Here's My Spiel

Welcome to RA Eats! I’m a 20 year-old food magazine intern and I like cooking and eating real food. Chemicals and diet foods make me sad. I prefer using whole, natural ingredients that are packed with flavor.

Recently diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis. My doctor put me on an aggressive medication (methotrexate) to rapidly decrease the inflammation in my two index fingers. Because of the medication, I’ve made some large adjustments to my life, removing alcohol almost completely, taking a medley of supplements everyday, incorporating strange canned fish into my diet, and researching all the time for new studies that could make me better.

After trying the medication for two months and not experiencing any relief (I just got more achy if I missed my morning Advil) I sought the advice of a naturopath. Our one hour consultation resulted in two more supplements being added to my morning medley, a recommended probiotic that I (still) need to pick up at Whole Foods, and a one month “Elimination Diet” exercise.

The Elimination Diet removes all potentially inflammatory foods from the body. This includes but is not limited to gluten (wheat, bread, pasta, baked goods), dairy (butter, cheese, yogurt, ice cream, did I mention cheese?!), nightshades (tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, eggplant), and usually eggs (but I lobbied hard against that one).

When she handed me the list of all my off limits foods my first instinct was to ball up and cry. Essentially all of the foods that I love had become forbidden territory. All my life I was proud to announce that I had no food allergies and no major dislikes. I could eat adventurously and without restraint. But now I would be one of those label checkers, scanning the backs of jars and cans for “Contains Wheat and Dairy.” Examining prepackaged salads at Argo Tea and Whole Foods to see if tomatoes and bell peppers had been thrown into the mix.

My naturopath assured me that it would be fine. Eating a better diet would help fight against the inflammation from my arthritis and hopefully make me less dependant on the medication. Also, it would give me an opportunity to experiment with new ingredients and incorporate better foods into my diet. I’m all for that. What scares me are all of these substitutions that the vegan and gluten-free products at the grocery store are using. The recipes are even worse. I don’t know a single person that stocks garbanzo bean flour, amaranth flour, tapioca flour, and xanthan gum in their pantry and readily whips them out for every cooking opportunity. That’s just nonsensical.

In this blog, I hope to feature my experiments with this Elimination Diet. I aim to not only stay away from the forbidden foods (tear) but also stay away from crazy, outlandish ingredients that you need a co-op membership to purchase. Food in RA Eats will be accessible, tasty (fingers crossed) and support low inflammation so we can feel better with arthritis. Who knows, this might last more than a month. For my sake, I hope that bread and cheese can become a “sometimes” food. But with any luck I might find something I like even more that’s ultimately better for me.