I'm On The Rpa Elimination Diet Aka Failsafe Diet

[gf-soph]

I

[Skylark]

Thank you very much for sharing your story. I'm testing yeast at the moment, as I realized I've been reacting strongly to gluten-free beer and wine. Once I have a yes/no on yeast and some planned travel out of the way I might give the full-on diet a try.

[anabananakins]

Wow, that is fascinating. Thanks for sharing. I'm so glad you felt so much better and I hope you can get back to that soon.

[Lisa79]

Hi

Thats great news, thanks for sharing, I bought the RPA books although when reading them, the allowed foods include alot of my food intolerance's, white potatoes, pears,all beans and lentils, brown rice... All of which cause GI symptoms for me. So I have never really looked into again, I might have another look thru it and see if I can make it work for me.

[gf-soph]

Hi

Thats great news, thanks for sharing, I bought the RPA books although when reading them, the allowed foods include alot of my food intolerance's, white potatoes, pears,all beans and lentils, brown rice... All of which cause GI symptoms for me. So I have never really looked into again, I might have another look thru it and see if I can make it work for me.

There's no doubt it doesn't cover everything, I see it as one approach that might help in combination with whatever else you need to manage.

I definitely have a problem with fructose/fructans, so there are a lot of allowed foods that I don't eat either, e.g. all legumes, garlic and leek, pears etc. The way I see the process is to use the information from different sources to find your best possible functioning, then work out from there to balance your reactions with nutrition.

The diet I am on now is not sustainable long term, but having a great functional baseline is so important. I discovered that I react badly to salicylates, and it takes 2 weeks for the reaction to totally go. They totally mess with my mood and general functioning, which bothers me more than any GI symptoms did. I could never have worked that out before! The next step is to work out my tolerance, which is a slow process.

All I can say is that for the first time in at least a year I KNOW I am going to get healthy, and get on with my life. Not only do I feel better because of the removal or reduction of symptoms, but I don't feel hopeless and useless anymore. It's like a fog has cleared, and I can enagage with the world again. Woo!

[BRUMI1968]

I'm so glad to read your post. I am doing the low fodmap diet right now and it is amazing how much it has helped me. I've known for some time that rice bothers me (both digestively, and makes my teeth hurt [demineralization?]). I don't do dairy or soy, and didn't eat meat. But I've developed a bad case of anemia (undiagnosed) all the way to having my lips perpetually peeling off. So I've started eating beef, and I'm doing really well on it so far. Last time I tried it I did not do well - could it have been the massive pile of carmelized onions I put on top?

Anyway, it's great to hear about your journey -- oftentimes the people in our lives who are wonderful but don't totally understand think we're crazy for limiting what we eat so much. But they don't know what it is like to have our total quality of life messed up.

Thanks.

[gf-soph]

I'm so glad to read your post. I am doing the low fodmap diet right now and it is amazing how much it has helped me. I've known for some time that rice bothers me (both digestively, and makes my teeth hurt [demineralization?]). I don't do dairy or soy, and didn't eat meat. But I've developed a bad case of anemia (undiagnosed) all the way to having my lips perpetually peeling off. So I've started eating beef, and I'm doing really well on it so far. Last time I tried it I did not do well - could it have been the massive pile of carmelized onions I put on top?

Anyway, it's great to hear about your journey -- oftentimes the people in our lives who are wonderful but don't totally understand think we're crazy for limiting what we eat so much. But they don't know what it is like to have our total quality of life messed up.

Thanks.

I'm pretty lucky in that regard - my family and close friends are pretty supportive. The don't always understand every detail, but they have seen me so sick for so long that they are supportive, and very encouraged by the results. The few times I have come across something that might explain my problems I tend to get really keen and want to discuss it, so they usually understand the logic behind the restrictions too! I get the occasional dumb question, but nothing that is a problem.

That's interesting about the rice - what an odd reaction. It's amazing what our bodies can do isn't it! For me, I'm not sure if it is a straightforward intolerance to rice, to do with the salicylates or a FODMAP problem, i tend to think it's not a FODMAP issue as I reacted so weirdly and not with gut problems, but I will reintroduce it soon and figure it out.

The onions - that would certainly stuff things up! For me, I think it was the fact that I was eating lamb and chicken, and have a specific strong intolerance to chicken and eggs. I also don't do well with much fat, and I was crumbing and shallow frying the meat. Hopefully as I can manage soy and dairy I will be able to manage iron pills in the future.

One thing I've learnt from the fodmap groups is that over time some people can introduce small amounts of onion and garlic by cooking large chunks of garlic or onion in oil (not water), then removing it from the food before eating. Apparantly the problematic sugars are not oil soluble, so you can get the flavours and not the problems. I haven't tried it yet, let me know if you do

[up late]

RPA was where I went, I did the elimination diet too. So many kids there, for a while I thought I was their only adult patient.

.

[Loey]

I've mentioned in a couple of threads that I am on the RPA (Royal Prince Alfred Hospital) elimination diet, aka failsafe diet, and a couple of people have expressed interest, so I thought I would just write some information and my experience. I know the diet is more common in Australia than elsewhere, so I will put in plenty of detail. It will be loooong!

