LONG-What can I eat? Spin me a tale of the good, the bad and the ugly.

[Guest guest]

Hey All,

I'm trying to be a good girl and eat healthier, especially now that I'm

pretty certain I have Graves Disease (even if I can't get my internist to say so

LOL). But I am getting kinda stumped as to what exactly I CAN eat and still not

be starving.

I had started a diet earlier in the year, which is pretty much a modified

version of the Lean for Life plan (I had used this a couple of years ago and

lost

all my excess weight but put in back on in the last 3-4 years), which

emphasized low carb intake and high protein. Not near as drastic as the Atkins

as you

can have fruits and veggies that have carbs and small amounts of cereal,

toast, etc. Plus I've cut all the junk food I so did love (except for a little

bit

every now and then like at a party or something). I've gone off diet soda

which I used to consume mass quantities of, as well as gave up my beloved

caffeinated coffee. I've eliminated aspartame from my diet......but is it okay

to

have something with a bit of real sugar in it every now and then?

As I said, I was modifying the diet plan that I have used before, and am just

sort of following the guidelines and recommended foods for breakfast and

lunch, and eating smaller portions of whatever I fixed for dinner. I like to

cook

and I'm trying to cook more again and make regular dinners of an entree, a

veggie of some sort and some sort of rice or potato or pasta; or some type of

soup with bread or a casserole or stir-fry one dish meal. I'm doing my best to

cut my salt intake so as to avoid excess iodine consumption that way and I'm

reading the labels on everything I put into my mouth -- or trying to. I have

really cut back on the fast food...and if we do get it, I usually will get one

small burger and no fries, one bean burrito, a small subway sandwich with their

6

grams of fat, no more than 2 pieces of pizza---hope I'm painting a clear

picture so you get an idea of what my diet is currently like.

I'm really running into a wall here though as a lot of what I have been

eating for breakfast and lunch or snacks is dairy products, which are a big part

of

this diet as they are pretty high in protein and low in carbs and I just

plain like them. Now I don't know whether I should continue eating a bowl of

cereal in the morning with some low-fat milk. Or a cup of nonfat yogurt or

cottage

cheese or an ounce or two of low-fat cheese of some sort. Could some of you

out there who have already got your diet figured out give me some meal ideas for

what to eat for breakfast and lunch? At least a couple of days a week? I

figure a some dairy perhaps just 3 times a week isn't too bad. :-) Or is it? Are

sardines and tuna fish okay? How about a slice or two of lunch meat or a

low-fat hot-dog or some of that fake crab meat. Are these now no-no's? And

should I

avoid soy? Or is that an acceptable substitute for regular milk? Can I eat soy

beans? What about some sushi once a month or so if I avoid the seaweed

wrappers and don't do much of the soy sauce? I sure do love my sushi and would

hate

to have to give that up for ever. I do eat veggies and fruit too....not just

dairy. I'm confused and hungry and any help you can give will be greatly

appreciated! There must be something we all can snack on, right? Right? If not I

feel a major panic attack coming on! LOL

Oh, and right now because of my tinnitus I try to stay away from any foods

that require a lot of hard chewing like jerky (just kidding....I know that must

have salt up the ying-yang!).....that seems to make the ear ringing worse. Oh,

and my multivitamin doesn't have iodine in it so I at least don't consume any

that way....and I bought sea salt w/o iodine for those rare times I'll

sprinkle a wee bit on something like an egg or avocado. :-) Whew - another

gigantic

letter from me..my hubby is right .....I just can't seem to be brief if my

live depended on it! Thanks all.

Hungrily yours,

[Guest guest]

Ok, I dug this up I'll see if I can answer some of your q's.

I'll try to answer inline below - hope it's easy to figure out what's mine

and what's yours!

-- LONG-What can I eat? Spin me a tale of the good,

the bad and the ugly.

Hey All,

I'm trying to be a good girl and eat healthier, especially now that I'm

pretty certain I have Graves Disease (even if I can't get my internist to

say so

LOL). But I am getting kinda stumped as to what exactly I CAN eat and still

not

be starving.

*******************

eat lots of protein and get more fat into your diet and you won't be

starving all the time and you wont' be craving sugar - try to eat several

small meals a day that have protein, fat and carb in them - it should really

make a difference. And when you get your levels down you wont' be as hungry

all the time either.

************

I had started a diet earlier in the year, which is pretty much a modified

version of the Lean for Life plan (I had used this a couple of years ago and

lost

all my excess weight but put in back on in the last 3-4 years), which

emphasized low carb intake and high protein. Not near as drastic as the

Atkins as you

can have fruits and veggies that have carbs and small amounts of cereal,

toast, etc. Plus I've cut all the junk food I so did love (except for a

little bit

every now and then like at a party or something). I've gone off diet soda

which I used to consume mass quantities of, as well as gave up my beloved

caffeinated coffee. I've eliminated aspartame from my diet......but is it

okay to

have something with a bit of real sugar in it every now and then?

