On Fasting

I used fruit fasts in the early days when I started experimenting with the No Starch Diet. Fruit fasts (or to be more precise, fruit mono-diets) worked wonderfully for me. By the 3rd or 4th day I would be completely pain free without the need of any medication. Normally I would just drink water and eat pears, grapes, apples, and maybe some orange or mandarin too.

Citrus fruits should only be had in moderation whilst on a fast from my experience, whereas pears and grapes could be eaten without restriction. Unfortunately apples will need to be tested for starch using iodine tincture as some farmers like to pick them whilst still a bit unripe, this is particularly true for fruits that are not in season.

Doing fruit fasts really helped me to understand the diet and reinforced the diet --> inflammation link. Afterwards, on eating normal food again, it was also useful to plan what foods I wanted to try first as any reactions / changes in my body would be very informative post-fast

Yummy Almond Porridge (Paleo, NSD)

I made a really nice starch free porridge today! Nice and thick. I miss the simplicity, ease and convenience of a simple bowl of porridge, and this will surely be a standard breakfast from now on ^_^

Lately I have been bringing the dry ingredients to work, and just adding some hot water and honey. It's a really handy and quick meal, cheap, and gives me long lasting energy.

Ingredients:

Half cup almond meal

1 and half teaspoon of coconut flour 

Half teaspoon cinnamon 

3-4 tablespoons coconut oil

2/3 cup water

Method:

Mix the dry ingredients first so as to avoid lumps. Now add oil and water to a pot and simmer on stove or heat in microwave for about a minute until thick. If it gets too thick add a little water. 

Now serve with some honey on top and perhaps a little butter :)

This is the second time I made it and I got the thickness right this time. If it is too runny it should be fine to just add some more coconut flour - just be careful not to let it clump up. 

Things to try:

More cinnamon - half a small teaspoon adds a nice aroma

Glutinous rice flour - for extra energy / endurance / less fatigue. 1 tsp is good

Molasses - third to half a tsp is enough for a yummy flavour, anymore and it's too strong
Almond butter
Almond milk
Coconut milk

The second piece to the puzzle - getting a tummy flu

I ate something bad and came down with food poisoning once some years back. I wasn't keeping solid food down so I decided I would try fasting .. more of my usual crazy, self experimenting behaviour. I just wanted to know what a fast would feel like, as I had heard that certain spiritual people do it and wanted to understand why. I did drink water of course, I'm not suicidal. After hours of diarrhea and vomiting there was eventually nothing more in my system. My gut was empty. I recall quite clearly vomiting one final time and then within just minutes of clearing everything out the pain started dissolving away. It was surprisingly fast! I continued the fast for a while before eating and I have to say it was a wonderful experience. I think that the fact my digestive system was completely cleared out is what made the fast so enjoyable. I was happy, creative, my mind & body felt bright and effortless, had no hunger pains (drank plenty of water though!).. life like this was really a joy.

Obviously this was not going to be a long term solution though, and as soon as I started eating again the pain came back in a matter of hours. That was when the penny dropped and I realised something in my diet was causing me pain. I hopped on an internet forum (kickas.org) and mentioned this experience to others also suffering from my condition. To this "DragonSlayer" responded and pointed out that my experience illustrated the purpose behind the No Starch Diet (NSD) that he follows. He pointed me towards the appropriate sub-forum where the diet is discussed. Well, up until that time I had carefully avoided the "loonies" on that part of kickas.org. If only I had listened when I was younger instead of being so arrogant and closed minded.


So to sum all that up, I realised that something in my diet was causing my inflammation and returning to my usual eating patterns brought back the pain. Hope returned, now it didn't matter how much pain I was in, I had something to fight for.

Where to from here?

If you are interested in learning more about this diet, I can suggest the following places to start:

• No Starch Diet forum on KickAS - Folks are very helpful here so don't be afraid to ask a question - http://www.kickas.org/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php?ubb=postlist&Board=7&page=1 
• This is my food list showing what foods I can eat, and which I cannot eat - https://sites.google.com/site/cureankylosingspondylitis/no-starch-diet---food-list
• The starch content of foods: http://www.kickas.org/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=143543
• And some more resources here