Q & A #2: How much starch do I have to eliminate to achieve relief of AS symptoms?

When starting the starch-free diet (I started it cold turkey), I thought I had covered all my bases: I cut rice, grains, beans, and potatoes. I remember finding myself keen to know that corn and peas were also starchy. Many of these listed foods had been staples in my diet from the day I started eating solid foods, so I felt that my adherence to starch-free was top-notch. 

Unfortunately, at the time, I didn’t know that starches are also present in most supplements, many root vegetables, certain fruits (like bananas), pretty well all processed food, and even black pepper! 

About two months into what I thought was a starch-free diet, I still lived with lots of pain. Painful nights still woke me regularly. I was discouraged about cutting so many comfort foods from my diet, only to still be in debilitating pain. I started digging deeper and started doing what the ‘hardcore’ starch-free crowd kept recommending I do: test foods for starch using iodine. I was shocked to find that many things I consumed, albeit in small quantities, were still starchy. 

At this point, I figured I had already given up the foods that were hardest to give up for me (grains and sugars). I was willing to push myself further, even if only for a few months, to see if cutting all starches would make any difference.

It did. 

Once I cut all starch from my diet, my pain became significantly less. My pain-free days started to outnumber the days of disability. Sleep and exercise became more manageable, which in turn helped my overall health and well-being. That was almost 3.5 years ago. Since then, my diet has remained strictly starch-free (and processed sugar-free), but I am grateful to have successfully added many fringe foods back into my diet. 

I am fortunate to have gotten to this point – through trial and error. Many other factors remain part of my success (exercise, intermittent fasting, and meditating on God’s word, for example), but when my diet slips, I start feeling crummy again. 

It is my goal to focus on fully healing my gut. I hope my sensitivity to starch will decrease as the health of my microbiome improves. Until then, I am thrilled to live a relatively pain-free and active life while enjoying a starch-free diet that nourishes my body. It brings me peace of mind to know that imaging (MRI and x-ray) has shown no disease progression since starting this lifestyle 3.5 years ago.

All this to say: I needed to eliminate all starch (and some other inflammatory foods) in order to feel like I no longer have AS. However, I acknowledge that every individual is unique in their health and circumstances and that not everyone might need to be as strict as I. Hopefully, the starch-free success stories will give you hope – many individuals have achieved life-changing results by modifying their diet and lifestyle! 

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