So I've officially started my elimination diet

[christine123]

For the next week or two, I'm going to eat only select 'whole' foods (meaning, if there's an ingredient list, there's only one thing on it: what it is)

Today, I ate baked chicken thigh, buckwheat and green beans. Feel so full from the buckwheat. Not really that tasty (kinda grainy and bland), but really filling! I think I can get away with eating only one piece of chicken at mealtimes to stretch out my stock if I eat more of the filling carbs and veggies.

I also bought some couscous and brown rice, so will mix the carbs up a bit with those to keep things interesting. I'm gonna stick to chicken and green beans for the duration of my diet if I can though, since there's few veggies on the 'safe' list that I would like, aren't flavor-adding like chives or coriander, or are nutrient-rich enough to be worthwhile.

Just wondering if anyone has experienced reactions to chicken, buckwheat, couscous (this one's iffy for me), brown rice or green beans? I wanted to get as 'safe' a selection of whole foods as I could think of.

[dora]

i'm thinking of trying something like this, so i'll be interested in reading about your progress.
and i'm curious about how you and others chose the foods you will eat in the most restrictive phase - all the assorted different dietary recommendations are so confusing! i'm an ichthyo-lacto-ovo vegetarian, so the low-histamine diet seems seriously impractical for me, but since you ask about reactions to chicken, this site lists it as a high-histamine tem that should be avoided:
http://www.allergyuk.org/fs_histamine.aspx

but maybe it's not problematic for you ... keep us posted how it goes!

[christine123]

Hi dora, I will certainly do so! I ate buckwheat with my chicken and green beans for the first few days and today switched to couscous instead. I cannot believe how yummy plain couscous is compared to plain buckwheat. But... I can't tell whether I'm just full or if my stomach is kinda hurting today after eating. I'm going to monitor my skin closely as couscous is a wheat product. So far I can say that my skin seems remotely calmer then when I started. Not much, but at least no new papules that I can notice.

I did know that chicken is high in histamine. But I needed a meat of some kind and I heard red meat was inflammatory and fish is expensive where I live. If I don't see even moderate improvements after two weeks, I'm going to change things up a bit.

[MasK]

Hi dora, I will certainly do so! I ate buckwheat with my chicken and green beans for the first few days and today switched to couscous instead. I cannot believe how yummy plain couscous is compared to plain buckwheat. But... I can't tell whether I'm just full or if my stomach is kinda hurting today after eating. I'm going to monitor my skin closely as couscous is a wheat product. So far I can say that my skin seems remotely calmer then when I started. Not much, but at least no new papules that I can notice.

I did know that chicken is high in histamine. But I needed a meat of some kind and I heard red meat was inflammatory and fish is expensive where I live. If I don't see even moderate improvements after two weeks, I'm going to change things up a bit.

Chicken is not high in histamine. Actually chicken is the most safe meat when eating a low amine diet, because unlike most of the meats, they do not keep it 2 weeks in the fridge to make the meat tender.
The amines in animal products are developping with the conservation. So it is better to choose them fresh from the slaughter (max 4 days if possible but it is very hard unless you know a farm for example), and eat it right before you bought it, or keep it frozen, not in the fridge.
Canned fishs are loaded with histamine by the way.

[christine123]

Well, I think it's a safe bet to say that chicken doesn't set me off. I've been eating it as my protein exclusively at every meal since Monday afternoon and I don't see any new papules at all since that time. If it was aggravating, I would definitely see a flare by now as I haven't eaten so much chicken over the course of a few days since... ever. haha.

The thing is that I can't remember specifically flushing after food of any kind. So I'm really just targeting papules/pustules that may come on from a food intolerance, which is what I'm looking for here.

[christine123]

Well, 5 days in, and I can definitely say that there is some improvement in p&p and nothing is getting worse. I'm sure 5 days is too early to start seeing redness dying out, but since I'm not reacting badly to anything I'm eating I might as well continue!

At a suggestion from Auburn, I will add sardines into my daily lineup for this coming week and see how I do with them.

While I'm still unsure of if the diet helps my skin... it's uh... sure helped my waistline. I've lost about 10 lbs in 5 days. I was thinking of losing a few lbs, so of course this is welcome (although seems a bit too fast), but I hope it doesn't continue much longer or I really will be underweight (some people think I am already, so yeah). But, weight can be put on again, I have to focus on my skin at this point. I just can't eat enough of the foods I've chosen to get enough calories to maintain my weight, even when I have a larger portion of the carbs. I get way too full.