nightshade sensitivity and timing of reintroduction

[I'veGotThis]

I'm on day 25, and feeling pretty good. However, I need some help deciding how to schedule two things: reintroduction (basic protocol, e.g. legumes first, etc.) and also elimination of nightshades.

 

On the Whole30, I am recognizing that my GERD symptoms are much worse on some days, and nonexistent on others. I suspect the link is a nightshade sensitivity. I'm thinking about finishing the 30 days and then adding two weeks without nightshades, to see how I feel. Then, I would go through reintroduction. (I already know I'm sensitive to gluten and dairy, so I'm not even sure I should bother testing those.)

 

But I'm wondering if I should end the 30 days, go through the reintro protocol, and then do another Whole30 with no nightshades, instead of the plan above. 

 

Would either pattern give me a clearer picture of nightshade or other food sensitivities?

 

Thanks in advance for your help!

 

 

[ShannonM816]

Ideally, when you start your reintroductions, you want to be feeling your very best consistently, so you'll know whether symptoms you're experiencing are related to things you've reintroduced, or just things that you've continued to eat that sometimes cause you issues. I'd say if you can go some period of time without nightshades and see if that really helps so that you're not sometimes having GERD symptoms, and then do reintroductions, that will give you the best evidence of how things you reintroduce affect you. Make sense? In other words, if you reintro'd dairy on a day you had a nightshade-heavy meal or two, when you're not sure if nightshades are definitely causing you problems, and then you experienced symptoms, you wouldn't necessarily be able to say for sure whether it was the nightshades, the dairy, or the combo of the two.

 

I will say, if you know you're sensitive to something, there's no particular reason to reintroduce it, unless you just really want to reinforce for yourself how it affects you. Now, if you know drinking milk is a problem, but you're not sure if it's a lactose thing or a dairy sensitivity unrelated to lactose, you could decide to try lower-lactose products, if they were something you wanted to be able to have occasionally post-Whole30. 

[praxisproject]

Keeping a food diary with how you're feeling will help too.

[I'veGotThis]

Thanks for your responses, Shannon and praxisproject. I am keeping a food diary, but I think I should add info about when I take meds for GERD. That could help establish a connection.

 

Waiting for reintroductions until I feel as good as possible makes great sense. I'm going to finish the 30 days and avoid nightshades when reasonable, in order to maximize my chances of finishing strong. (I won't eat white potatoes, but I won't worry about whether a spice mixture in a restaurant contains paprika.) But then for the next two weeks, I will eliminate all nightshades completely, along with other Whole30 restrictions.

 

I know a month without nightshades would probably be better, but I'm not sure I can commit to that. When I enter the reintroduction phase, in what order should I reintroduce nightshades? First? Last? I'm not sure how to make that decision.

[praxisproject]

I would reintroduce them first, since they are still Whole30 compliant, then follow the rest of your Reintroduction plan.

 

Just make sure you're feeling good before you Reintroduce more things I track how I feel as well, I find some things affect me more if I've had a little less sleep or not eaten quite enough the previous day.

 

I'm *a little* nightshade sensitive and I really love them, so I used to eat them at very high load. Cooking nightshades reduces some of their irritant qualities, some people are more sensitive to a particular nightshade or even the skins of nightshades.

 

Black pepper & ginger were my favourites when I did my own nightshade-free test 

 

When eating out, fresh lemon juice and black pepper is easy for most good kitchens (make sure they don't use "lemon pepper" which as a seasoning can have all kinds of things in it).

[I'veGotThis]

Great suggestions! Thanks much. I'll use all of them

[Abra]

I just saw this and am glad for the information on reintroductions, as that answers a few of the questions I have for my own post I made earlier. So, yay! I'm only on Day 3. So, I'm thinking, if I wanted to eliminate nightshades, I should do it sooner than later, so that I don't have to do this Whole30 for a Whole 45 amount of time! Ha!

 

Thanks for this!

[praxisproject]

I would note (not for the original poster but for those who've come later) that if you have any autoimmune condition, you may want to consider the AIP (AutoImmune Protocol). It's a *lot* tougher than Whole30, but it helps with many known triggers, so it's very good for certain people, overkill for many others.

 

If you're not sure, it's worth starting your own Topic with your history and questions