[REMINDER TO FIRST-TIME VISITORS: Be sure to read the basic posts first, listed in "Key Posts" in the top right corner.]
LAST UPDATED May 24, 2013
(Latest changes underlined.)
(This list reflects my change from Potential Renal Acid Load to sulphur as a guide for selecting foods; the two guides overlap, but for me sulphur is a more accurate guide to preventing my inflammation problems.)
Occasionally readers ask me what I eat and how I prepare it. When I started this diet, the food tasted bland. Now it is delicious, if properly prepared. (Tastes change in a month or two, and one can learn, within a few months, to better prepare even bland foods.)
SUMMARY: I now (Nov. 28, 2011) eat only foods that are low in sulphur, generally less than 50 mg/100 g serving. I eat most root and gourd starches; most fruit; and many common vegetables. I eat no animal products (except honey) and no concentrations of "seeds," that is, no nuts (except as noted below), no beans (except "green" beans), no peas (except "green" or "garden" peas), no grains (except white rice now), and no seasonings made from seeds (such as mustard). I eat three meals per day and nothing between meals (to simplify my life).
For each meal, I can eat unlimited quantities of foods rated at 25 mg of sulphur (per 100 g of food) or lower, without a reaction showing in my skin. Examples are potatoes, celery, and bananas. At each meal, I allow myself one serving of any one of the foods ranked for sulphur as higher than 25 mg/100 g serving. Examples are cauliflower or greens. For some foods, I have no sulphur rating. I eat them as if they were ranked higher than 25 mg/100 g: I eat them in small quantities, no more than one serving of any of them at each meal.
The sulphur rating list I use is in this pdf:
MY MEAL PLAN is always (1) starchy root or gourd; (2) vegetables; and (3) fruit. An example is this breakfast:
1. Starch: 2 large whole Russet potatoes (about 2 cups). The day before, I boiled the potatoes, enough for 3 meals.
2. Vegetables: 1 C already cooked vegetable (bought fresh or frozen). I pour the vegetable into a skillet alongside the potatoes (cold from the refrigerator). I add 1/4 C water (for steaming), add the lid, and set to low heat for 15-20 minutes, until the starches and vegetables are hot.
3. Fruit: 2 C, frozen (e.g., peaches, cherries), fresh (e.g., melons, apples), or dried (plums, dates).
4. Supplements (items added in small quantity for nutritional completeness):
(a) a probiotic capsule or chewable tablet.
(b) B12 (cyanocobalamin) tablet (average 250 micrograms daily, for nerve health), because I have no natural source. Blood tests show this works well for me.
(c) one Brazil nut/meal for selenium.
(d) One "fat pill"/meal, to keep my weight up. (My Body Mass Index once dropped below 17, but should be 18-19.); a "fat pill" is one of these: 6 small black olives; 2 T cocoanut milk; 1 cylinder of heart of palm; 1/3 avocado mashed with chopped onions and lemon juice.
5. Drink: water or mint tea or vegetable juice.
My three meals are interchangeable. I eat as much variety as I can, partly for taste and partly for nutritional safety.
FOOD LIST
The low-sulphur starches that I have tested and now can eat in unlimited quantities are: arrow root (2 mg/100 g serving); winter squash (e.g., acorn [frozen] and pumpkin, 10); sweet potatoes (light-skinned, yellow inside, 15); yams (dark-skinned, dark orange inside, 15); parsnips (15); rutabagas (21), potatoes (browns, reds, golds, purple, 22); and white rice (79). I boil the roots and tubers. (I buy winter, hard-shelled squash in frozen blocks, already removed from the shell, ground, and cooked.) I steam the white rice (simmer 1 C in 1.5 C water, about 20 min.). I do not freeze starches, as their taste and texture usually decline.
I eat in limited quantities, up to one serving/meal of any one of the following starches: water chestnuts (?); bamboo shoots (?); corn, whole kernel (?), 1/4 c.
The low-sulphur vegetables that I have tested and now eat in unlimited quantities are: carrots (7 mg/100 g serving), celery (8), green beans (8), eggplant (9), artichoke hearts (16), turnips (21), beets (22), onions (24).
