You are what you eat - has anyone stuck with this and did it make a huge difference??

[riley3]

I have just started Gillian McKeith's Ultimate Health Plan - cutting out wheat, dairy, convenience food, salt, alcohol - you name it! I am about to try to grow my own sprouts ! I have just had a miscarriage and as I'm about 2 stone overweight and have a lot of IBS type problems I thought I would get into the best possible shape for ttc again. However is it all really worth it??? I already have a ferocious detox(?) headache and am steeling myself to start juicing vegetables. PS - I get wound up by WW or SW!!!!

Im not folowing you are what you eat but I am folowing a non processed organic vegetarian diet. I've been doing it for about 4 weeks now and so have my family I can honestly say it's brilliant I don't feel like i'm missing out, I never feel hungry and the meals i make have been lovely. I also still drink wine. I have lost a stone so far and am never going back. A typical day is:
Breakfast - porridge

Lunch cheese salad, home made soup or anything thats left over from night before.

Dinner - anything veggie really, last night we had veg chilli made from green lentils and loads of veg with brown rice. Tonight I can't be bothered so am making a simple tomato based pasta sauce with corgettes, peppers , red onion, mushrooms etc with wholemeal linguine.

If I need a snack which I hardly ever do I eat sunflower seeds and organic raisons.

I only ever drink water and wine lol

If you're going to do this invest in a good vegetarian cook book and educate yourself about nutrition as it's important you get all your vitamins, iron, zinc etc.

me again! Also we do have some organic meat usually chicken about once a week (to stop dp moaning) and this is fine. I basically got fed up with not knowing what was in the food I was eating. I even make my own bread Pizza bases etc there's some great recipes on mumsnet. I don't think you need to go overboard it's more a back to basics type thing , proper wholesome food.

riley,I aspire to this sort of eating and also have a window full of sprouting seeds.
Check out wicked water witches thread about the six week healthy eating plan,week four.
Lots of good ideas and moral support.

Sorry about the miscarriage.

Hi there riley, I am also trying very hard, as you know from the other thread (ttc after m/c), to get into the healthy eating/ organic/ more veggie diet thing. McKeith is helpful, I found, as a kick start and inspiration, but she does say some totally unscientific things about physiology in some of her books, like saying your spleen is some kind of a "battery" that provides the "heat" for your body, and things ike that. What I do is just ignore those kind of things and concentrate on the fact that healthy fresh veggie food is certainly good for you, and that sprouts, grains etc will make me more healthy.

I bought an automatic sprouter and it's great.

I have not lost much in the way of weight yet but have cheated a bit with chocolates (!) around the time of AF, just could not stop myself!

Good luck everyone.

We are doing the same here and I am really surprised as dp has really stuck to it.Not doing it to lose weight(him)just to feel better We have smoothies and/or porridge every morning and soup for lunch(not ds) and in the evening lots of vege stuff and couscous rice fish etc.Drinking lots of water and are going through bananas like nobodys business!

Please don't let Gillian McKeith con you into believing wheat and dairy are somehow 'bad'. They are both nutritious and, unless you have a genuine allergy, they should be part of a well-balanced diet. It can be done, if there is a real reason to do it, but only if you look very carefully at your diet to make sure you are still getting all the essential nutrients. Dairy and meat are the main, easily absorbed, sources of protein in the average Western diet - take them out and you have to replace them with something else (speaking as a vegetarian it's perfectly possible to replace meat, but you need to work out what replaces it and that goes double if you go vegan).

Wheat and dairy have been given a bad name by irresponsible, self-appointed 'nutritionists' who are not properly medically trained and make an awful lot of money connning people. Anyone can call themselves a nutritionist, it's not a protected title like doctor. I could set up tomorrow and decide to tell people beansprouts are the devil's own work! If you watch the programme you will see they are very careful to use disclaimers - forever saying 'Gillian believes...' and 'check with your doctor'.

It is encouraging to hear the success people are having.

Edam - I will prob only cut out wheat and dairy for this month's really strict eating plan - then move onto what everyone else on this thread appears to be doing - just eating really well etc. Unless of course I feel totally fab and my IBS symptoms disappear!

Nicola - what kind of automatic sprouter did you get? I have a Geo sprouter which you water yourself but I have lost the instructions! PS - got the rebounder 2day.

Hi riley,
I did the Carol voderman Detox thing after i had my miscarriage. I did it seriously for about two weeks. It did have some lasting effects though, especially when it comes to prepackaged foods. I cant stand to eat anything to processed now. THings like microwave meals, chicken kievs etc which in the past I would happily eat a couple of times a week I cant stand now. I also cook most meals from scratch, no more jars and packets. I also have a few vege dishes up my sleave, and have found my DS who practically has vege phobia will eat them too and best of all am happily 34 weeks pregnant.

I agree with you Edam.
Hate all this demonisation of wheat and dairy products.
If you basically avoid processed food you really can't go wrong.
Cori,that is great to hear. Congratulations!

moondog, I look at it from a slightly different pov, because intolerance to cows milk and wheat runs in my family. The religion that Milk Is Good For You has caused me personally years of misery and illness, as my mother made us drink a pint every day as children, even though we hated it. She was utterly convinced that it was good, and she didnt know about milk intolerance. "Headache? When I was your age, I didnt know what a headache was!"

wheat and cows milk are 2 of the commonest reactions.
Wheat grown today is not a natural food, it has been highly artificially bred, someone will correct me Im sure, but I think it is much higher in gluten than it used to be. Although it does cause problems, it has a unique contribution to a tasty diet, and it is hard to replace (I have tried lots of recipes).

The same can't be said for cows milk, which I think is the devil's food. Goats milk is far more digestible, and can be used in exactly the same way in cooking. Goats milk does not taste strong if you control the diet of the goats. Goats produce more milk than cows for the amount of food you give them.
There is really no reason at all for cows milk to have the near monopoly in our diet that it currently enjoys, it is just habit and marketing, not health or gourmet reasons.

I got the Freshlife sprouter, which waters itself, much better for me as I am useless at remembering to water plants (houseplants would all die if DH did not look after them!). I have done mung beans and alfalfa so far, it's worked very well. Wheat grass seeds have also now arrived, I will be trying that soon.

Fair enough NN.
I've no doubt that these foods cause considerable difficulties to some. However,a lot of people just jump on the bandwagon wouldn't yuo agree?
Have you tried spelt bread? Ibelieve it is much lower in gluten than wheat.
I buy it and make my own.

Also agree with you on our society's obsession with cows' milk.
My children have never drunk it.They had breastmilk and weaned straight onto water and fruit juices.

Nicola,I sprout on a wet teacloth covering my grill pan. It sits on my windowsill directly behind the sink so I never forget to water it.

yes, and jumping on the bandwagon makes it difficult for people with genuine allergies/intolerance to be taken seriously.

Having said that, it is likely that more people have cows milk problems than are ever diagnosed, given that symptoms include stuff like aching limbs, tummy-aches, excema, persistent runny nose and headaches, all of which may be put down to other causes.

I have tried spelt, it is nice I agree, but fortunately the wheat allergy is much less now, it only showed up as a half reaction on skin tests last year, and I can now eat wheat every day without getting ill