Dr. McDougall's Online Discussion Board

GM Jeff,

I've been on the elimination diet for 5-ish days (it's "ish" because one day I was sick and had (only) a half a bowl of Vegetable Sweet Potato Chowder from Dr. McD's MWL book - and it does have a bit of tomato). The tightness/swelling in my hands is noticeably better, except in the mornings where it seems to flare up a bit.

Anyway, I was wondering about the omission of (regular) potatoes on the diet. It's been a mainstay in my house and such an easy food to prepare, keep, and eat on the run. I did a search but didn't come up with anything, so hopefully this isn't a repeat question.

Thank you.

Sydney wrote:GM Jeff,

I've been on the elimination diet for 5-ish days (it's "ish" because one day I was sick and had (only) a half a bowl of Vegetable Sweet Potato Chowder from Dr. McD's MWL book - and it does have a bit of tomato). The tightness/swelling in my hands is noticeably better, except in the mornings where it seems to flare up a bit.

Anyway, I was wondering about the omission of (regular) potatoes on the diet. It's been a mainstay in my house and such an easy food to prepare, keep, and eat on the run. I did a search but didn't come up with anything, so hopefully this isn't a repeat question.

Thank you.

Over the years of experience, experiment and studies, we have found certain foods to be the most common ones to cause a reaction; and we have found other certain foods that are the least common ones to cause a reaction. White potatoes seems more likely to cause reactions while sweet potatoes seems to be one of the least likely.

However, there is no 100% *safe* food on an elimination diet. People may react to virtually any food including sweet potatoes, white potatoes and even brown rice. This is why the recommendations are only a starting point.

This is also why the elimination diet can be a such a long, slow and often fustrating process.

In Health
Jeff

Thanks, I was thinking that that might be the case; I'd read somewhere that nightshades are a common culprit (just hoping it wasn't).

I'll carry on with rice and sweet potatoes as my starch - I don't think they're problematic for me as the improvement is significant...time will tell.

Thanks again.