Try the Koufman Low Acid (and low fat) Diet Part 1 of 2

@ sunbeam - I got the book today actually and wish she would have explained just a bit more. She says you can have vegetables "raw or cooked". For me, putting some cut up vegetables in olive oil and heating them up in a frying pan doesn't seem that bad...but under chicken she says "baked/steamed" etc., and does not permit fried. When I think of fried I think like fried chicken. The vegetables is almost just heating them up in olive oil, something allowed on the induction diet. Any idea if that is ok or not ok for the induction diet? thx

ARM, I got my book today, also. I have paged through it a bit, but haven't read it cover to cover. I really don't know any more than you, but maybe I have been thinking about it more. I think that as long as you consume no more than 2 tablespoons of olive oil per day, it doesn't matter whether you put in on vegetables, use it to fry chicken, or drink it straight up!

After the two weeks induction, you will continue to experiment. I will try including a few almonds, and reducing fat somewhere else that day. I believe they are alkaline, but it is the fat that is objectionable. Berries can be eaten if you balance them out with something alkaline, like milk. So I will return to having blueberries on my oatmeal many mornings.

SK 55, how long have you been on this diet? The web site does have an anecdote about someone healing Barretts' but I'm not pinning my hopes on that. People can say anything they want in a book or on a web site. If a product is being sold, there will probably be some hype, only the exceptional stories may get told. The research article really grabbed my attention because articles go through an extensive process of review by peers. In the research article she says, "in the months since this paper was presented (at a conference), many additional patients with LPR have been treated with a low-fat, low-acid diet as the cornerstone of therapy, with or without ajuunctive anti-reflux medications".  So I believe that there are some people out there on this diet without meds.  I hope to be like them. 

Today my voice feels stronger. My husband was having difficulty hearing me speak when I was in a chair next to him.

Post Edited (sunbeam48) : 9/17/2011 5:13:47 PM (GMT-6)

i have been on it approximately 2 months... i kind of did it backwards kind of did a loose induction... now i got a pretty strict diet.


Trying to scale out of PPI, but it seems to be difficult to do. I think i need to talk to doc about it first.

ARM, I am concerned about this statement of yours: "I have such a restricted diet that to take the few things I have left would just suck." I believe this diet will give you a whole new way of eating. You will have to give up some old foods, but you will gain new ones, all those in green in the book, unless you have health problems in addition to reflux. I am concerned because your statement suggests that you already believe that this diet won't work for you. I too had certain "safe" foods including almonds, yogurt and fruit that I relied heavily on daily. They are no longer my friends, and I'm feeling better already. So please be sure you aren't deciding the outcome before you even try. Also, you haven't mentioned how you will measure progress. Maybe you just haven't mentioned it here, but you need some sort of benchmark to use to know you are having results (or not) or you will be wasting your time/effort.

Jesse, there are a few threads here about tapering off PPI's, you probably know that. I believe you would need to substitute other products like H2's and/or Gaviscon. Are you doing that? But yes, do talk to your doc, who knows way more than I do.

sbeam,

thats exactly what happened to me...

i thought yogurt and almonds were good for me... little did i know they were making my condition worse all this time.

yogurt i thought was non acidic, it was only testing with a PH meter i found out i was completely wrong.


Jesse

I'm now starting the second week of the two-week induction, and doing well. My night-time cough is GONE, and the day time coughing is much less. I am enjoying drinking skim milk again, and eating whole grain breads. I had not given up these foods, but had been eating less of them because they do cause problems for so many people, and maybe that inlcuded me. With LPR it is very difficult to tell what is causing problems.  I spoke with my sister on the phone today, like I do every week.  She could tell that my voice is louder than it was last week.

Here's a link to an article on LPR by Dr Koufman: http://www.silent-reflux.com/2010/01/04/thirty-year-perspective-on-laryngopharyngeal-reflux-lpr-from-silence-to-omnipresence/

hey Sunbeam. So glad it is working out for you. I am finishing day 4 today and have seen no real change...if any I am a bit worse off. But I am going to stick out the 2 weeks no matter what to be 100% sure. I hate chicken and am eating a lot of it and fish as my protein...not a fan :)

ARM,
I'm just glad to hear from you, I had imagined that you decided not to give up your beloved almond butter for this diet. I have to confess that I have sneaked in just a very few almonds, that are not on the list. But what counts is keeping the diet to the lowest possible fat and acid, and I am faithful to that.

