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Autoimmune Disease
The path to reversing your Rheumatoid Arthritis, getting off your medications, and regaining your health is the food you eat. Switching to a whole food, plant-based, no oil diet is a tried and true method for regaining your health.
Presented by John McDougall, MD
Possible Food Sensitivities that may contribute to autoimmune diseases.
Possible Food Sensitivities that may contribute to autoimmune diseases.
Once you've eliminated all animal products (meat, fish, eggs, dairy, cheese etc...) and oil what's left that might prove troublesome? Under normal circumstances veggies, fruits and even gluten containing whole wheat reduce inflammation. But there are certain people allergic or sensitive to various plants. For these folks finding and eliminating those food sensitivities are critical to reducing inflammation and possibly reducing or eliminating the symptoms of their autoimmune disease. Keeping a food journal outlining what you eat and the associated increase or decrease of symptoms may come in handy.
If you are already aware of allergies or sensitivities to certain plant foods these should have already been eliminated from your diet, if not eliminate them now.
If after trying a whole food, plant based, no oil diet for a while you see no relief or your symptoms get worse you may have to remove certain other foods from your diet. If you have been keeping a food journal you may already have an idea what to eliminate first. If not, here are two sources of plants that are often trouble for a small percentage of folks suffering from autoimmune diseases.
1. Some of the common sensitivity of plants include gluten, 1-3% of folks fall in this category. It would be easy to say that wheat, rye and barley are the main sources of gluten, but exactly what does this mean in the real world. Check out this article, "Sources of Gluten."
2. Another source of sensitivity among a very small population is an intolerance of Nightshade vegetables. These include: bell peppers, eggplants, potatoes, tomatoes, chili pepper, cayenne pepper, and paprika. More information on nightshades can be found here.
If eliminating all animal products, oil, and the above 2 sources, isn't sufficient then an all out elimination diet might be required. One example of an elimination diet can be found below.
From Dr. McDougall's May 2014 Newsletter
Over the past 36 years I have learned many valuable lessons about treating inflammatory arthritis. The pain and disability of this disease is often sufficient to cause people to seek help from anywhere and at any price. When their respectable medical doctors with their powerful drugs fail, patients look to alternative medicine and the supplement industry. Along the way most patients ask the experts: "Does diet have anything to do with my arthritis?" With very few exceptions medical doctors and registered dietitians emphatically answer, "NO." In the face of unified resistance, and a past personal medical history littered with multiple failed attempts for a cure, the patient may become sufficiently motivated to take what seems to be the most drastic step of all, which is to radically change his or her diet.
My 36-years of seeing patients, along with many scientific papers, has lead me to the conclusion that a healthy low fat, vegan diet (the McDougall Diet, for example) dramatically improves and in most cases cures inflammatory arthritis. The diet consumed cannot simply be "vegan" (without animal foods). Meals must be based around unrefined starches with the addition of vegetables and fruits. Vegetable oils (olive, corn, canola, flaxseed, etc.) are strictly forbidden.
When patients first start, I usually recommend that they follow the basic McDougall Diet without wheat or soy foods. (This request is made only for general health reasons because it eliminates refined flours found in breads and cereals, and processed soybeans, including fake meats and cheeses.) A gluten-free diet (no wheat, barley, or rye) is a next reasonable step for anyone not achieving rapid improvements from the basic McDougall Diet. A few people will have to follow the stricter McDougall Elimination Diet (see below). A temporary water-only fast maintained for a few days is the ultimate dietary restriction and is a final step I have resorted to for a few difficult patients.
Benefits for arthritis usually begin to appear within four to seven days of strict adherence to the new diet regime. This is the amount of time required for the bowels to eliminate all of the foods previously consumed. After the remnants of unhealthy foods are emptied from the intestines, the animal-food-derived protein antigens slowly clear out of the bloodstream over the next few days. Products of inflammation, such as the antibodies attacking the body's own tissues, may persist for weeks. Complete resolution of active disease may take as long as four months; only then can the full benefits be appreciated from following the new diet therapy.
