Why no meat or fresh fruit and veggies when I get started?

Good Question !!

When starting the Catalyst Food Avoidance plan (Pain Free Foods) or when ending a 48 to72 hour liquid diet, we always suggest easy to digest foods as you transition. Here are a few foods to avoid during this one to two week “ease in” time period:

• Meat (see details a bit further in this article)
• Beans
  
• Fresh or raw fruits and vegetables (details below)
  
• Any food that has caused you any problems in the past such as food allergies, food sensitivities, foods that have bloated you or given you gas
  

One time, a friend and I went on a two-week fast. We literally drank only water and a strained vegetable broth. Not a bite of solid food in two full weeks. By the end of the fast, my buddy and I felt so hungry, we planned our transition day carefully… we decided to gorge on a large deep dish peperoni pizza from our favorite pizza joint! Needless to say, we felt sick afterwards and any spiritual or health gains were very possibly lost on “pizza day.”

We don’t want you to suffer. We found a simple light food that convert to liquid in the stomach. Gelatin or Jello T.M. are food, but digest with little effort from the body and there is little or no solid material in either so the intestines get a complete rest since they don’t need to force them along as with solid foods.

Mostly we want you to get better and this is why we keep both the eating program and 48 to 72 hour diet as simple and tasty as possible. If you follow either or both plans, you will do fine and you won’t need to binge afterwards or cheat during the liquid diet.

You can take one or better yet two weeks (your choice depending on symptom severity) to come off the liquid diet. Here are some guidelines for going “off” the liquid diet without loosing any of your gains:

• Eat two to five times per day
• Portion size is the size of your own fist
  
• For the first two days, stick with simple foods like oatmeal or cream of wheat. Make it thin since you won’t use milk. A little butter and sweetener of your choice is ok
  

• For the rest of the time you intend to transition (5 to 12 days), keep portions moderate, no big plates of food.
• Avoid fresh and raw foods even though we all know they are healthier in general, they are also harder to digest, so wait a bit (cooked and canned are ok)
  
• Your third to 5th days you can add eggs to your menu. Eggs are an easy to digest protein compared to almost anything else
  
• Once you are doing well with egg protein, begin slowly, to start adding fish to your meals. If that goes well for a day or two, add poultry. If that goes ok, you can try some meat (pork or beef) if you choose.
  
• After that you can add beans and other harder to digest foods. Keep in mind that although the liquid diet will pull most people out of an attack or flare, going back to eating Catalyst Foods will soon send you back into an attack. Eating on the PFF plan is a long term solution.
  
• If you were a fresh and raw veggie and fruit person, you can start back eating fresh and raw foods. If that was not your habit before, I would not start doing it now.
  

Once you have transitioned back to “normal” eating, if you are not going to follow the PFF eating plan, please read over Rachel’s list of supplements to see which ones fit which symptoms and problems. At least use her tea or slippery elm to address inflammation and stomach/intestinal damage. Not taking care of symptoms one way or the other is just a path back to an attack and the 48 hour diet.