In limited quantities (no more than one serving of any one of these), I eat: cabbage (25); sauerkraut (?); palm heart (?), 1 cylinder; seaweed (?), 1 3-gram sushi sheet; cauliflower (29); mushrooms (34); collard greens (39); green ("garden") peas (43); broccoli (45); asparagus (47); spinach (86), 1/2 c. I buy some of these frozen or dried, for convenience and storability.
In limited quantities (no more than one serving of any one of these), I eat: cabbage (25); sauerkraut (?); palm heart (?), 1 cylinder; seaweed (?), 1 3-gram sushi sheet; cauliflower (29); mushrooms (34); collard greens (39); green ("garden") peas (43); broccoli (45); asparagus (47); spinach (86), 1/2 c. I buy some of these frozen or dried, for convenience and storability.
The low-sulphur fruits (fresh, frozen, or dried) that I have tested and now eat in unlimited quantities are: pineapple (3 mg/100 g serving), fresh plums (4), apples (5), pears (5), fresh apricots (6), peaches (6), honeydew melon (6), cherries (7), grapes (8), tomatoes (10), nectarines (10), cantaloupes (12), lemons (12), figs (organic, black, 13), bananas (13), blueberries (13), strawberries (13), and blackberries (13), dried plums (pure or organic, 18), dates (Medjool, dried, 51), and avocado (?), about 1/3 per meal, to keep my weight up. I avoid all fruits that have preservatives added.
The nuts I eat are: Brazil, 1 nut/day (for selenium); and hazelnut, 1 t crushed/day.
The flavorings I use: salt, fresh lemon juice; mint; cilantro; tarragon; Italian seasoning (sage, rosemary, marjoram, oregano, basil); turmeric; ginger; honey (1); onions (23); garlic (?); vinegar (19); and sugar (14). The quantities of flavorings I use are small (typically 1/4 t of one or two seasonings per meal). I assume their sulphur content, in those quantities, is so low that consuming them makes no difference. I avoid flavorings I know (from the list linked to above) to be high in sulphur, such as mustard and horseradish.
For liquid, I drink distilled water between meals. (Where I live, drinking tap water makes me nauseated.) I also drink peppermint tea. I drink about half a cup of vegetable juice per meal, as part of my effort to consume more liquid.
FOODS AVOIDED
I avoid:
- Foods containing more than 50 mg of sulphur per 100 g (half cup) serving, except white rice (79) and spinach (86).
- Foods containing more than 50 mg of sulphur per 100 g (half cup) serving, except white rice (79) and spinach (86).
- Foods containing preservatives, such as green olives and pickles. I eat black olives, which contain only ferrous gluconate, a reportedly safe color preserver that adds iron to my diet.
- Animal products (all of which, except fats, are high in sulphur); I recently tested eating organic kimchi which contains a tiny amount of shrimp, apparently ground. I got a reaction within 2 days, from only 1 T per meal. Possibly the reaction came from the spices in the kimchi or from the spices and shrimp. I now avoid kimchi.
- Concentrated "seeds," including: grains such as wheat, oatmeal, etc. (except white rice); beans (except "green beans"); peas (except "green" or "garden" peas); nuts (except 1 Brazil nut/day for selenium, and 1 t/day of crushed hazelnut); conventional seeds such as flax and sunflower; and flavorings made from seeds, such as mustard and pepper.
- Isolated fats; on the short-term, eating butter (or any other animal or plant fat) does not trigger my inflammation problems, but I avoid isolated fats, for long-term, general health reasons.
- Grapefruit, which in me causes a condition similar to scleroderma (red swollen area from my nose to the sides of my mouth, plus a constricted throat). My reactions to grapefruit seem to be peculiar to me and independent of my other problems.
- Lettuce, which does not trigger my usual inflammation problems but does, for an unknown reason, cause some intestinal distress (loose stools, rumbling).
FOODS I WANT TO TEST
- Oranges.
- Quinoa (Is it a starchy berry or a grain?).
Burgess Laughlin
Author of The Power and the Glory: The Key Ideas and Crusading Lives of Eight Debaters of Reason vs. Faith, www.reasonversusmysticism.com/
