Hi!
My name is Mikhaila Peterson. I’m a 26 year old mother (and loving it!). I live in Toronto.
Short background on me:
I was diagnosed with Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis when I was 7 years old. My parents think it started when I was around 2 noticing the way I walked. I was the first child in Canada to be put on injections of Enbrel, an immune suppressant. I was also put on injections of Methotrexate. In grade 5, when I was 12, I was diagnosed with severe depression/anxiety. I started taking Cipralex (Celexa), an SSRI. I was on a very high dose for a child, but if I tried to lower it, I couldn’t. That dose increased into my teenage years and early 20’s when my depression worsened. When I was 17 I had a hip and an ankle replacement from the arthritis (that diagnosis was changed from rheumatoid arthritis to idiopathic arthritis). I was prescribed Adderall to keep myself awake because I couldn’t stay awake. Diagnosed with idiopathic hypersomnia. My skin was itchy, I had mouth ulcers, floaters, and terrible skin problems starting in my early 20’s.
At the peak of my medicated times I was taking:
For Arthritis: Enbrel and Methotrexate, (immune suppressants). Folic acid because of the Methotrexate. Tylenol 3 so I could sleep at night without as much pain.
For depression: Cipralex and Wellbutrin
For fatigue: Adderall to keep me awake, Gravol and Lorazepam to put me to sleep from the Adderall.
For my skin: Minocycline (antibiotic), and later dapsone (antibiotic)
Other: Birth control (seasonique)
I’ve probably taken antibiotics 2-3 times a year since I was 2. That’s almost 40 rounds of antibiotics.
I’ve been on way more than that too. That was just at one point in time.
Anyways, all in all, I was very sick.
May 2015, I stopped eating gluten. I thought that my skin problems that had slowly been growing worse were probably Celiac related (dermatitis herpetiformis). I never had stomach pain so I had never looked at food before. Cutting out gluten maybe helped a bit… But not nearly enough.
September 2015, I went on an elimination diet. I went on it to see if I could control my arthritic symptoms. I could. 3 weeks into the diet my arthritis and skin issues went away. This was unheard of. I don’t have the type of arthritis that goes away.
3 months later my depression disappeared. My arthritis ate my hip and my ankle but I haven’t experienced anything more debilitating than depression.
A month after that my fatigue lifted.
Everything wrong with me was diet related. Arthritis, depression, anxiety, lower back pain, chronic fatigue, brain fog, itchy skin, acne, tiny blisters on my knuckles, floaters, mouth ulcers, twitching at night, night sweats, tooth sensitivity, and the list goes on, but everything was diet related. Every single thing wrong with me was fixable.
Then I got pregnant.
Things shifted in my body and the original diet I followed didn’t get rid of my symptoms anymore. My arthritis came back (albeit much less awful than before) and my depression came back (again, much less awful). I lost the ability to tolerate any carbs.
The following is a list of foods that I could originally eat without reacting. This is a good list of foods to start with for the elimination diet. In order to do this, you have to be very strict. If you have questions, please comment! If the following list doesn’t work for you after a month, you can try even more strict, or you can go zero-carb/lion diet. If you’re suffering from an autoimmune disorder or you need to get better ASAP (as in you’re dying from what ails you), I’d recommend zero-carb. You can reintroduce vegetables after a month (if you want to).
If you can’t manage to do zero-carb, or the following list of foods, (it makes eating out almost impossible), at least cut-out gluten and dairy and sugar. If you’re a “healthy” person, cut out gluten and dairy. All of it. Gluten is hidden in soya sauce, twizzlers, malt vinegar. Cut it all out for 4 weeks and see how you feel. If you’re suffering from an autoimmune disorder or depression or another mental disorder than I would suggest doing the following diet or doing zero-carb. Cutting out gluten and dairy will help but it might not be enough. You may find that you’re able to reintroduce most foods after the elimination diet.
Meats:
- turkey
- beef
- chicken
- lamb
- duck
- wild game is fine too, elk, moose, etc.
- wild salmon
- tuna – check the ingredients! Get stuff that’s just tuna and water and perhaps salt.
- organ meat – chicken liver tastes the best I find
- wild herring – check the ingredients!
- wild sardines – check the ingredients!
Veggies:
- lettuce
- arugula
- arugula microgreens (arugula sprouts)
- cucumber
- swiss chard
- seaweed – check the ingredients! this is hard to find without soy and other things. The brand I’ve linked to is safe and really tasty
- cilantro
- collard greens
- broccoli
- turnips
- cauliflower
- parsnips
- sweet potatoes
- spinach
Fruit:
- olives – check the ingredients! see my olive post. be super careful about which brands you buy here too, many have preservatives and flavours and dyes.
