Eggs are a big trigger for me.

I can eat egg whites with cheese, but I do miss the yolks.

Chicken is the second biggie for me (my DW as well). My DW has a problem with nightshades, they don't seem to affect me.

The saturated fats don't bother me (I eat grass-fed beef, pork, and lots of nuts, cheese and butter), I've never liked liver and organ meats, and I've been low-glycemic since I went low-carb in 2000. So for me it's mostly the egg yolks and chicken that I had to sacrifice.

Following the diet I posted earlier, I'm 100% pain free. As far as I'm concerned, being pain free and not having the probability of joint replacement surgery is worth changing my diet for.

I've read that inflammation also encourages a number of other diseases and dysfunctions in the body. Either causing them directly or making the condition hospitable for them. If that's true, it's the bonus to being pain free.

Bob

Yay! I'm so glad you posted this. I used Enterolab years ago to figure out my issues with gluten. I knew they were working on identifying other food sensitivities, but hadn't done it last I checked. I just signed up for a rather comprehensive test.

Do you feel like the test was accurate?

I feel that the test was very accurate. I literally could not leave the house when I had the testing done. I eliminated all the foods I tested positive for, eating a diet consisting primarily of ground meat and a few well cooked veggies (fiber was an irritant at the time) and things settled down fairly quickly. I still stick to a pretty basic diet but am much more tolerant of fiber so my diet has expanded. Enterolab testing really made the difference for me. I had tried to get answers from the medical profession but I kept getting worse and finally realized that I would have to figure this out on my own (sound familiar?). Life is so much better now.

Jean

Exactly.
http://scdlifestyle.com/2012/10/chr...ms-and-testing/

It is amazing to me how many "chronic" problems cleared up when I addressed the issue of inflammation by determining what foods I was sensitive to. Along with joint paint and severe gastro-intestinal problems, I eliminated dry eye, seasonal allergies, strange skin rashes and asthma and for the first time in memory I have the energy to exercise daily. Adding all this to the benefits of low carb eating (bg control, elimination of gerd, normal blood pressure) with weight loss being the result of both approaches, why would I ever go back to the way I used to eat?
We are creatures of habit but we can change our habits. At 67 years old I am the healthiest I've been in decades.

Jean

Goodness, Jean! I'm 34 years old and hobbling around like a grandmother right now! I wanna be like you when I grow up! I'm so tired of the pain. But after two days with no egg, the pain is notably less. I'm going to wait this out and continue to get eggs out of my system and see if other foods are bothering me.

Know this sounds hard, but you really need to do the whole elimination diet at the same time. Maybe you will be lucky and the one and only food is eggs, but often it is more than one food, and there may be cross-reactivity going on. Is it wheat, or all grains, or dairy (that cross-reacts with wheat), or both eggs and dairy together? Chris Kresser's RD explains here why 30...or maybe even 60 days...is needed to "calm down" your system and autoimmune response first...before you even begin testing one food.

http://chriskresser.com/5-steps-to-...paleo-protocol/

If you truly want to get to the bottom of your health issues, you need to spend time on it, and do it right.

Thank you for the advice. I do want to get to the bottom of things. I'm so tired of the pain that seems to randomly come and go...but lately stays. I'm tired of the bloating too. For a while, I thought it was all related toy thyroid and after I started medication, it helped a lot, but didn't go away. Then I found out I was very anemic, which other than during pregnancy, is very new for me. So, I'm working on that and find that isn't going to fix it all either. Nope. Now I have low carb food making me sick! Gheesh! Sorry to complain. I know there are so many others here who have much more obstacles than I, but it's annoying and frustrating and I keep wondering if it's all necessary. I keep wondering if it's all just because I'm fat. I'm nearly 250 pounds. I'm super active, but that's a lot of wear on my joints. Then I'm reminded of how it comes and goes, which would suggest it's more than just the weight load. Enough whinning. Do you think the diet that you mentioned in a previous post, the one that eliminates the 7 that she believed most offensive is good? That seemed prey simple and not fussy. What do you think?