Unfortunately, small indiscretions often result in big penalties. That error could be a tiny bite of cheese or a bowlful of oily vegetables. One of my patients had been free of all of her arthritis pain and swelling for four months when she ventured out to a Chinese restaurant. The food served may have been vegan, but the peapods and sprouts were drowning in peanut oil and swimming with questionable ingredients. The next day she was in my office with both knees red, hot, and swollen.
People on medication must keep in contact with their private doctors. As they improve with the new diet regime then their doctors should be recommending, sooner rather than later, reductions and eliminations of medications. Remember, the medications are primarily for symptom relief. The cost of too aggressive reduction of medication is an increase in pain, which can be remedied by restarting the drug regime. Most people, like the ten examples in this article, will be able to stop all medications and live comfortably. The program is essentially cost-free, side effect-free, and risk-free. Of course, patients should consult their healthcare provider before making any changes in their diet or medication, especially if they are ill or on powerful drugs.
From Dr. McDougall's May 2014 Newsletter
The following foods are allowed without calorie restriction. Portion control (based on a visual estimate) should result in about 80% of the food coming from starches; the remainder will be from vegetables and fruits. Cook all foods thoroughly. Heat breaks down and deactivates proteins and other troublesome components of the food. Boiling and steaming are the healthiest ways to cook.
Starches (all cooked), include:
Brown rice (or white rice)
Sweet potatoes
Winter squash (Acorn, Butternut, Pumpkin, etc.)
Taro (or poi)
Non-starchy green and yellow vegetables (all cooked) include:
Asparagus
Artichoke
Beets
Beet greens
Celery
Chard
Kale
Lettuce
Spinach
String Beans
Summer squash
Almost all other non-starchy yellow, orange, red, green, and purple vegetables are allowed (cooked). Avoid onions, green pepper, cucumbers, and radishes, especially when raw because they can be very troublesome for the stomach, causing indigestion.
Fruits (all cooked) include:
Apricots
Bananas
Berries
Cherries
Papaya
Peaches
Plums
Avoid all citrus fruits, including oranges, grapefruits, tangerines, lemons, limes, etc. and also tomatoes.
Condiments include:
Salt
Sugar
Only common table salt and table sugar are allowed, if not restricted for other health reasons. This means no salad dressings, mustard, lemon juice, vinegar, pepper or other condiments.
Beverages:
Water (sparkling water is OK)
Managing the Elimination Diet:
After one week of being strictly on the new diet, food-caused problems should be ending and the dieter should be feeling much improved. If this is the case, then the dieter can begin adding other foods (those not listed above) back to his or her diet, but only one at a time, in order to determine if any of these cause unpleasant reactions. For testing purposes, each "new" food should be eaten in large amounts three times a day for two days. If the food does not cause a reaction, then the dieter can conclude that this food is not a troublemaker. Most reactions occur within a few hours, but some may not show up for several days. Each food must be tested individually; do not introduce two new foods at once. When there is a reaction to a specific food, the dieter must wait for four to seven days before testing the next item. This interval gives the time required to clear the intestines and to rest the system from that allergy-causing food.
The foods added back during the elimination diet should not be from animal products of any kind or from vegetable oils for general health reasons. No one should follow a diet "more liberal" than the basic McDougall Diet.
Disclaimer: The information and advice herein is not intended for use in or as a substitute for the diagnosis or treatment of any health or physical condition or as a substitute for a physician-patient relationship which has been established by an in-person evaluation of a patient. Do not change your diet if you are ill or on medication without the advice of a qualified health care professional such as your physician. In layman's terms, if you are taking any medications switching to a whole food, plant based, no oil diet will require your medications be closely monitored by your physician. And may require some of your medications to be quickly reduced or stopped. Reducing or stopping medications needs to be done under the direct supervision of a physician.
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