I know I'm not answering the question

[cjsmith]

People ask "What CAN you eat?" and I say "Well, no _________, no ___________ of any kind, no ________ including __________ ..."

That's not what they asked. It's the best and shortest answer I have at the moment, but it's in an unhelpful and inconvenient form. The harried admin trying to order lunch for thirty-five will understand only that I cannot have anything the restaurant offers. The guy doing the Costco snack-food run can read labels for an hour and still not find something I can eat. It's not even, when you get right down to it, a useful answer for myself. I know mainly what to avoid. It's a lot faster and easier to know what to go find.

[LJ-CUT TEXT="After five-plus weeks looking around, I can at least start this list now."]
If something's on here, presume that what's there is just that thing plain: ie chicken, NOT honey-roasted chicken or Kentucky fried chicken, JUST chicken.

I can eat these ingredients:
All vegetables except potatoes, turnips, beets, carrots, and parsnips.
Almost any meat or poultry. (Careful of the sugar-cured stuff, maple sausage, and the like.)
Eggs.
Any herb or spice I can currently think of.
Mustard (the condiment as well as the spice).
Oils such as olive oil, sesame oil, peanut oil.
Butter and margarine.
Soy products such as tofu.
Some fruits people don't tend to think of as fruits, such as tomato. (Need more examples here)
Any cheese. There are fussy details here, but frankly, this will do.
Unsweetened plain yogurt.
Any nuts.
Peanuts (technically a legume, but they're okay).
Unsweetened peanut butter or almond butter.

I dislike, but can eat:
Broccoli.
Mushrooms.
Artificial sweeteners.

I can eat in moderation:
Beans and legumes.
??Coconut??
??Milk??
Very dark chocolate with almost no sugar in it (careful of those "89% dark" but "16g sugar / serving" bars! Grab the "5g sugar in the whole bar" kind instead).
Lemon juice or lime juice used as flavoring or in cooking.

The basic things to avoid:
Sugars, fruits, starches, grains.

Nonobvious corollaries - also avoid:
Most commercially-made salad dressings, ketchup, bbq sauce, chili sauce, salsas, canned soups, marinades, dips, spaghetti sauces, Chicken Tonight sauces, and the like.
Most spicy foods made in Chinese restaurants in America.
Most fast-food burgers - full of sugar even if you ditch the bun.
Corn in any form including corn starch.
Alcohol including those stupid Atkins-bar "sugar alcohols".
Caffeine (may be unrelated to the yeast control diet, but it's listed in my treatment handout).
Fish or seafood of any kind (completely unrelated; these simply make me throw up).

Basically, if it isn't a fruit and isn't bread, and it's on the periphery of the grocery store instead of down one of the aisles, there's a good chance I can have it. If it is commercially prepared, there's a good chance I can't have it.[/LJ-CUT]

More helpful yet would be lists of made things somebody could buy rather than lists of raw ingredients. I'll get there.

Comments

[brooksmoses]

Some fruits people don't tend to think of as fruits, such as tomato. (Need more examples here)

What comes to mind on that for me is: Cucumbers, squash (of various sorts), and peppers. And possibly snow peas, where what you're eating is mostly the pod. Are any of those workable for you?

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

None of them are named in my handout, so I suspect I can eat all of them. Some of them are a bit starchy, but they're not massively high-glycemic like carrots or potatoes. I can get more detail from my doc on Monday.

[aelfie.livejournal.com]

I'd think summer squash varieties are okay, but the winter ones tend to be pretty starchy up there with potatoes.

[racerxmachina.livejournal.com]

What I'm hearing is: no processed foods. Which is a yay idea for anyone!

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Unless you want to eat with normal human beings ever again. :-)

[cassidyrose.livejournal.com]

What I'm hearing is: no processed foods.

Well, fruit and whole grains are hardly what I would consider "processed foods" let alone carrots, potatoes and tomatoes and these are all things she either cannot eat or needs to avoid.

[exvapi.livejournal.com]

And after these five weeks, has the treatment caused any noticeable improvement in the symptoms?

