After avoiding dairy, soy, and gluten pretty much completely for at least six months, I started experimenting with them to see how well both Nick and I handled them. At first it was wonderful. I hadn't realized just how stressful it was worrying about every bite of food I ate. I felt indulged. It was glorious. For about half an hour. It's funny, some symptoms crop up almost immediately, others take a few days to come to their peak. Although I often daydream about going back to "care free" eating, I've found that it's not worth it.
I can, however, handle a little bit of dairy in the form of butter on occasion without getting sick. But I am hesitant to do much more than that.
In my research about food allergies, I have uncovered the theory that allergies and intolerances can be caused by two things that I never considered. The first thing is that if you don't vary your diet enough, you body becomes sensitized to the proteins, and if you keep bombarding your system with those proteins, eventually you will develop an immune response. This takes me to the second thing, which is that if you don't have balanced gut flora, you are absorbing proteins that haven't been completely digested, and should not be absorbed. This can also cause your body to react to things. These ideas make a lot of sense to me, especially because I have noticed that I appear to be developing a sensitivity to eggs. I have relied heavily on eggs since eliminating the dairy, etc. Now I feel like I have been kicked in the stomach when I eat them (particularly if they are raw).
In addition to the dairy, soy, gluten, and now eggs, I had my blood tested to see what else would appear. I get the full results next week, but the top two things that were on it were garlic and yeast. (Ugh!!) At first it doesn't sound all that bad - bread and garlic, right? Try anything malted, fermented, or dried. There is yeast naturally occurring in the air, so if I can't rinse it, I can't eat it. Anything fermented is out, and apart from the obvious (alcohol), that also includes dill pickles, soy sauce, ginger ale, and VINEGAR. Yes, vinegar. Sad.
With all of this in mind, I feel that my only real option is to try doing the GAPS Diet. (www.gapsdiet.com). I can't possibly avoid all of the foods I need to without over exposing and developing new sensitivities or intolerances. And I've determined that I can't just go back to overloading my system with all of my allergens and hope to go back to my old "baseline". It's just too painful, and to be honest, I just don't feel happy when I'm not eating well.
There are still a few things to take into consideration: What will the die off do? Not only for me, but to Nick, who is still breastfeeding? I can't switch him to formula (don't want to and I'm sure he would have a lot of issues with it anyway), he doesn't eat enough to wean. Can I do this on my own? I don't know. Just cutting out the dairy, soy, and gluten was really really hard. I can look back now and say that it's all been good, but it was not an easy road.
So I have started this blog. It will hold me accountable, and let others know about this journey. And I can get some (hopefully) yummy recipes out there. I will post some of my favorite DF, SF, GF recipes so far, and hopefully you can try them too!
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