Be careful of salmon, it is pretty high fat, as Jesse has mentioned. I found this nice chart on the fat content of common foods: http://whatscookingamerica.net/NutritionalChart.htm

Of course, I'll give anything a try. So you have snuck in a few almonds, huh? I am SO tempted to add a bit of whey protein to a shake after working out but don't want to ruin the effort. I don't think a couple scoops of whey a day would drastically change the results, but I have read that the diet is really not to be cheated on...

Is whey protein a dairy by-product? If so, I would think it would be OK especially if it is low or no fat. I'm saying that based on the inclusion of milk on this diet. I agree, one shouldn't mess around with this two-week induction phase, but I'm not perfect, and then I'm prone to rationalizing my mistakes.

yeah, its a low fat derivative of dairy...so its probably ok. But the science in the book, if true, is all about flushing the pepsin in the esophagus the first two weeks, so that is why its super strict. I think I'll just stick it out, already on day 5...

hi guys,

i figure i hover around 90-95% free of symptoms using the diet.


still tweaking the diet... i get a strange soreness not too bad near the center of my chest near the LES i guess.

still trying to figure it out... going to gastro next week.

Even though i made alot of progress since feb... its still be been tough mentally being sick soo long.




Jesse

Hey Jesse,
Glad you're doing well. I have that soreness too in the middle of my chest. Let me know what your gastro says.
It is often hard for me to know how I'm doing. My chest feels tight frequently, and my stomach is tender. But at least my throat symptoms are way better on this diet. I think the esophagus and stomach take a long time to heal, so any improvement will not be readily apparent.

I ate a broiled haddock dinner out in a restaurant yesterday, with salad bar (no dressing), plain baked potato, plain roll. Sounded pretty safe, but too much food, I think. My throat was very gurgly afterwards. It's hard to know what they put on it when they broil it, but I didn't want to get a dried out piece of fish.

I finish my two-week induction diet in 3 days. I can find plenty of good things to eat on this food list. I don't plan to change what I'm eating much, except to eat a few more fruits, and use milk to balance out any acidity in the fruits. I'd like to eat more yogurt again, which isn't horribly acid, and also use milk to balance that out. I won't be eating many almonds, I was startled at their fat content, twice as much as peanuts.

hey Sunbeam

Thanks for the update. I am on day 8...I haven't noticed much progress. I did start taking Prilosec to see if I can be on it without the RUQ pain, and I am doing a bit better. I am guessing its the Prilosec and not the diet, but who knows. Also, you are right, the diet isn't that restrictive. I think I could give up almonds, and the only thing I'd really want to add to this induction diet is berries...

ARGH...I never buy dairy but since skim milk was on the list I bought a gallon of skim. Just finished it and realized it wasn't skim, its that vitamin D added one or whatever and its loaded w/ fat. After being so strict finding that out sucks!

Wow, I feel so bad for you. That DOES suck. So now I guess you will start day 1 tomorrow, but maybe you will actually feel better after a few days on the diet.

haha, yeah. I guess so...but I guess the good news is that maybe that was why the diet wasn't working :) duh...hopefully it'll work now that I'll actually be on it :)

On the induction diet, Dr. Koufman allows 2 tablespoons of olive oil per day, that's 14 grams of fat. So on my maintainence diet, I will try to stay under 28 grams of fat per day from all sources. I find it odd that she set a standard for acids (nothing below pH of 5 during induction phase), but didn't specify total fat per day.

To be honest I find it odd she doesn't talk at all really about cooking methods and a number of what I would think are important topics. On her blog I submitted comments weeks ago which haven't been responded to (and on the facebook page as well), and there is some what I would call questionable info up there. She has a page on aloe vera saying take it straight from the leaf, which as I understand it has a potential carcinogen that can only be removed by processing (they say soaking the leaf removes it as well). Point being she says neither of those things...

I don't think this is the case, but I am open to the possibility of her being a one-trick poney with this diet, which will turn out to be a fraud despite the medical journal study, etc. Stuff like that above just makes me think that if you go behind the veneer she is not the real deal. Just an instinct of mine...although regardless I am going to continue on the diet and after induction will make my entire diet more GERD friendly according to her book.

