Are you on any particular diet?
Poll - Total Votes: 11
Pescatarian
Vegan
Vegetarian
Flexitarian
Macrobiotic
Low Carb
Mediterranean
other
You can only vote on one answer.
If so why and how effective is it?
M
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Vegetarian for years... like the last 25 years, but did a few times a month eat seafood and eggs. Last few years I added poultry on occasion. Now I have poultry or seafood on average 3 days a week, eggs and cheese pretty much as I want. I try to limit carbs as much as possible. I'm not a nut about it, but 2/3 of my meals have as close to zero carbs as is possible. I allow multigrain bread for a sandwich at lunch and throw in a small serving of some sort of potato or rice one, sometimes twice a week.
Why? Because as I got older I saw a need to eat better, plus I never was a huge fan of red meat or pork. I ate it because it is what people ate. As for the carbs, a vegetarian diet can easily become loaded with carbs and my doc about 5 years ago warned me my A1C was heading to prediabetic, plus I'd put on weight.
Has it been effective? I think so, so does my doc. I took off (over a couple of years) 20 pounds, dropped my blood sugars way down, cholesterol levels of a teenager and BP stays in the 117/74 range. I'm on no daily medications and for a guy beating down the doors of 70, my doc says that is great.
I did go through a cancer scare, but because I was otherwise quite healthy, I went through it and have done quite well.
Why? Because as I got older I saw a need to eat better, plus I never was a huge fan of red meat or pork. I ate it because it is what people ate. As for the carbs, a vegetarian diet can easily become loaded with carbs and my doc about 5 years ago warned me my A1C was heading to prediabetic, plus I'd put on weight.
Has it been effective? I think so, so does my doc. I took off (over a couple of years) 20 pounds, dropped my blood sugars way down, cholesterol levels of a teenager and BP stays in the 117/74 range. I'm on no daily medications and for a guy beating down the doors of 70, my doc says that is great.
I did go through a cancer scare, but because I was otherwise quite healthy, I went through it and have done quite well.
I'm on the "Avoid my allergens" diet... I'm on the diet to stay alive.
I've had mixed results with it so far. There's some products that I drink regularly and am okay with for the most part - but I guess that they occasionally screw up the odd batch enough that it introduces allergens into my diet and I wake up with mild anaphylaxis that I have been able to treat at home.
I've had mixed results with it so far. There's some products that I drink regularly and am okay with for the most part - but I guess that they occasionally screw up the odd batch enough that it introduces allergens into my diet and I wake up with mild anaphylaxis that I have been able to treat at home.
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@DeeBee I treat with over the counter antihistamines or cold and flu meds that have a specific ingredient in them - my mother worked out that this can be cheaper to treat the problem when I put her back to the wall one day as a child and she couldn't find the proper meds to treat me. It was a long trip back towards home to get me to a hospital that is equipped to deal with me (you can't just take me to the nearest hospital because not all of them have the facilities to treat me).
Despite how severe my reactions have been over the years, my mother never took me to get the skin tests done as a child and now that I'm an adult... I'm scared.
I've spoken about that on here a few times now and others have said that the reactions the skin tests cause will remain local... despite the fact that my lips and hands are the first places that are affected in the real deal.
They also point out that the tests will be done in hospital, with the antidote nearby - but I'm still not buying it because I have had the type of reaction that caused a nurse at my local hospital to always remember me around 3 hours after consuming a known allergen (at the time, I didn't know that it was present... I found out the morning after the night before and correctly connected it to the party that I had attended. The allergen was in the butter that they served in the sandwiches).
Despite how severe my reactions have been over the years, my mother never took me to get the skin tests done as a child and now that I'm an adult... I'm scared.
I've spoken about that on here a few times now and others have said that the reactions the skin tests cause will remain local... despite the fact that my lips and hands are the first places that are affected in the real deal.
They also point out that the tests will be done in hospital, with the antidote nearby - but I'm still not buying it because I have had the type of reaction that caused a nurse at my local hospital to always remember me around 3 hours after consuming a known allergen (at the time, I didn't know that it was present... I found out the morning after the night before and correctly connected it to the party that I had attended. The allergen was in the butter that they served in the sandwiches).
DeeBee · M
@HootyTheNightOwl Thanks so much for sharing your experiences with us,i can't begin to imagine what it has been like for you over the years.You pretty much have to monitor each and every thing you digest foods,meds etc so it's something you live with and fight 24/7.Great that you have a very good understanding and you take the meds that work for you and aren't in any way harmful towards your condition.We live in 2022 every emergency department and hospital should have the facilities to deal with you on the spot there and then it must be damn frustrating to say the least.
