Remember when I shared my three goals for 2013 and I said in passing I didn’t care about healthy eating? Ha! Every time I re-read that I felt a bit of a check in my spirit like maybe that wasn’t the right thing to say. Obviously God has other plans (like emphasize goal #1 and perhaps laugh at the third one based on some less-than-fantastic news we got today related to goal number 3).
Late last year I started to decrease the amount of dairy and whole grains I was consuming. I didn’t cut it out completely, but noticed I did feel better even with the reduction I made. Well, forward a few months and I was becoming increasingly convinced that diary, eggs and probably wheat and/or gluten was really making me feel less than spectacular. The clincher came when I was reading a menopause board and the women were discussing dairy being a major contributor to asthma and muscle aches. Muscle aches? Yes. Sound familiar? Other women said that going off dairy eliminated almost all their hot flashes (a problem I haven’t had so far) and night-waking. So I made the decision to start experimenting.
So the past week and a half I’ve been doing some serious experimenting with my diet. Went off the dairy and within twenty-four hours I could tell a difference. For the past ten days I’ve gone dairy-free and then tried a few different times to eat some dairy. Every single time I felt yuck afterwards. Splitting headache after cheddar on my burger. Needed my asthma inhaler each time. Otherwise my asthma and allergies have been significantly improved.
So I’ve done a ton of reading and experimenting with cooking. I’ve found a new chili recipe that I’ve already made twice. I found a blueberry muffin recipe that I made twice and it was EPIC FAIL the first time and FAIL the second time. I’ve tried a soy-based butter substitute and felt yuck afterwards so I’ve tacked on soy-free to my experiment. I also couldn’t stand the way it smelled when I cooked with it. Blech. I had to open all the windows just to get rid of the smell in the house. (Contrast this with David who didn’t even realize I had switched it out for the butter. How I WISH I didn’t notice every. single. little. difference. in foods.) I’ve navigated a trip out to eat for a late birthday celebration by pouring over allergen info online. (Applebees and Chili’s both do a great job of providing detailed info.)
One good thing is that there is so much info available. There are many people who have to eat this way (or choose to do so) that the information is abundant. I can’t imagine doing this without the internet. And, thankfully, our Meijer has a lot of good foods available to make this easier. I’ve been able to find most of what I went looking for there (except for a good egg replacer). I’ve been able to find new snacks and replacements for things we liked. Thankfully more and more companies are providing food without all the crud so there are many options that would not have been available even five to ten years ago.
Well, that’s it for now. I have more stories, websites, and cookbooks to share, but that will have to be for another day. In the meantime I’m going to pretty much go free on all this stuff until I can get into the allergist and confirm things one way or the other. Hopefully it is not allergies but only time will tell!
Anyone else out there eat this way?
A few resources I’d recommend you checking out:
1. Read Wheat Belly. Great book about how the wheat we eat today is NOT the same wheat of the Bible and how modern reinventions of it have harmed our health.
2. Research Paleo & Primal diet/ways of eating. Mark’s Daily Apple website (google it) is a good place to start.
3. Research “The Whole 30” diet. It is a good way to get back to eating healthy.
4. Lastly, GAPS diet. It is VERY RESTRICTIVE but is extremely helpful for people w/ food allergies, sensitivities, anxiety, and all sorts of things.
We’ve eaten that way before, as you know. Except for egg-free. That wasn’t necessary. But we did GFCF + soy-free, chocolate-free, caffeine-free, etc. Those were the things my children were allergic to.
Here are a couple other alternative treatments that seem to be working for people in my extended family and friends’ lives:
1. Using Lugol’s iodine + saline in a nebulizer for asthma and/or lung infections.
2. Turmeric for environmental allergies? My neighbor just told me about this. I’m convinced I am allergic to something in the air. After just a few days, her daughter’s allergies disappeared! I figure it is worth trying, especially for seasonal issues…
Good for you, trying this stuff! I know the learning curve can be a pain, but it is so worth it if something this simple can help you feel better. {{hugs}} 🙂
When my mom was dealing with migraines, she went to the doctor and the doctor said okay, for the next month you can have four foods. Carrots, chicken, rice, and …. I forget the other one, it might be tuna fish. Anyway, that’s it for the month. These are the only four foods that we know for sure don’t cause migraines in SOMEBODY. Then after one month, introduce one new food, one a week, and see what triggers your migraines.
