more detail on diet

[cjsmith]

My doc said it is totally legal to pull the toppings off a slice of pizza and eat them. When I mentioned the sugar added to pizza sauces, she said "don't worry about" amounts like that. She said the same thing about dark chocolate: if it's over whatever-percentage the handout said (70, I think), I can eat it, whether it's 2g/serving or 12. And I can have "small amounts" of non-recommended foods: a bite or two of ice cream, a small piece carved off a bagel. "It's all about balance" was the way she put it. "Just make sure you have a lot of vegetables too."

This seems to me to be a very silly way to run a diet, but I'm not going to gripe if it gets me pizza toppings and more dark chocolate. This whole thing wasn't my idea anyway. I'm happy to pretend and hand-wave and ignore.

As for experimenting with stuff, I'm going to do a few key things first.
1) Red wine (white is supposedly worse than red, and beer is worse than either)
2) Some hearty serious whole-grain bread, best I can find without immense quantities of white flour *and* without sugar added to it
3) if I pass the alcohol test, FONDUE (held together with starch, but it's *mostly* cheese and white wine, and *most* of the alcohol should have boiled off)

I bet for a good sense of whether these are or are not problems, I'll need to space them out a good bit, possibly repeating once or twice just to make sure I'm not merely having an unusually good or bad day. Or maybe I'll need to have a significant quantity of just one thing to make sure I'd notice a problem. But in a couple of weeks I could imagine knowing whether I can have fondue.

It's quite possible I'll feel fine after any of them. After all, I felt fine before, when a glass of red wine and some heavily buttered popcorn were a perfectly acceptable dinner. I'll send my doc e-mail with the results if I have no problem, and see what she says from there. Ha; there; I promised I'd do that. I know darn well if I didn't think that up *first* I'd be very tempted to just go wild after a few small successes.

Comments

[rfrench.livejournal.com]

I don't get it. If you're worried about the yeast infection, why would you feel bad the next morning after eating too much sugar? Surely they can't take over your body that quickly.

[ladycelia.livejournal.com]

You'd be surprised at just how fast a yeast infection can take over your body.
*shudders*

[rfrench.livejournal.com]

Yikes.

[rfrench.livejournal.com]

OK, I still don't get it. Why would she say "Just make sure you have a lot of vegetables too"? Do the vegetables hold back the yeast? Absorb the sugar?

[ladycelia.livejournal.com]

I have no idea. But then, I really don't understand the diet at all.

[just-cyd.livejournal.com]

it's probably more about making sure to get a balanced diet within the restrictions. i don't think nonstarchy veggies *help* the yeast issue, but they sure do add variety and help keep food interesting.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

In context, I believe she meant "Make sure that most of what you eat is the veggies and that the starchy or sugary risk factor is a small size." That is, if most of my meal is meat or veggies, there's not much room left for (say) pasta, so this is a way of saying "eat only small amounts at a time".

[rfrench.livejournal.com]

OK, that makes more sense.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

This is exactly how people who are on yeast control diets have described their responses. (Think of bread dough rising: you get good bread in well under a day...)

On the other hand, she said this ISN'T a yeast control diet. (Strictly speaking, she's correct; I can have soft cheeses, while yeast control folks can't, and there are other minor things I've noticed.)

On the other other hand, this is a yeast-style reaction I'm looking for.

I think I still don't get it. Perhaps I should have asked more questions, but as it is I ran out of time. *sigh*

[lkeele.livejournal.com]

Can you e-mail her with more questions? I love doctors who respond to my e-mails -- I always tend to get the "I still don't get it" feeling long after I've left their offices.

That said, I'm glad there's some leeway in your diet. I hate to think of you going fondue-less. :)

yeast

[moriamerri.livejournal.com]

this is all because you are on serious antibiotics, right? So, I'm thinking that taking massive amts of probiotics is as big a factor as low-sugar.... or, um, at least a really relevant variable..... and that the amount and kind of probiotics could also be increased/changed.

My impressions of systemic yeast --informal to be sure-- are that it is easy for it to get out of hand and often a long slow battle to get it back under control. I think this translates to: a little bit of "bad response" may be okay and taken in stride, but a moderate amount of "bad response" may have a pricetag that is very long, and can be in another ballpark. Do check with other sources (like doc by email?).... I guess the point being that the pricetag could be LONG (or vary in lenght) as well as unpleasant. This is my impression of the yeast issue -- that people are all over it so that it doesn't "get out of control" because then it is way hard to get things back to normal. As you are watching for reactions, you can see if this has any relevance.... that intensity of "oops" and length of "oops" may *both* vary, and not be in simple/logical/direct proportion.

[layer.livejournal.com]

very, very good. the first time i went off the diet i had a huge scoop of ice cream in the afternoon, then a bunch of sourdough bread with dinner, then a sandwhich for lunch the next day...

you might try soda bread rather than regular yeast bread. most of them have about a 2/3 whole wheat to white flour ratio. a lot of white but it may be outweighed by the lack of yeast.

ooo... here's one that's all whole wheat... i'm going to give it a shot! (maybe even tonight if i have the time.)

http://southernfood.about.com/od/quickbreadrecipes/r/bln532.htm

[tiger-spot.livejournal.com]

Woo-hoo! Good luck with the testing.

[tenacious-snail.livejournal.com]

Bread suggestion (http://www.alvaradostreetbakery.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=10270&Category_Code=bread)

also: sourdough whole wheat has a lower GI.

[just-cyd.livejournal.com]

this is all very good news! and yeah, you'll have to play around and figure out what you can tolerate, and what's worth the aggravation. i strongly suspect you'll do OK with fondue, and even if it's problematic, you enjoy fondue enough that it'd be worth it.

your doc is right: it's all about balance, AND living your life.

[hitchhiker.livejournal.com]

if you work your way up to fondue i'm so coming over :)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

If I work my way up to fondue you are so invited. So is Mary. (And whoever else you want to bring as long as the total is under, say, twenty; I learned that lesson good one time.)

[cyan-blue.livejournal.com]

I've been pulling the tops off of veggie sushi rolls, and omitting the rice...