Feingold and supplements...

[JohnBark]

I haven't received my information from FG yet. But, have been reading up on it on their website. And one thing that I've noticed was that you, at least at first, aren't suppose to use vitamins.

Why is that? Especially since almost everyone on this site use vitamins and supplements with FG.

So, are we suppose to start the FG lifestyle without the vitamins and supplements?

[catatonic]

Honestly, I never really noticed that. It just happened by chance that we started Feingold about 3 months before starting on the supplements, mainly because while the diet achieved some pretty miraculous success, my boy still couldn't sit still and be quiet in school and the vitamins seem to have really impacted the hyperactivity.

Maybe someone more experienced on Feingold can help you out on that issue. I'm with you, how can you do things right if you're not using any supplements?

[RiahBubbaPooh]

The basic idea is that they want newbies to really concentrate on Stage one of the diet. Many of us (most of us) do use supplements and vitamins. But we've also had a ton of hit and miss with reactions. So if you are starting stage one, and a couple of new supplements, how will you know what a reaction is to? See what I mean?

There's only one change I would make. There are what we call Parenthases items. In the shopping guide, there are notations (F) flouride; (CS) Corn Syrup; (MSG) MSG, etc... If you have been on stage one for six weeks, and still don't see 100%, you can go a bit further and eliminate more. I wish I had eliminated all of that at the beginning. It would have been more work, but we really needed to eliminate those things. I think we would have seen much more improvement had we started with a completely clean slate. But that's just me, it might overwhelm someone to look at taking even more out at the start.

[JohnBark]

Thanks for the advice! We just got our information packet today in the mail. We hope to start on Monday. And without the vitamins and supplements. And without the items in paranthases.

Thanks and I hope and pray this works!!!!

[AustinsMom]

JohnBark,

Good luck. We started the diet on Tues. of this week, and it has not been nearly as difficult as I had expected. The shopping was the hard work--4 stores to find all the items I wanted. But now I know who sells what, it will be much easier from now on. Austin is definitely better. But we had reached a crisis point, and stopped Strattera about the same time, so it's hard to know what is improvement from the side effects of the med going away, and what is diet changes, and what is a result of the behavioral program we have started to counter the bad habits developed when the meds were making him angry and oppositional. I agree it's better to do one thing at a time, but we reached a point of desparation, so just jumped into everything out of necessity. I hope your first week is as smooth as ours was.

[JohnBark]

Thanks Austinsmom! I wish you success with the FG lifestyle too. Today, I'm clearing out all our no-no foods. And then will shop for what we need to get us thru next week. I think finding the necessary food will be hard at first. As many of the brands on the list aren't carried at Walmart and Jewel were I shop the most. But, we WILL find the right stuff and soldier on!!!!

Thanks for your support!!!

[catatonic]

Way to go JohnB and Austinsmom. I wish you the best possible success with the diet. For us, it's been a life-saver. (And it's probably my 9-year-old's life it saved, because I was ready to kill him.) While following the Feingold program will be occasionally inconvenient, it will always be worthwhile. I'll never regret it, and I believe our entire family is healthier for it.

Take a notebook to the store with you and jot down products that look clean so that you can submit them for research. The more items on that food list, the easier it is!

[JohnBark]

Thanks for the supple, Catatonic! It took me 3.5 hours today of shopping to get my list completed and 3 stores so far. I did take a notebook with me, thanks for the advice! Tomorrow, my family starts eating a new way for life, health and happiness!!!


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