Meg,

You are so right, evaluating all lifestyle factors is important to recovery, especially the food we eat to fuel our bodies. Ironically, I developed CRPS when I was eating clean, but because my diet included lots of healthy high oxalate foods I wrongly blamed them for the excrutiating pain I was experiencing and stopped eating them for months. Recently I started to include them in my diet with no ill effect.

I also eliminated all the foods from the nightshade family at the same time. I found this did not help me at all either. When I was violently sick last week the only foods that settled my stomach were chicken soup, bananas and mashed red potato. These were the first potatoes I ate in a year, and fortunately I discovered I can eat them again with no ill effect. I managed to live without them by subsituting cauliflower for them-delicious mashed. (I have yet to try making this with frozen cauliflower, but friends tell me they have done this successfully)

Regarding grains, it has been postulated that for many it isn't necessarily grains that has caused health problems, but the pesticides used to grow them. I eliminated all grains, too, when I had no diagnosis, but I have started to add organic oatmeal and organic sourdough bread to my menu.

Another issue we all face is that the nutritional value of the food we eat today is considerably lower than the food our parents ate, because of soil depletion. I started to drink mineral water when I was bed bound, because it seemed to me that tap water was not quenching my thirst or hydrating me. Unfortunately now that I no longer have a job I have to give up the bottled water. I don't know what to do, since our water is fluoridated and purified with chloramine.