diet and herpes

Tag: diet and herpes

Herpes Diet: Managing Herpes Symptoms With Fall Veggies

Herpes SymptomsHerpes Diet: Managing Herpes Symptoms With Fall Veggies
By Contributing Author Stephanie

As those of us who have read Dr. Kelly’s Book Live, Love & Thrive with Herpes know, diet can have a huge affect on how our bodies experience the herpes virus.  Whether it’s the balance between lysine and arginine in our bodies, or simply eating well to support our immunity, it is important to actively support our bodies through our diet. This is a key to managing our herpes symptoms.  In this blog, I will go over some of the fall vegetables you can eat to support your body in suppressing future herpes outbreaks.  I strongly suggest referring back to Dr. Kelly’s previous blog on lysine and arginine for reference, as it explains how and why lysine is helpful in preventing outbreaks and arginine can be a trigger for outbreaks.

Root vegetables and squash are common fall vegetables that are delicious and nutritious for our bodies! Most vegetables have fairly high amounts of lysine.  Did you know that wheat and other grains contain high levels of arginine? This is why it is not uncommon for people diagnosed with herpes to go gluten free. If we can replace our grains  (which contain high levels of arginine) with vegetables high in complex carbs, our bodies will likely thank us. Of course this is a personal choice, but if you suffer from constant outbreaks, you can always test out this method to see if it helps you!

Some fall vegetables I love that are either higher in lysine than arginine or about equal in amounts of the two according to the sources I have researched are: beets, turnips, select squashes, and potatoes (white and sweet).

A great way to get the most out of these delicious fall foods is to pair them with foods we know are very high in lysine. One amazing recipe that comes to mind is roasted beets with goat cheese.  If you have never tried roasted red beets with goat cheese, I suggest you do so soon. If your recipe calls for nuts, you should omit them, since nuts are another known herpes trigger.

Another great and super easy recipe is roasted acorn squash filled with yogurt. Yogurts containing probiotics in the form of live cultures can also help boost our immunity to better manage herpes symptoms (assuming you are not dairy free).  If this is the case, there are dairy free yogurts made with coconut milk. High levels of probiotics and lysine in this meal, or dessert, make it an excellent and healthy choice for the season.  Since sugar affects the body in a way that prevents us from fighting off viruses, it is important to minimize our intake of sugar to prevent future outbreaks.  This is one of many delicious squash recipes that can easily double as a sweet dessert.

One last recipe that incorporates fall veggies with other foods containing high amounts of lysine is this Italian fagioli soup recipe.  This recipe is great for those cold and busy months and is packed with root veggies and squash.  The ground turkey is a great addition, as turkey is one meat in particular that is very high amounts in lysine.  You will even get some lysine from the parmesan cheese on top! I urge you all to take a look at some of the different recipes you can try to incorporate some of the seasonal vegetables into your diet throughout these colder months.

Keeping veggies in our diet consistently is so important for our health, regardless of living with herpes or not; but of course if we can decrease our herpes symptoms at the same time, why wouldn’t we do it?

book_LiveLove300Make sure to check out Dr. Kelly’s book to learn more about how diet and supplements can support your body as you learn to navigate your herpes symptoms!  

Heavy Metal Toxicity In Fish and Seafood

Heavy Metal Toxicity In Fish and Seafood

Mercury In FishI don’t know about you, but I absolutely love my seafood. When I was a little girl and my family would go out to a nice restaurant, my two favorite things to order were shrimp cocktail and a Shirley Temple (a nonalcoholic drink of ginger ale and grenadine). While my tastes have changed on cocktails I still LOVE seafood. A black and blue tuna steak with wasabi mashed potatoes, picking crabs with my family on a hot summer night, lobster with warm butter….my mouth waters just thinking about those things.

I grew up in Wilmington, DE, so seafood was a staple for us as was heavy metal toxicity. I didn’t know it at the time, but Wilmington, DE is the chemical capital of the nation! The Dupont’s put Wilmington on the map and it is only now that I realize how much heavy metal toxicity I was exposed to as a child and young adult. I am a foodie at heart, but over the years I have had to modify some of my guilty pleasures linked to heavy metal toxicity in seafood. So, you might be asking yourself “what are the heavy metals found in fish?”

Mercury and PCB’s are the main culprits. The main problem with these heavy metals is that they wreak havoc on our immunity and our body has a challenging time eliminating them. These toxins get lodged in our bones, brain, kidneys, and liver in an attempt to hide them and protect the rest of the body from their toxic load. When your body gets overloaded with these toxins, it can totally disrupt the ability of your organs to function at an optimal rate. In addition, mercury is a neurotoxin, which means that it can destroy nerve tissue and inhibit its function. The list of symptoms associated with heavy metal toxicity is vast, ranging from autoimmune and neurological disorders to fatigue and mental fogginess. Hidden metal and chemical toxicity is found in highest concentrations in large fish like tuna (don’t forget that tuna fish salad comes from tuna), mahimahi, and swordfish.

Our oceans have become a dumping ground, and the small fish live and feed themselves from this toxic soup. The big fish then eat the small fish. The concentrations of mercury and other toxins increase as the fish get larger and larger. Therefore, the bigger the fish, the greater the toxicity. The Cove, a documentary about dolphins, explains how heavy metal toxicity from eating fish is causing neurological disorders in some Japanese children. Children are especially vulnerable to heavy metal toxicity because of their developing brain and body. I highly recommend this film if you are interested in learning more.

Mercury in FishMy suggestion to you is to begin by decreasing the seafood that is highest in mercury. One way to jog your memory is that the bigger the fish, the higher the exposure. Large fish store these toxins in their fatty tissue in high concentrations. So, a sardine is much better than a sailfish. This is the main reason why I rarely eat tuna or tuna fish any more. Below is list of seafood highest in mercury. Use this as a guideline to begin to decrease your current exposure. Some people are better able to detox these heavy metals, but we are all exposed. Even if you don’t eat fish, you are exposed through the air you breath and the water you drink. This is one of the many reasons that I have my patients cleanse their bodies through a detoxification program at least once a year. Unfortunately, our world has become much more toxic and the only way to stay healthy is to be proactive in cleansing and decreasing your exposure.

Live. Love. Thrive.

Dr. Kelly

Frequent Herpes Outbreaks? Omit These Nightshade Veggies

Frequent Herpes Outbreaks? Omit These Nightshade Veggies

If you suffer from herpes, not all vegetables are good for you. There are a class of vegetables called nightshades, which lead to inflammation and chronic muscle, joint and nerve pain. During outbreaks, it is important to omit night shade plants. Unfortunately, these vegetables tend to increase the inflammatory process making symptoms worse. When we have herpes lesions, the skin is already irritated and inflamed. The last thing you want to do is fuel the burning fire from within.

Are you feeling hot, hot, hot?

If you are in outbreak mode or you are getting outbreaks frequently, I would avoid nightshade vegetables, fruits and spices.

Veggies  

Tomatoes
Peppers
Eggplant
Potatoes

Berries

Goji berries

Tomato based condiments

Ketchup
Cholula
Hot sauce- I know. That’s a hard one to swallow. You must believe me when I say, you are better off without them.

Processed foods 

These hide nightshades in terms like “starch” and “natural flavoring”

Spices

Chili powder
Curry
Cayenne
Paprika