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

No. My doctor may be able to detect improvement, though; I see her on Monday. She may also have reasons why improvement would be very slow. Someone who's had Lyme as long as I have should expect a treatment range measured in years.

[cassidyrose.livejournal.com]

I am sure you have explained it, but I probably missed it--what are te food restrictions for? I am just curious.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure I was ever clear about that on LJ, actually. The dietary restrictions are mainly to prevent systemic fungal/yeast overgrowth in my body. I have been diagnosed with Lyme disease, and am on antibiotics measured in grams per day; because this kills off the good guys as well as the bad guys, I need probiotics to keep my gut working, antifungal medication, and this anti-yeast diet. (And sleep meds because the antibiotics also cause insomnia. And lots of vitamins, including one by injection. Yay fun!)

[lesliepear.livejournal.com]

I thought of humus (chickpeas) - can you eat that?

I assume the diet is to control the yeasty side effects of the antibiotics, not to treat the lyme disease? I was into yeast control in the past - there were 2 books I had/used - The Yeast Connection and The Yeast Connection Cookbook by a Dr. Cook (or was it Crook) - they might be helpful.

Has it helped?

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Chickpeas = beans/legumes, so yes in moderation. I need to find something I enjoy scooping it up with. I adore hummus.

Hasn't helped much yet, that I can see, but I'll find out more (including whether my expectations are reasonable) when I see my doc on Monday.

[wordweaverlynn.livejournal.com]

This is a very smart idea. I should probably list the things I can eat, too.

I hope your restrictions help you heal!

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Thank you! Hey, I'll take celery off your hands. I can eat it fine, and it's one of the few things I can put almond butter on!

[tenacious-snail.livejournal.com]

I have often tell people some of the things I can eat

It sounds like you can have salads dressed in lemon juice and oil, perhaps with mustard or herbs, garlic, etc. Perhaps plain canned tuna, or grilled chicken?

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Yes, I can dress salads in lemon juice and oil, or oil and vinegar, or even oil and balsamic vinegar if it isn't the sweetened kind of balsamic. No tuna for me for other reasons, but yes, grilled chicken. I am going to get soooo much better at cooking meats, I can tell. :-)

How are you feeling these days? You've been rather knocked about by life lately. Will an Indian-food lunch run be a doable thing soon?

[hopeforyou.livejournal.com]

Would it help to make specific lists of what you can have from restaurants?

This might get you started:

Western:
Grilled chicken or turkey
Pot roast - roast beef with big roasted chunks of vegetables
Grilled chicken salads, dressing on the side
Steak
Salads with/without meat, dressing on the side or a light vinaigrette
Chicken Molé salads
Tofu salads with veggies and a peanut dressing

Other:
Indian food without rice or naan: chicken tikka, chana masala, palak paneer, most pakoras (made with chickpea flour, NOT grains), chicken tikka masala, most curries and vindaloos... these sauces have yoghurt and tomato bases and should be okay for you.

Greek: Greek salads with feta cheese, chicken schwarma, chicken kebab with veggies, falafel (chickpea only, no wheat in mix), falafel salads, gyros on salad, hummus, olives, and tahini.

Thai: curries without the rice, soups without noodles (you can probably make a request to have Tom Ka Kai/Tom Kha Gai without noodles in it, too). Chicken or beef satay with peanut sauce.

Italian: Probably best to give up on this one.

Chinese: Pretty much the same.

Hope this kinda/sorta helps.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Good lists! Thank you! For pot roast I'd have to skip the carrots and potatoes, which are often the only veggies in there, but that's okay -- they're easy to pick out. I'd better skip most Thai due to the heavy sweetening of a lot of the sauces and due to the fish paste. But Indian, aaaah, that I've really got to explore. I have a either-teach-me-to-cook-or-let's-eat-yummy-food-out "date" on Sunday, and I'll expand that list a bunch then.