One thing straight up is that I would recommend if at all possible that you work through this with a dietician. The RPA won't send out the new booklets that the diet is based on to individuals, only to other health professionals. They are worth having, the website below has good information but the books they give you are better set out, and have been recently updated. If you are really stuck, I think I have heard of people setting up phone consults with dieticians, if you contact the unit directly they may be able to direct you. Open Original Shared Link

If that's not an option, the website Open Original Shared Link has a good overview.

So the basics

[gf-soph]

Well the definite best advice is to keep a food diary. Make it as detailed as possible, and keep a running column beside the food listing with any symptoms you have, and some sort of severity score. It helps hugely in working out patterns over time.

The annoying thing is that there is no single right way to do it. Sometimes you have to look at the options and pick one. People can end up intolerant to almost anything. For a funny coincidence, I am intolerant of chicken, rice and don't do well with apples. Saying that, chicken and rice are both good options for most. Apples can be suspect for people with fructose malabsorption, if you are getting bloating at the moment then you could consider swapping the apples for a fructose friendly option.

I personally don't think that broccoli is a good option as it can cause gassiness in a lot of people. Celery is a good option in terms of being low chemical, but it obviously depends on how you handle roughage. Sweet potato is a good source of a lot of vitamins, and it apparantly they aren't part of the nightshade family like potatoes. They are also pretty delicious.

The basic elimination diet strategy of cutting down to a few foods and building up has merit, but be aware of keeping your basic nutrition up over time. I've been on a supplement during this process, and my dietician has been keeping a close eye on me. If you can find one trained in food intolerance, a dietician can be a great resource. There is a dietician in Austalia called Sue Shepherd and I've heard her practice shepherd works can do skype consultations. She's an expert in the fructose/FODMAP and other limited diets, and I have heard of others using the skype consult.

Another thing is that you need to get a good baseline level before introducing foods. This can take quite a while, so be prepared to give it time to feel better.

If you don't have any luck with this approach, you could try the RPA diet as you start off on a lot more foods, and you look at food chemical groups that you otherwise wouldn't know of. It is hard work but it has worked well for a lot of people.

At the end of the day just look at the different posts and approaches here. If you already know of any foods that don't agree with you, try using those as clues. I knew that I couldn't do beans, apples, grapes, onions and garlic and a few others, which are problem foods for the fodmaps. I also knew I reacted to msg and crashed badly after eating lunch, which was always very high chemical foods, which linked in with the RPA diet. Be persistent, get all the help you can get, and be prepared for it to be a long process. Good luck!!

[Loey]

Well the definite best advice is to keep a food diary. Make it as detailed as possible, and keep a running column beside the food listing with any symptoms you have, and some sort of severity score. It helps hugely in working out patterns over time.

The annoying thing is that there is no single right way to do it. Sometimes you have to look at the options and pick one. People can end up intolerant to almost anything. For a funny coincidence, I am intolerant of chicken, rice and don't do well with apples. Saying that, chicken and rice are both good options for most. Apples can be suspect for people with fructose malabsorption, if you are getting bloating at the moment then you could consider swapping the apples for a fructose friendly option.

I personally don't think that broccoli is a good option as it can cause gassiness in a lot of people. Celery is a good option in terms of being low chemical, but it obviously depends on how you handle roughage. Sweet potato is a good source of a lot of vitamins, and it apparantly they aren't part of the nightshade family like potatoes. They are also pretty delicious.

The basic elimination diet strategy of cutting down to a few foods and building up has merit, but be aware of keeping your basic nutrition up over time. I've been on a supplement during this process, and my dietician has been keeping a close eye on me. If you can find one trained in food intolerance, a dietician can be a great resource. There is a dietician in Austalia called Sue Shepherd and I've heard her practice shepherd works can do skype consultations. She's an expert in the fructose/FODMAP and other limited diets, and I have heard of others using the skype consult.

Another thing is that you need to get a good baseline level before introducing foods. This can take quite a while, so be prepared to give it time to feel better.

If you don't have any luck with this approach, you could try the RPA diet as you start off on a lot more foods, and you look at food chemical groups that you otherwise wouldn't know of. It is hard work but it has worked well for a lot of people.

At the end of the day just look at the different posts and approaches here. If you already know of any foods that don't agree with you, try using those as clues. I knew that I couldn't do beans, apples, grapes, onions and garlic and a few others, which are problem foods for the fodmaps. I also knew I reacted to msg and crashed badly after eating lunch, which was always very high chemical foods, which linked in with the RPA diet. Be persistent, get all the help you can get, and be prepared for it to be a long process. Good luck!!

Thank you SO much!!! I happen to love sweet potatoes. I might try adding that in next week. I have had less pain since I've only been eating chicken, rice and apples. I'm still bloated. I'm having my capsule endoscopy on Monday and need to be on a liquid diet from noon the day before then test until midnight. Then I fast. I can't eat until several hours after the test begins on Monday. I was going to buy all natural apple juice for the liquid diet. Maybe I'll just drink water until I get through it. I'm also concerned about the capsule lasting inside me for 8 hours as they have me on two doses of MiraLAX the night before and my bowels seem to do what they want. I doubt that my insurance company would pay for a redo.

I really can't imagine what I would do without this forum. It's already helped me in more ways than I can say!

Loey