Day 18- Pain fighting food

I've had chronic back and neck pain for 14 years of my life. I have been to doctors, chiropractors, physiotherapists, myotherapists, masseuses; to name a few. Most of the time it is to just relieve me of the symptoms. I get treatment about once a week. I have scoliosis and scheurmann's disease, as well as spurs and wear and tear from whiplash. Lots of fun! I often wake up with headaches, and generally towards the end of the day I struggle to breathe because the pain is so bad. But I have learnt to live with it and generally try to ignore it.

Leading up to doing The Earth Diet I decided I want to take control of my pain. I understand that alot of it is due to structural problems in my spine, and as a result it effects my muscles. But I had began to wonder if food would be able to help relieve pain and have an anti-inflammatory effect. So I did research, I wrote down all the foods to avoid and all the foods that help with pain and pinned it on my kitchen cupboards. I then pretty much ignored it (as all the foods to avoid were my favourite foods). Now that I'm doing the Earth Diet I want to take this more seriously. And maybe someone out there has chronic pain, and that could be beneficial for you. I will try to focus on these different foods and report to you all on how I feel. I also plan to buy Betonite Clay (you can buy it on The Earth Diet website).. I read reports on the internet that it helps with problems such as pain (the doctor tells me I have scar tissue along my spine so I wonder if it will help rid the scar tissue?). Anyways, no point ordering that until I get back to Australia!

Foods to AVOID!!!! (pretty much everything you can't have on The Earth Diet)

• Sugar
• Cooking oils (except for virgin olive oil, coconut oil etc)
• Trans Fats... fried food, fast food, baked good, margarine etc
• Milk
• Non-organic meat
• Not to have red meat daily
• Alcohol
• White bread, white flour... 
• Aspartame (Diet Coke!!)
• MSG

Pain- fighting food Excuse me if I repeat myself, I have two pages worth of lists here...

• Peppers
• Broccoli
• Brussel Sprouts
• Cauliflower
• Garlic
• Green beans
• Green onions/ Spring onions
• Sweet potatoes
• Turnip greens
• Apples
• Avocados
• Blueberries
• Pineapple
• Guava
• Kiwifruit
• Lemons
• Limes
• Mulberries
• Oranges
• Papaya
• Rasberries
• Strawberries
• Basil
• Chilli Peppers
• cinnamon
• Cloves
• Cacao
• Mint
• Oregano
• Parsley
• Rosemary
• Thyme
• Tumeric
• Almonds
• Linseed
• Hazelnuts
• Sunflower seeds
• Walnuts
• Fish- all different kinds
• Green tea
• Water
• Avocado Oil
• Olive Oil
• Asparagus
• Cabbage
• Cauliflower
• Grapefruit
• Oranges
• Peaches
• Brazil nuts
• Eggs
• Flaxseed
• Hemp seeds
• Pecans
• Pumpkin seeds
• Sesame seeds
• Spinach
• Grapes
• Apricots
• Nectarines
• Papaya
• Plums
• Tangerines
• Watermelon

Woah. That's a lot of different foods I can have. I have already incorporated a lot of these into my diet, but I think I need to begin to be more specific about what I'm eating if I want to see my pain decrease. 

My Day:


Breakfast: Poached eggs, tomatoes

Lunch: Potato chips (made them myself), Banana/mango/pineapple/apple smoothy

Dinner: Smoothy

Snacks: none