This conversation came from two questions: So you cut out all carbs? Or just all breads and pastas?
Well maybe three questions…the third is…”But how?” This was the question that Julie and I engaged with in this interview. Read on for some answers!
I am blessed with having a 25 year friendship with Julie. We were in school together and we still make time to get together with our close group of four. After our last dinner out Julie followed up with me after she noticed how I ordered intentionally at the restaurant.
Julie and I have a few conversations on the phone. I told her so many people would find this conversation valuable and do you mind if we share this conversation? She was glad to do just that and in fact she and I share a love of eating good food. So here is the conversation:
From an interview with Stephanie Stierhoff:
So you cut out all carbs? Or just all breads and pastas?
I was both ecstatic for Stephanie and very intrigued. She had figured out a way to get off all meds for an immunocompromised condition. Through decades of research and managing a life living with Lupus she had found her way back to the lifestyle she had once enjoyed and dreamt of for decades. One without pain-causing chronic inflammation stemming from Lupus and one without meds.
But how? Her lifestyle changes had put her Lupus into remission. If felt huge. And groundbreaking.
“Happy to share” was her answer.
With this initial exchange we continued the conversation, this time both longer and deeper in breadth of information regarding the “how.”
She had already cut out processed foods many moons ago, and thus her starting point. To this, she started eliminating one food type at a time. In her research she discovered that her immune system was over reactive. In other words, her immune system already was reacting to her internal organs as a threat that needed to be eradicated. This meant taking in foods and lifestyle behaviors of eating foods with preservatives in them, for example, would be additional inflammation that would cause more reactivity in her immune system, she explains. Therefore, she started eliminating foods that caused inflammation. If it didn’t change how she felt physically she would add it back in and take another out of her diet.
After eliminating ultra-processed foods, Stephanie took out the nightshade group of foods. From there she replaced make-up products for the face and body care products that contained chemicals with products made with non-chemical ingredients and/or with ingredients least known to cause inflammation.
This was a process that took years.
Additionally, Stephanie wanted to empower her body with needed nutrition. She adopted a mantra of “make every bite count.” To do this she took out empty calories like pasta, rice, potatoes, and this made room on her plate for colorful, nutrient-rich meat, fish, poultry, and vegetables. Stephanie found, as it turns out, that starchy carbohydrates are inflammatory foods as well.
Throughout this process of making lifestyle and food modifications Stephanie could not get to the point where her Lupus was completely in remission. She was still taking medication to manage her Lupus, albeit low doses. However, that was not good enough for her. So she racked her brain and did continued research on what else she can do to bring her immune system back in balance.
At this point she was still eating bread. This is another empty calorie but one she held on to because it was an absolute favorite food. She would bake her own breads, rolls, pizza dough and really enjoyed it so much.
What Stephanie ultimately did was give herself one month without eating any bread of any kind. She said to herself, if after the month she feels better she will happily stop eating it altogether; if no change then life goes on with bread on her plate.
It did make the difference. She really felt so good. She described the many trips to the hospital, medication side effects, and the debilitating effects of the disease were so life-threatening over the course of three decades at the time of this blog that it was like a dark cloud over her head that could rain on her at anytime. Giving up bread and gluten was easy compared to living like that.
Groundbreaking? Not so much the means but perhaps the end. How many of us can not only narrow it down to the root of the underlying issue, ie. inflammation, but also have the will and determination to give up the one thing one most enjoys? What a tough, tough undertaking. Putting myself in her shoes, I cannot imagine going cold turkey on baked goods. Or chocolate.
Though she normally fills her plate with nutrient rich foods, she admits she will add certain carbohydrates to her meals every once in a while. Like potatoes. However, once one foregoes a food item long enough — in Stephanie’s case, the one thing she loved above all else, bread — your body doesn’t know it misses it, she adds. While I understand this very well, getting there is a whole another story.
As for baked goods and chocolate, she throws in a dose of inspiration. Take berries and add decadence with whip cream. Or take dark chocolate and dip it into coconut manna. I am unfamiliar with the latter. Still, my road towards lowering the glucose level was sounding more doable AND delicious.
I ask about my other latest concern, the climbing cholesterol level. Steer away from fried foods, and minimize your starchy carbohydrates, she suggests.
She continues by explaining that “high cholesterol is a result of over consuming carbohydrates primarily. The industrial oils are definitely dangerous for your arteries and a systemic cause of inflammation however, carbohydrates are the root cause of the high cholesterol trend. They are in everything from the rice, pasta, breads, potatoes to ultra-processed foods on shelves like cereals, gluten free foods, take-out foods, and baked goods. This group of foods will elevate bad cholesterol, overwork your pancreas and cause glucose level to rise. Then fatty liver disease can manifest along with a host of metabolic illnesses.”
As for fried foods, she explains that “most fried foods use oils named vegetable oil, canola oil, corn oil, for example that go through intense industrial process before it reaches store shelves with a yellow-gold glow in plastic containers.”
Here is Stephanie’s rundown of how canola oil, specifically, is processed — which she says is about the same process for vegetable and corn oils also, plus her rundown of top benefits of healthy oils.
Canola oil production is a highly industrialized process involving:
1. Seed cleaning and flaking
2. Cooking and petroleum solvent extraction (usually with hexane)
3. Degumming using caustic soda, refining, bleaching, and deodorizing
4. Bottling and packaging
This industrialized process transforms a raw seed into a shelf-stable, light-colored oil suitable for frying, baking, and general cooking — but it’s also heavily processed and highly inflammatory. Oils are a volatile product overall and heat can destroy beneficial aspects of the oil as well as produce harmful compounds such as acrolein, aldehydes, and free radicals which are inflammatory and linked to long-term health risks. Non-industrialized oils like extra virgin olive oil, coconut oil, and avocado oil have benefits in your nutrition and contribute to your health.
Top Benefits of Healthy Oils in a Diet:
1. Heart Health – Support healthy cholesterol levels and reduce heart disease risk.
2. Brain & Hormone Support – Provide essential fats (like omega-3s) that boost brain function and support hormone production.
3. Nutrient Absorption & Inflammation Control – Help absorb vitamins A, D, E, K and reduce inflammation linked to chronic disease.
Finally and on a slightly different note, I ask one other question that has been in and out of my mind lately. When you have stayed up longer than wanted that you start feeling hungry again, do you eat or go to bed? Of course just as I ask I know what the answer will most likely be. BUT I am glad I ask because she proceeds to mention autophagy. Apparently we all have cancer cells that get “cleaned up” but our body can’t both digest and go through this process simultaneously. It can do only one or the other effectively at a time. Look it up, she says. I will!
