So true about the sodas. I used to (gasp) actually drink two or three of the "mega gulps" -- or whatever they are called -- the giant Diet Cokes from 7-11, etc. Then I did research on artificial sweeteners and gave it all up... since then have gradually progressed to eating almost all organic, natural foods, very few processed foods, avoiding chemicals, GMOs etc. and my health has improved dramatically. Once you get all that stuff out of your system, you really don't miss it. Fresh, healthful natural organic food actually tastes so much better when you get used to it. This eating style... along with working out... has also helped me to maintain my weight for 3 years. First time in my life I have not gained it all back. I am back now trying to lose some more but at least it did not skyrocket again as it always has in the past.

Fortunately I did not need to give up coffee but I did have to switch to decaf for my blood pressure, but I can handle that ha ha. And I use French Vanilla Nutpods (yum!) for creamer.

I have had people tell me similar things to what your husband says... they are okay with dying earlier rather than give up red meat, caffeine, etc. -- but my response is always "Yes, but I don't want to mess myself up really bad and LIVE." But as you said, we all have to make our own choices and we certainly can't force anyone.

I have actually been made fun of because I have gone so much organic, fresh produce, etc -- avoid processed foods, fake sugar, chemicals, GMOs, etc. I love Michael Pollan's books and YouTube videos on nutrition.

Recently my doctor did a complete nutritional analysis... eight tubes of blood, yikes, ha ... extremely detailed. When the PA called with the results she was excited to tell me "Absolutely fantastic... we are so proud of you." Hearing that makes all the hard work of eating right and working out so worth it. A few years ago I was using two canes and/or a walker and could barely walk across our parking lot... now I am hiking in the mountains!

To me it is so worth it

Well if I could have just had a couple cups a day, I most likely wouldn't have felt the need to quit altogether, although this WOE does call for elimination of coffee to begin with then reintroduce if you don't notice any ill effects a couple cup is ok. My big issue is usually moderation. So anyway, enjoy your Jo and I'd love to have a cup with you later, when I get a grip on this!

OMG Misty! Thanks for weighing in to this. You have soooooo encouraged me. This is not easy all of a sudden eating only non processed foods and mostly organic (can't afford all organic) and only drinking water and herbal tea. It's a completely different world from what I used to do. Especially still missing diet coke.

That said, I'm on day 9 no coffee and I am mostly passed withdrawals. So I'm on the road. Green beans fresh are amazing especially cooked with bacon!

Woo Hoo FF! You're 2 days ahead of me....7 days without coffee for me...feeling great without it. True confession: on Sunday, I had every intent on sipping some of DH's coffee, but the annoyance at him scrolling on his phone was greater than the desire to cheat....I just got up and left the kitchen...NSV!

Yesterday, I read that coffee is full of antioxidants, but is there another way to get those same antioxidants? Probably. My DH drinks coffee all day. I don't know how he can do it and still sleep. His mother sent him off to school every morning with coffee and donuts. He shows no ill effects from it that I can see, at 73. When he still smoked, he would get up in the middle of the night and have coffee and a cigarette then go back to bed. I rarely have any coffee after 10 AM.

The diet soda is a different story. I agree that it's probably bad, but I continue to drink it. Just not as much. I wish that was the only bad habit I had. LOL

Misti, those people who make fun of you for your healthy eating are probably trying to convince themselves that they are OK with what they eat. The proof is in the amazing changes you have made in your lifestyle!! You are setting a good example for others.

Congratulations to those of you who are breaking bad habits!

How's it going, FF?

Last week, I did a little experiment with coffee. Had 2 cups with breakfast on Tuesday. Tuesday was fine. Wednesday OK. But on Thursday, I returned to a black mood with feelings of hopeless, despair, anger and irritation. At everything. So I tend to think that coffee is contributing to these moods that I've been struggling to shake, and I will continue with avoiding it. This is a 180d turn, as I have long used coffee to help elevate my mood and wake me up, and took affirmation in those reports that indicated coffee might help alleviate depression, etc. But now, I see some doubts in these studies, with many folks suggesting that morning coffee simply alleviates the negative effects of caffeine withdrawal...hair of the dog that bit you, and all...

I know there are many variables in my life, but I'm convinced I should stay away from coffee. It'll help a little bit with weight loss, too, as I don't like it without cream....it's getting easier and easier to avoid it...like a breakup, I'll soon forget I ever had Coffee in my life...Why did I ever see in him anyway?

Hope your breakup with aspartame is going well, FF.