Vinegars:
- Omega Nutrition Certified Organic Apple Cider Vinegar, 12-Ounces
apple cider vinegar – try to get the organic stuff so there aren’t dyes and flavours added
apple cider vinegar – try to get the organic stuff so there aren’t dyes and flavours addedOils:
- coconut oil – get unrefined. And try to avoid the Nutiva brand. It’s everywhere but it doesn’t taste as good, and I’ve had ones that have gone bad before.
- olive oil – make sure your olive oil is pure olive oil. Sometimes it’s also soybean oil!
Spices/Seasonings
- salt
- pepper
- marjoram
- parsley
- oregano
- thyme
- rosemary
- peppermint
- turmeric
- basil
- bay leaf
- coriander
Other:
- baking soda (probably won’t eat this but it’s good for toothpaste 🙂 )
- peppermint tea – check the ingredients. Buy loose leaf (David’s sells an organic peppermint which is lovely) or organic. We want to make sure there aren’t preservatives or flavours added. White tea bags or coffee filters are often bleached with sulfites. If you’re super sensitive (dad and I), you’ll react to these. So make sure you get organic tea bags as well!
- black tea- check the ingredients. Buy loose leaf if possible
- green tea- check the ingredients. Buy loose leaf if possible
Alcohol – not for the first month. I can kinda handle it, but lots of people can’t.
- vodka
- bourbon and American Whiskey labeled “straight” whiskey
Good luck! If you try this for 4 weeks you should be able to see a huge difference. Then reintroduce foods by having a bite of it. I do not recommend reintroducing dairy and gluten ever but do so if need be. It took me 8 months to realize how sensitive I was, it doesn’t seem possible, but I react strongly to half bite of food. Have a bite or two of the new food and then wait 4 days before reintroducing something else. Most of my reactions (but definitely not all) take about 4 days to hit peak terrible – particularly arthritis and definitely the depression. Skin issues take about 7 days to come up after eating an offending food.
Things to try and reintroduce first after the first month:
- avocados
- other leafy greens
- macademia nuts
- foods that are listed as okay by the AIP or SCD diets
Foods to always be wary of:
- grains
- dairy
- sugar
- soy
Foods that I had major issues with when I tried to reintroduce
- almonds
- rice
- sulphites
- dairy – ouchhhh that was not fun to experience
- gluten
- kelp noodles
- white cabbage
- bananas – terrible for the arthritis
- cane sugar
- food dyes
- citrus
- melons
- grapes
- onions
- zucchini
- soy
- probiotics – I can’t handle them, but that doesn’t mean they’re bad. Hopefully, after some healing, I’ll be able to handle them too.
My father and my husband have the same sensitivities, and I’ve been contacted by people who also have extremely similar reactions to the same foods. This is widespread. These are terrible reactions that most people don’t realize until they’re gone. What’s the point of realistically thinking about everything bodily that’s bugging you? Muscle pain, fatigue, digestive issues, minor skin problems, the occasional mouth ulcer – all things people ignore. Don’t. These are signs. Good luck!!
To find out exactly how to go about doing an elimination diet please read this (especially if you suffer from depression/anxiety, there are some things you should know before going on an elimination diet).
Dear Mikhaila,
Thanks very much for sharing your experience!
You gave me a hope.
Hi Mikhaila, I went on a strict no carb, sugar diet for four to five months to eliminate intestinal candida. Symptoms were very similar to yours, brain fog, depression, fatigue, coxackie virus, adrenal fatigue, etc. Could not tolerate any alcohol and even sweet potato or a portion of fruit was enough to knock me down. I slowly reintroduced carbs again after the diet and seem to be fine now. I suspect my problem was caused by a bovine parasite which resulted in the leaky gut syndrome.
I took homeopathic drops to eliminate the parasite. It is just astonishing how food can affect our well being. I wish you well and by the way am an avid and obsessive audience of your dad’s lectures. What an honest and special man. Keep well. Jenny(South Africa)
Hi Mikhaila,
I follow your father on his channel for quite a while (he’s beyond great, BTW) and stumbled upon the two interview whit you on Steve Paikin. I myself struggle with depression and IBS for some time. Your insights and info are very helpful and enlightening. I have some questions: what I replace rice with? and how about corn meal (like gritty flour)? – in my contry it’s the most accessible bread replacement. I don’t eat bread for quite some time. Also how can I eat without onions? I mean, cooked ones not raw ones, I know that ones are quite hard on digestion.
And how about seeds and nuts? In my very restrictive and scanty diet they were important. Thank you in advance for your reply!
