On the last post I mentioned Charles and I started eliminating foods to see if we could find any food issues that could be contributing to Psoriasis that Charles has as well as some issues myself. We both needed to lose weight and food seemed to bother both of us with bloating and not feeling well. So we buckled down to see what we could find out.
We got our information from reading about diets regarding elimination of certain foods that can cause allergies or food intolerances. I have no medical background in nutrition so I am not giving advice, just sharing what we did.
One of our first problems was focusing on what we are eliminating instead of what we can have. We all make choices, we either choose to drink that soda or that glass of water or eat the fried chicken or the baked or boiled chicken. We are the ones that put the food into our mouth. It can be a good experience or bad experience depending how we choose to look at it.
It has been a bit of a challenge to change the way we eat but not impossible. Charles is happy that he has been losing weight. I am happy that I am losing weight. Having the extra weight loss means easier to put socks on or tie shoes. As I have aged I have become thick around the middle as many women do so I thought this was normal. But my belly has gone down remarkably so it is from something I have been eating.
Yes, we have missed the way we were eating but as we know now that food that causes cravings is not good for our body.
The other big change is the reddened inflamed areas of Charles skin has remarkably calmed down. The plaque areas are improving and the splits are healing.
At first we eliminated meat, dairy, gluten, nightshades such as tomatoes, peppers, potatoes and such. We eliminated all grains, lentils and such but we found we needed something more so we added back the best grade of chicken we could find and a grain which we chose brown and wild rice. We always ate white rice and I have never enjoyed brown or wild rice. However give us a week eating this way and that brown rice or wild rice started tasting good. Saying this we kept it to only a few times a week.
So lunch became a problem for Charles when he was away from home. We had to rethink everything. Then a reunion to attend. So the picture above was his lunch he took with him out of town.
We have a thermal cooker and I put boiling water in the bottom and the top pan with his food and it kept it hot until he ate it. Kale, rutabagas, boiled chicken, zucchini and onions. He said he enjoyed this lunch.
For the reunion was sauteed sweet potatoes, kale, mushrooms with onions and boiled chicken. We tend to cook chicken for the special times such as this.
One of my new favorites is cauliflower rice. Since we are trying to eat very little grain during the eliminating time this cauliflower rice is our rice substitute.
This is a typical meal with the cauliflower rice. We have here above sliced portobello mushrooms, carrots, two types of onion, yellow and spring. Then sliced zucchini and the cauliflower that has been grated.
To grate cauliflower you can grate it with a food processor or a old fashioned grater. I do not have an electric food processor because I got rid of it but I do have a hand one.
It has a hand crank on top. I don't like to use plastic but I found this one at a yard sale and got it anyway a few months ago because it did not cost much. I have been a bit overwhelmed in the kitchen and right now this helps me so I will use it for now.
Start off by cooking each vegetable in the skillet with just a bit of light olive oil. it is sauteed until tender.
Then the zucchini in the same pan after the carrots.
We cover the back eye with foil to prevent splattering.
Then push the zucchini over and add the onions. Again saute them which is just push them around while they are cooking until tender.
Here is some garlic waiting to go in later. Garlic is normally put in last or near last so it does not burn. it cooks very fast so if you are adding garlic, add it just after something is tender then give it a toss around in the pan.
Now we are cooking the mushrooms. Some vegetables will make their own liquid such as onions and some mushrooms will and some do not so if it doesn't release enough water to keep from burning just add a little bit of water.
The mushrooms are done so toss in the garlic.
The cauliflower rice now goes in the pan over the garlic with all the juices from the things that have been cooked. Spread it out in the skillet, add just a tad of water.
Put on a lid and cook for about six minutes.
Remove the lid and add the spring onions and toss. The heat will slightly cook the spring onions.
Here is the meal cooked and plated.
Here are some of the meals we have been eating that have been sauteed like the one just explained or boiled.
Wild rice, collards, cubed sweet potatoes sauteed with cilantro and baked.
Sauteed Mushrooms with onions, cooked zucchini with onions and brown rice.
Cooked cabbage, boiled chicken, turnip roots.
Sauteed Asparagus with garlic added at end of cooking,Brown rice.
Boiled Carrots, Cauliflower rice, garlic and green onions, boiled Chicken.
Rutabaga, Kale, leftover boiled chicken.
We have been drinking a smoothie each day for one of our meals, 1 bag of frozen mixed berries, 2 bananas and a small can of pineapple with juice and coconut milk. We do not add ice because this is the way we like it. For breakfast we eat oatmeal with cooked apples or in a hurry we eat plain cheerios and a banana without milk. Just dry like eating a snack food. I know this does not sound healthy but hey it works.
Our first add back to our diet was potatoes to a stew we cooked. Charles is helping me with the cooking because he enjoys cooking too. I did not take a picture of the stew. But it was boiled chicken, potatoes, carrots and added some leftover vegetables from the day before.