Hi Feet,
Well it's funny I just got done with a little coffee experiment myself. This week-end with the granddaughter needed a boost. I had not sleeped well the night before so I just caved and had some coffee. Yep it helped a lot. So today I had some with DH. But I decided today to not re-introduce coffee as a regular in my life anymore. Just if I need it or want it, but not the way it was in my life. It was life revolved around coffee,,,,,it seemed. My husband cut back from 3 pots to just one. So it's had a good impact on our lives, because I do believe it affects the adrenals, which affect other hormones. And I'm no longer an addict, so why go back?

As far as Artificial sweetners, they are gone for good. Now I've been feeling really better and better, but my WOE is most likely contributing to that as well as getting rid of sweetners. Many changes, and I'm not sure yet which one is my trigger for all my bad symptoms. I'm getting energy, for one positive change. I've given up dairy, eggs, nuts, except brazil nuts for the selenium and night shades and all grains. So any one of them may be contributors. I'm hoping to successfully be able to re-introduce them. I hear night shades is a big contributor of immune problems so they may not be re-introduced.

Thanks for checkin and hoping the best for us both on our quest for health and skinniness!

True confessions...just asked Mr. SeeMyFeet to prepare a 2nd cup of coffee for me today. Probably not the best day to experiment with coffee...at the end of my weekly med...we'll see how it affects my mood in the next few days. I just cannot deal with the exhaustion I've been feeling. Actually took a nap yesterday--an unplanned nap--just happened after I sat down to chat with DS. From my days logging calories & nutrients on MFP, I know I do not get enough salt and potassium (I know, right?), and I'm wondering if that is contributing to exhaustion, so I've decided to pick up some coconut water.

Brazil nuts? yuck! They always taste moldy to me. Careful you don't eat too many--they can have a Lot of Se. Sorry, I don't buy the connection between nightshades and autoimmune disorders at all....no way I'm giving up my tomatoes! Nightshades have lots of good nutrition for eye health, which I desperately need.

OK, I'm going to try REALLY hard to avoid a 3rd cup of coffee....coffee may have some good stuff in it, but I have to get a better handle on my moods/energy ....always a struggle with AI disorders.

Hello everyone

You are all such an encouragement to me... thanks!!

Finally I am so proud of you for making the big switch to a healthier lifestyle. Yes, it is hard at first but after a while you will feel so much better, and find that healthful foods actually TASTE much better, that you will find it easier and easier to do away with the bad foods.

[b]Feet[/] At first I was going to quit coffee but then decided to just make the switch to decaf instead. I do not care about the caffeine but it is impossible to find good flavored organic decaf; so I ended up buying extracts, and splurged on some pure vanilla powder, to put into it. I also use organic French Vanilla Nutpods for creamer. I am just making some coffee ice cubes for my iced coffee. It would help my weight loss if I gave it up, too, but this is just one of the things I have decided I am willing to include in my eating.

Wannabe thanks for the kind words. And people are no longer thinking I am just being too picky since the difference in me is amazing.... I had a lot of health issues and my complexion was becoming “pasty.” Now I keep getting compliments on healthy I look, including from my doctor. Plus I have fought my way back from having been barely able to walk to getting tons better and even took some hikes on the mountain trails. Okay, so I still have to use trekking poles and am a LOT slower than I used to be but at least I am out there. As for the diet soda, don't put yourself down for it since you are making so many other positive changes! We all have to make the choices we can live with, and just keep making progress!

And what are nightshades?

Everyone enjoy your weekend. I am off to try to sleep this afternoon since my Life Group is staying up all night to guard the church youth group's fireworks stand. LOL sit in the church parking lot all night and play games; then our leaders will cook breakfast for all of us on their outdoor grill which they are bringing. We did it last year and had a lot of fun but the night does get long.

Hi everyone and hope y'all had a great 4th. I just got back from a family reunion and have a big update for you.

First of all, I went back to coffee, doing ok with that! I didn't eat completely on plan and just went to an atkins kind of diet and allowed some cheese, eggs, drinks, but only ate carbs like grains the very last day. I did not go into a carb coma, I did not lose energy, I felt good. I ate other nuts like pistachio and did fine. I ran out of brazil nuts and now that I'm home I'm back to the 3 a day. Feet the selenium in the nuts is for my thyroid,,,I don't eat too many. only some times.

Well now I'm going back to the AIP protocol but I'm so glad I just know this is helping me overall. What I really stuck to was No artificial sweetners and no nightshades. One of those is my main culprit or possible both. I plan to keep my coffee to a minimum and if I start going overboard again, it is gone. So that's the update. So happy to have energy, that is my main symptom besides hot flashes and that would interrupt my sleep all night. So sleeping much better......

