Lovely yeast-control-approved lunch

[cjsmith]

Slices carved from roast turkey (not cold cuts)
Black beans with shredded cheeeeese on top*
Chilled asparagus and almond "salad" with some fresh-ground pepper

I managed to get this at the cafeteria in our building. Yay me! I think it involved every permissible food they had in the whole place except the mushrooms.

I am trying very hard not to think about the group that went out for dosas today. For months I'd tried to get people interested in going for dosas, and now, on day 2 of my being unable to eat pretty much anything South Indian, they all go. Grump. But I'm not thinking of that; I'm eating my yummy asparagus. Right? Right.

_______________________________________
*Most beans are on the "eat in moderation" list

Comments

[busysuzy.livejournal.com]

So a "yeast controlled" diet is a gas-excessive diet?! Man!

Sorry about your co-workers. Those bums.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I'm supposed to eat only a little bit of beans. Does turkey or asparagus tend to cause gas? I've never had problems with those...

Maybe if I do have gas I should go to my coworkers' desks this afternoon and have nice lengthy chats with them. ;-)

[busysuzy.livejournal.com]

Haha. No I suppose I was just focusing on the beans. I eat a lot of beans and it gets ridiculous. OK. TMI. Sorry. : )

[rfrench.livejournal.com]

Well, hey, if you can be full on this diet, you're doing OK.

[brooksmoses]

And she can have asparagus! Yummy asparagus! Who needs anything else?

Er, hmm. I seem to be channelling tiger_spot there. Oops.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I adore asparagus. I need to go get me some at home. :-)

[tiger-spot.livejournal.com]

Hey, I need things besides asparagus. Garlic, for instance. To go with the asparagus....

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I can as long as there's a company cafeteria nearby and as long as they have enough approved items that day. Yesterday's lunch was mighty skimpy, and dinner was a disaster. My easiest breakfast option is peanuts (I can also have whole oatmeal in moderation, which probably doesn't mean a big bowl every morning) and I'm already getting tired of peanuts. I expect to lose some weight.

I went shopping last night and you should see the fridge. I took over. I plan to hard-boil a pile of eggs for snacks and breakfasts, and then see what I can do with the meats, cheeses, and veggies without using any sauces. Since most restaurants are now Mostly Not OK for me, I'll be going through this food pretty fast. Knowing my cooking skills, it won't taste good. I expect to lose some weight. :-)

[rfrench.livejournal.com]

Time to look on craigslist for that second fridge!

[tiger-spot.livejournal.com]

(Hm, I seem to have gone all helpful and brainstormy. I can stop if it is not in fact helpful.)

Are other nuts besides peanuts okay? Getting some variety in there would at least help things taste different, although nutritionally I think they're all pretty similar.

Eggs scrambled with veggies (and cheese!) in are quite different from just plain eggs.

Sauce makes life better. Would some kind of simple salad dressing (olive oil + vinegar, maybe herbs) be possible, or is one of those things on the prohibited list? Vinegar and herbs go well on a lot of vegetables.

[hopeforyou.livejournal.com]

I would think you could eat Indian cuisine in general... Pakoras are traditionally made with chickpea flour. You could eat tandoori and saag paneer.

How strict a no-yeast diet are you on? Because some advocate scrapping *all* dairy (I see you're eating cheese above) and some don't (esp they push plain yoghurt, but none with sugar/fruit). Most of what I see definitely axes bread, sugar (including sources of sugar like fruit), and simple carbohydrates.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Yes, I could eat a lot of Indian cuisine, and I need to find out exactly what, 'cause I adore Indian cuisine. :-) I could eat dosa as long as there wasn't any filling.

I'm supposed to scrap milk, but I can have cheese or unsweetened yogurt. I'm told I can have some whole grains (depending on the grain of course - corn in any form is absolutely verboten), but if we think of "bread" as something that yeast can make rise, then obviously I can't have any of that. I'm being really leery of the grains in general. I need to go look and see whether I can have any form of wheat at all; I'm guessing no. Rye might work though -- 100% rye bread doesn't rise.

