Part 2 of An Easy Way to Control Your Autoimmune Disease
So, now that you’ve read Part 1 and answered those questions I posed at the end, let’s assume you want to know more about what a ketogenic diet is. Put in the most simple form, it’s a low carbohydrate, high fat, moderate protein diet. To turn this into a complete way of eating that will likely help control your autoimmune disease, it’s a bit more than that. If you eat like a normal American (or most of the “developed” world), it will be a rather large change. Depending on what your autoimmune disease is, it could a very big change. For me, I still eat steak, and bacon, and cheese, and berries, and chocolate mousse……….oops….making myself hungry! Anyway, my very favorite foods I still eat, although some I’ve had to modify the recipe to suit. Things I don’t eat anymore; grains of any kind, legumes (except peanuts), most fruit, sugar, chips, and beer. Full Stop! I can hear you thinking, “No bread? No pasta? No pizza?! No beer??!!!!” Well, yes and no. No, you can’t have the bread, and pasta, and pizza you’re used to having. You might just have to learn to cook……at least a little bit. The point is, you’ll have to change to allow your body to heal the damage your way of eating has already done and allow it to try and heal to control your disease.
Still with me? So what CAN you eat on a ketogenic diet? Good, whole foods. Meaning, unproccessed food in it’s most natural form (and no, I don’t mean raw). Look at just about any processed food label and you’ll see a long list of things you don’t have a clue what they are. The bread you eat doesn’t even resemble the bread your grandmother ate. Heck! The wheat the bread is made from doesn’t even resemble what your grandmother’s bread was made from! Corn has been hybridized so much that it’s like eating pure sugar. So yes, we’re talking about a big change in the way you eat. HUGE! It’s also some of the best food you’ve ever tasted. Some examples: Steak slathered in garlic butter, bacon, eggs and sausage for breakfast, peanut butter fudge (keto version), chicken cordon bleu, chocolate mousse, REAL ice cream made with REAL cream, fresh green salad covered in shrimp and blue cheese dressing………..hungry yet? You won’t be hungry on a ketogenic diet. Now those of you with food allergies will want to follow a different version than I do. I’m lucky. The lactose intolerance I THOUGHT I had almost entirely disappeared shortly after I started this way of eating. I don’t drink milk…..mostly because it has too many carbs to fit into my way of eating. I do eat cheese of many kinds and heavy whipping cream. Most of what causes lactose intolerance isn’t even in cheese and heavy whipping cream, but I understand if you’d rather not take the risk while trying out this way of eating. Follow this link to get some non-dairy recipes or just Google dairy free keto. You also may want to stay away from peanuts or other foods that have historically caused your allergies to flare up. Don’t be too surprised if the food allergies you THOUGHT you had simply disappear after changing to this way of eating. Moving on……..
If you’ve followed the links in part 1 and now 2, and want to give it a try and see if it works for you like it has for me, I want you to promise something…………give it a fair shake! No three days in and whining that it’s too hard! Really! We’re talking about your health here! You’re either reading this because you have an autoimmune disease and are sick, or someone you care about is. You need to commit if you want to get as well as your body will allow. It will take a minimum of two weeks for your body to learn how to burn ketones instead of glucose. You might even feel worse for the first week or two (keto flu). Don’t expect to feel any changes in your disease for at least three weeks. By the fourth week, I’ll be really surprised if you aren’t noticing some changes in your fatigue level, mood, sleep, some reduction of pain, skin clearing, and a rather nice side effect of weight loss if you’re fluffy. Most thin people actually start gaining muscle after the first few weeks. Personally, I’ve never much cared about the weight loss portion of the ketogenic way of eating although it’s very popular! Losing 40 pounds has been a side-effect for me. We’ll leave that to the end of this series if it’s important to you. So, 30 days…….I want you to give it a full 30 days of no cheating. We’ll talk about cheat days later in the series and whether it’s worth it for you. Absolutely all in for at least 30 days. Promise?
Remember, this is for YOU. Have you been sick and tired for long enough yet to make a commitment to yourself?
Steak is a great food for ketogenic diets!
