Positive Health Online

The author, Christine Craggs-Hinton, is herself a sufferer of fibromyalgia and has spent a great deal of time researching this illness in order to heal herself. She passed her findings and knowledge on to other sufferers in her first book called Living with Fibromyalgia, which covers exercise, wiser use of medication, some complementary therapies, and pain and stress management techniques. However, after writing this book she made the important discovery that the changes made to her own diet had the greatest, positive, impact on reducing her fibromyalgic symptoms, hence her writing The Fibromyalgia Healing Diet.

Christine stresses that it is important to take responsibility for your own illness, a part of which is being fully aware of what you eat and drink. She explains how diet treats the causes of the disease, and not just the symptoms, by balancing the body's systems and helping the body to repair itself. Making changes to the diet can help sufferers eliminate fatigue, pain, stiffness, insomnia, depression as well as the other myriad symptoms of fibromyalgia, and lead a more active, fulfilling life. She emphasizes the benefits of a diet containing a wide variety of organic foods without chemicals, colourings, flavourings and preservatives. She also points out that junk food carries few nutrients and its digestion and detoxification depletes the body's energy so much that the body is unable to repair and regenerate itself. Continuous eating of junk food she says clogs the system "like a cog wheel that is fed treacle".

The book moves on to expand on this introduction and includes sections on:

* Beneficial foods including protein, carbohydrate, fat, fibre and salt followed by a full explanation of each. It may be important to note that olive oil is not a source of omega 3 and 6 fatty acids as mentioned, however it is wonderful for cooking as it is the most heat stable of the oils as Christine points out;* Essential nutrients including vitamins: C, A, E, B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, B12, P and Biotin, and minerals: calcium, magnesium, manganese, zinc, selenium, potassium and chromium. There is also a section on other specific, beneficial nutrients for sufferers of fibromyalgia, which includes: malic acid for energy production, 5-hydroxytryptophan for reducing pain, anxiety and fatigue, glucosamine for decreasing pain and sensitivity in soft tissue, and DHEA for immune disorders, osteoporosis and chronic fatigue syndrome;* Substances to avoid such as food additives, aspartame, toxic chemicals, heavy metals, alcohol, cigarettes, caffeine containing products such as coffee, tea, cocoa and chocolate, and products containing refined white sugar such as cakes, biscuits and sweets.

Christine then encourages sufferers of fibromyalgia to change their diets gradually over four weeks, giving lots of tips and guidelines, and then to follow a 21 day detoxification programme to rid the body of toxins, which can perpetuate fibromyalgia. She lists fruits and vegetables known to be powerful detoxifiers such as lemons, apples, oranges, grapefruit, pears, bananas, grapes, melons, pineapples, cherries, mangoes, and carrots, onions, garlic, leeks, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, watercress, swede, spinach, tomatoes, celery, cucumber and lettuce. She also provides tried and tested recipes including basics ranging from vegetable stock and pastry to breakfasts, soups, main meals, salads, desserts, snacks, breads and drinks. Once the detoxification programme has been completed successfully she advises relaxing from the diet a little, but emphasizes the eating habits that should be adhered to long-term.

The Fibromyalgia Healing Diet is written with sincerity, honesty and compassion and provides the basic facts about nutrition. Her diet is a good starting point for anyone suffering from fibromyalgia, but as we are all biochemically different, many sufferers may need to fine-tune their programme to achieve optimum results with the help of an experienced, nutritional practitioner.