************************

All sounds good - and watch your fats too - stay away from canola, soy and

veggie oils, believe it or not butter, coconut oil, and olive oil are much

healthier for you. For sweetners, how about honey, stevia, whole sugar like

rapadura, or maple syrup? I really don't think a LITTLE sugar will kill

anyone, but not every day.

***************************

As I said, I was modifying the diet plan that I have used before, and am

just

sort of following the guidelines and recommended foods for breakfast and

lunch, and eating smaller portions of whatever I fixed for dinner. I like to

cook

and I'm trying to cook more again and make regular dinners of an entree, a

veggie of some sort and some sort of rice or potato or pasta; or some type

of

soup with bread or a casserole or stir-fry one dish meal. I'm doing my best

to

cut my salt intake so as to avoid excess iodine consumption that way and I'm

reading the labels on everything I put into my mouth -- or trying to. I have

really cut back on the fast food...and if we do get it, I usually will get

one

small burger and no fries, one bean burrito, a small subway sandwich with

their 6

grams of fat, no more than 2 pieces of pizza---hope I'm painting a clear

picture so you get an idea of what my diet is currently like.

***********************

you know, I really don't think fat is the enemy. Low fat diets are not doing

us any good - the more low fat we go, the fatter we get as a society. Check

out Weston Price: http://www.westonaprice.org/splash_2.htm

Salt - not the same as iodine... but if you are eating processed foods

(which I try to stay away from if at all possible) then yes, avoid salt

because you don't know if it's iodized or not. Otherwise, when cooking, go a

head and use uniodize or sea salt.

Also, if you read " Fast Food Nation " you won't be eating any more of those

burgers

***********************

I'm really running into a wall here though as a lot of what I have been

eating for breakfast and lunch or snacks is dairy products, which are a big

part of

this diet as they are pretty high in protein and low in carbs and I just

plain like them. Now I don't know whether I should continue eating a bowl of

cereal in the morning with some low-fat milk. Or a cup of nonfat yogurt or

cottage

cheese or an ounce or two of low-fat cheese of some sort. Could some of you

out there who have already got your diet figured out give me some meal ideas

for

what to eat for breakfast and lunch? At least a couple of days a week? I

figure a some dairy perhaps just 3 times a week isn't too bad. :-) Or is it?

Are

sardines and tuna fish okay? How about a slice or two of lunch meat or a

low-fat hot-dog or some of that fake crab meat. Are these now no-no's? And

should I

avoid soy? Or is that an acceptable substitute for regular milk? Can I eat

soy

beans? What about some sushi once a month or so if I avoid the seaweed

wrappers and don't do much of the soy sauce? I sure do love my sushi and

would hate

to have to give that up for ever. I do eat veggies and fruit too....not just

dairy. I'm confused and hungry and any help you can give will be greatly

appreciated! There must be something we all can snack on, right? Right? If

not I

feel a major panic attack coming on! LOL

***************************

If you are going to do yogurt I say do whole milk yogurt because the

beneficial bacteria are more plentiful in whole milk yogurt. I really avoid

low fat anything now as I said above.

I can't do lunch meat and won't touch hot dogs - I really do react to both

-either feeling hyper and shakey or just not feeling good after. I really

avoid processed foods because they put more than just iodine in them - MSG,

natural flavorings " and colorings that we can be really sensitive to. When I

go grocery shopping I mostly do the outside isles - produce, meats and dairy

and try to make what we eat from that myself.

Soy IMO is not a real food. Weston Price has lots to say about it in the

link I gave you above. Some say fermented soy is ok - if you are going to do

soy, make sure it's organic, non-GMO and know that it does suppress your

thyroid so it's really really not good for hypos. Also soy is so full of

estrogen which is a trigger for Graves that I see that alone as a reason to

avoid it.

Sushi and fish - some people do ok with it and some don't - you will have to

see for yourself - I have not had any problems with tuna, salmon, halibut

and swordfish, but avoid shrimp and crab and lobster. Seaweed is probably

best avoided until you heal a bit.

********************************

Oh, and right now because of my tinnitus I try to stay away from any foods

that require a lot of hard chewing like jerky (just kidding....I know that

must

have salt up the ying-yang!).....that seems to make the ear ringing worse.

Oh,

and my multivitamin doesn't have iodine in it so I at least don't consume

any

that way....and I bought sea salt w/o iodine for those rare times I'll

sprinkle a wee bit on something like an egg or avocado. :-) Whew - another

gigantic

letter from me..my hubby is right .....I just can't seem to be brief if my

live depended on it! Thanks all.

********************************

Sea salt is good for us - it's loaded with minerals that we need.

************************************

Hungrily yours,