Why an Anti-Inflammatory Diet

My journey toward adopting the Anti-Inflammatory Diet called Paleo AIP has been long and winding. It started a few years ago when I read the book "The Calorie Myth." I had some success following that book's diet and exercise program. I lost 3 inches on my waist while eating far more food with each meal than I had previously.

Unfortunately, in order to avoid inconveniencing others, I stopped following that diet during a vacation and never really got completely back on it.

Then, 2 years ago, I went to see a sleep doctor who diagnosed my difficulty resting: sleep apnea. In the process of completing a sleep study and follow-up consultations, each time I visited the doctor, I saw that I had gained another 10 lbs. This consistent increase was incredibly frustrating because I was trying to follow what I remembered of "The Calorie Myth," although, in retrospect, probably not strictly enough. I was drinking a lot of soda to keep myself going during the day, and I was only exercising once a week instead of every other day.

My sleep doctor recommended something she called "the TQI (To Quiet Inflammation) diet," created by a woman who lives on Vashon Island, near Seattle. After some digging on the internet, I finally found her website and her book, "The Abascal Way: To Quiet Inflammation for Health and Weight Loss." I ordered the material and started reading.

As I explored her writing, I had a tough time understanding her book and found it difficult to internalize the principles behind her proscriptions. I also read several other diet books that seemed uninspired or not quite right for me. My mind kept gravitating toward an Anti-Inflammatory approach. I figured I should give it another chance, since the idea of reducing inflammatory stress resonated with the theoretical framework presented in "The Calorie Myth"--that weight loss or gain is about hormones, not about "calories in/calories out."

So, I delved into more anti-inflammatory diet books. I searched for a program that would provide me with a predefined meal plan and exercise regimen, so that I wouldn't need to reinvent the wheel with every ingredient.

I found a couple books on Amazon that had high ratings and looked promising: "The Immune System Recovery Plan: A Doctor's 4-step Program to Treat Autoimmune Disease" and "The Paleo Approach: Reverse Autoimmune Disease and Heal Your Body"

I started reading the first book and adopted its recommendations one at a time. First, I removed gluten. Then I dropped corn from any source, including high fructose corn syrup. Eliminating corn is tough for anyone in modern society. Try going to a Mexican Restaurant: ordering fajitas without tortillas will earn you bizarre looks from any waiter. The difficulty eliminating corn is compounded for me. Work tempts me with giant glass-door fridges packed with soft drinks.

At this point, despite foregoing significant chunks of my normal diet, I wasn't making any visible progress, and I was only feeling marginally better. In addition, I was falling asleep trying to read Recovery Plan. So, I switched to perusing The Paleo Approach.

And . . . instantly hooked! The beginning of The Paleo Approach is a dense explanation of how the immune system works, how the gut functions, and how autoimmune disease starts. To my great surprise, I learned that psoriasis is an autoimmune disease--so is inverse psoriasis, which is my specific malady (normal psoriasis is on the extremities [e.g. arms or legs] while inverse is closer to the core of the body).

I thought, "Why wasn't I told this?!?" (I might have been told, but I definitely don't remember.) "I can bring my psoriasis under control without steroids!" From that moment, I began to follow the precepts of the book in earnest.

Each inflammatory food the book presented, I eliminated from my diet. I also paid more attention to my body's response to food, such as whether or not I got flu symptoms (e.g. phlegm or body aches) or intestinal grumblings within 30 minutes of eating. I used to ignore those feelings, because I could always work through them, and I needed to quickly resume whatever I was working on. But, now I use those feelings as cues that my body is responding negatively to something in the food and that I should figure out what the offending ingredient is and avoid it.

A couple of weeks reading The Paleo Approach helped me understand what was happening and alter my diet positively. The transition was a little tough (Alas, potato chips!) but I worked through it with the help of awesome steaks (simple, salt-dusted, and seriously delish!); lots of mixed greens with quality, flavorful olive oil and vinegar; and crunchy baby carrots.

After 4 weeks, my weight loss was visible, and I started getting comments. I continued losing weight for about another 8 weeks. My weight has since plateaued, but I am much more energetic, I can exercise more easily (I run without feeling asthmatic which has never happened to me), and food tastes better. My cravings for chips have faded, replaced by nutritious alternatives: plantain chips.

Changing my diet alone didn't completely reverse my inverse psoriasis. The inflammation died down. At the 12-week mark, I stopped applying my medications, but I still had some redness. So, I changed the soap I use. Now, I can barely see my symptoms. I am going to continue to keep an eye out for agents of inflammation and eradicate them from my daily life.

Psoriasis has no cure: I will have this autoimmune disease for the remainder of my life. But, as I continue this anti-inflammation diet, I am hopeful that my symptoms will almost completely disappear, and only rarely, if ever, showing up again. Once my symptoms improve long enough, I should be able to reintroduce some of the foods I have eliminated, knowing that my body will give me cues about what it will and won't tolerate.