Has a change in diet helped your disorder?

I'm just curious, has anyone tried switching up their diet and noticed a difference for the better?

I have a seriously BAD sugar tooth. I have to have some kind of chocolate daily even if its something like chocolate chips on a cookie i just need my daily intake of it.

But I am seriously considering trying to eliminate sugar for 2 weeks straight just to do a test. I don't know if this is even possible since MANY things contain SOME kind of sugar - such as milk and bread. So i might just be cutting down drastically and maybe sticking to things with sugar less than 3 grams and the natural sugars like fruit.

anyways, who has tried a new diet? if so, tell me about how it affected you and what did your diet consist of.

Yes, there was a thread on this not long ago.

I agree with little archer, caffeine, alcohol, street drugs. All of them seem to borrow from peter to pay paul. I have one cup of black tea a day and no coffee ever.

I shop with great care. I buy grains and legumes, and then straight to produce. No dairy, no meats, no packaged foods except saltines. Going vegan has been huge in stabilizing my moods. I keep high quality salmon portions in the freezer for a treat, otherwise complex carb's only except for fruit.

littlearcher wrote:i am vegan and gluten free.

but, i think what's made the biggest difference is cutting out alcohol, drugs, caffeine...etc.

I agree with the caffeine especially since i don't do the other two really. Caffeine always makes me irritable and sparks some anxiety for me

-- Sat Jun 29, 2013 7:30 pm --

centerpath wrote:Yes, there was a thread on this not long ago.

I agree with little archer, caffeine, alcohol, street drugs. All of them seem to borrow from peter to pay paul. I have one cup of black tea a day and no coffee ever.

I shop with great care. I buy grains and legumes, and then straight to produce. No dairy, no meats, no packaged foods except saltines. Going vegan has been huge in stabilizing my moods. I keep high quality salmon portions in the freezer for a treat, otherwise complex carb's only except for fruit.

I figured there might have been a thread similar to this but wasn't sure. I'm gonna have to browse through this forum to see if many people replied back. thanks!

I think the question's worth exploring, didn't mean to suggest anything except that there's more to read.

I turned to a whole foods diet because I was overweight, and have early signs of clogged arteries and wanted to head it off for quality of life. I was quite surprised by the effect on mood.

Also, I have had moderate eczema for my whole life, and after a few months it went totally away. I've been free of eczema for over two years now. Go figure. I told a nurse during my annual physical and she smirked at me and patted my shoulder as if I'm a naive fool.

littlearcher wrote:centrepath: i find it strange how skeptical medical professionals can be about food.

Indeed. Until someone pays 100 grand to do a blind study correlating diet with a specific outcome they stick with steroid creams, followed by anti fungal, followed by anti biotic, followed by steroid, followed........

I've also spent some time in the waiting rooms of dermatologists. Boy, that's not a typical cross section of society. An entire room full of shy emotionally sensitive and vulnerable looking people. Yet I've never heard a dermatologist give anything but a passing "and stress can be a factor" in regards to skin health.

"i find it strange how skeptical medical professionals can be about food."

COMPLETELY AGREE!!!

I feel like they NEVER talk about nutrition. Its all about pharmaceutical drugs. Thats almost ALWAYS the answer. Have leg pain? Heres a pill. Cant sleep regularly? Here's a pill. I saw a documentary that said people who go to med school graduate and have received little info in med school on nutrition. Not sure how credible that documentary is though.

Food should be medicine. Not pills!

I try to give Doctors their due. I see them being deeply indoctrinated by an ultra conservative scientific belief system that has a lot of strengths. I think that structure has succeeded in eliminating a lot of dangerous practices like lobotomy and bloodletting, but their system doesn't have a mechanism for new insights without substantial funding.

The benefits of a clean diet are obvious, but nobody wants to pay to fund a study comparing veggies and rice to heart bypass operations.

But hey, they're the gatekeepers for med's, so we're stuck with them.

i just weaned off of mirtazapine about 2 weeks ago, so now med free too! that's great that you're free of meds. congrads.

my first therapist was a pill guy and was certain that i was bipolar and was in denial trying to talk about emotions and stuff when all i needed was more and more medication to balance my brain chemistry. i was so totally vulnerable in the beginning that i adhered to his view until the absurdity of it became so obvious that i bailed on him. i spent months gutting through side effects from the stuff he put me on. never been more suicidal than withdrawing from seroquel, that stuff almost killed me.

funny, three and a half years of therapy and gut wrenching introspection and humbling life experiences somehow cured me of bipolar. go figure.

littlearcher wrote:*knock on wood*

i'm not on meds so i am not stuck

in terms of nutrition, i felt i was better served by seeing a naturapath.

what is a naturapath??