I’ve been asked a few times about this crazy diet my doctor has me on, and what brought this on in the first place, so I thought I’d explain…

What started all this?
Last fall I started having problems with my skin (dry skin and acne). I thought maybe it was the change to cold weather, but as we’ve gone through summer with no improvement that certainly wasn’t the case. In the spring, I found myself suddenly and intensely allergic to bananas. My hay fever was worse than it’s been in years this spring as well.

The banana allergy, in particular, really had me worried about what else I could be allergic to. In August, I finally went to a doctor who specializes in environmental medicine… meaning how environmental factors affect the body. He recommended allergy testing and lab work. The blood work came back with everything good except my Vitamin D level (which was nearly nonexistent).

What am I allergic to?
The first day of allergy testing, I reacted to every pollen and mold they tested. I reacted more strongly to grasses and cedar than anything else. By the end of three weeks of testing, I had also tested allergic to: wheat, eggs, corn, soy, tomato, potato, rice, baker’s yeast, and milk.

“But I eat these things daily!” I said. Apparently this is normal. We are supposed to be eating foods in rotation, yet the processed foods we eat daily include most of these ingredients. The more that I have read, the more I understand what’s going on. It doesn’t make it any easier to do meal-planning, but I’m working on it.

This is the book that has a great chapter explaining what’s going on. If I could find a good online summary, I’d post it.

So what happens next?
I spend three weeks without any of those 9 foods. I’m on day 5 now and surviving. I spent a small fortune at PCC (like Whole Foods) to restock my pantry/fridge, and started weekly fruit and veggie delivery from Eden’s Organics. After the three weeks, I will be able to reintroduce each food individually, one every 4 days. If I do not have any kind of a reaction, I can continue to have it every 4 days. If I do react, it goes back down to the bottom of the list to try later. It’s possible I will not get wheat or eggs back, as when I was tested for those I felt faint immediately. I really didn’t feel any reaction to the other allergens (other than the swelling where the test was done, and the allergy tech said my face would flare up.

So what CAN I eat?
I can eat fruit and veggies (except banana, tomato and potato) and meats. There are grains that I had never heard of that I can have (quinoa, millet, amaranth). For breakfast, I’ve been eating oatmeal with brown sugar. I know I’m supposed to be rotating grains but the oatmeal has been really easy. For lunches and dinners, I’ve been having salads with shrimp or leftover roasted chicken, or tomato-free chili, or today I had salmon with quinoa and sauteed zucchini. For snacks I have nuts and dried fruit, or veggies and natural peanut butter or hummus.

Mostly, I’ve just learned I have to read every single label, and pretty much just avoid anything that is pre-packaged, processed, or otherwise combined. Yesterday, Christian had tuna and I tasted it thinking it was simply tuna and water (makes sense, right?). THEN I read the label. Nope, there’s soy in there. Other than that, I’ve done well so far. I’ve lost two whole pounds. The kids are enjoying reading labels and identifying allergens.

Any other questions that I should try to answer?

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009 at 12:57 pm and is filed under Jesica. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.