All doctors and nurses try to do the right thing by us all but they sometimes don't get it right,i wonder if taking those skin tests may be best for you but as you said you're scared at this time.And the possibility of being affected is not one bit appealing.They should have you on a strict diet at the hospital and know your conditions,symptoms and possible results,bloody unreal.I have a friend that cannot eat nuts and he has been rushed to hospital more than once before with his life in the balance.All the best and stay strong,thanks again.
All doctors and nurses try to do the right thing by us all but they sometimes don't get it right,i wonder if taking those skin tests may be best for you but as you said you're scared at this time.And the possibility of being affected is not one bit appealing.They should have you on a strict diet at the hospital and know your conditions,symptoms and possible results,bloody unreal.I have a friend that cannot eat nuts and he has been rushed to hospital more than once before with his life in the balance.All the best and stay strong,thanks again.
@DeeBee That's just it, though... the nearest hospital that is equipped to deal with me is 10 miles away. The night I ate those sandwiches, I knew that I was bad - as in, my eyes are swollen almost shut - bad. I couldn't find my phone to call for an ambulance myself and I needed help. This was already beyond my home meds, so I got dressed and walked up to my mother's house.
I wanted her to drive me to the hospital that could deal with me 10 miles away... but she took me to the local hospital instead. Looking back now - I don't know if I would have made it had she listened to me. I was close to them not being able to get a line into me for the epinephrine. Them doing just that was enough for me to start going into shock on them.
It would take an ambulance ride and eight hours in the ER under observation before I was discharged to go home... even then, I still wasn't fully out of the other side. I wasn't happy that I was discharged to go home and follow up with my home meds using hands that were still too swollen for me to pop the blister on the pill strip. Fortunately, I was able to get my hands back to normal by the evening... almost 24 hours after my initial contact with the allergen.
I know that the tests will be a good thing for me on the one hand - especially if the reactions do occur locally to the site where they do the tests... but I also know that my reactions are never local, either. My hands and face tend to be the first places affected.
I don't want to be sent home for the night, only to have to go back to hospital with a generalised reaction later on. I mean, we aren't talking about a skin rash and a stomach upset here.
I can control my own diet in hospital as long as I am conscious to do so... and I have had to refuse to eat something before because it would have meant ingesting a potential allergen (butter - again).
As far as food goes, there's no space on the menu for me to note my less common allergens - like strawberries, so I have to literally ask them to remove anything from the tray that I can't eat and switch it for something else when they deliver my food to me. That's something that I wish that they would add to the menu because it means that I would be able to order things like fruit salad and toast with greater confidence that it's not going to land me in the ER again.
I wanted her to drive me to the hospital that could deal with me 10 miles away... but she took me to the local hospital instead. Looking back now - I don't know if I would have made it had she listened to me. I was close to them not being able to get a line into me for the epinephrine. Them doing just that was enough for me to start going into shock on them.
It would take an ambulance ride and eight hours in the ER under observation before I was discharged to go home... even then, I still wasn't fully out of the other side. I wasn't happy that I was discharged to go home and follow up with my home meds using hands that were still too swollen for me to pop the blister on the pill strip. Fortunately, I was able to get my hands back to normal by the evening... almost 24 hours after my initial contact with the allergen.
I know that the tests will be a good thing for me on the one hand - especially if the reactions do occur locally to the site where they do the tests... but I also know that my reactions are never local, either. My hands and face tend to be the first places affected.
I don't want to be sent home for the night, only to have to go back to hospital with a generalised reaction later on. I mean, we aren't talking about a skin rash and a stomach upset here.
I can control my own diet in hospital as long as I am conscious to do so... and I have had to refuse to eat something before because it would have meant ingesting a potential allergen (butter - again).
As far as food goes, there's no space on the menu for me to note my less common allergens - like strawberries, so I have to literally ask them to remove anything from the tray that I can't eat and switch it for something else when they deliver my food to me. That's something that I wish that they would add to the menu because it means that I would be able to order things like fruit salad and toast with greater confidence that it's not going to land me in the ER again.
SageWanderer · 70-79, M
Mellowgirl · 31-35, F
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DeeBee · M
@nightjourney Sounds like you know exactly what to do for your body,self discipline is the key for all of us.
tindrummer · M
DeeBee · M
@tindrummer You seem to have a balance of the two which is good.
Spoiledbrat · F
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Thevy29 · 41-45, M
I have cereal in the morning, and apple and an Opti slim shake for lunch. And maybe a protein bar for dinner or just skip it. I have lost 15 kilos. And want to lose more.
Confined · 56-60, M
I eat a lot of rice when im at work. I have a physical job so helps to keep weight down.
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