The chart I have seems to indicate that berries are okay, which puzzles me, because my tongue perceives most berries as very sweet. I haven't gone there yet either, and I may be super-cautious and leave those alone. The only fruit I've dared was some dried mango, which when I looked it up later turned out to be forbidden (oops). At least I didn't eat much of it.

What do your guidelines say? I have done minimal research web-searching and am surprised at the variation in the yeast-control diets out there. It may be that there simply hasn't been much solid research on them yet.

[hopeforyou.livejournal.com]

In general a lot of Lyme doctors are advising against gluten. Since I was already on a gluten-free diet before I got bitten and diagnosed, the transition there was fairly easy for me to know what to eat/not eat.

This is a common outline for a yeast-free diet for Lyme Disease. (http://www.ilads.org/burrascano_1102.htm#diet)

I have experimented with this diet and also the South Beach Diet, beginning with Stage 1 for an extended period of time. Both advocate no-to-low carbohydrate intake and avoiding sugar. South Beach Stage 2 begins reintroducing some of those foods and it's best to try it after weeks of feeling better on Stage 1.

I have to admit I haven't been the most adherent to these guidelines. When I'm pmsing or in a lot of pain, I pig out on chocolate and sugar is supposed to be avoided. But I try to lessen the damage by eating dark chocolate, which doesn't contain milk, has less sugar, and contains more theobromides which are mood elevators.

I am currently eating small meals throughout the day to go easy on my intestines because I was hospitalised for abdominal pain and infection a while ago, and the symptoms continue. But eating small meals seems to help both my digestion, the pain, and my mental clarity.

I am also taking my probiotics more religiously and eating more yoghurt because I'm hoping it will help.

BTW live, refrigerated lactobacillus of diff strains works better than the dried tablet or shelved form. I use Jarrodophilus, some people recommend Florastor but I'm beginning to back off on the use of Saccharomyces Boulardii as a competitive yeast that fights Candida because a recent study has shown it has its own problems.

A lot of this is experimentation for me. If I do something for a while and it works, I'll stick with it, and periodically introduce one item to see how my body responds. But I think that the best thing anyone can do regardless of the difference between diet guidelines is to cut way back on the sugar, regularly take probiotics, supplement with vitamins esp when feeling fatigued or rundown (B-complex and C esp. important), take Mg, and avoid exposure to allergens (food or otherwise as they challenge the immune system).

[inflectionpoint.livejournal.com]

I think the deal with berries is that they are high in sugar, but...

they are also high in fiber and are low in calories and the net result is something that is essentially low glycemic. Check with diabetic nutrition sites and check with south beach folks, but berries were one of the first fruits I reintroduced when I did South Beach.

Asparagus - put asparagus on baking sheet. Drizzle olive oil and salt on it. Mix with hands. Wash hands. Put asparagus in oven at about 400 degrees for ten minutes. Remove. Eat. Be happy!

It sounds like you are making a lot of changes. Are you taking notes, keeping a journal, or something? You might want to be able to look back and see if you can correlate your foods and drugz with how you feel to see if there are patterns there that tell you how your body reacts to this diet change. That can be useful information and can help you learn what things you need to cut and what things may be ok in moderation. That information can make it less stressful and challenging to stick with it.

Good luck.

[inflectionpoint.livejournal.com]

Oh...

most folks who are avoiding yeast and mold don't touch dried fruits. The concentrated sugar in dry fruit of any kind is likely to be a yeast booster rocket, plus the fruits may well carry a bit of mold and yeast on them just from the whole processing and storage things.

Also, you may want to investigate how things with canned tomatoes work for you. I have a friend who avoids them because they are often made from older/bruised tomatoes and can be sources of mold or yeast. Fresh tomatoes you can control the quality of a bit more.

