In looking at my corneal topographies, I see a more dramatic improvement from when I cleaned up my diet than I did when I switched to the flat fit.  Of all the things on my list, I suspect that it was the diet that really turned my condition around.  (Not only did it regress my KC, but every single other health problem I had went away.) 

I have read that KC is a reflection of the condition of the body, so anything that helps your body will help KC.  In other words, find the diet that is suited for you, and you may have a chance of healing your KC.  From what I have observed, there are a couple basic guidelines that helped me and probably could help other people.  Incidentally, if you follow these rules, you’ll probably never have a weight problem. 

Basic Guidelines that Helped Me

1. I avoided processed foods, grains, and refined sugar.   

I won’t go into much detail of the science of why these things harm the body, because it’s actually done quite well by searching www.mercola.com.  (Plus, Dr. Mercola has more suitable training and medical background to explain dietary recommendations.)  In summary, he explains that they wreak havoc with insulin levels and lead to weight gain, among many other medical problems.  He also states that potatoes and corn cause a similar reaction in the body. 

I had seldom eaten grains for four years before I had my son.  I was really busy when he was an infant and noticed my husband could eat a sandwich a lot more quickly than it was taking me to eat a salad.  I thought it might be a good idea to introduce some grains back in again, but my body strongly protested when I did.  Every time I have eaten grains consistently for several days, I get a horrible rash among other annoying symptoms.  I thought it was interesting to note that after five years of avoiding meat, I had a much easier time eating meats again than I did grains.  (Though, I felt much worse eating the meat too.)

I don’t want to give the impression that I never eat processed foods, grains, and refined sugar, but I tend to eat them sparingly and in very small quantities.    

2. I ate a diet almost entirely composed of plants and raw produce.

Recently, I had the privilege of reading Eat to Live by Dr. Joel Furhman.  He claims that most the diseases of the Western world such as cancer, heart disease, and diabetes are caused by diets devoid of plants.  The diseases may manifest in different ways, but the root cause is the same.  This made me wonder if KC is another manifestation of plant deprived diet since it seemed to get so much better when I started eating them.  It’s too hard for me to do raw produce justice in a succinct manner, so I created a section devoted to raw produce. 

3. I ate healthy fats.

A link between saturated fat and diseases of the Western world has been proven and well-researched.  I recently read Dr. Mercola’s Total Health book, and he made many claims about fats that I had never heard before.  He said that saturated fat is not as bad as you think, but it is actually trans fats and polyunsaturated fats that are causing a rise in heart disease and cancer.  The point I’m making is to not eat a diet high in fat, and you will avoid the bad fats wherever they might be.

If you avoid processed foods and refined sugar, you will probably be exposed to very little bad fats because they tend to be in those products.  I used to think that bottled salad dressings based from vegetable oil were healthy, but apparently olive oil is the only one that is low in polyunsaturated fats.  Unfortunately, none of them use this type of oil to keep costs down.  Lucky for me, I always liked homemade dressing better anyway and usually ate my own.  Being vegetarian, I typically have gotten my fat mostly from avocados, olive oil and nuts. 

1. I avoided soda. 

Based on what I have read, I’m convinced this might quite possibly be the worst thing to consume.  I’m amazed that it is such an accepted part of our diet with little publication of how detrimental it really is for our health.   I can point out the obvious- that it is empty calories and leads to weight gain.  I also read that as a result of the phosphoric acid in soda, it takes 20 cups of water to neutralize one cup of soda.  The body is really meant to be alkaline, so this really throws your system into the wrong direction.  My opinion of soda was forever changed about five years when I went to a lecture given by Mary Ruth Swope.  During World War II, she worked on a research project investigating the effects of soda consumption on farm animals.  I’ll never forget how she said that she grew up on a farm and was quite used to seeing the insides of animals.  She said that it was deeply disturbing how she saw things on the animals drinking soda that she had never seen before like large blue spots on their liver.  She has actually written a book on nothing but soda, but I haven’t read it.  This is another topic that is worth a search on www.mercola.com.

Juicing

It is interesting to note that at the same time my corneas started flattening in 2002, I was drinking one pint per day of freshly squeezed vegetable juice.  The juice mainly consisted of carrot, but I often added greens.  Carrots and greens are the most nutrient dense vegetables.  It was very easy to consume the juice from several pounds of carrots in a week, so you can imagine the nutrition I was receiving.  I did this for about a year, but then I became sick of juice. 

I would also think there might be benefit to blending vegetables.  It certainly is a lot cheaper and easier.  The body still has to do more work since the fiber is still present, but it will be easier since it is already been blended.  Right now, I am not doing either juicing or blending because it’s time consuming and more fulfilling to just eat food. 

Vegetarian

It is definitely noteworthy that I was vegetarian the whole time my KC has been regressing.  I was vegan for a few years, meaning that I ate no animal products at all.  I don’t feel quite comfortable telling all my fellow KCers that they should be vegetarians.  However, I felt a big difference not eating meat, so I only feel that it is fair to put it out there for everyone’s consideration.  Dr. Fuhrman made a statement in his Eat to Live book that I suspect is true.  He stated that it is more important to eat plants, especially leafy greens than to worry about the animal products being eaten.  He even goes on to say that someone eating mostly plants including generous servings of leafy greens, and a little animal products will still probably be more healthier than the vegetarian not eating very many plants.  However, he does state that studies showed eating meat more than once per week increased risk of disease.   

What is Left to Eat?

You may be asking, what DO I eat?  I am eating mostly fruits, vegetables, beans, nuts and seeds.  Having eaten the standard American diet (SAD) until 2002, I can understand how strange this sounds.  If someone had told me seven years ago I’d be eating the way I do now, I’d have thought they had surely lost their marbles.  I remember in my meat eating days, if someone told me they were vegetarian, I would be very polite to them.  But, then I would secretly feel sorry for them having to follow such a repressive diet.

My husband thinks I’m made of steel with the way I’m able to adhere to this strict diet.  The truth is that I’m no more disciplined or repressive than anyone else.  First of all, I felt so much better after I cleaned up my diet that I didn’t want to go back to what I was doing before.  Secondly, my tastes started to change so that now I actually prefer the foods I eat.  Last Easter, I went back home and ate some baked ziti that my Mom used to make while I was growing up.  It was okay, but it doesn’t taste as good to me as I had remembered.  As time goes by, I started desiring the foods I used to eat less and less. 

How Can Diet Make a Difference with an Eye Disease?

When I changed my diet, I didn’t even think about my KC.  I was just trying to get healthier; I never dreamed I would have this improvement in my KC.  I’ve heard KC slightly regressing, but not to the degree mine has; you don’t just go down 10 diopters.  The diet advocated by Dr. Fuhrman in Eat to Live is very similar to the one I had been following while my KC regressed.   I was pretty sure diet must have some connection with KC, but I suppose I could just be an anomaly.  However, I read the following passages in Dr. Furhman’s book with great interest:

1.        “I am neither a research scientist nor a writer by profession.  I am a practicing physician who sees at least five thousand patients per year.  I work with these patients, educating and motivating them to do more than others have asked them to do.  The results I see with my patients are thrilling.  Diseases that are considered irreversible I see reversed on a daily basis.”  (page 144)

2.        “I have seen scores of rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, and CONNECTIVE TISSUE DISEASE patients recover completely through these interventions.”  (page 169- Emphasis was added by me, and in case you didn’t know, KC is a connective tissue disease.)

I’m not saying you can completely get rid of your KC with diet because I have a long way to go.  However, this might be very promising if KC is caught earlier and the patient does not have much diopter difference between the flat and steep part of the cornea to begin with.