[just-cyd.livejournal.com]

i tell people "meat and green leafies". that seems to give most people a good clue, although they just look at me and blink while they try to process that. 'cept dad, who will still ask about 649587 other things, and i just keep repeating "is it meat? is it a green leafy? no? then i CAN NOT HAVE IT." in terms of meal-planning, that seems to cover most of the bases.

cheated WAY too much this week, and my body is responding accordingly. a good reminder of why i'm doing what i'm doing - crap makes me feel like crap!

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Meat and green leafies is a good approximation! Especially since you've got a lot more trouble with dairy than I have. Wait, you can have eggs, right? So meat, green leafies, and eggs. Man, that's rough though. I think I'd jump off a roof if I had to skip dairy in addition to all this.

[aelfie.livejournal.com]

and it's on the periphery of the grocery store instead of down one of the aisles, there's a good chance I can have it. If it is commercially prepared, there's a good chance I can't have it.

That pretty much describes my diet.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Yep, there's gluten in way too much stuff. (Tho you can have some fruits and some grains, right? Or maybe I'm out of date.) In any case, this sucks.

[abqdan.livejournal.com]

In 1991 I developed an anaphylactic reaction to milk protein. I can eat anything else, just not those proteins. This excludes milk, butter, whey (in many products), yogurt, cheese. I told so many people that I couldn't have milk protein, only to be met with the question "So can you have eggs?" that I started telling people I couldn't eat anything that came out of a cows udder. Some people still ask about eggs. I guess our high school biology curriculum is somewhat lacking!

For office meals, conferences, and other events, I write VEGAN. Now I am not a vegan - I am in fact very much a carnivore - but for caterers, party planners, and office administrators, vegan just makes sense; they can identify with it, and also can discuss it with caterers. So far, I haven't died from anything at an event or on an airline; though I had one close call, at the Portland convention (apparently my description of a hams sandwich on whole wheat, no butter and no mayo, inspired the short order cook to add cheese. I guess they thought it would be boring otherwise.

Anyway, if there's a common diet that excludes the things you can't eat, try giving people that, even if it restricts you more than you would like.

[lauradi7.livejournal.com]

Apparently a lot of people assume that mayonnaise is a dairy product as well (so says a friend whose daughter is allergic to milk). Is it the color that causes the free-association?

Milk

[nosrednayduj]

I can't imagine milk would be OK. Milk is FULL of sugar. That's what lactose is. Valerie switched to soy milk as part of her "conquer type II diabetes" project. (Which she succeeded at by losing 45 lbs in addition to ditching a lot of sugary stuff.)

Re: Milk

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

One friend of mine on a (gestational-) diabetes management diet can have whole milk in small amounts, but not skim. I suppose when you think about it in terms of percentages, it makes some sense.

[billeyler.livejournal.com]

I'll post this on my fridge for your next visit. :-)

This is said tongue-in-cheek, but I think I'll have a dinner party soon with all my friends and acqaintances with food issues. The menu will be quite interesting!

Including me, of course. I can't eat liver or pickled beets.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Yeah, gathering more than two or three friends with food issues is a real challenge for the menu planner. Only partially tongue-in-cheek: this is why I don't throw parties in the Bay Area. Food issues seem to gather here to an insane degree. If I were a cook, maybe, but as it is, there's no way.

[moriamerri.livejournal.com]

1. is the no salsa due to sugar in it? No brands that are okay? Homemade? (The salsa currently in my fridge is made of: tomatoes, cilantro, onions, jalapeno, lemon juice, garlic, salt. Siempre (brand) mild salsa fresca.)
2. what about gazpacho? (I love both gazpacho and salsa)
3. The affirmative list is good. I want to expand your list by listing every vegetable you CAN eat. Is that over-the-top? I'm thinking it could help?
4. can you have mayonaisse? maybe some type w/o sweetener? There ARE salad dressings without sweeteners. There are, there are.
5. coconut is a nut (so I am told by a friend who cannot eat any kind of nuts)
6. how about other nut butters: cashew, hazelnut, etc? And tahini is a SEED butter.....
7. olives? I recommend TJ's Olive Tapenade spread. Very yummy, VERY high fat. Ingredients: kalmata black & green olives, olicve oil, salt, red pepper, capers, garlic, swine vinegar (contains sulfites), spices. I have not tried it on vegetables though.
8. Unrelated to anything, there is a very tasty spread that is made from cashews -- called Nancy's something-or-other? It is a light orange color. I don't think TJ's has this, Whole Foods has it in the same area hummus and tamales etc.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

1. right, just the sugar in salsas. I'm sure there are brands that would be okay. Of course, what I've always had salsa on is nachos. When I snag some no-sugar salsa I'll add it to my taco salads. Yum yum.

