Kickas.org Forums Treatments, Drugs and Alternatives NSD and diet-related; AMAZING INFORMATION

Hi to all of you who have helped me so much!

Haven't posted in a long time but wanted you all to know of this book. The name is "The Inflammation Free Diet Plan" by Reinagel available at Amazon.com. I am a nurse practitioner and three or four years ago discovered this site when I was incapacitated with AS manifesting with uveitis and joint pain. The no starch diet literally saved my life. I shared it with all patients in my practice who are afflicted with arthropathies, fibromyalgia, obesity, etc., etc., etc.

Recently a family member of one of my patients was researching inflammation on line and came across this book. To make a long story short it is truly miraculous. I have been on the new diet for the past month and am eating food that I never thought I would be able to eat again. The book rates different foods as either pro-inflammatory or anti-inflammatory depending on a number of factors including the glycemic index and antioxidant levels. Eating inflammatory and anti-inflammatory foods in the recommended combination really broadens my food choices and I feel better than ever. In addition I have recently added a new supplement called OPCXtra that I order on-line. This contains grape seed extract, pine bark extract and other antioxidants. The supplement is helpful, I'm sure, but the information in the book is phenomenal and there are some wonderful recipes to be found in it,too!

lindaguest

Thanks. I just put a hold on it at my library.

Linda,
Thank you so much for sharing this!!

~kim

I should have included an example of how this is accomplished. Each food is given a number that represents its inflammatory rating. Negative numbers indicate pro-inflammatory and positive numbers indicate anti-inflammatory food. My previous NSD breakfast was 2 eggs, bacon and OJ. The inflammatory rating with this breakfast is each egg ~-50, bacon ~-4, and OJ ~-100 for a total of -204 and overall inflammatory but WAY better than the normal toast ~-180, cereal ~-300, milk ~- 140, and OJ ~-100 for a total of ~-720. Now I have eggs for -100, bacon for -4, tomatoe juice for +50 to which I add 1/2 tsp of cayenne pepper (tastes like a snappy V-8) for +250 to total nearly +200 and, therefore, a very anti-inflammatory meal.

Having been on the NSD for several years,I thought I'd never eat starch again. When I read about this diet I figured I would take my NSD and utilizing the inflammatory rating just try to improve the anti-inflammatory quality. Then I started feeling so good, I thought, "heck, maybe I should be more open-minded and give this a try." My first experiment was dinner out with mahi-mahi tuna (highly anti-inflammatory), garlic potatoes (nearly neutral when combined) and sourdough bread (highly inflammatory). When I had no problem the next day I figured there had to be something to it, so I just continued the experiment...

Later,
Linda

Thanks for posting this! I am excited to try this out. I am not strong about following a starch-free diet and this sounds promising.

I just ordered the book. (Lurker, first-time poster.) Hope it helps me, too!

Have also just ordered the book! Sounds promising! Fingers XXXXXX'd.

Look, if you want to blow your No/Low Starch diet, fine.
If you want to do it daily, it won't work anymore.
If you want to promote a book full of nonsense written for normal people just looking for another weight loss diet as seen on "Oprah", not so fine.
I don't see anything in Monica Reinegal's biographical information that I can easily find on line that would lead me to believe she knows anything about AS or spondyarthropies . From the McGrawHill Professional Bookstore site:

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The Inflammation-Free Diet Plan
By Reinagel, Monica
A revolutionary diet to help you lose weight and control disease-causing inflammation

The Inflammation-Free Diet Plan will help you achieve your ideal weight--without fad dieting--while also reducing pain and allergies, slowing the aging process, and dramatically reducing your risk for dozens of medical problems. This flexible, easy-to-follow program is the ideal nutritional solution for every member of the family.

At the heart of the program is the revolutionary IF Rating system that, for the first time, tells you the inflammatory or anti-inflammatory effects of all of the foods you eat. The IF Rating integrates more than twenty different nutritional factors, including essential fatty acids, glycemic index, vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and anti-inflammatory compounds into a single rating which guides your food choices for the day.

You no longer have to worry about choosing the right types of carbs or fats, or even counting calories--the IF Rating combines all those factors into a simple, holistic system for healthy eating! And unlike other programs that focus only on carbohydrates or fats, the IF Rating system also shows you which proteins are healthy and which provoke inflammation.

It all adds up to a uniquely healthful, easy to follow diet plan that fights illness and promotes weight loss! The Inflammation-Free Diet Plan gives you:

IF Ratings for more than 1,500 common foods, listed both alphabetically and by categories, such as “Breakfast Cereals” and “Meats”
Self-assessments for measuring your level of systemic inflammation
A choice of three customizable eating plans: Preventative/Maintenance, Therapeutic, and Accelerated Weight-Loss
Three weeks worth of daily meal plans and dozens of delicious anti-inflammatory recipes
With The Inflammation-Free Diet Plan, you'll learn how to stop the silent enemy in its tracks and get started on the road to a longer, healthier, more vibrant life--today.



