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).
Thanks for this, Mikhaila!
I was watching the videos of you and your Dad and I was floored by even the difference in both of your eyes after you went on the diet. I was genuinely happy for you two!
I cut out gluten a long time ago – killed my stomach since I was a child but I only made the connection until ten years ago. Fussy eating was not tolerated in my family… even though my parents had to admit it was weird for a child to complain after donuts and pizza! I remember looking at that 241 pizza box and being both enticed and repelled.
While gluten helped with my stomach issues, I still have skin problems and weird aches esp in hips (I couldnt imagine what you went thru bc mine are only sore and they drive me crazy) and legs – especially along the outside. Fatigue and low moods too.
So I’m giving your diet a shot (although I HATE the idea of being even more precious about my diet – ugh). Had your chicken wings this morning. Love them! Ate waaaayyy too many!
If you have any other go to meals it would be appreciated. I’m trying to figure out how to eat for the day.
Either way, thanks for sharing you story!
I’ve found you can’t eat too many of those chicken wings 🙂 Good luck. I’ll try to add some recipes tomorrow, let me know how everything goes. Good luck with the cravings :/
I was completely inspired by you after seeing your interview. My husband loves your father and I was skeptical but I was in tears listening to you speak because it was so relatable!! The day I watched your video I began an elimination diet. I googled and found so many different ones and now I’m one week in and just thought to google your name. So happy you are sharing this info! Can you tell me why you include meat in the beginning ? Many say to eliminate meat for 28 days? Also wondering why no fruit? I need to restart if that’s the case because my diet said no meat but allowed fruit? Also why no grains- such as brown rice or oatmeal? Finally what kind of reactions are you looking for in 4 days? Is it possible they might be sooo small that you may miss them?
Thanks in advance for taking your personal time to respond. I’m finally hopeful for a recovery 🙂
I can hardly tolerate any sugar – fruit (especially citrus and bananas) is super hard on my arthritis. Grains are hard for people to digest in general, brown rice is actually more difficult to digest than white rice. Oatmeal isn’t as hard on me as all the other grains, but it still makes me bloated and gives me other symptoms. I include meat because it’s one of the only things that hasn’t bothered me at all, and I have other people on this diet and it works for them too. Grains, fruit, and vegetables have been a lot trickier to figure out than meat. For the first couple of weeks of cutting these things out, you’re going to have some random symptoms, so I wouldn’t really start monitoring anything until it’s been about a month (or you’re feeling better). After that, when you try to reintroduce foods, that reaction can take up to 4 days to manifest. For me it’s arthritis and depression, skin itching, and sometimes kind of a puffy face. My skin (acne) doesn’t usually show up for about a week after I’ve eaten something wrong. If you look at other elimination diets (paleo, autoimmune protocol, GAPS), they also include meat. The first elimination diet I started didn’t work for me because there were random things that were still added in it. I didn’t have success until I figured it out myself, (and started from bare minimum – this diet)
A few more questions.. Is this your current list of food you eat? How do you eat at a restaurant? Can you give us some tips on that? Also, no mushrooms? Wondering why even the vegetables are so limited?
Mushrooms are on the soon to test list, I think they’re going to be okay. I’ve reacted to a number of vegetables (all legumes for instance).
I don’t eat out. I’m assuming most people who go on this diet will be able to reintroduce far more foods than I’ve been able to. So I’d recommend skipping the restaurant for the first month, and then figure out whats bothering you, then you can avoid it when you eat out. That being said, steakhouses are pretty good at making a steak with just salt and pepper. When I first started the diet though, I went out and got hit basically every time I went to a restaurant. Salad dressing with soybean oil was a big thing I didn’t know to avoid initially.
Hi Mikhaila,
I just recently came across your blog site and saw that you strongly emphasize the importance of diet when dealing with serious ailments like depression, high anxiety, high fatigue, etc. I’m having to deal with these things too and struggling to find decent relief. However, my question is how do you know when diet is affecting your well-being? I’ve never really been good at following a strict diet before, but I try to do my best with less red-meat consumption and more chicken and seafood. As for vegetables, I can be extremely picky with those because most of them taste terrible to me. But yeah back to my question, how do I know if something like my diet is linked to my depression and such?
Thanks
The only way to know if to test it out. I vehemently disagreed with people when they suggest diet was the cause (but it was usually pretty condescending). Cut out some foods for a month and see how you feel! That’s the only way I know of. Red meat is definitely not the problem though! It’s actually one of the more safe foods. (I know there was talk of heart disease, etc., but most of those studies have been debunked). Try to get rid of grains, sugar, soy, and focus on meat and green vegetables and see if it makes a difference.
what if you have more than one type of arthritis? and what if gout is one of those forms of arthritis? Is meat okay in those circumstances?
From what I’ve read, the theory that red meat causes gout doesn’t ring true. I would suggest this would be helpful for gout too, but again, I’m not a doctor. Here’s some more info: https://chriskresser.com/will-eating-a-paleo-diet-cause-gout/
“Every single thing wrong with me was fixable [with diet]. The following is a list of foods that I can eat without reacting, and my dad and boyfriend is the same way. ”
I’m really sorry to say this, Mikhaila, but you sound delusional. You’re on a 100% meat-based diet now because obviously your dietary tweaks have *not* solved everything. Why lie to yourself and us like this? It is also impossible that both your dad and boyfriend happen to have the *exact same food sensitivities as you*. This is just wishful thinking.
I totally agree that I sound delusional. I would’ve had the same reaction to a blog post like this myself, about 4 years ago. But now I’m asymptomatic and happy, and so is my family 🙂 You only have to try it out for a month to see whether or not I’m actually delusional
Leave a comment