Cutting out food types

[Noodley]

For health reasons (I won't bother you with the details) I am going to be cutting out a large part of my current diet; namely dairy, grains, legumes, eggs and red meat.

I shall be replacing these food types with white meat, fish, fruit and vegetables. As I said the food types I am cutting out are the majority of what I eat at present so the change will be a major one which will hopefully have positive results.

Anyone else cut out these types of food and have any good advice? Either about other food types to eat instead of/alongside my listed replacements or any pitfalls/benefits of making such major changes... Thanks.

 

[I am Spartacus]

It always worries me when I hear of someone.. ' I am cutting out this foo....'
Have you taken professional advice?
Is it the result of said professional advice?

One very quick scan.. where are you going to get your calcium from?

As you can derive from my tone..
Caution please

Now over to the spaced out food zombies .......

Be lucky, take care.. live long and prosper

 

[NorfolkNewbie]

Hi,

I have been under a dietician before for suspected food intolerances. It's a funny thing because after a completely gluten free diet (I didn't have coeliac disease, had blood tests etc for that btw) I seem to be able to eat anything and everything now without any probs.. Very odd. Might have been a serious bout of IBS I guess.

The one thing I would advise is to ask your GP to refer you to a dietician and have some blood tests as well to make sure nothing else is going on. If you do decide to cut out food groups, make sure you do one group at a time over a period of a month for each group. Then you will be able to isolate what it is that is causing your prob, for example you could cut out everything all in one go and might feel better but you might actually only have probs with ONE of those things. Hope that makes sense.

Good luck

 

[NorfolkNewbie]

By the way if you are cutting out dairy and pulses, then you need to replace your calcium intake with fortified soya. Vegan society has plenty of info on a dairy free lifestyle.

 

[numbnuts]

I was told by doctor to cut out red meat, and now I’m anaemic, it got so low they wanted me to go in to hospital now I’m on bloody iron tablets which turns your sh1t black and give me the runs so be careful

 

[NorfolkNewbie]

I was told by doctor to cut out red meat, and now I’m anaemic, it got so low they wanted me to go in to hospital now I’m on bloody iron tablets which turns your sh1t black and give me the runs so be careful

Sorry to hear of your experience. You can replace red meat with pulses and green veg in order to get your iron intake up.

I was hospitalised during my pregnancy because of anaemia (I was eating red meat at the time btw) and they gave me daily iron injections in my butt (hurts, trust me!) and fed me a diet of mainly broccoli and spinach with glasses of orange juice. Contrary to common thought, red meat isn't always the best way to get iron into your body - and the vit C in Orange juice helps to absorb the iron.

(Sorry I am a bit of a medical encyclopedia... having several serious and weird conditions and having been in hospital many times!!) B)

 

[Noodley]

It always worries me when I hear of someone..

It is not something I would be doing given the choice....as I said it's for health reasons, which I won't bore you with. Suffice to say there is good reason.

 

[WimbledonCyclist]

I am going to be cutting out a large part of my current diet; namely dairy, grains, legumes, eggs and red meat.

I shall be replacing these food types with white meat, fish, fruit and vegetables.

Key thing is to keep on eating a variety of foods from all the key food groups. The most extreme cut you're making, from what I can see, is cutting out grains altogether (while you're cutting a wide range of animal products, you seem to be happy to continue white meats and fish).

Look at the resulting diet you're following, and identify whether there are any nutrients in particular that you're likely to get a shortage of. If there are any shortages, identify sources you could tap to get these nutrients from. Also consider eating some foods within the groups you're cutting out that you're likely to tolerate well anyway: cutting out grains altogether is more drastic than cutting out wheat but continuing to eat oats, wholegrain rice and other grains, for example.

Have a look at http://www.whfoods.com/foodstoc.php - that site gives quite some factual info on the nutrient content of a wide selection of foods, nicely grouped by food category, plus a questionnaire at http://whfoods.org/foodadvisor.php that will give you an indication of the likelihood your diet puts you at risk of any particular nutrient deficiencies. For your purposes, ignore the various health claims about each individual foodstuff - I'm not too keen on those, but the general nutrient analysis seems fairly solid.

General caveat: avoid going too far off piste, read widely and take your info from sources that base their advice not on some esoteric worldview, but on generally accepted nutritional needs of an adult.

 

[Garz]

Always eat in moderation. No large portions, quality > quantity. Sacrificing food groups is not necessary.

 

[Noodley]

OK, my mistake. What I should have said in the OP was 'medical reasons' rather than 'health reasons' - I thought the two were interchangeable but obviously not.

As I said I shall not bore you with the detail, just looking for some input at this stage from those who know a bit about nutrition; the information provided so far has been valuable

 

[SavageHoutkop]

All grains or just 'wheat'?
I have a family member who went for the no dairy/wheat/alcohol option, but not all that you've mentioned.

 

[Noodley]

All grains or just 'wheat'?
I have a family member who went for the no dairy/wheat/alcohol option, but not all that you've mentioned.

Rice 'might' be okay, but that's about it. I'll have to try it and see. It's something to do with the type of protein. I'll be discussing it further with medical people but was wanting some pointers as that's gonna take a while.

 

[Dayvo]

Just tell us what it is, Noodley! You're boring us by repeatedly saying 'I'll not bore you, etc.'

Seriously though, I hope a change of diet is of benefit to you!

I realise that weight-loss is not necessary in your case, but have a look at this for some pointers with regard to your needs, whatever they may be!

http://www.weightlossresources.co.uk/diet/healthy_diet/diet_for_men.htm

Good luck, mate!

I could send you a postcard from Sydney : that'll cheer you up, I'm sure!

 

[ttcycle]

Hi Noodley

sorry to hear that health is impacting on food choices - by legumes do you just mean beans or pulses in general? I understand the need for privacy so won't push on what the issues are.

You can have a meal with pulses and that would help with protein and amino acids to help balance the stuff you can't eat.

The other option is to get a bit of tofu in your diet - it comes in many forms and if you know how to cook it can be quite tasty - there's loads of stuff that is soya based that can be used in place of dairy - doesn't taste the same though.

rice - obviously loads of different varieties, worth mixing different types in ie thai fragrant, brown rice,wild rice, short grain rice in risottos/paellas etc to keep meals interesting with variety.

Importantly,also as the diet is quite restrictive,it would be essential to eat loads of fruit and veg to try and get as much natural vitamins as possible - and supplement with a multi vit as well to try and tackle the deficits that might arise

 

[SimonC]

Always eat in moderation. No large portions, quality > quantity. Sacrificing food groups is not necessary.

No, no, thats why we ride the bike in the first place, so we can eat like pigs.