pills. Mothers had some good remedies.

[Pr0jection in reply to PMRpro]

I eat about 6 prunes a day, have done for several years. The interesting thing is that when I have my fasting blood tests once a year my blood sugar is normal.

[choirsinger1986]

I have one small medium sliced brown bread every morning - regular as clockwork 👍🙂

[pata63]

I am on low carb diet similar to Kendrew. I occasionally resort to a few prunes, but do worry about the sugar level. I usually manage by eating psyllium 3 times a day. A heaped teaspoon stirred into water, or mixed into Yoghurt. The last chocolate or alcohol to cross my lips was about a decade ago. I haven't had a potato, pasta, or bread for about 5 years now and don't miss them at all.

[Pr0jection in reply to pata63]

That's interesting and very good to hear. With the change in eating habits have you managed to come off steroids, or at least reach a very low dose? I'm interested because on another support site one of the founder members swears that by going keto he was able to come off 15mg pred completely after, from memory, a few months. Not wishing to be facetious, just curious, I asked him why this method of eating isn't promoted more if it seems foolproof in the fight again PMR. He didn't have an answer but I suspect it probably comes down to food tolerances, age, underlying illnesses, medication. Thanks for your reply. I will definitely take it on board.

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to Pr0jection]

There are different forms of PMR - and men often have a very different experience ...

[Pr0jection in reply to PMRpro]

Thanks, and good to know. I'll be so glad when the medical profession take PMR rather more seriously than it currently appears to. By then, one hopes that the different forms are better understood and managed.

[PMRCanada]

My nutritionist/nurse daughter helped me with a low (not no) carb/sugar/salt eating plan 5 years ago when I was diagnosed with PMR and put on pred. My meal plans are pretty consistent and contain yoghurt and homemade berry compote or veg omelette for breakfast, salad or soup with protein for lunch, and protein veg (not root) and sometimes brown rice. I make a lavender mixed berry parfait with yoghurt and real whipped cream for dessert. I often snack on cheese or boiled eggs.I’ve been able to msintain this new style in part because o am not rigid. I do enjoy treating myself, especially while dining out or on vacation.

I also have tried to increase my physical activity, and must be mindful of diet due to medication and other health conditions (diverticulitis, high calcium and weight bearing exercise whilst having OA in both knees.

I’ve lost and kept off 35-40 pounds and got off blood pressure meds. It can be done, in one way or another, and the suppprt of others certainly helps.

[Miserere]

I've followed Sarah Myhill's recommendations regarding diet and supplements on the Paleo/Ketogenic diet. I eat plenty of green and Mediterranean veg but avoid starchy, i.e. potatoes etc. Similarly pasta and rice and cereals. I do have ground flax seed and a little chia seed in yoghurt with berries but I do take vitamin C to bowel tolerance and then keep the dose at just under that level. It fluctuates with the body's needs but it seems to work for me. She recommends dissolving 5g in a litre of water and drinking throughout the day - or you can take tablets if that doesn't suit you. I've recently bought a sachet of kefir grains which I shall use in almond milk as she also recommends fermented foods. There's plenty of choice from kombucha to sauerkraut - that feed the good bacteria in your gut. It's been trial and error for me but I have lost over a stone since starting on Pred and it means that my blood sugar is back in the normal range from having just tipped into pre-diabetic.

[ubaoz]

I second all of the above comments, especially the green veggies and drinking plenty of water. I'd also add that having healthy gut flora makes a big difference for me too. I take a 60 billion mixed varieties probiotic every day and really notice a difference in more ways than just a tendency to constipation if I run out of the capsules.

[Mayadill]

Haven’t put on an ounce since being on Pred. I read if you spend 24 hours asleep you burn 50 cals/hour, so that’s pretty much a minimum of 1200 cals needed. To say sometimes I haven’t eaten enough sounds more dire than it was: however dashed jolly nutritious the food, it’s actually quite hard to clock up the calories on skimmed milk, prawns and fresh fruit. Simply not eating enough can make you feel cold and tired. I have introduced some whole milk, nuts and bikkies. Bread and potatoes don’t interest me, bread mostly because I grew up a lot of the time in continental Europe and what England regards as bread is a sad joke. There’s a reasonably decent GF loaf from Schar I buy occasionally if I feel like boiled eggs with ‘soldiers’. I’m not coeliac. Like others I have found I feel better without wheat, though I wonder if it’s actually the wheat or all the other muck in so-called bread. My days have evened out to something like

First meal – a couple of mugs of coffee made with milk and/or cereal/porridge if I feel hungry.

Second meal – lovely frothy shake of milk, frozen fruit, yoghurt, protein powder

Third meal – some kind of ‘proper’ meal, prawn or crab or mussels, cucumber, celery, sultanas, jacket, with butter and mayo or a piece of fish or a chop or eggs, with green veggies and a nominal potato or two, or something veggie based round lentils or butter beans with rice, followed after about an hour with a dessert made up of say a couple of bikkies and an apple.

Interspersed with grazing on fruit, especially pears and grapes, a glass of milk, couple of spoonfuls of yoghurt, Mr Waitrose’s fine free from shortbread or Nairn’s fruit and seed oatcakes, Rachel’s organic rice pud, Trek protein bars, salted peanuts, almonds.

Sometimes I top up with a commercial protein shake.

The medical mantra that supplements aren’t needed because you get what you need from diet assumes the standard 2000 cals a day. I figured I needed supplements and take a multivit, C, E, Mg, K, B complex and iron on days I haven’t had red meat or eggs, which is most days.

Two things about iron: most supplement manufacturers to judge by the labels are convinced the NRV of iron is 15 mg. Only for women who are menstruating. I had a lightbulb moment when I learned that calcium and iron compete for the same receptors. I started to keep the milk well away from the iron and had no further problems in the loo.

I found this interesting list of what goes with or against what in the vitamin and mineral department It’s possibly a bit vague, in that it says ‘high levels’, for instance, but not what those levels actually are.

Vitamin and Mineral Interactions | Deanna Minich

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to Mayadill]

How good is that GF loaf from Schar? Does it keep well if you freeze it? I have a friend who needs GF coming to stay. I nearly bought one on offer the other day to investigate but I usually prefer to go without bread than most GF! Or, it must be admitted, most UK bread!!!

[Mayadill in reply to PMRpro]

Palatable....Edible on its own. Which is more than most GF! Actually never have frozen it. Says under Usage it's suitable for home freezing.

ocado.com/products/schar-gl...

Strongly suspect that if there were a warme bakker (Netherlands) on the corner I'd live largely on baguettes, butter, ham, tomatoes, eggs

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to Mayadill]

Here it would be an organic pure rye Bauernbrot ...

[Mayadill in reply to PMRpro]

Aber naturlich.

[Estellemac]

I use Inulin . It’s chicory extract. It’s a powder you can add to tea or coffee, soup, porridge or most things liquid. It’s tasteless and natural you don’t know your having it. Good for bowel health.

[Lenore58]

Hi,

I eat very much like Kendrew. I I have had zero problem with elimination since starting a keto type diet. if you eat this way, I don’t think you’ll need the prunes at all. However, reading the comments below about them being anti-osteoporosis, you may want to include them anyway. I had no idea about that.

[Pr0jection]

Thanks for your comments. Yes, I read the article about prunes just a short while ago so I think I'll carry on eating them.....