At this time we have not added anything more because I post things as we do them normally. The photo above is boiled chicken and it is very tasty and one of my family loves this chicken, especially my Grandson Michael. He likes my carrots too :).
All I do is I put just a tad of extra light olive oil in the bottom of the pan, add the chicken then add just salt and pepper when Michael is eating with us because he has many serious food allergies. If it just Charles and I then I add other spices such as a bit of turmeric and sometimes a tad of white pepper and paprika but paprika is one thing we are eliminating right now. Then saute the chicken on both sides and then cover with water and bring it to a boil, reduce the heat to low, put on the lid and let it simmer for 45 minutes and that is it.
We are highly suspicious that one of the foods that has been causing much of our issues is gluten. Another is possible dairy. We will be adding foods back very slowly so we can watch for changes, maybe one food per week.
Everyone likes different foods and we live in different places so our food is different. My friend Deb eats rhubarb but here in the deep south we are not familiar with rhubarb because it does not grown well in our hot humid climate. It is a cool season perennial and can grow well in the cooler northern states.
I feel our western diet is out of control and even cooking from scratch at home is getting us into trouble with too much sugar and food that has been genetically modified. I am guilty of this. I love to make homemade bread, I love to make pies and cakes but we simple cannot continue to eat like this.
Charles and I are learning moderation and looking for different ways to cook our food without all the added extras. I know we can do this, I know we can change because we can see what it is doing to our body. I have lost 10 pounds just in the last three weeks. A 10 pound bag of flour is heavy and that is how much weight I am not carrying around today that I was three weeks ago. But it is more than this.
If you are squeemish then stop this post here. I am going to show you some serious skin changes below so this is just a warning because some people are sensitive. I just wanted to warn you, I will post one more pretty picture just to put as a buffer. So if you leave now, I hope this post was informative. Grandma Donna
Ok now below is Charles skin when we were doing everything we could to stop a flair of psoriasis but the one thing we were not doing was changing his diet.
His hands were cracked and bleeding, believe me when I tell you his fingers and tips were much worse than what is pictured in his palm. I wont show that.
And this when we are trying to heal his hands before diet this is when it is getting better so use your imagination. He does have a prescribed cream that he uses but he can only use it for two weeks at a time and it does not cure it. We have had it better before when we went to natural soaps and a no soap wash but psoriasis has its own agenda. It is a disease where your immune system attacks your skin basically. The "industry" sells all kinds of things but nothing "cures" the disease. We have talked with doctors about diet with this issue and other issues and they never have suggested anything. They actually act as if it is a bother to discuss.
His feet were much worse than this, I simple could not put the picture of when they were worse so this is when it is starting to improve. This is after we removed the plaque so the creams could get into the skin. You can see where they were worse. Here several layers of plaque had already been removed by sanding. I have a battery sander from Walmart I use on his feet and hands.
I am not giving medical advice, only telling you what we did.
So I started making an essential oil rub and we also started the diet. I used one teaspoon organic coconut oil, three drops of tea tree, three drops of lavender. I rubbed this into his feet each day twice a day. Then we added epsom salt soaking before the rubs. Then we started a strict diet.
His heals were painful, bleeding and deep, this is when they were beginning to heal.
Now his hands.... I want to cry when I see this and last night he reached over to cuddle after we went to bed and his hands felt so soft.
Now his feet. The deep cracks have taken awhile to heal but they are healing. I can only show you this to show you how changing our diet and using essential oils is helping.
One other thing we use over the essential oil rub is a small amount of vaseline. I don't like to use it but at times it is needed because one problem with psoriasis is lack of moisture. I made a new balm so we don't have to use the vaseline and it seems to be helping. Psoriasis is like dirty laundry. You get it all washed up, put away and the next day there is more.
I did not take pictures of his eczema because the eczema he gets on his legs and around his ribs. That has improved and I have to be very careful with what I wash his clothes in and why I make our own laundry soap.
I know that this is a battle and it most likely will come back but we are hopefully going to figure it out. What if the correct food sets his body back to before psoriasis?
If you use essential oils make sure they are pure and use a carrier oil. Do not put an essential oil directly on your skin. A carrier oil such as coconut oil, or jojoba oil and others dilute the essential oil. I like to search articles on dr axe on the internet. I also have a essential oil book called the complete book of essential oils and aroma therapy.
Just think if a good diet and natural creams can do this for psoriasis how much it can help our other organs and we should question other things such as fluoride, chlorine and we are looking into that as well.
I went to a website and youtube called Chris Beat Cancer and I watched and read with great interest because if Chris beat cancer naturally can we cure Charles psoriasis? Well I can tell you that we are going to try.
I hope something in this post helps. Grandma Donna
