The Sugar Addict’s Approach to Autoimmune Paleo

First things first, Happy New Year, y’all! 

The beau and I went to a fabulous 80’s themed NYE party near downtown Dallas, drank green tea (the bartender briefly looked at us like we were aliens when we ordered hot tea), snickered at a stand-up comic, and witnessed some cheeky and talented burlesque performers.  I haven’t been out-and-about lately, and I certainly haven’t blushed like that in a while, so that was a refreshing experience for this hermit!

Now, onto some AIP healing updates…

Blehhhhhhhhhh. (Sorry, that is the noise I’ve been making lately.) 

My body is angry.  Its exhausted, in fact.  And my anxiety, insomnia, fibromyalgia and so on and so forth, all of which almost disappeared during my first two weeks on AIP, have returned.

I. Am. Frustrated. 

I express this frustration to aforementioned beau on the reg.  And I hate the sound of my own voice constantly whimpering about how crappy and frustrated I feel with my healing process.

He gives me some of his advice and some of his opinion, which are always very good and correct. Like, always.

He has noticed how many more carbohydrates from root vegetables, starches and especially SUGARS I have been consuming the past couple of weeks.  He also reminds me of how aggressively sugar can feed candida and proceeds to read to me a long list of symptoms related to candida.  He states that I have virtually every symptom on that list, and that they are more than likely a result of my gorging on carbs, carbs, and summore CARBS. 

And he is correct.

I have a major problem with stopping at one sweet, caramel-like, sumptuous and gooey Medjool date.  Fifteen will be gone before I know it, easy.  They aren’t a tiny treat to me…they are a binge every time.

 A batch of AIP carob-coated marshmallows I made on Sunday were gone by Wednesday…had I not also made a batch of Noatmeal Cookies to snack on, the marshmallows wouldn’t have survived past Monday evening.

I cannot eat cinnamon sweet potato mash or crisped yam fries or ice-cold crisp baby carrots with reserve, let alone skip those carbs for the next day to balance my veggie variety.  I WANT MORE CARBY CARBS!  RARRRRRR.

I know I have a problem, but I was in denial about my treats causing my symptom flares.  So I am glad that my beau sat me down and told me how much my sugar addiction is hurting me.  Its harder to deny when someone is having a loving and well-intended Carb-Intervention with you.

So I researched this problem and how it related to AIP for a good while today.  Then I was grumpy.  Because I put all of my sugary treats out of sight, and did not eat them.  Then I took a nap.  I am no longer grumpy gills.

In my research I found several good resources for modifying AIP to help sugar-addicts such as myself, especially ones that probably have candida or bacterial overgrowth (which is common in Carb-Overeaters-Anonymous):

Sarah Ballantyne, author of The Paleo Approach: Reverse Autoimmune Disease and Heal Your Body (aka the Bible of autoimmune disease information) recommends limiting the allowed starchy vegetables on AIP, and restricting your daily fructose to 20g or lower.

BUT she also recommends that if you have issues such as SIBO (small intestinal bacterial overgrowth) or yeast (candida) to further restrict these foods until your body is ready again to start reintroducing them.  That article is a very good read with great information and a helpful food chart, so go on and read it here why don’tcha:  Modifying Paleo for SIBO.

Another great resource for modifying your AIP journey is A Clean Plate’s Christina Feindel’s e-book, 28 Days of Low-FODMAP AIP. In her book, she has included an introduction on why a low-FODMAP approach can be helpful if you are still having issues with AIP, and also grocery lists, meal plans and recipes with instructions on how to prepare everything quickly and easily.  Now that’s my kinda meal planning right there! (And the ebook is only $10.  Sweet sauce!)

Another goodie is bio-hacking blogger Petra8Paleo’s post on a low-carbohydrate version of AIP that she lovingly titled “X-AIP.” The X stands for Extreme, she says.  And anyone that knows how limited and extreme traditional AIP already is would probably concur that further limiting ANYTHING else from AIP seems uber cray-cray.

BUT her X-AIP Food Pyramid is a great visual tool to help simplify your AIP modifications.  Thanks Petra!

Gutsy by Nature’s Jaime Hartman lists what you can eat on a Low-FODMAP version of AIP and also lists some delicious free recipes in her post.  Jaime, those recipes look delicious and I cannot wait to dig into them in my kitchen!

Last but definitely not least is Gabriella Schneider of Beyond The Bite and her discussions on a Ketogenic-AIP mashup diet.  She has amazing Ketogenic AIP hybrid recipes on her website that will make your mouth water.  Thank you Gabriella for sharing your valuable information with us all.

So, in light of all of this new information I feel that temporarily eliminating fruits and natural sweeteners is vital to my recovery process. 

Also, due to how I have similar addiction issues with starchy veggies as I do with sugars, I am going to limit my daily intake to one serving per day of this food group.  I would like this to become a lunchtime habit so that I can use the starch as fuel until dinnertime.

I will tinker with recipes and post the successful ones as well so that y’all can join in on the Sugar-Addict’s AIP recovery party!!

Until next time, folks, take care. And, hide your dates deep in the pantry!