Typical day of eating

My staples are a sodium free bread by Ezekiel in the freezer section, Swiss cheese, low sodium tortillas, and sodium mustard I bought of of Amazon, low sodium broth base (dry) low sodium beans in The can (all varieties) and lots of veggies and fruits. I use the light salt sold in the salt section of the store and shake a little on my food if it is too bland. I put jelly on my no sodium bread and eat a fried egg or cook oatmeal that has no salt added. I am a vegetarian and will saute tofu. I look at the sodium content on everything! I make my own pizzas using the low sodium tortillas, no salt tomato sauce, veggies and Swiss cheese. I use lots of spices to try to get flavor. This has come easier to me the longer I do it. I was in remission for 9 years after the Streptomycin injections in my ear and was not as vigilant. My symptoms came back a year ago and so far I have managed them with LOSO diet, b vitamins, JOH, monolaurin and Vitamin C. Since October I have been feeling much better but it took awhile for everything to kick in

 

If your speaking of sodium intake, you don't need to give anything up. I manage my sodium intake to 1500mg per day or below. If I go over, I may or may not pay the price 24 hours later with increased pressure and some dizzy. Take the time to read Buchholz's "Heal your Headache". I was diagnosed with Menieres by 3 doctors before a VNG test indicated I may also be suffering MAV. It proved to be the answer for me. The MAV diet was a major contibutor to making my vertigo go away. $9 was the cost of the book on kindle. The MAV diet will not cost you anything to try.

 

Good question, Irving. Pre-laby, I was quite sodium-sensitive, with a target of 1000mg/day. As a silver lining, this made me a better cook. For breakfast, I developed my own granola recipe, or would have eggs and toast. When I had time at home, I made bread so I could control the amount of salt in it, then would slice and freeze it to have as needed. Tip -- leaving out the salt completely tastes horrible, but it can be cut in half from most recipes.

In my area at the time, the stores did not sell canned tomatoes or beans without added salt. This prompted me to start a vegetable garden and can my own tomatoes. Six San Marzano plants gives a year's supply for one person. My grocery store now sells tomatoes with no salt added, but I've continued to grow vegetables for the fun of it. Eden Foods is one brand that doesn't add sodium. Canned beans are typically preserved with sodium, even though they don't taste salty. I've used an electric pressure cooker (similar to Insta-Pot) to cook dried beans and then freeze them in amounts similar to a 1-pound can. Canned soups are also typically high in sodium.

By weight, cheeses that are not aged (mozzarella) have less sodium than those that have lost moisture and hardened (Parmesan/Romano). I never denied myself a good bit of Parmesan for my pasta. Sausages and all processed meats (ham, sandwich meats) have lots of sodium as a preservative. I've mixed up sausage seasonings in a jar on my spice rack that can be added to fresh ground turkey to taste similar to packaged links. And like Parmesan cheese, I will use some slices of salami where it counts in a sandwich or homemade pizza.

Packaged and prepared pizzas are huge sodium offenders because the dough, tomatoes, cheese, and sausages are usually highly preserved and seasoned. One slice would set off a vertigo episode within 24 hours for me. In general, I avoided packaged/prepared foods and could readily substitute something fresh or homemade. But pizza is such a social food, it was something I often missed.

My daily diet:
Breakfast -- Homemade granola or eggs; toast from homemade or low-sodium bread, unsalted butter (which is generally fresher than salted).
Lunch -- Fresh fruit and vegetables; sandwiches from home-prepared meats, tuna, or eggs.
Dinner -- Almost anything home-prepared using low sodium canned ingredients; careful amounts of cheese, sausage/ham, olives/pickles/condiments. Fresh or frozen vegetables on the side. Spices for flavoring.

This diet gave me a good balance of enjoyment and symptom reduction. I like to cook, so it wasn't much of a problem for me.

 

I must agree. Pizza is something I rarely consume due to the ingredient list and the high sodium. If I do, I might as well plan to be down for a day or so. Perhaps when I retire, I will return to making my own.

 

Hi Irving,
The most successful dietary change for me has been to eliminate wheat and oats, and sugar. Once I did this, I discovered that I was not really salt-sensitive, and could have a lot of salt (canned soups, gatorade, etc.) without any effect. For me, I think the gluten was creating more of a water retention/imbalance issue than salt.
Also, I steer clear of any artificial sweeteners (sucralose, aspartame), and MSG.
Sometimes I think people with Meniere's are like canaries in a coal mine. I think we react to harmful additives/substances in the environment that perhaps most of the population has a higher tolerance of than we do.
Bottom line, experiment with your diet. Log which foods you consume on a regular basis, and eliminate those for a period and see if there is a change. I've had to revisit this over the years, but it has been intermittently successful. Good luck!

 

Hey, Irving. Welcome to the forum.

Meal 1 - Spinach omelet (3 whole eggs, a pinch of garlic, handful of spinach, goats cheese).

(Pre-training drink: BCAA's, creatine, C4, water).

Meal 2 - Shake: oats, banana, mixed berries or just blue berries, maca powder, turmeric powder, half an avocado, pea protein (≈ 20g), mixed seeds (hemp, sunflower, pumpkin, chia), green powder mix (kale, spinach, broccoli, spirulina) hemp oil, coconut milk.

Meal 3 - Sardines on toast (seedy brown bread).

(Pre-training drink: BCAA's, creatine, C4, water).

Meal 4 - Chicken, sweet potato, mixed vegetables.

Snack - Small tub of greek yogurt

Meal 5 - Salmon or trout, brown rice, broccoli or asparagus, lemon juice.

Snack - Pineapple or kiwi fruit

(3.5 - 4-ish litres of water per day. The above meals are relatively small in size)

 

Welcome to the forum, Melissa.

 

Irving, everyone is different and I'm not sure anyone know what works haha. What everyone does is trial an error until you feel better. I think the feeling of good is gone for some with Menieres though. I can't remember what feeling good is like but i'm happy with ok nowadays. I stick to a routine during the work week
Breakfast at 9am - Kashi Berry fruitful cereal 0mg sodium with fat free skim milk.
Lunch at 12:30 - Low sodium wrap #65mg with turkey,spinach,swiss and low sodium mustard 40mg, celery sticks, bananna and 4 clementines.
Dinner 7pm Varies obviously but everything is low sodium or no sodium.
I still eat pizza every now and then. Never chinese take out or any type of fast food, a lot of people say to avoid alcohol but I can tell you I drink quite a bit of beer and it doesn't effect me. There are some things I didn't want to give up. I also workout 5 days a week. This is my routine but i also am on a duretic , JOH regime and B100 complex. Kind of started it all at once so I have no idea what works. I know my answer might not help but it will give you an idea of some things to start. I have never been a heavy salter but I use to eat all kinds of crap that had tons of sodium in it. I miss a lot of the snack things but I also have gotten so use to bland foods that it doesn't matter much to me. Hope this helps. Sorry you are here but welcome.