Hi all,

I just joined this list.  To introduce myself... I'm a 45 year old woman
with a history of autoimmune problems, the worst of which is ulcerative
colitus.  I had a UC flare-up recently and started experimenting with my
diet to control it.  From what I've read, there seems little doubt that low
carb is the way to go.  But exactly how to do this is very confusing.

I recently read Ray Audette's book.  I'm also reading "The Paleolithic
Prescription".  And I've read numerous other books on nutrition: Sally
Fallon's "Nourishing Traditions", "The Schwarzbein Principle", and the
various high protein, low carb diet books.  These books are not in complete
agreement.  "The Paleolithic Prescription" says that paleolithic people ate
beans and cooked some of their food.  Audette's book says no to both.
Fallon's book puts great emphasis on lacto-fermentation as an important way
to keep good bugs in the gut.  Audette says that this is post-agriculture
eating and bad for you--no yogurt, no fermented veggies (since doing this
requires whey from yogurt OR huge amounts of salt, which our ancestors
definitely did not eat).

Interestingly, Audette's recommendations closely correspond to a diet for
Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) called the Specific Carbohydrate Diet,
which I was on for a month during my UC flare-up.  The main difference is
that the SC diet allows no-lactose dairy (aged cheese, 24-yogurt, butter).
This coincidence (and the promise of weight loss) has made me curious to
try Audette's diet.  My boyfriend wants to try it, too.  He has high blood
pressure (despite being an athlete of normal weight), and asthma--both
autoimmune problems, according to Audette.  But we have numerous
questions...

- What about beans you can eat raw, like sugar snap peas?  Why are these
not okay?

- There is much evidence that paleolithic people cooked their food 200,000
years ago or even longer ago, so why the rule that we can only eat food
that is edible raw?

- What about sprouts?  You can eat any kind of sprout raw--wheat berry
sprouts, bean sprouts?  Why are these "forbidden fruit"?  I believe that
paleolithic people ate SOME beans and grains, just not very much.  Most
literature I've read disagrees with Audette on this point.

- What about nuts and seeds?  Why are these so different from grains?
Aren't these as difficult as grains to gather in quantity?  Did are
paleolithic ancestors really eat large quantities of almonds and other nuts
and seeds?  Flax seeds are teeny weeny.

Any insight or experience anyone can offer on these questions would be much
appreciated.  I would love to improve my health--and also would love to
lose weight.  I don't have much to lose (15 pounds), but it seems
impossible to take it off.

- Sheryl