Hi everyone, I hope all of you are feeling well and not currently having a flare up. I have been doing okay for the last few day, thankfully. Recently I have been thinking a lot about how my diet effects the way that I feel. I have a cousin who also has fibromyalgia and she gave me some paperwork on the disease to look over. She also informed me that she could see a marked difference in her fibromyalgia symptoms when she ate a lot of processed white flour products (bread, cereal, donuts, anything that tastes good really!). I had never noticed it before, but in paying attention to how foods effect my body in the last while I have found that she was spot on. My fibromyalgia pain is usually located around my neck, shoulders, and upper back for the most part, but when I lose control of my eating and take in a lot of stuff that is bad for me, my knees start to hurt to. When my knees start hurting, I know its time to start eating better (Isn't that crazy?). In the last week I have started following the weight watchers program very losely. I have went over my daily points by a little most everyday. While I really would like to lose a few pounds, I mostly do the program because it forces me to concentrate on what I put into my body. I know that I feel better when I ingest fruits, vegetables, and whole grains as opposed to when I eat a lot of junk food.
I have done some research on possible good and bad foods for fibromyalgia and I thought I would share with you what I have found.
Bad Foods
Aspartame: yep, we need to avoid this artificial sweetner b/c it can exacerbate our symptoms (and I don't think anyone wants to deal with anymore pain than we already have, thank you!)
Food Additives like MSG: Found in a lot of chinese foods and packaged foods (Check the ingredient list on your prepackaged meals to make sure none of these chemicals are in the food your eating!)
Sugar, Fructose, and Simple Carbs: okay, okay, I'm not going to ask you to cut out sweets entirely (I know I can't do that, my sweet tooth rules my life!) but please try to cut back some for your health's sake.
Caffiene (including coffee's, tea's, cola's, and chocolate: Once again I am only asking that you cut back on these (I know I can't live without some caffiene, but I have reduced my intake significantly!).
Yeast and Gluten: can be bad for some people, this is one group that I haven't tested to see how they effect me. But, if your interested or have done some testing with these please leave me a comment and let me know how it went.
Dairy: effects some people, I don't think it effects me, but it is something to test.
Nightshade plants (Tomatoes, chili and bell pepers, potatoes and eggplant): I haven't tested these either, again if you have had any changes due to leaving these foods off, please leave me a comment and let me know how it went and what changes you experienced.
To learn more, read the article where I got the information Fibromyalgia and Diet: 7 Foods to avoid!
Good Foods
Lean meats, poulty, whole grains (unless you are cutting gluten), fresh fruits and vegetables.
I hope I have provided you with some useful information, until next time, take care all and here's to hoping for fewer flare ups!
Sarah
Sarah,
ReplyDeleteI know you posted this some time ago, but I just "stumbled" upon it tonight. I have actually "tested" the personal affect that the "bad" foods you listed have on my FM.
One of the things that has made the most difference is to eliminate gluten (MSG falls into this category) from my diet. While not eliminating my FM, it certainly reduced the amount of pain I experience. Just this past weekend, I inadvertently ate something that was wheat flour based (I was told it was corn based). I started feeling effects very soon, and by the next day couldn't get comfortable in any position and couldn't stand to be touched (even having my own hand rest on my body hurt). I find it no trouble at all to just eliminate gluten from my diet because I know this kind of pain is the result of ingesting.
Dairy seems to be less problematic, but I find that my body seems to handle 4 oz. at a time the best.
I keep my caffeine limited to tea and have eliminated aspartame, sugar and simple carbs almost completely just because I think it is ultimately more healthy to do so.
I have had no problem with nightshade veggies. I tried laying off of them for a while, but it didn't seem to make as much of a noticeable difference as reducing dairy and eliminating gluten have done.
When I feel my worst, I focus on raw, natural foods, including fresh fruit and veggies and small portions of simply cooked meat. I hope you find something in here that is of some help.
Like you have said in your posts....healthy living is critical for those of us with FM. Good food and exercise are important for everyone, but for the person with FM, they are critical.
Thanks for your posts, Sarah!