I am new to posting on this list. My name is Lauri, am 34. Personally I suffer from joint pain, and have recently been diagnosed with a mild (so far) case of Rheumatoid Arthritis. I have an excellent holistic M.D. who has found that I have both a parasite infection and one strain of candida. I was also tested for food allergies and have tons of them, including: all dairy products,all the gluten grains, beef, lamb, pork, eggs. Interestingly however, I did not test allergic to: corn, rice, a few other non-gluten grains. I've been eating low-carb for a year, and that has helped my joints to a certain degree. Now that I have these food allergy test results, I've decided to go on a more tailored diet, keeping the carbs low to moderate, and avoiding allery foods, also doing the candida diet, and trying to do all of this paleo style. Oh, and I also may include no nightshades, b/c it's recommended to avoid them with arthritis. So that leaves me with not many foods if I actually do all!
 this: allergy-free, anti-candida, no nightshade, moderate-carb, paleo diet!!!!!! What I'm wondering is if I need to go this far. I'm DEFINITELY going to avoid the allergic foods and do the  candida diet for a period of time, and then I imagine I can someday rotate foods in again. I guess what I'm wondering about is:

1. Do I really need to avoid nightshades? From a paleo perspective I know some nightshades are ok. Does anyone have any experience or knowledge to fill in about nightshades and arthritis? I can't tell in my own body, and I did NOT test allergic to any of them. Although, I think the reasons why you avoid them with arthritis is not b/c of an allergic response.
2. There are many non-paleo foods I did not test allergic to, such as  corn!!, rice, soy, peanuts, winter squash and sweet potatoes. If the Loren Cordain (& Ray Audette & others) theories are true about foreign proteins in grains causing auto-immune disease,then wouldn't the body show an allergy to whatever grains are causing this? Wouldn't antibodies show up? I show allergies to all gluten grains, so could I conclude that it's these grains which are a problem, and the above foods that don't show allergy response MAY be ok? I'm just looking to not make my diet be almost  nothing. (I like the paleo idea, and I already avoid grains for the most part, but if rice or soy or corn or squash or peanuts are not really a problem for me then I'd like to have the option to eat them occasionally)

If anyone has any feedback on this, I'd really appreciate it. I'm trying to design my diet adaptions to begin right after x-mas, and it's overwhelming.

Thanks folks,

Lauri L.