Hi, woodbine:
The first five years, I was extremely strict and lost a lot of weight in fact.
But more recently especially, I have been able to get away with a more than occasional cheat.
I believe that this is due to the status of my intestinal tract after so many years away from NSAIDs, allowed to fully heal.
And honestly, I am worried about my eyesight; once I accidentally got myself into a severe flare that included iritis, however now there is no hint of that. I will not claim that I am cured, but the monster is not so anxious as it used to be to do battle with me.
So, I "never say 'never-again'" and if someone wants to eat starch, it is not so much a sin unless it creates a flare; I want people to be able to get away with the occasional cheat, just as I can now. Once, I wanted some Indian food and took loads of antibiotics to deal with the bacterial proliferation and the antibiotics probably made me more uncomfortable than the average flare used to, but...well this is something to approach with great caution.
Deep-FRIED breaded foods were always the worst for me, so a test would be onion rings that I used to love. Not so much pasta but I had one very memorable flare after eating some fried rice. Today, steamed rice does not have any perceptible effect upon me, and my ESR readings at worst were >100 and recently <7 even while eating a portion of rice nearly every day in Philippines.
HEALTH,
John
