It’s day 3, and I am starving. I eat, but it’s as though the food enters my mouth, goes down my throat, then evaporates. My body has become so accustomed to the sludgy, stodgy, starchy foods that I recently decided to eliminate from my diet, that it seems that my body and brain cannot even function properly without them. I am wondering how long it will take for my body to adjust, because if I had a regular job, where I went to work every day from 9-5, instead of my flexible job that allows me to work from home some days, there’s a strong possibility that I would have been fired by now.
So why am I doing this to myself? Why have I decided to stop eating dairy, (no more milk, chocolate, cheese, cream, butter, buttercream… do all things good come from a cow?) and other “inflammatory” foods (refined sugar, white rice, white pasta, deep fried food)? The anticipated answer is that I must be trying to lose weight, and yes, whilst that is true, that is not my main objective.
English: A small dairy farm in western Maryland (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Endometriosis affects around 2 million women in the UK, and last year I discovered that I was amongst that happy number. It’s a condition that causes the small pieces of lining of the womb to to be found in outside the womb and often causing scar tissue. Following a laparoscopy, a common procedure to remove scar tissue, I researched diet and endometriosis online and found information about how avoiding, refined sugar, red meat, refined carbs, and dairy could help improve symptoms. I told myself I’d avoid such foods, but it was hard. It wasn’t long before I was back to bingeing on the cake, burgers, and cream cheese frosting.
I’d been feeling ok, albeit heavier, but almost a year after my procedure I’d forgotten all about trying to avoid certain foods. Then the “uh oh” moment came sometime last week when the familiar pains started to resurface. There was no way I was going to put myself through another medical procedure as a result of my gluttony. That’s when the anti-endometriosis diet came to mind again. With Google as my guide I navigated my way through various pages that provided similar information to that which I had obtained before, but this time two key themes stood out:
- Anybody suffering from any type of long term condition should avoid foods that are considered inflammatory, in that they tend to inflame the condition.
- Of all the inflammatory food groups, dairy was the most despicable
What moved me in particular, was a woman’s story of how when she gave up eating dairy, (making her a vegan as she was already vegetarian), she finally conceived aged 35, after believing that she was infertile due to years of severe endometriosis.
To anybody out there who is thinking about taking up what I will call the anti-inflammatory diet, I will share some of my recipe ideas in following posts. It’s only been 3 days so I am still trying to come up with meal ideas that do not contain refined carbs, or dairy. Quinoa has become my friend (my foreign friend whose name I am not sure I am pronouncing correctly). I’ve discovered that “the unbearable lightness of being” is more fitting as a way describing my hunger pangs, than the title of a book. But at least I can eat chicken and fish, which keep me going, and are by the way, the final “step” that separates me from being a vegan (in other words, it’s never going to happen).
Quinoa is not a grass, but its seeds have been eaten for 6000 years. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
For more information about endometrisios click here:
http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Endometriosis/Pages/Introduction.aspx
Have you or somebody you know been diagnosed with endometriosis? Share your experiences in the comments
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- Endometriosis It is a condition where pi (layyous.wordpress.com)
Lori Daniel 