Likewise you may want to check cheeses - soft cheeses, gooey cheeses, probably not so good. Brie and such - full of moldz. But the harder cheeses seems to be safe. My friend has become a true fan of parmesan, romano and the best cheese ever, asiago. Good luck!

[quasigeostrophy.livejournal.com]

Asparagus is one of those vegetables I can't fathom eating cold. More power to you for liking it that way. :-) The rest of your meal sounds good.

For months I'd tried to get people interested in going for dosas

I hate situations like that. I'd give up on repeated "Let's go for...", being tired of falling on apparently deaf ears, and then, when I couldn't, the others do just that. :-/

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Oh, it's not raw, just allowed to cool down. I don't know if that'd make it any better for you.

I think you and I both have the Voice of Subliminal Suggestion. When we say "Let's go for...", no one can hear what we say, so they don't respond, yet when they're suddenly at a loss for what to do, the subliminal message comes out. :-)

[quasigeostrophy.livejournal.com]

I think you and I both have the Voice of Subliminal Suggestion.

That makes a lot of sense considering how often I also seem to be invisible. Although sometimes that one has been as useful as it has been frustrating. ;-)

[just-cyd.livejournal.com]

my breakfast every day is eggs cooked like an omelet, cut up, and eaten out of dish while driving to work. i'll add bacon or sausage for variety. Penzeys Mural of Flavor or Sunny Paris make nice seasonings for eggs.

lunch is usually Green Veg (salad, green beans, or broccoli& cauliflower) and Protein (baked/fried chicken breast, meatballs, roast beef, etc). Salad dressing is oil (flax or olive) and vinegar with Penzeys Mural of Flavor or Sandwich Sprinkle thrown in.

dinner is more of the same - green veg and protein. i've done a few stir-fries with good results, and pan-frying chicken breasts in bacon grease was sinfully good.

i'll try to start posting more recipes and ideas. i linked to a poached egg-topped asparagus recipe a while back - would you eat something like that?

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Do you cook the omelet every morning? I get up early, but I don't know if I want to get up earlier!

Thanks for the seasoning suggestions, both for eggs and for oil and vinegar! Maybe this is the thing that makes me a rather poor cook: I honestly have no clue what to do with seasonings.

I was going to do a nice bell pepper and steak strips stir fry tonight, but I got invited out to Hobee's. (I should post the menu I printed out. All over it there are cross-out-lines indicating that those options are illegal. On the non-breakfast side, there are exactly seven things I can eat, all of which would require asking for special modifications. It's impressive.) I still have the bell peppers (all three colors) and the steak.

Yes, I'd definitely eat that egg and asparagus thing, although without the bread crumbs. Mmm!

I too will post recipes and ideas as I find them. You are ahead of me on that path (plus you are probably not an awful cook like me) but if I find something scrumptious I will definitely share!

[hopeforyou.livejournal.com]

Now you might have some clue why I've taken to cooking more and eating out less, other than my budget...

[layer.livejournal.com]

most cheese is on the eat in moderation (or don't eat) list as well. :( i've been eating it anyway.

i've been on the diet for i can't even remember how long... a month? more? and today was the first time i was confronted with bread without going it to full-on crave mode.

so far i've lost 7.5 pounds, most of it in the first 10 days.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I too am eating cheese anyway, sticking to the harder/aged cheeses.

My cravings haven't been bad, oddly enough. Perhaps it's because for a long time I've tried to eat refined carbs in moderation -- well, moderation compared to the usual American diet! Maybe I just don't have all that much yeast in my body to begin with. (I've heard more than one source say that if you've got a systemic yeast infection, that will give you (more?) cravings! Clever yeastie beasties.)

