Diet tips please

[RedEyeGuy]

I have extremely red eyes possibly from the overuse of Visine. I'm going to try a low carb diet but I've realised almost everything I eat is high in carbs. My diet is made up of about 50% bread.

What foods do you all eat which are considered 'safe'?

[dominorose]

RedEyeGuy : that was my problem before having severe dry eyes, my diet was basically based on yoghurts, apples and bread. I'm trying to cut apples for now, diet coke is still very difficult. I've cut bread and dairy for 2 weeks now...

[RedEyeGuy]

Yeah my diet is basically bread, yoghurts and bananas. What did you substitute the bread with? Did you find it improved your condition by cutting it?

[littlemermaid]

Dominorose and everyone, please don't cut out foods unless you really notice it helps the eye inflammation. We've had flareups with high GI, sugar, wheat, but we're still using them, just minimal. We're also careful not to use clogging fats. This is for 'rosacea'.

I think this is so dangerous because a good diet is about eating very much more of the good stuff, nutritionally. And less of the junk. And keeping well hydrated. And happy and active. If you Google or PubMed 'fasting dry eye' there are changes in the tear film microbiome which we do not want. People here say the eyes are so much better after a substantial meal of healthy food.

Dominorose, I think you really need to eat very heartily and well and frequently and support the changes to your hormones, especially now you are menstruating and comfortable again.

[dominorose]

Lm, thank you, but I'm afraid I'm still not menstruating AT ALL

You're right, maybe I should stick with a normal diet for longer, especially after those long years of anorexia/bulimia. I think cutting gluten is a good idea because I have Hashimoto's, but I can't see any effect on my eyes when I avoid it. As for dairy, I thought it would help with mucus overload in eyes/nose, but no, I'm afraid.

I really hope my problem is related to hormones, because diet doesn't seem to change anything (apart from alcohol, which makes me flare like hell, but that's all I've noticed)

[littlemermaid]

If you're OK with wheat, I would eat wholegrain for the B vits. We also use multivitamins with minerals, if we feel we need them, but not regularly. I try to provide a really varied diet eg nuts, seeds, pulses, as well as loads of vegetables and salads all the time, especially dark green leaves. Brown rice is better and easy. My Indian friend is showing me how to make these pots of veg so delicious Have you got any advice on managing the hormones? Does coffee flare you up?

[unicorn]

I would just like to add to Littlemermaid's very sensible advice to maintain a healthy balanced diet. For three months I excluded gluten, dairy and sugar - a very strict diet - and saw no improvement in my eyes at all. I struggled to keep my weight up- I am already underweight, and went down to a BMI of around 17.5 which is really not healthy. For anyone prone to eating disorders this sort of strict food exclusion is potentially risky, I think, so please be careful. Yes, some people find that diet affects their eyes, but not everyone. For me stress is a MUCH bigger factor, and worrying about whatever I put in my mouth isn't helpful. I'm still struggling to put back on the weight I lost earlier in the year - I find it really, really hard to gain weight.

A good balanced diet with lots of whole grains, fresh fruit and vegetables is obviously a good thing, but keeping a healthy body weight is vital for your overall health and hormone health.

On the subject of hormones I have found out that I'm very low in testosterone, with a stupidly high level of SHBG, making the level of free testosterone even lower. This is sometimes linked to anorexia (which I've never had, btw) and can also be related to high levels of estrogen, and being on the contraceptive pill.

[irish eyes]

I was interested to read this. Unicorn - years ago, I eliminated lots of things from my diet that I thought might be 'culprits' - and my eyes didn't change one bit. I just became scrawny with awful skin and lank hair. (I'm of slim build anyway and I'm sure people thought I was aiming for size zero.) Weight is fine now and I eat a healthy and varied diet - as I did before. Like you, stress and 'upsets' affect me far more. On that score, I've learnt a few survival tactics that I should have practised years ago.

However, my eye consultant did raise the issue of diet and was interested to know if any specific foods affected me - and to keep a diary. He said that some of his patients did notice symptoms change in their eye condition when they ate certain foods.

[dominorose]

LM, coffee doesn't seem to have any impact on my eyes, no...

For the hormones, I have to wait for my appointment in september... Don't know what I could do in the meantime?
Unicorn, thank you for your input. My testosterone is normal (on the highest range btw), but estradiol was VERY low (lower than a menopausal woman).

Tomatoes seem to have an effect, but I'm not sure. I had an allergy to strawberries when I was a child, so the histamine route is possible...

[Minni]

I had made a blog based on simple common sense (based on connecting dots and so forth), and which would be counter-intuitive to most, since it flies in the face of lots of hype which people buy into. Some of it I just now mentioned in dryeye4ever's thread.

I seriously doubt you would be interested, but on the offchance, you can contact me. That's if eNotification works - it sometimes glitches or re-routes to spam.

[Minni]

To Kate West - i was unable to reply to your p.m. Because your P.M. Box was full. Apparently the P.M. capacity is limited.

[Faith1989]

Can u send it to me to?!

[Katewest]

Oh ok...ill delete some Minni