Also wanted to update and say that this morning, I didn't have to take an allergy pill. I had some sneezing and symptoms, but nothing so major that I needed to take a pill. I'm hoping it's not a fluke. I've had bad allergies all my life and take lots of allergy medications throughout fall and spring. I only take them sporadically for the other seasons. Could it be? I'm hopeful enough that I want to see this through. Tonight, after my kids are in bed, l'll be researching the links that you supplied, Janet. 🌸

Brandy - As Janet said, people with one food sensitivity often have more than one. If you are serious about figuring this out then you have to do it right which means not being in a hurry. The 4 most common food allergens are gluten, dairy (not just lactose but casein, the protein in dairy), soy and eggs. Nuts are also a common sensitivity and nightshades (tomatoes, peppers, eggplants) which are implicated in arthritis. You need to remove all of them from your diet. The way I went about it was to eat only 4-6 different foods for about 2 months to give my system a chance to settle down. At first I was more interested in removing all possible troublesome foods. When things had settled down then I could begin trying to add things back but very slowly, one at a time. You have to be more interested in feeling good than anything else, including eating all the various foods that could be problematic. In the long run this slow method works best. You diligence and patience will be rewarded.

Jean

Great advice, Jean. You speak from experience and I'm so glad you've found what works for you, both in terms of weight management and inflammation. I think that for so long, I attributed the pain and swelling to thyroid only and thought treatment would fix everything. It fixed a lot, but not everything. Now I'm expanding my search to figure out what's making me hurt. It's pretty daunting, so I'm glad I have help here.

There's a lady here who got rid of her asthma by giving up dairy. I believe intolerances are linked to lots of things.

Before I gave up gluten periodically I'd get hives, or my eye lid would swell up like a tire. Very weird!

If eliminating eggs helps, try eliminating all fowl too for a while.

Both are very high in AA and for many people that is very inflammatory.

Bob

Oh! Good idea, Bob! I've had a weird suspicion that I've not been able to pinpoint about chicken. It would explain why I lose so much fluid when I travel. At home, I tend to eat a lot of chicken and eggs, but when I travel, I eat more beef and pork. I think it's because I'm trying to shop frugally when I'm home, but when I travel, I like to "live it up". Something to think about. What is AA?

Arachidonic acid is a polyunsaturated omega-6 fatty acid 20:4.

It can be inflammatory if you eat too much of it, especially if you are not getting enough omega-3 fatty acids.

AA is in a lot of foods, and I don't avoid it, but by cutting out the two most intensive sources of AA in my diet (fowl and egg yolks) the pain is gone.

I eat cheese, peanuts, beef (mostly grass fed as corn fed beef has a much higher omega 6 to omega 3 ratio), and other AA foods, and it doesn't bother me. But chicken and egg yolks make me overdose on AA (also with my wife), the pain/stiffness come back, and elimination makes the pain go away again.

Other than bacon, I eat my meats mostly lean and avoid too much of the fat.

Organ meats are high in AA as well, but I never liked them so that's not a problem for me.

Excerpts from http://www.livestrong.com/article/3...achidonic-acid/

In the 2005-2006 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, or NHANES, chicken and chicken-mixed dishes contributed the most to arachidonic acid intake in America. A 1-cup serving of a roasted chicken broiler contains 0.154 gram of arachidonic acid. Duck contains the highest level of arachidonic acid among lean meats, according to a study conducted on dietary arachidonic acid among meat fat.

One large hard-boiled egg contains 0.074 gram of arachidonic acid. Eggs were found to be the second largest contributor to arachidonic intake among American, according to NHANES.

While beef and beef products are the third top contributor of arachidonic acid to the American diet, according to NHANES, they contain lower levels of arachidonic acid when compared to white meats. Dark meats including beef and lamb are higher in omega-3 fatty acids but still contain arachidonic acid. A 3-ounce serving of beef roast contains 0.042 gram of arachidonic acid.

From: http://farmhousebeef.com/beef-cuts/...on-information/

Grass-fed beef has the recommended ratio of omega 6 to omega 3 fats (3:1.)

Grain fed beef can have an omega 6:3 ratio higher than 20:1

So far, everyone I shared the arthritis/bursitis diet with has had miraculous improvements.

My DW recommended it to a friend of hers who had knee replacement surgery recommended by two doctors. Six months later she is completely pain free and still has her biological knees.

That is a blessing, because she is in her late 50s, and when the artificial knees need replacing (they all eventually do) she won't be able to recover from the surgery as well because of her aged body.

Bob