I am just going to put this out there, and if anyone is interested they can do some research and decide for themselves. I am NOT ADVISING people to follow my example, it is for each person to think about it in relation to your own specific life and health.
I don't know if anyone has heard of Prof. Tim Noakes, but he is a very well known South African sports scientist, who in the last two or three years has turned everything the world thought we knew about food and human nutrition completely upside down, and he has landed himself in some hot water for speaking out, specifically about the LCHF (Low Carb High Fat) diet, (otherwise known as Banting, in honour of the first patient, William Banting, who successfully adopted the diet in the 1800's on the advice of his doctor), about which he and some colleagues have brought out a book and a website to support it called Real Meal Revolution.
In the 1970's when the USA adopted their current food pyramid, which had at its base a broad range of carbohydrates and advocated low fat intake, the UK soon adopted the USA model for human nutrition, and South Africa and most other countries followed suit. Hot on the heals of the introduction of the food pyramid, food producers started putting carbs and sugars in everything you can think of, from breads and cereals to commercial sauces and you name it, nothing was safe from the sugars. The products sold as 'low fat' invariably had other, less obvious forms of carbs and sugars put into them, not to mention chemicals, making them even more unhealthy for human consumption. The result after that has been a worldwide explosion in people with obesity, diabetes, heart attack, alzheimers, you name it, so many frightening and debilitating diseases...and, strangely enough, more and more cases of TN, in younger and younger people.
Now it turns out that the human body does NOT need carbs at all, it can function perfectly without carbs by simply burning FAT for energy instead of carbs, AND the brain actually NEEDS fat. AND the body CANNOT function without fat!
After my last MVD I found myself gaining weight very rapidly, despite following a low fat diet, until the end of January this year I heard about the LCHF way of life, and I embraced it. In four months I have lost 11kg and still going strong. People who are not insulin resistent are losing their weight even faster than I am and gaining incredible health energy. I belong to a Facebook group of people who all follow the same LCHF, and the results are nothing short of astounding, because quite apart from the huge amounts of weight that people are losing, most people are gaining back incredible health, to the extent that they are able to get OFF their meds, including blood pressure tablets, statins, insulin, etc etc.
The foods we eat on LCF are few and very, very simple, but ALL are REAL FOODS, eaten WITH FATS. Fresh meat, fish, eggs, cheeses, cream, full cream milk, double cream plain yoghurt (Greek), some nuts, fresh veg and avos, and for fruit we only eat a small amount of berries (due to the high carb content of fruit). We drink coffee and teas (only with no sugar), and we make our own flavoured water using herbs and lemons. It is not actually a 'diet' as there is no hunger at all.
We DON'T eat pasta, rice, potatoes, bread (we make our own LCHF bread if we want bread), sugar,(only allowed sweeteners) processed foods of any kind, fruit (except for the berries). We don't buy cereals or grains or flours (except almond flour and coconut flour for baking), we don't buy peas or lentils or pulses, we don't buy juices, in fact we ignore most of the shelves in any supermarket, which are absolutely laden with fake food loaded with harmful chemicals and sugars produced by greedy corporates who have no interest in helping people to be healthy.
This is NOT an advert for the LCHF diet. I am simply sharing this as I believe it is entirely possible that TN could respond favourably to this way of life. And it is a way of life, as opposed to a diet. I was already in remission before I started LCHF, so I cannot be an example of the good response I would hope for in TN patients.
If you are interested and decide to do some research, just google, you will find everything I have said is available online plus so much more. If you have any questions you are welcome to send me a message. If you decide to give LCHF a chance, if you need further info or help I am available to help, but you will find all you need to get started here http://realmealrevolution.com/real-food-lists and you can also watch some Tim Noakes You Tube clips online and the book is also availble to purchase online.
All the very best to each and every TN'er.
Maureen