I just posted this to someone else, and I hope this helps.. don't shoot me if it doesnt just putting out there that these are a few things i read up online and implemented, and worked for me, what is prioritising alkaline over acid, and getting my head round the ph levels of foods.
To bring down my blood inflammatory markers while waiting for treatment, all i had was vegetable soup with pearl barley, and no stock - full of MSG. Other key foods included bananas (good for the stomach lining), manuka honey (UMF 10+) which is a natural anti-inflammatory and prohibits the growth of h-pylori - a bacteria commonly found in chrones, and oats. The only meat I had was chicken, boiled or roasted. At the start i couldnt handle any dairy either, so id be careful about dairy, if so, only low fat probiotic is good. I cut out all salt - this aggrevated my ulcers, spices too, and anything fried. All red meats are also very acidic especially beef. Try and have as much greens, and grains - quinoa is good and has lots of amino acids. At first, also stay off all fruit juices and citrus fruits.
I then started reading about uric acid, I just gathered on my own that from all the bile I was producing / vomiting, my body ph was incredibly acidic and I needed to alkalanise this. So i started to research foods which were alkaline and started reading into this philosophy quite carefully. I also have psoriasis which flared up, more than I have ever seen. Then one day it all clicked, It is an auto-immune disease and i have a leaky gut. The more acidic the foods I eat, the more uric acid I am producing. I then realised that the mercaptopurine (immuno-suppresant) which is designed to over-ride anything I eat creates an excessively high amount of uric acid in the body, which made me feel so tired - the equivalent of going into mcdonalds and eating cheeseburgers all day. Because whatever you eat, your stomach will need to work overtime to digest - the more acidic the food, the more uric acid will be released into the blood stream when trying to break down these proteins.
My doctor was very good, but I dont know why he would say to me - here - take this immuno suppresant and you can eat anything. To me thats ludicrous. Being able to eat anything with a digestive problem?
I also have psoriasis, and I find it so ironic that this is what saved my life. It wasnt till I started taking mercaptopurine that my skin got really bad, I read about psoriasis like a maniac to get it under control untill i realised its all connected. So researching this helped too. I have a limited palette now, but im being more creative with what i can have, and realised for the first time in my life - less is definitely more. Here in an idea of what i do and dont eat:
Things I can eat:
Mineral Water with Lemon / Lime
Herbal Tea / Chamomile / oolong / elm tea
Porridge with water
Soya milk (only drink by itself)
Plain low fat probiotic yoghurt
Fruit – Grapes, Cherries, Mangoes, Pears, Apples, Bananas
Veg, Carrots, Celery, Parsley, Spinach, Raw onion, Romaine lettuce, Sweet potatoes, Asparagus, Broccoli, cucumbers, Fennel, Leeks, Courgettes, coriander, artichokes, soybeans, lentils, peas, brussel sprouts, cauliflower, chicory, pumpkin. Beets, turnips, avocados, squash
Meat – Chicken (preferably breast), Lamb, Turkey
Cheese – Only Feta cheese
Fish – Salmon, Sardines, Mackarel, Tuna (no fried fish) - i never buy any tinned stuff any more, only from the fishmonger. Yup - i now know how to cuts off a fish head and not squirm.
Carbs – Brown rice, wholewheat pasta, plain unsalted rice cakes, rye bread (only type of bread i believe is good)
Dairy – Soy milk, almond milk, low fat crème cheese, plain yoghurt, unsalted butter, eggs
Snacks – Almonds, Manuka Honey (normal honey is ok too), natural jams, olives
Lentils
Oils – Olive oil (only olive oil and sesame oil are alkaline, stay away from vegetable oils, it makes a huge difference).
Other – Sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, flax seed oil, sunflower seeds, evening primrose.
Things i cant eat:
Do not mix citrus and dairy; or citrus and wholewheat as this results in a bad reaction.
All white flour products
No fizzy drinks
No Cane sugar
No booze
No White potatoes
No paprika
No Tomatoes
No peppers
No shellfish (lobster, shrimp, clams, oysters, crabs, mussels)
No anchovies
No breaded or buttered fish
No beef or ANY processed meat
Whole milk
NO white bread
No strawberries
No sauces made from tomatoes
Butter
Shellfish
Hot spices
No white rice
No artificial sweeteners
No margarine
No pastry, sweets or cakes
No cabbage
Diuretics: Make sure you try and pass as much urine as possible at first. Parsley and ginger are great blood cleansers.
I also read around digestion times to make sure that I ate small and often, than that when food was going into my stomach, it was relatively free. So I also did some reading around digestion times for different foods. I also read around food combinations - not all foods react well together due to their composition, e.g. citrus and dairy is bad, and citrus and wheat are bad.
If you can handle dairy, one of my favourite things that I have is a milkshake I made up. I would invest if two bits of kitchen equipment also - A blender for making soups, and a cocktail shaker for making milkshakes and smoothies. I have what i cool my 'supershake' every morning. Mix the following into a cocktail shaker and shake vigorously:
2-3 heaped tablespoons of flaxmeal (very high in fibre)
a teaspoon of manuka honey (umf 10+, the higher the better)
2 cups of soy / almond milk
a tablespoon of probiotic yoghurt (I like using vanilla flavoured yoghurt)
4 big ice cubes
Take this on an empty stomach and dont eat anything else for 1-2 hours.
I drink a lot of tea also - lemon and ginger (only have lemon if you can handle it), dandelion and milk thistle are also good, and parsely is a good diuretic too. I have a teapot with a filter in it, so i try and make as many as poss without tea bags - essentially its flavoured water.
Try to stay away from all processed foods. Its hard but once all the toxins are flushed out, you dont want to keep putting it back in. Try to watch your salt intake too.
I hope this helps and ill add anything else I can think off. Pls remember this is only what worked for me and may not work for everyone.
Much love
Hx