Nick
Hey Nick, so unfortunately I’ve found the easiest way to do this diet isn’t to replace foods, it’s to stop eating them. I tried finding replacements for the first half a year (especially trying to replace bread, pizza, etc.) It turns out it’s just easier eating meat and veggies without the carb side dish. You don’t need it. Start making yourself bigger portions of meat and more vegetables, and cut out the rice and corn. And remember, try it for a month and see how you feel. If it get’s frustrating, just remember you can go back to what you were eating before. You just need to give your body a chance to see what foods are bugging it. I don’t use onions (and I love onions), but it’s not worth it. I’ll post more recipes over the next couple of days so you can get some ideas. But think BBQ food. Steaks, hamburgers, with roasted vegetables.
I am confused about where to post/reply to Mikhaila. I posted a couple of questions but I dont see my post anywhere. Are they being checked and edited bofore showing up?
I believe that if I can see your post, and I can, that means she approved it.
Did you look above?
You have posted by hitting Reply under someone;s way up the list, rather than posting a non-reply one which would have out you at the bottom.
Hi, Mikhaila. My 29 year old daughter has been diagnosed with IBD and has been treated and experimenting with diet changes for 3 minths now. No carb, high animal proteine seems to help so far. However she has severe mood changes when she consumes anything containing glutamine or glutamate (this apparantly includes brocolli and tomatoes, apart from all the processed foods). Any thoughts in this reaction?
Hello Nick and Mikhaila,
Regarding onions I use leeks or shallot (they must be true shallot – not the ones with a round bulb at the base). They lack the unnamable irritant that offends, sorry I am not highly educated but most of my knowledge comes from experience.
I recently had a second hip joint replacement and the hospital provided fresh foods (nobody in Australia EVER enjoys hospital food but times are a changing) and after eating the winter vegetable soup I had a major skin reaction, I could taste the onion.
I try to grow my food and the shallot often grows fat enough to pass for the more expensive leek.
I’m going to add in shallots eventually… I definitely miss onions for taste but I can’t tolerate them either. That’s great about the improvement in hospital food. It’s worse than airplane food here.
Hey, Mikhaila, I (like a lot of people who’ve found your blog, I’m sure) found you through following your dad. I love your blog and it’s funny because I also have a degree in life sci from Queen’s. I went on to be a naturopathic doctor where I actually get to address gut health and inflammation in patients and went on to focus in mental health. Have you thought about being an ND after Queen’s? Haha, food for thought, we could definitely use an avid researcher like you in the profession.
I have considered this! I was always VERY anti-naturopath. I think it was because I was told by doctors that they were quacks and I didn’t want to be taken advantage of by fake health professionals. But now my opinion has completely changed and I go to naturopaths instead of doctors! Weird how life works out.
Yeah! I think that we’re grouped into “alternative medicine” with reiki, homeopathy, etc. but since research takes about 17 years to become incorporated into medical guidelines, and nutritional research is soooo expensive to do (and very unprofitable, as nothing really gets patented), and MDs are given maybe a few hours of nutrition lecture (I know, because at Queen’s the med school and life scis are grouped into the same nutrition course and it’s horrible, just focuses on deficiencies like scurvy, dismal, and the Food Guide, hopefully it’s better now). But, as you know there’s TONS of evidence for safe interventions on diet and lifestyle and nutritional supplementation that can really help people. I’ve been called a quack for talking about gluten and mental health and sure, it’s not going to be the solution for everyone, but I feel like I have a responsibility to at least present the possibility to my patients, as this could be a key factor in bringing down the neuro-inflammation that is contributing to (or causing) their depression. Anyway, feel free to message me if you have questions about the program, etc. I can provide info in the context of someone who went through life sci at Queen’s as well! Cheers, Mikhaila!
My own observations about diet and health resulted in my studying Dietetics in the 70’s (last century) followed by extensive further study and research into the impact of wheat free and gluten-free diets at the Glasgow Homeopathic Hospital, Scotland, in the early 80’s. Conclusion was that patients can be treated without dietary intervention but optimum treatment and sustained recovery was the result of both accurate diagnosis and appropriate diet. One of the best ways to obtain an accurate diagnosis was to follow an elimination diet as discussed in this blog. Taking personal responsibility for our health is the best first step.
Thank you so much for your reply! It’s very helpful.
I wish you easygoing pregnancy, smooth labor and fulfilling motherhood!
🙂 🙂 🙂
Very interesting. I’ve had an unhealthy diet my whole life, I’ve considered getting rid of sugar from my diet to see if it alleviates my anxiety and sleep troubles. Thank you for making this list.
This is a great food blog. I also follow Chris Kesser, who no doubt you know.
Thanks for this – soon it will be known how much diet is responsible for depression as it is becoming obvious its cause for other ills. It is very difficult to follow with the distribution structure of food items, though. I really takes a commitment and a belief.
I work with the poor on mental health issues, and this is the most difficult population to reach. Many are weaned on soda. Literally. It’s heartbreaking.
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