You asked for it, dear readers, so here it is. Â My personal food log from Monday- Thursday this week. Â Â Â All comments welcome on my choice of fare – both positive and negative (as long as you are courteous). Â Please remember that I am off all grains (disaccharides) at the moment and have been for the past month. Â I don’t usually eat many grains anyway, but have gone off them completely to solve some lower back pain issues I’ve been having intermittently.
Guess what? Â My back pain has completely gone (I’ve also lost 7 lbs despite my valiant attempts not to lose any weight at all), so my hunch that it was somehow caused by some minor gut inflammation spreading to my lower back area appears to be correct. Â My back pain was the ONLY clue or symptom I had that my gut was slightly imbalanced. Â Â I wonder how many folks realize that their back pain (and other joint pain) is potentially caused by gut imbalance?
I will continue to avoid grains for the next several months and then gradually reintroduce them sometime in the early Fall 2010. Â Â I have to say, though, that I feel GREAT completely off grains and all sugars (disaccharides cannot be fully digested if the gut is out of balance even if only slightly – toxins from the undigested food and pathogens that feed on it spills into the blood causing an unpredictable mix of symptoms). Â Â My goal is to definitely eat grains again, as they are truly a wonderful, traditional food.
It’s just that in our modern lives, our guts may need periodic rest from them as they are so very difficult to digest unless your gut is in top form and only by going off them completely for a period of time can your gut fully heal. Â The fiber in grains is particularly harsh on the gut. Â Fiber from fruits and vegetables is a much more gentle type of fiber on the gut.
I suspect that most people would benefit tremendously from a break from all disaccharide foods (grains, potatoes, sweet potatoes, all sugars except honey and fruit) to heal their gut wall unless you are fortunate enough to have been born naturally to a Mother with no gut dysbiosis herself, breastfed for an extended period of time, and never had antibiotics or other meds in your life! Very few folks would qualify based on that criteria! I’m learning a lot on this adventure and will be blogging more about it in detail in future posts.
**Please note that nothing I ate all week came out of a box or package. It was all made from scratch. This is definitely typical in our house. Boxes and prepacked foods generally do not make the cut to be in our pantry.
Food Log Monday, April 19, 2010
Breakfast: Â Smoothie (pint of raw kefir, 2 bananas, 1/3 cup organic peanut butter, 2 TBL raw local orange blossom honey, tsp or 2 of carob powder, splash chocolate extract)
Lunch: Â Half 8″pizza leftover from last night’s dinner (almond crust pizza with peppers, onions, organic pepperoni slices, cheddar cheese toppings), glass kombucha
Dinner: Â 3 egg omelet with provolone, pepper, onion filling, glass kombucha, blueberry cobbler (made with pecan flour) for dessert
Snacks: Â None
Food Log Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Breakfast: Â Smoothie (pint of raw kefir, 2 bananas, 6 organic strawberries)
Lunch: Â Leftover omelet from last night’s dinner, glass kombucha, leftover blueberry cobbler
Snack: Â cup of alfalfa tea
Dinner: Â Turkey chili, baby green salad with homemade ranch dressing and pepitas, homemade kombucha
Snacks: Â 2 raw honey, semi sweet chocolate mint patties from Heavenly Organics
Snack before bed: Â small cup of bone broth, cup of nettle tea
Food Log Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Breakfast: Â almond flour pancake with butter and pure date syrup, glass of kombucha, small cup of chicken broth, cup of jasmine tea
Lunch: Â Homemade pizza (mushroom, onion, zucchini, yellow squash, peppers, organic pepperoni, organic provolone and organic cheddar cheese topping)
Dinner: Â Marinated chicken (marinated in traditionally brewed teriyaki sauce and raw honey), veggies cooked in butter, glass kombucha
Food Log Thursday, April 22, 2010
Breakfast: Â Smoothie (2 bananas, pint of kefir, 8 organic strawberries)
Lunch: Â Â Homemade pizza (mushroom, organic pepperoni, zucchini, yellow squash,red peppers, onion, organic provolone and organic cheddar cheese toppings)
Dinner: Â Meatloaf (made with grassfed beef), veggies cooked in butter, glass kombucha
Evening Snacks: Â Pear, whole grapefruit, cup of alfalfa tea
When you cook with cheese (I am guessing you baked the pizza, right?) do you just use organic cheese or do you use raw cheese? I am new to this stuff and trying to figure it out.
You eat very well and I am not surprised that you lost weight and feel so good. I just seen a new documentary last night on public television. It is called 'Food, Inc.' I knew a lot of the facts but many more things were an eye opener concerning the food manufactured for us to eat. It went into the grains, all meats and other additives like high fructose corn syrup and also talked about GMOs. It was a very good show. You can watch the trailer on truefoodnow.org. Have a good evening. 🙂
That is too funny. The main reason I haven't gone off grains before is because I knew my weight would drop like a stone and weight loss was not my goal (I've suspected that they were a problem for some time .. actually several years). Interestingly, my husband says I really don't look that much thinner .. I just have more muscle definition. Perhaps most of the weight I lost was bloating and water as gut health improved? A good friend of mine who runs a Crossfit gym says that a 5 lb or so weight loss is typical when someone goes off grains.
One other thing… I've seen your videos… how the heck can you lose 7lbs? Did you lose an organ? 🙂
Oh, and the date syrup is made up of fresh dates, that's it. The mint patties only have raw honey in them. No disaccharides in either. If someone has candida issues, they would need to be off all fruit and honey as well, but I do not have that problem .. am only trying to heal my gut wall which is a different approach.
Hi Rick, all sugars are disaccharides and cannot be digested if the gut is imbalanced in any way, so I am off of all of them – even maple syrup, sucanat, molasses etc. I am only eating a bit of raw, unfiltered honey and some fruit as my sweeteners currently. I do not plan to be this way forever, just for 6 months or so.
Hi Juliann, made the meatloaf with 1 1/2 lbs grassfed ground beef, some tomato puree, 2 eggs, 1/4 cup almond flour, teriyaki sauce and some sea salt. Yes, bananas cause issues for some folks. I do very very well on them though when I pair them with a lot of fat like what is in the kefir. If I eat them alone, the sugar would nail me .. but having with high fat lowers the glycemic factor tremendously. Raw, unfiltered honey is a superfood, so I do use it on occasion in my smoothies because it is so very nutritious. Also, my smoothie is HUGE and I tend to sip it all morning and even have what is left as an afternoon snack sometimes.
Sarah,
THANK for doing this! This is great seeing what you eat as I very much respect your approach to nutrition and your practical attitude about it. When you say that you are off of sugar, are you referring to white sugar? I see that you have honey, date syrup (what is that?) and the semi sweet chocolate mint patties.
thanks again
Rick
May I come to your house for meals?? LOL I have my smoothie for lunch. I am not much of a breakfast eater. My stomach needs to wake up first. I usually just have my juice, vitamins, protein cookie and tea….. then I am too busy to think about food until lunch. I like sounds of the chocolate smoothie that you had on Monday. I will have to give that one a try. Thanks so much for taking the time to do this blog. I really have been enjoying it.
Hi Sarah! How did you make the meatloaf? And wow, 2 bananas and honey in your morning shake seems like a ton of sugar, I know I could not handle that, but, we are all different, thanks for posting your meals!