The Diets I Have Tried For Lupus

The diets I have tried dealing with lupus always worked for me, and most of the time they were issued by my gym coach or by my doctor.

The first diet I tried was a low sodium diet. This diet is basically cutting down on salt. So to season my meat I might use a dry rub or Mrs. Dash. You just literally reduce the salt that you eat and cook with. When on the diet I would read the labels and make sure there was no sodium in any of the products.

Understanding water in the diet

Also, I realized some of the water we choose to drink has salt in it. That’s why I decided to drink only alkaline water in my diet. I had to cut off sodas also. I wanted to make a change for myself because I started to gain so much weight in fluid in a short period of time. One time, I had genital lymphedema. The Cleveland Clinic defines genital lymphedema as a build-up of fluid that causes swelling in the soft tissues of the genital area.¹ This can affect both males and females. At the time I was also doing chemo for my kidneys.

Low carb diet

Then I also tried another diet which was a low-carb diet – no bread, pasta, or rice. I also did not do any red meat with this diet. It's just that red meat sticks for a while, and I learned that I flared up sometimes when I ate red meat also.

Diet lessons learned

When focusing on my diet, I had to realize what worked for me and what did not work for me. I also implemented better ways to cook those healthy foods that I needed. Of course, while dieting it's always good to do some cardio also. Cardio just used to help relax and stretch my body. I feel so much better after I work out. So now I work out at least 4 times a week.

When I changed my diet my blood work became better and my health was better overall. I was able to get pregnant after I changed my diet and lifestyle around. I do believe dieting can help with the inflammation of the body because when I would retain fluid that would be the worse feeling weighing on my body. That weight would have my body hurting to where I would want to go to the hospital and would refuse to leave. I would want them to admit me because I knew something was wrong.

The last diet I tried was the liquid diet. This was not a good diet. I do not recommend this diet because you do not get all the nutrients you need when doing this diet. I became weak and I slept a lot which deterred me from my daily life. The diet lasted me only 3 days. I could not go any further because of the impact it had on my body and my health. I was so weak that when I went to the hospital, I ate their food. They also had to give me protein shakes to make sure I was getting the nutrients that I needed. Now that I am doing so much better I will keep doing my low-carb, low-sodium diet.