Nightshade Free?

[tea-and-crumpets]

I am going to go nightshade free, at least for a couple of weeks. I have been off gluten for more than nine months and a lot of my symptoms are better but after doing some food tracking nightshades seem to upset my stomach as well.

Anyone else nightshade free? Any tips? My favorite foods are Mexican and Italian, plus I love peppers of all kinds. This is almost worse than cutting out gluten.

Also, how do you handle sadness at having to limit your diet any more than before? I know if this works I'll be grateful that I'm feeling better but removing more things is really getting to me.

[Harpgirl]

I'm not nightshade free (yet ), and I've only been gluten-free for almost 2 weeks. But I'm actually finding it easy to change my eating habits (I wouldn't even call it limiting my diet) without too much stress, probably because I was already focused on my diet to begin with. I had been counting calories since Feb and was successfully losing weight (something I never could figure out before in my 30 years!) I was very happy because of the weight loss, so it didn't bother me to avoid certain food, even my favorites. Now that I'm gluten free, it's the same feeling. I'm very happy to not be in pain (when I'm not accidentally glutened ), so I'm not bothered with avoiding gluten. I just wish it were as clearly labeled as calories.

You've got the benefit of an even longer adjustment, 9 months! Your mind is already trained to know "I feel good when I don't eat that". Just try to think of it in the most positive terms because it's not worth feeling lousy over food. You can do it!

I wish I had some recipie suggestions for you, but I'm sure someone here will.

[srall]

Sensitivity to nightshades is real and a lot of people here really suffer from their effects. But I'll give you something to consider. I blamed nightshades for my residual joint pain and rosacea for a year and kept trying to give them up. At some point I decided to try a completely grain free diet and I discovered that the grains were causing my pain and other minor issues, and nightshades didn't effect me at all. So, I think you should try giving up nightshades for awhile and see if it helps, but I just wanted to give you my experience. In the past few weeks with my daughter home from school I've reintroduced some grains and my minor arthritis is back. I think I spent a year blaming potatoes.

If you give up nightshades I think it includes: All peppers, white potatoes, tomatoes, some spices (chili powder?). I know there are people here who can give you a complete list.

[tea-and-crumpets]

Sensitivity to nightshades is real and a lot of people here really suffer from their effects. But I'll give you something to consider. I blamed nightshades for my residual joint pain and rosacea for a year and kept trying to give them up. At some point I decided to try a completely grain free diet and I discovered that the grains were causing my pain and other minor issues, and nightshades didn't effect me at all. So, I think you should try giving up nightshades for awhile and see if it helps, but I just wanted to give you my experience. In the past few weeks with my daughter home from school I've reintroduced some grains and my minor arthritis is back. I think I spent a year blaming potatoes.

If you give up nightshades I think it includes: All peppers, white potatoes, tomatoes, some spices (chili powder?). I know there are people here who can give you a complete list.

Thank you for pointing this out. I haven't noticed any problems with corn or rice (my main grains), but I do get really sick when I eat tomatoes and potatoes. But if I don't get better I know what to try next.

[srall]

You're "lucky" that you are able to narrow down what's making you sick. I just had a general feeling of blah and I couldn't figure out where it was coming from. I hope losing the nightshades helps you. It sounds like that's the culprit. Good luck.

[YoloGx]

I thought it was just nightshades at a certain point and then all grains. But as it turns out it actually was/is salicylic acid sensitivity for me--which includes being off all nightshades except for peeled white potatoes. The sals is highest in the skin. Its in countless things since it protects plants from the ill effects of fungi and bugs...

There are lists of low salicylate foods online. Fortunately there are things you can take to make one a little less ss sensitive like phenol assist, and baking soda for the occasional lapse.

Sue Dengate has an interesting site that might pertain too concerning food sensitivities in general: Open Original Shared Link

Am hoping you don't have this condition of salicylate sensitivity, but from what I learned it isn't that uncommon. Often causes ADD like symptoms as well as headaches, eczema, digestive difficulties, brain fog, nerve difficulties and a whole huge list of things.

And yes, no matter what, whatever it is that you have to avoid to feel better, honestly I think its worth it to avoid it rather than feel awful and possibly get sick just to "fit in" or not have to deal with changing one's habits. Think of it as an adventure instead; a whole new way to approach your diet etc.