Wahls Protocol Diet (on a budget)

[tortoise]

I'm revising this old thread, I don't think I shared anywhere what happened. I had a flare that came with intense chronic nausea. I developed food aversions to everything I'd been eating - all the healthy stuff! tomatoes, avocado, avocado oil (so mayo and salad dressing too), all coconut products (again all my sauces), sweet potatoes, lettuces, spring mix, spinach... essentially everything healthy. My doctor added Zofran (prescription anti-nausea medication) to my treatment plan which was successful and I have that PRN (as needed) to prevent future nausea from snowballing into food aversions.

I've started "getting foods back" as those aversions are fading. It's not good enough for me to be able to eat dairy-free, but I'm getting started with increasing veggie consumption and intention to someday get back on the Wahls Protocol fully. I have a couple friends who are interested or participating. I enjoy the support system!

Following up on my last couple posts, I had bought new foods to try.

• Fish sauce was a surprise winner! I am still using it! I use a couple drops at a time, so even with buying an expensive high-quality brand, this is still economical.
• Coconut aminos are not a favorite, but I still use it in stir fry.
• Cassava flour has the best flavor of any grain-free flour, by far. I don't use a lot of it, but I think it's worth keeping in my pantry.
• I have aversion to the mushroom powders, soo...
• I don't think I've opened the tahini, it's just taking up space in the fridge
• I learned I have strong/bad FODMAP reaction to the apricot jam, even just a little bit as an ingredient in a sauce. My kids liked the rest of the apricot jam on toast.

I still haven't figured out a decent BBQ sauce. I have clipped quite a few recipes for the spices. Maybe I'll get on that this week. I sure hate buying BBQ sauce! But it's a reliable and easy way to use up roasts so I keep using it until I figure out my own recipe

 

[flowerbug]

i really like a lot of the mustard based BBQ sauces.

i'm still thinking about your fish/bone adversion, i've never had that as we always ate canned fish with the bones and all. also grandma made dried fish in the oven (butter, salted and slow roasted at low temperature to dry them all the way through). yum. little whole fishes... not something you think a kid would eat, but the salt and butter made everything go down just fine.

i did however find out i do not like the skin of most fish. ick. i can get rid of that or blend it in enough to not notice it.

there are a lot of other fishes than canned salmon and some of them are cheaper, jack/mackerel, etc. for the price they may be worth a try.

also on the organ meats, if you can find some good liverwurst/braunschweiger recipes those are really good eating. i can eat those often but i don't because of the calorie and salt and also processed food aspects, but at least with homemade you can avoid some of those things if you can figure out alternative recipes that work just as well for your taste buds.

my one major and only mistake with liver one time was making liver soup. there are few things in my life i've made that i could not eat but that was one of them. i don't know what part of my brain was damaged to get me to do it but tomatoes and liver just should not go together according to my brain and tastebuds. i had to flush it (not having a place at the time where i kept worms or a garden or i would have buried it instead).

wasting food is one of my kneejerk taboos, i'm very careful with buying and meal planning and making sure things do not spoil. we make big batches and freeze portions now so that works well on that count.

tahini is not really needed in a lot of recipes it is called for. sesame seed paste. replace it with whole seeds or nut butters or other nuts or leave it out. i just made hummus without it and hardly notice it missing. a bit of toasted sesame oil is good in a lot of things if you like that flavor. i'm of the opinion that if i use it at all i go very light.

garlic on the other hand. i will peel and eat it fresh as i'm cooking. i have no problems with vampires. green garlic is a wonderful alternative to green onions in the late winter and early spring and very easy to grow. it is much easier to me than green onions. i never have a shortage of scapes to plant to have a good harvest and as they can be a waste product from growing garlic (i've had to bury five gallon buckets of scapes because i could not use them all) it was a good way to use them.

i've since downsized my garlic production and also the green garlic planting, but i still have a big patch of it i need to clear eventually...

um, ok, not sure where i was going with this post, but any chance to talk about food i guess i'm hooked.

even if you are going light on carbs i always recommend people go check out squash and beans because they are good nutrition, filling and cheap and don't have to be a big part of a meal to make a dfference. plus, well, i really like beans... and squash...

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Geeze Tortoise - I can't even imagine having all those food aversions. My problem is I have NO food aversions! I'll eat practically anything - well maybe anything except liver soup, lol! That would have to be the do-all, end-all of things that just don't sound so appetizing. I would loved to have seen the expression on your face @flowerbug when you tasted it the first time!

 

[flowerbug]

Geeze Tortoise - I can't even imagine having all those food aversions. My problem is I have NO food aversions! I'll eat practically anything - well maybe anything except liver soup, lol! That would have to be the do-all, end-all of things that just don't sound so appetizing. I would loved to have seen the expression on your face @flowerbug when you tasted it the first time!

*shudder*...

 

[tortoise]

@flowerbug you reminded me of something else I will be doing differently. I had genetic testing done this past summer and learned that I'm predisposed to not being able to remove mercury efficiently. I don't plan to eat fish regularly since learning this. I need to find an algae omega 3 supplement though.

 

[Mini Horses]

@flowrbug, whatever possessed you to try liver soup??!! EEErrrrk

Liver needs to be dredged & fried with a LOT of onion, then make some pan gravy. OK-- we all have a bad recipe. That "soup" is yours. Dehydrate the scapes?

 

[flowerbug]

@flowerbug you reminded me of something else I will be doing differently. I had genetic testing done this past summer and learned that I'm predisposed to not being able to remove mercury efficiently. I don't plan to eat fish regularly since learning this. I need to find an algae omega 3 supplement though.

eating lower on the food chain will avoid some of the mercury contamination. that is why small sardines are pretty good food source - unlike tuna or larger fish... you can source cleaner fish. unfortunately down here where i am the waters are not really that great as compared to where i was up north so i don't fish or eat local river fish, but further up north local fish may be ok. check with your local DNR people about what they say are the cleaner rivers and fish sources.

actually i don't know where you are at or your access to fish/rivers for fishing and such so forget my comment about "up north" - i got you confused with someone else.

 

[flowerbug]

@flowrbug, whatever possessed you to try liver soup??!! EEErrrrk

Liver needs to be dredged & fried with a LOT of onion, then make some pan gravy. OK-- we all have a bad recipe. That "soup" is yours. Dehydrate the scapes?

it was a long time ago and i'm willing to try things out. liver was on sale... lesson learned.

dehydrating scapes too much work for such tiny bits of garlic to peel. i tried a few different things to see if i could cook and extact the garlic from the husks/peels, but it didn't work well enough and the flavor was horrible. it ended up being easier to just dig a deep enough hole, dump them in, put some cardboard and newspapers over them and fill it back in. worm food. worms love garlic.

 

[tortoise]

eating lower on the food chain will avoid some of the mercury contamination. that is why small sardines are pretty good food source - unlike tuna or larger fish... you can source cleaner fish. unfortunately down here where i am the waters are not really that great as compared to where i was up north so i don't fish or eat local river fish, but further up north local fish may be ok. check with your local DNR people about what they say are the cleaner rivers and fish sources.

actually i don't know where you are at or your access to fish/rivers for fishing and such so forget my comment about "up north" - i got you confused with someone else.

I'm in Wisconsin. We do have some water issues. I'll eat small panfish (rarely). I'll eat large fish caught in a specific lake in Canada. It's not as pure as it used to be. When I was a kid, the lake water was safe to drink!

 

[baymule]

I also eat just about everything. I have 2 food aversions, ketchup and bananas. Barf on both of them! Everything else is fair game. Well, maybe not liver soup...…..