Of course your and Kitt's success on the diet kind of disprove my instinct :)

i went surfing around and found a few sites about alkaline induced-foods.
I was wondering if its the same case here? I found the list a bit different from what is listed here.. but there are still differences.. But i thought low acid food is not the same as alkaline inducing food, is it?

But in any case, i'm waiting for my copy from Amazon to arrive to see what this is all about and maybe try it out..

http://www.healingwell.com/community/default.aspx?f=45&m=2208368

Ridz,

Have a look at the above link to the previous discussion. Yes, alkaline-forming/acid-forming (or "inducing") is an entirely different concept (and possibly pseudoscience.......). Very different in practise too, as the Kaufman diet is concerned with the pH of the food as it lands in the stomach, not what happens after it's been processed!

MMM

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New stuff: GERD. Interstitial Cystitis
Lifelong stuff: Food allergies, eczema, asthma

ARM, I think there is a disagreement between ENT's and the GI docs. The GI docs insist that there is not enough acid to activate the pepsin in the larynx. Many GI docs I believe do not recognize the diagnosis of LPR. Maybe this is just her thing, I believe she developed the concept of LPR, and it seems to describe me much better than what I read about GERD.  Neither of my docs has used the term LPR, though my GI doc doubled my PPI doseage when I called him about my coughing and voice issues.  I have an appointment with the local voice specialist ENT next month, so it will be interesting to hear what he thinks about her work. When I called my primary doc for this referral, he said my voice problem was not related to my GERD.

Post Edited (sunbeam48) : 9/26/2011 4:58:12 AM (GMT-6)

Question from MMM:
Sunbeam, on the Kaufman diet are you getting essential fatty acids, omega 3 and omega 6? You can answer me on the other thread if you like.

Answer: Beats Me! I will continue to add flaxseed meal (containing omega 3's) to my oatmeal, eat as many veggies as I can, and eat acid fruits balanced by alkaline ones. I will usually pass on refined products, eating whole grain products whenever possible. I've been eating this way for years, and my health numbers have been "perfect" according to my primary MD. I'm 57 years old. I worry about the impact of my (recent) GERD/ LPR on my healthy eating, but I'm getting through it best I can. I will have bloodwork done again this winter, which will be one year since all of this GERD stuff started. One good thing about this diet is it has encouraged me to put skim milk and whole grain wheat products back in the mainstream of my menu. I had been eating less of them because of all the problems I hear about them causing for people. I used to sometimes snack in the evening on chocolate and other junk food my dear husband keeps on hand, but that habit is now gone for good. I haven't had an apple yet: it is on Koufman's list of idiosyncratic (usually bad) reflux foods, yet nutritionally speaking it is pretty high up there. If I need to add some supplement like fish oil I will, but I will wait until I know I need it. I do take calcium with vitamin D twice daily. OK, I've probably rambled enough.

Hi Sunbeam
You're getting omega 3 from your flaxseed as you say, and if you don't have very dry skin or joint problems then it's probably giving you what you need (along with your diet). You're probably getting some omega 6 from nuts and grains, though obviously you'll be not having the richer sources like sunflower or corn oil on the Kaufman diet. There's some interesting stuff to read by Barry Sears, who says we need a lot more omega 3 than 6 to keep inflammation at bay, so you're probably doing fine! Just wondered if the Kaufman dietary info covers essential fatty acids - many people on low fat diets miss out "good fats" as well as the bad.

It's very interesting following your progress - keep us all posted!

MMM

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New stuff: GERD. Interstitial Cystitis
Lifelong stuff: Food allergies, eczema, asthma

I forgot to mention that Koufman recommends just one serving per week of lean beef, encouraging reliance for protein on poultry and seafood as well as legumes. I used to eat a lot more nuts, but she feels they are just too fatty. I used to rely frequently on a snack mix of walnuts, almonds, toasted soy nuts and dried cranberries. That's now generally off my menu, though I will keep some almonds around and allow myself just a few occasionally.  I do have a lot of arthritis in more joints than I can count, but I'm not usually in any particular pain, don't take any kind of pain killer regularly.  I will check out Barry Sears.  Thanks, there is always more to learn.

Post Edited (sunbeam48) : 9/27/2011 3:51:22 PM (GMT-6)