DOI: 10.1036/0071464719

Mouse over the Digital Object Identifier (DOI) to learn more about this book or related books published by McGraw-Hill.
Author Biography
Monica Reinagel is the chief nutritionist and host of NutritionData.com, the internet’s leading source for nutrition information and tools, and an editorial partner with the award-winning food and cooking website, Epicurious.com. Monica’s blog on NutritionData.com is seen by more than 1 million viewers every month,

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Reviews of the book I read mentioned that the author does not say exactly how she came pick this particular set of criteria for deciding just how this combination was thought to be anti inflammatory. I also cannot figure out if she has any scientific training or medical training or is a registered dietician (of course, I think they're also complete idiots sometimes, so that isn't necesarily another minus point....). A short bio of her said she is a professionally trained .... chef. Another referred to her as a noted "nutritional researcher."

We already have a professional chef around here, AlohaBen, and I'd take his advice way before I'd take hers, because altho he does not think the NSD does a thing for him, he RESPECTS us and our personal observations that eating certain food products makes us feel pretty sick. And he's not trying to sell anything.

Here's Monica Reinegal's website, NutritionData.com Reinegal's Nutritiondata site

She's also a writer for Epicurious.com, for "people who love to eat" The site has banners for Bon Appetit and Gourmet, too.
epicurious
She did the "nutrional analysis" for epicurious' recent rating on 5 popular weight loss food plans where they deliver the pre prepared, boxed food to your door, for plans like the Zone, Jenny Craig, Nutrisystem, etc.

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The Nutritionist's Take (on the winner, "eDiets")
"What I loved best about this plan were the big, hearty breakfasts loaded with fiber and protein — a dieter's best weapon against hunger," says Monica Reinagel, chief nutritionist for our sister site NutritionData.com, who analyzed all of the meal plans for us. "Otherwise, this plan was very similar to the ZoneChefs plan, nutritionally. Both the Zone and eDiets plans contain roughly the same proportion of fats (about 30 percent). The main difference is that the eDiets plan is slightly lower in protein (20 percent) and higher in carbohydrates (50 percent) compared with the Zone's 30/30/40. I think either is safe and effective for weight loss and long-term maintenance and overall nutrition

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I don't think you can huckster this 'food in a box stuff' and be an advocate for healthy eating at the same time.

As for the OPCXtra supplement, the FDA sent one distributor a warning letter on Feb 6, 2007 saying they were in violation of the FDA's Act section 201 g 1 because the site was making claims about the supplement that can only legally be made about pharmaceutical drugs. One of the examples they gave was a testimonial claiming that OCTXtra was as good as Celebrex. Therefore, if the product is actually a new drug, it cannot be marketed with those claims without undergoing FDA approval processes. The FDA said that these products that are in violation may sometimes be legally marketed as supplements IF the claims about diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention are removed from the promotional materials. Dietary supplements that claim to prevent, diagnose, mitigate, treat, or cure diseases cause the products to be "drugs".

Considering how ****ed up the FDA is right now, with the ongoing problems with the melamine contaminated wheat, corn, rice glutens and proteins floating around in the pet and human food chains, if you manage to get a warning letter from the FDA about your advertising products you might really be pushing the limits of what is acceptable. Some of the things the FDA found objectionable:

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"OPCXtra they function as a cofactor or helper to the body's immune system to respond to inflammation, allergy, and infection."
"Sure beats Celebrex"....

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And what they wanted the distributor to do:

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..." This letter is not intended to be an all-inclusive review of your web site and products your
firm markets. It is your responsibility to ensure that all products marketed by your firm comply with the Act and its implementing regulations."

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In other words, you can market new, scientifically untested supplements as nutritional supplements that may or might influence certain body functions but you cannot make claims that it is as good or better as tested and verified products that fall under pharmaceutical regulation. link: http://72.14.253.104/search?q=cache:RpfJ...s&client=safari

Here's the ingredient list:
http://www.opcxtra.com/

Now, if it's one thing that really chaps my a$$, it's stuff that has misleading labeling.
Ingredients besides the grape seed extract, pine, red wine, bilberry, green tea, citrus, vitamin c, e, and bicarbonate (baking soda) are:

fructose, glucose, citric acid, maltodextrin silica, calcium sulfate, pectin.

product claims to be wheat free. Wheat free labeling is typically used to mean gluten free because of problems some people have tolerating wheat gluten. Yet malto dextrin is made of barley, a member of the wheat family, and has gluten, so this item is actually NOT safe for a person trying to avoid wheat in their diet.

I can't tell from the amount of time I've put into this search yet whether or not the product is imported from China as a manufactured one, or just some of the ingredients, but this sort of mislabeling is what happens when companies get greedy or careless.

A thought-provoking post. But please consider that while Ms. Reinagel may not have specific information regarding AS, she does hold a Masters in Human Nutrition (an excellent background for a chef), which may afford her more credibility. I think I'll read the book and try the diet before I evaluate its merit.

Suzie the newbie

I already have the book. I think that it encourages low sugar, low fat and perhaps low grain eating. It would depend on how sensitive to starch you were also. I still couldn't balance out starchy fruit or a bowl of cereal (which mostly are negative values, meaning inflammatory) with lots of green vegetables, nuts & certain fish (positive values) and not have any pain or effects. I did try. It is the same as all special diets such as NSD some people can cheat a little, some can't I guess. It'll work for some and not others.
Kim