2. I'm not familiar with gazpacho (embarrassed look)

3. Wow, expanding it might help, but I'm not even sure I can name that many vegetables! :-) I wonder whether grocery store employees would look at me weird if I sat down in the produce aisle and started blogging. ;-)

4. Not sure about mayo - no big deal 'cause I don't particularly like it. And hey, oil and vinegar makes a scrumptious dressing. I don't mind that bit at all, except it'd be embarrassing if somebody offered me a premade salad! :-)

5. Nifty! Coconut seems sweet to me, but if I can eat it (and particularly if I can use coconut milk in cooking), I can do various Indian dishes.

6. Yes, other nut butters are OK too - I just haven't seen them so didn't think of them. Tahini sounds scrumptious and I think my hummus contains some.

7. Olives are probably great, but I'm not much of a fan of olives. Kinda wish I were, right about now.

8. Haven't seen the cashew thingy. If I read the label I'd probably find it was fine.

[tiger-spot.livejournal.com]

Ooh, yay, this is all kinds of helpful!

Do you want to get together and cook a big batch of stuff some weekend? I can definitely come up with stuff you can eat and I can cook (although there are lots of things that you will probably like better that I can't cook, what with the meat). Would it be helpful if I made out a list of vegetables and non-obvious fruits that you could just mark OK/moderation/avoid? There are a number of things not on your list that seem sort of questionable to me (winter squashes, as mentioned in another comment, and jicama, which is a root vegetable but not [I think] very starchy [it's very bland, makes a good cracker-substitute for dips and things], and jerusalem artichoke [pretty sure this is too starchy, but if it's not then it's quite tasty], and I can probably come up with more if I think about it for a minute).

I have two random suggestions:

1. Stuffed peppers. We did peppers stuffed with black beans and cheese and onions (and maybe some tomato, I don't remember) and appropriate spices (cumin, oregano, pepper of your choice) just recently; replacing the beans with ground beef or turkey should work well for you. Cut the peppers (bell peppers or pasilla peppers or anything else large and mild -- or, heck, do tiny little stuffed jalapenos, that could be fun) in half and remove the seeds and stuff. Cook the filling bits in a skillet until the onion is soft and the meat is safe, fill the pepper halves, put them in a roasting pan, and bake at 350 or 400 F for about half an hour (the peppers should be soft).

2. Roasted summer squash with tomato and cheese. On a cookie sheet, arrange thin slices of zucchini or yellow squash (or other summer squash). Cover with slices of tomato. Cover with cheese of your choice (I suggest mozzarella or parmesan, depending on the direction you want to go here). Top with fresh or dried herbs (basil, oregano, and/or parsley spring to mind) and maybe some pepper. Bake at 350 or 400 for about 15 minutes or until it looks like food.

[oddhack.livejournal.com]

Pesto + chicken & onions + roma tomatos == goodness. Not sure what you could serve it over though.

Pesto == (basil,thyme,cilantro,parsley,dill,oregano,etc.) + olive oil + (optional lemon) + garlic + parmesan/asiago cheese + pine/walnuts + salt + pepper, which all works, yes? Basil pesto comes premade (though watch out for additives of course), or it's easy to make your own from fresh herbs and a food processor. Freezes well too. I've been on a pesto kick since the basil came in heavily last year.

[oddhack.livejournal.com]

Also spinach, walnut, and feta salads with red onion. I like throwing in some herbs. Not sure how it would go with your allowed dressings but the feta provides a lot of flavor even without dressing.

Plain yogurt with pistachios and honey is a nice dessert; it might be worth a try substituating e.g. Splenda although I wouldn't be too optimistic.