@Lassie3 yes, I cut out real sugar, honey and artificial sweeteners. I was in such desperate pain, I needed a clean break. Plus, I was reading conflicting info about stevia.
I am open to trying a stevia sweetener sometimes me in the future, if I could find a trusted source of which exact type of stevia is safe.
I know I am ingesting some sugars, like in my plain yogurt and fruit smoothies. But I am reading every label and making best possible choices to keep most sugars out of my diet.
Turmeric (curry powder has it) is anti-inflammatory, we cook lots of meat/lentil dish with it, we also take it daily in capsule form daily.
@makemesmart yes I am taking turmeric with black pepper. Doing a number of helpful thIngs in addition to eliminating sugar and other foods. Not sure whIch changes are most responsible for my huge decrease in pain.
Will keep everything as is for awhile to avoid any chance of pain returning.
@greenwitch I have greatly reduced my dairy, but not eliminated it. I include organic plain yogurt in my fruit smoothie each day, but try to avoid drinking straight cows milk. I sometimes end up eating a casserole with cheese on top, if I am at an event and my choices are limited. If I eat sliced cheese, it is white cheese.
My thinking going into this was to take baby steps that I could commit to. I have been training my brain to avoid “I should do this or that” and instead say “I choose to eat this, or I choose to avoid that.”
I am giving myself freedom to take baby steps to better health. That mental freedom to not beat myself up, to not measure my daily lifestyle to a specific, rigid diet has been very helpful to my mental health.
I am aware that I could spend more $ to purchase better, cleaner food. I could focus more on exercise. But I am proud of my baby steps and the freedom to improve my life a little at a time.
I have given up white potatoes. I do eat peppers for now. Still trying to build up my list of non-starchy veggies I like. I include tomato sauce and salsa, but have never enjoyed the texture of eating a tomato.
I gave up honey, but did drink some honey and whiskey when I got really sick and could not get rid of a deep cough.
I am doing the Whole 30 food program as part of a 31-day Challenge at my yoga studio (31 days of yoga and meditation). Part of the Whole 30 is no dairy. It has made a huge difference for me. I am so much less congested and sleep so much better.
^ super about Whole 30- I am into bone broth for last couple weeks hoping it is immune boosting .
According to D there is a connection between gluten and dairy. (She explained it but I can’t remember how it worked).
Staying off both for the 30 days allowed her body to " re-set" in some ways. After her body healed from the gluten she was able to do dairy again. (and she loves dairy!)
Congrats Powercropper! And I really like your approach. It sounds very positive! I have started to follow Dr. Mark Hyman - a Functional Med. Doctor with a website and blog and he talks a lot about inflammation and auto-immune diseases that arise from our diets. You seem to be doing what he recommends.
https://www.customcollagen.com/store/5-lb-hydrolyzed-gelatin-collagen-peptides/
A collagen supplement maybe be helpful. I use this one.
I too cut out sugar and processed food (not perfect) on 9/30/17. I was experiencing tremendous reflux and bloating. I do eat whole fat yogurt. I have lost 25# and also feel much better.
@busyparent so proud of you! Cutting out sugar is hard, it is like giving up cigarettes. Did you struggle with sugar cravings? I ended up eating a few raisins out of desperation for a couple of days as my craving for sugar raged strong.
It’s interesting. On 1/1/16 @ 1:40 am I drank my last soda. Pepsi was my favorite. I had the worst cravings for about nine months and then medium cravings for months after that. When I cut out sugar in September it seemed easy compared to stopping soda.
I have been anorexic in the past and also a binge eater when cutting back. I have not had any big binges this time and I think it’s because I have continued to eat fat like butter and full fat yogurt. I also still occasionally dip a spoon into ice cream but only really fatty brands like Hagar Daz.
Plus I try to ask myself before eating-- is this ‘real’ food?
One more thing- I find restaurants to be a challenge because I don’t know all the ingredients. Tonight my spouse wanted to pick up wings for watching the game. I ordered fettuccine alfredo (high fat) and took 1/4 of the serving they packed and mixed it with broccoli and peppers at home. Now I am burping up a storm which is what happens when there is something ‘not real’ in the food. I don’t eat stevia or diet products because they are chemicals and I don’t like the aftertaste. Thanks.
@powercropper and @busyparent, I’m glad you’re doing so well.
I noticed that both of you said you lost a significant amount of weight while making your dietary changes.
I’m in Weight Watchers, and people at my meeting have reported the kinds of health improvements you’ve been discussing – decreased pain in weight-bearing joints and decreased reflux – when they lost weight. So I suspect that the weight loss probably contributed to your success. It probably looks good on you, too. 
I agree…it’s so hard. Bad cravings…so I will have to supplement with raisins or maybe blueberries or something slightly sweet…
Hang in there @dansmoaustin. You can do it one day or 1/2 day at a time. I find honey crisp apples really satisfy my sweet tooth. Raisons are very high in sugar and so very few are a lot of calories. Be sure to get enough healthy fats. When you want to over eat take a HALT time out. Ask yourself, am I hungry, angry, lonely or tired and follow through accordingly.
Really consider adding some form of fasting. The constant feeding is inflammatory in itself. Fasting is easy to get used to and you can do it your way.
@dansmoaustin agreed that dried fruits r often loaded with sugar, oftentimes additional sugars were added which will be bad. fresh berries r good options as they have low glycemic index. I try to eat almonds/nuts and organic whole-milk plain yogurt when craving. Tho there r plenty of sugar naturally present in milk.
Thanks for the tips. Like the HALT trick…so much of eating is to quell something besides hunger. And I have heard that about fasting too.