However, I *do* get frustrated when I think of things I want to eat -- pesto, for example, or a Cajun spicy dip I know of -- and I can't for the life of me think what to put it on. No pasta or pizza for the pesto. No carrots or pretzels to dip, I hate broccoli and am decidedly lukewarm about cauliflower, and what the heck else do people dip in things?

Wow, that's a bunch of weight for ten days. I wonder how much of it was microscopic dead bodies of yeast. I haven't been weighing myself, but I haven't changed size yet, so for now I don't care. If this makes me go shopping I will be ticked off. :-)

[ericainohio.livejournal.com]

You know, I've been following your yeast-control diet discussion, and what's really interesting to me is how CLOSE the 'yeast control' and 'gestational diabetic' food worlds are. Cyd and I are discovering this, too. We eat almost identically! I'm guessing the correlation is all about blood sugar - any sugar feeds yeast, so there ya go.

A few things I've learned:

Breads: Wheat flour is out, waaaaaay out. White flour actually produces a higher glycemic spike than a spoonful of sugar. Other grains are OK in moderation. You may be able to eat some of the 'alternative' breads that I eat. There's a sprouted grain bread called Ezekiel bread, sold in health food type places, that is OK. Ezekiel also makes a flat wrap/tortilla that I've heard is good. Also, I've discovered a fermented-grain flax flour flat wrap that's really tasty, made by a company called Damascus Bakeries (you can look them up on the web and do a retail search). Anything that lists grain ingredients as being 'sprouted' or 'fermented' will probably work for you.

Carrots: depends on the carrot. Those baby carrots in the bag are a big no-no. They're bred to be extra-super-sweet to appeal to children, and they will spike your sugar in nothing flat. Regular carrots, eaten in moderation or as ingredients in other foods (like soups & stews), are OK.

Apples: same deal. Stay away from any 'Delicious' varieties, which are bred to be super-sweet. You may be able to eat the tart apples, like Granny Smith and such.

Peas and lima beans: Nope. Big glycemic spike, no work-around.

Corn: is the enemy. Seriously. Corn in any form makes blood sugar go berserk. Corn on the cob, corn chips, cornmeal, cornstarch, it all has to go.

Potatoes: I can eat half a baked potato WITH the skin only. Also, sweet potatoes (ironically enough) result in a much lower glycemic spike than white potatoes. Again, WITH the skin.

Cheeses: Hard cheeses and aged cheeses are A-OK. Soft cheeses, cream cheese, Laughing Cow, brie, etc. are bad news.

Rice: In moderation. It has to be in its most natural form and NOT parboiled (check ingredients panels on mixes).

Fruits: You might be able to do some sour fruits like pineapple and grapefruit. Maybe pomegranate? I can do strawberries too. Fresh peaches and cantaloupe are OK. Tangerines, clementines, and sweet citrus are not OK. Cherries have the lowest glycemic index of any fruit, by the way. Watermelon and bananas are the devil. LOL.

I hope this helps some, and that I haven't overwhelmed you!

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

This is indeed a stunning example of glycemic control. In some ways it's worse than a diabetic diet, because of its near-complete lack of grain in any form -- the question isn't whether I need insulin for it so much as whether yeast can eat it, and yeast can eat a LOT of grains -- but it's really quite the glycemic calm-down diet.

My sheet says no carrots (making mine stricter), apples and pears in moderation (mine is simply less detailed), peas and most beans in moderation (mine is less strict there), no corn ever in any form (we're the same), no potatoes ever (mine is stricter), aged/hard cheeses OK and the others in moderation (mine's less strict but I know I should stay away from those soft cheeses), whole-grain or wild rice in moderation (which I also think is a bad idea), no pineapple/watermelon/banana/grape/raisin/citrus but I don't know about pomegranate and I'm pretty sure berries are ok. I also can't eat peanut butter unless it's no-sugar-added, and can't eat ham, bacon, or sausage if it is sugar-cured.

Thanks for the comparison! Eating like this is hard at first. I'm still fiddling about with what I can make. But it'll work out.