Dr. Wentz’s Root Cause Paleo Diet

[Flowerpot108]

Has anyone done this diet? I’m at the beginning of my second week of doing the root cause paleo diet and I am so bored of it already 😅, but tbf I do feel really good. I think you do it for four weeks and then you do the quizzes again, and if you still have symptoms you do 6-12 weeks of the Autoimmune diet, which is even more restrictive! I’m referring to Dr. Wentz’s book ‘Hashimoto's Protocol’.

I also saw the elimination diet on her website, so my hope is that after a bit when I do the quizzes again it will show that my symptoms are down to a good place and I can then do the elimination diet which will help me introduce things back in.

Has anyone got any good recipes that are a bit less of a shock to the system compared to the recipes in the book? I’ve gone from vegan, to pescatarian, to eating beef and liver to help with this condition - can’t hack eating meat for breakfast 😅 it’s just a step too far 😂.

[Cooper27]

I did this for a while. Pinterest was really helpful.

I tended to do breakfast bakes, like banana bread, sweet potato scones, coconut and banana bake or even a breakfast hash (bacon, apple potato was my fave, but you could do a mushroom one).

Lunch I had cauliflower fried rice dishes, salad, Buddha bowls, soup, baked potatoes. You can get a paleo mayo or mix tuna with guacamole to stop it from being dry.

For dinner we had curries (with cauli and broc on the side), pulled pork, tacos using lettuce leaves as shells, Chilli with butternut squash and sweet potato to bulk out. There are a lot of options out there.

[Flowerpot108 in reply to Cooper27]

Yeah I guess I’m in such a rush all the time because I work full time and then work on my diploma that I find breakfast and lunch just have to be quick on the go things 😬. All those meals sound bloomin lovely! Don’t think I’d be tearing my hair out if I was eating all that! 😁

[Workingitout]

Hi, l follow a Paleo diet and have found it has made a big difference. My favourite breakfast is chestnut flour pancakes: beat an egg with some chestnut flour and a dash of coconut milk (Koko unsweetened is good). Fry as a pancake, l have it with some Coyo coconut yoghurt, blueberries and a banana. I find it best to make my own bread, biscuits etc Love Cauliflower rice with toasted pine nuts and herbs, lots of fish, soups etc Good Paleo recipes on internet. Good luck with it and let us know how you get on.

[Flowerpot108 in reply to Workingitout]

Ooo I’ve never heard of chestnut flour! Sounds amazing! 😍

[Workingitout in reply to Flowerpot108]

It is delicious, the one l use is by amisa - packaged in a green box. Would it work for you to make a batch of pancakes in advance to whistle up a quick breakfast roll by heating up for less than a minute in microwave? I try to make bread, biscuits and soup at the weekend to cut down time during the week.

[Flowerpot108 in reply to Workingitout]

Where do you get it from? Yeah I should batch cook! Do you have soup for all your lunches?

[Welchy1]

I tried this diet too (back in 2014). I have both Alopecia Areata and Hashis... I'll be honest, it made very little difference to my antibodies (I could not get either condition into remission), but I did feel better eating a highly nutritious diet. Although symptoms never really went away (poor sleep, hair loss etc)

Since trying this I am still gluten free, but decided not to keep up with the limited food choices. I found it pretty stressful so figured keeping up with it was counter productive.

It's worth a go though.. good luck

[Cooper27 in reply to Welchy1]

The diet is only really intended for short term anyway, they say if you still have bad symptoms after 3-6 months, then you probably have something else that needs looked at (adrenal fatigue, deficiencies, SIBO, gut candida). The diet brought my antibodies in line, but I still had some problems and paid for further tests. We discovered I had gut candida, and dealt with that afterwards.

[Welchy1 in reply to Cooper27]

Thanks for the suggestion. Are you in the US or UK? Did you work with a functional medicine practitioner regarding the tests? I'd love to learn more about your experience and if you any recommendations would you mind direct messaging me?

[Cooper27 in reply to Welchy1]

I'm UK based

I don't think we have functional medicine in the same way here? I worked with a BANT registered nutritionist, but I think she was close to what I'd expect a functional practitioner to be.

We did an organics acid test for some of my other symptoms, although I think I want to do some more tests (e.g. adrenals or gut bacteria testing) it's very individual for what you might need yourself though, based on symptoms, family history etc.

[tiptoes47]

Yes! I started 18 months ago (and I'm still on it!) I felt massive improvements by cutting certain foods out - but unfortunately I found I was unable to reintroduce foods after the elimination period.... it's like my intolerances had got even worse! Dr Wentz says she never made progress until she dealt with SIBO and parasites. I think this is the key for many - and would strongly advise if the diet alone doesn't work after a few weeks, don't give up! (Or continue aimlessly like I have for so long)... it might mean you need to get tested to see if any pathogens are causing the problem. I recently got a private gut test and it was very enlightening. I'm now on a treatment for pathogens and feel positive change is finally happening! Incidentally - I would probably choose to stay on a similar diet now even if intolerances weren't a problem. I lost all the weight I put on with hashis - I feel leaner, fitter, healthier and brighter - and my tastes have adjusted so I now really enjoy what I can eat. I have a lot of salads with fresh herbs, capers, olives, lemon zest, ginger etc to add big flavour. Lots of roast veg dinners, fish with dill or ginger, tons of Kale drenched in olive oil and sea salt flakes. There are some great pancake recipes for breakfast, berries with coconut yogurt, green smoothies are great if you add pineapple or kiwi for sweetness. Once you get past sugar / grain / carb cravings it's much easier!

[Flowerpot108 in reply to tiptoes47]

Ah that’s interesting that you’ve continued it. Yeah I don’t think it helps that I’m trying to fit this paleo diet into slimming world which is a low fat diet 😂 so I use my syns for fat and you basically get 300cals for syns whereas on Paleo it’s a very fat heavy diet.

[RockyPath]

I worked with a nutritionist who ordered stool tests to see what was going on. Very interesting collecting one's poop and spooning it into tubes and shipping it off for analysis.

It was the authoritative way to identify the bad bugs growing in my gut as a result of too many rounds of antibiotics. The SIBO solution recommended by the nutritionist was a two-week course of Uva Ursi, in doses sufficient to annihilate the bad bugs. I then repopulated with an assortment of probiotics to get a nice balance. It made a big difference.

Trying to confine one's diet to a narrow range of acceptable foods can be quite a trial. The gut biome likes variety and the species bloom or die back depending on what you're eating. I make my own kimchi, which makes the little bacteria of my biome happy as clams.

Good luck on your journey to better health!

[Flowerpot108 in reply to RockyPath]

Thanks! I do feel much better so I can tell it’s helping 😁 if it stagnates and I still have symptoms I’ll deffo look into more tests.