For her it was beans, sharp cheddar cheese, nitrates (in processed meats). Those were the big ones. Later she added gluten to that list. And I’m thankful she went that month, because I also get migraines, and I was able to experiment and discover that I had the same migraine triggers. It makes me sad because I can’t have salami, bologna, ham, and indeed, most other lunch meats.
My mom now has many other dietary restrictions because of other health issues, including no chocolate and no refined sugar. It’s almost random what she can and can’t have. But based on her experience, there might be two things you can try if you are feeling adventurous: goat milk and goat cheese instead of regular dairy. And spelt flour instead of regular wheat flour. And only occasionally with the spelt.
It must be hard with baking to not be able to use eggs. Peggy uses soy flour as an egg replacement when we run out of eggs, but that is out for you too!
Well, I’ll know next week. I have an appointment to do a bunch of food allergy tests. I hope and pray (literally) that every one of them is negative. Once I get some answers there, I’ll decide where the next bend in the road takes me.
The baking without eggs thing is a challenge. There’s a steep learning curve with that one. I’ve put the learning on hold until I get my answers. I’m just going to continue to muddle through until then. Based on my experiences so far in baking without eggs… I’d rather just not bake. If you take out the eggs and butter there is nothing left to make it taste good! If I’m going to put calories in my body, they better taste good! LOL!
The other thing I didn’t mention is that I’ve also cut way back on sugar because of all the other things I’ve cut out. I’m not trying to eliminate it, but it has been greatly reduced other than fruits and stuff. I think that has also contributed greatly to feeling better.
FYI the gluten blood test is highly irregular & not trusted. The only real way to see if you have a gluten allergy is to have a intestinal biopsy. Nobody does that much unless they are having other tests done too; I suggest eliminating it for 30 days, reintroducing a really high wheat/gluten meal and see what happens after the meal.
I have found I’m not really “allergic” to it (true Celiac) but rather very sensitive to it.
I just want to second what Lindsey suggested. My nephew has horrible allergies and sees a top-notch allergist at Dartmouth. He grew out of a lot of his allergies, but those RAST tests can have a lot of false positives which is why so many people think they have food allergies now when they probably just have sensitivities. I have cut back on sugar myself during certain times during my cycle. It’s helped with the grumpiness I get. 😉 I also cut back on caffeine and chocolate during that time.
I decided I wasn’t going to write an entire post about my results so here’s the deal…
No food allergies. Thank you, Lord!
Instead the allergist thinks I have silent reflux. Yuck. He says he gets so many people who come in thinking they have allergies and/or asthma and it ends up being silent reflux manifesting itself in ways similar to asthma and allergies.
So not thrilled about this. Now I’m trying to identify my triggers so I can deal with it without going on medication. Unfortunately I’m pretty sure chocolate, coffee and dairy are triggers.
Frankly, I’m really sick of dealing with food issues. I look at people who deal with food allergies in an entirely different way. Just “living” with them for a few weeks and now dealing with the reflux thing… It’s exhausting to constantly be thinking about what you are eating, what is in what you are eating, whether or not something is a trigger for you, etc.
So that’s the story. Thanks for the tips everyone shared.
I should have also said that silent reflux is serious because it can lead to Barrett’s esophagus which leads to a much higher risk of esophageal cancer, one of the worst cancers. My biggest concern is that I think some of my problems have been misdiagnosed for who knows how long and that I’ve had this reflux for quite some time. I won’t know anything until they look around in there. I see my regular doctor later this week to see what he thinks I should do. I tried Prilosec (once) and had a reaction to it. All of the reading I’ve done about these medications make me really reluctant to use them.
And I ate pizza for supper tonight (no pop) and am paying for it. Tomato sauce is a no no. Pretty much everything acidic is a no no. I wanted to see if it would bother me without the pop and it sure does.