Sugar & Lyme Disease -- Don't Have Sugar While Grappling With Lyme Disease, Reader Writes

I love getting mail from readers of this blog. Here's an interesting e-mail I just received from John in Maryland, who, unfortunately has Lyme disease, like me:

"I have Lyme disease and I wanted to comment on the issue of eating sugar/sweet food/carbs when you have Lyme disease and while on antibiotics.

"Sugar in all its forms (except stevia) is a real problem when you have Lyme and are on antibiotics for months. With a weakened immune system and being on antibiotics...eating sugar is a recipe for disaster.

"Yeast overgrowth is a real problem for people taking long-term antibiotics, and yeast feeds on sugar. That's why many people (who have good LLMDs [Lyme-literate dotors) are on some sort of yeast control diet.

"The one I'm on (Dr. Burrascano's) is very strict when it comes to carbs and sugar and sweet fruits etc."

"OK... Like you, I get total brain fog and have cognitive problems so I hope I'm making sense... I just wanted to point out the unintentional link between your sugar education and Lyme disease."

John, thanks so much, John, for writing. You made perfect sense, and what you brought up is so important that I wanted to alert others with Lyme disease, too.

Basically, a good rule to follow is that whenever you recover from any disease, you don't want to have sugar. You can learn more in my book, Sugar Shock!

Of course, while recovering from Lyme disease, I'm on a sugar-free diet, as I've been for 10 years now. Naturally, I'm also making a point to use probiotics as well.

Thanks, John, for talking about Dr. Burrascano protocol. He's considered a pioneer in the field of treating this disease. For those of you who have Lyme disease or know people who have it, you should check out Dr. Burrascano's diet and other recommendations, which he goes over in the Managing Lyme Disease section of his booklet, Advanced Topics in Lyme Disease.

For example, he suggests a "restricted carbohydrate regimen."

According to Dr. Burrascano, you can have all the protein food you want such as meat, fish, fowl, cheese, eggs, dairy and tofu.

As for fruits, he says, they "may be a problem because they contain a large amount of sugars. However, if the fruit contains a lot of fiber, this may make up for the sugars to some degree." You can have fruits "at the end of a meal, and never on an empty stomach" and only high fiber fruits and in very small amounts.

For instance, you can have "generous amounts" of grapefruit, lemons, limes, tomatoes and avocado, but you should have "small amouints only" of pears, apples, strawberries, cantaloupe, etc."

You are NOT allowed oranges, watermelons, bananas, grapes and fruit juices. Plus, of course you should never have foods with any kind of flour -- no breads, cereals, cake, etc.," Dr. Burrascano suggests.

Pasta is taboo, and he recommends avoiding or limiting starchy vegetables such as potato, rice and beans. Green vegetables and salads are OK.

Sure sounds like a man after my own heart!