Hey, FF...just checking in myself...True Confession....the coffee has creeped back in to my life again as well. Perhaps not as frequently, though. No ill effects, and still feeling better than I was. That's the way of auto-immune disorders...the severity waxes and wanes, and it's difficult to make correlations. Which is why most folks think there is no connection between diet and most autoimmune diseases...but when you have one....you'll experiment with yourself in hopes of feeling better.

You know the nightshades thing is a myth? No way I'd give up tomatoes! (except maybe to lose weight...even then...) Think I'll go eat worms....

Feet! Not Worms! Yuk!

Well as far as night shades being a myth, have you ever tried to just totally give them up for (let's say a month) and if there is not improvement go back to them....Just as a personal trail?

I really think this is helping me, ALOT....or it's the sweetners..... I'm not wanting to go back to the sweetners at all, I've had people in the medical field tell me they aren't good for you. but as far as the nightshades go, yes they are healthy for most people, but there has been a lot of people who can't have them in their diet. I read the science behind it, but don't have it memorized in order to tell you about it, but they have some ingredient in them that affects people with autoimmune problems.....

Misti, I don't think anyone answered your question about nightshades. There is a group of vegetables and fruits referred to as nightshades. They include tomatoes, white potatoes, peppers, tomatillos, eggplant and goia berries. I have psoriasis and I have heard that nightshades are bad for psoriasis, but the only one I eat at all is tomatoes, and it's a once in a while thing for me, not everyday. If you google, you will get a lot of information on them.

My brother-in-law once told me he is "allergic to tomatoes." I asked him what his allergy is and he said he gets a rash on his legs when he eats them. So I would think that he is sensitive to nightshades.

The tannin in coffee and tea is also said to be bad for psoriasis, but I gave both up for a while once and saw no improvement.

At this point, I feel that the coffee is doing me no harm at 2 cups per day. With the diet coke, it's probably doing harm, but after 50 years of drinking it, there's probably no way of reversing the damage. It's very possible that it has contributed to some of the health issues I've had. I have cut back, but don't see it going away altogether.

FF, allergies and auto-immune disorders are not the same, although folks can have both. Because we eat the flesh, embryos, and oocytes of completely different species, anything we ingest has the potential to mount an allergic response. (Cannibalism is one way around that, but it has its own set of major health issues...)

Re the "nighshades", here's the classification for tomatoes from a USDA site:
Kingdom Plantae – Plants
Subkingdom Tracheobionta – Vascular plants
Superdivision Spermatophyta – Seed plants
Division Magnoliophyta – Flowering plants
Class Magnoliopsida – Dicotyledons
Subclass Asteridae
Order Solanales
Family Solanaceae – Potato family
Genus Solanum L. – nightshade P
Species Solanum lycopersicum L. – garden tomato P

The order Solanales encompasses "nightshades" which includes belladonna, also the vegetables Carol mentioned, and tobacco. Belladonna has a large concentration of toxic alkaloids, and when tomatoes, eggplants, and potatoes were introduced into the "western" diet, folks were afraid to eat them because these plants were in the same family. The foods do have alkaloids, but the concentrations are very low. Green or sprouted potatoes and other parts of the tomato plant have higher concentrations, which is why you're not s'posed to eat them.

Tomatoes, eggplants, etc have other valuable nutrients that make them worth eating. The internet throws around this nightshade/autoimmune connection a lot, especially for rheumatoid arthritis, but even the worst of those internet articles won't commit to stating this as an absolute and they do not cite any references. In fact, RA has been around since the beginning of recorded time in many cultures, long before tomatoes, potatoes, or eggplants were introduced. Also, there are lots of different kinds of alkaloids, even in one tomato. Nightshades are not the only plants that produce alkaloids....coffee does too...apple seeds have arsenic, lettuce has LSD....there are small amounts of toxins in everything we eat. Solanine is the nightshade alkaloid that is most often connected with AI, but some experiments have demonstrated it to be ANTI-inflammatory in some situations, even anti-viral and anti-cancer....but even these experiments used concentrations higher that those in our diet. (Solanine is also found in non-nightshades, like blueberries, apples, cherries.)

If you have an allergy to tomatoes, your immune system is recognizing a foreign molecule made by the tomatoes. Interestingly, if you're allergic to tomatoes and other fruits, you might also be allergic to latex--but you're most likely responding to a plant protein, and not the alkaloid molecule.

....(Ghostbuster's music)...I ain't 'fraid a no nightshades...

I do these little dietary experiments because my RA and the associated medications make me feel like crap. I do think there is some merit to the rheumatoid arthritis/bacteria correlation, and any dietary change that can help alter gut flora and help me lose pro-inflammatory fat is a change I'll consider.