Healing with Food Article
Identify Food Allergies
Accompanying recipe: Chickpea Salad and Lime Dressing
Today, food allergies and sensitivities are endemic. A simple food, like wheat or a peanut, is not a toxin. There’s nothing wrong with a peanut. However, many people are developing an allergic—and therefore—toxic reaction to common foods like peanuts.
A three-week dietary cleanse enables you to identify any foods that may be making you sick. It's the gold standard test according to allergy specialists.
When healthy, your body works in harmony and preemptively. But, not when you’re overloaded. When you’re fatigued, use stimulants, have too much stress, eat a poor diet or are exposed to too many chemical or environmental toxins, then your body gets thrown off kilter. Your biochemical and organ functions are compromised and—if you keep up the insults—eventually your digestion suffers.
If you’re not fully absorbing the foods you eat, food sensitivities result. They are implicated in minor problems, like frequent colds or headaches, and major illnesses, like ADHD or cancer.
It’s frustrating when a favorite food makes you feel bad. And, to complicate matters, sensitivities can seem sporadic, especially in their early stages. For example, when rested and relaxed you might be able to enjoy a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with no adverse side effects. However, when you’re over your body’s stress threshold, then that same peanut butter may cause bloating, or another symptom.
Your symptoms—whether hay fever or pimples—are just complainers. If you discern what your symptoms are saying, you’ll hear your own true voice imploring you to “stop.”
But, here’s the hitch. You’re body is trying to say “No!” If you ignore the message and continue to stress your digestion, you’re inviting trouble. Once any food repeatedly delivers a negative impact to you, then to continue eating leads to a breakdown. While one person’s toxic overload may eventually manifest as diabetes, for another person, it might be colitis. You don’t have to go there.
This three-week dietary cleanse enables you to determine if you have an allergy or sensitivity and to which food(s). It takes away the guess work and enables you to bypass expensive laboratory allergen tests which are never definitive. By eliminating the problem food(s) from your diet you’ll be compassionately healing yourself. You’ll thenceforth have a less toxic body and so enjoy greater health.
The 21-day elimination period is not arbitrary. Your immune system reacts to problematic foods by producing immunoglobulins (antibodies used to identify and neutralize foreign objects such as pieces of undigested food outside of the intestinal tract). Before you can accurately gauge a food reaction, it takes three full weeks without eating the not-healthy-for-you food in order to clear out the immunoglobulins.
People typically have a strong craving or an aversion to the foods that they’re sensitive to. The common allergens are dairy, wheat and other gluten-containing grains (barley, kamut, oats, rye and spelt), corn, rice, soy, eggs, fish, shell fish and nuts. Avoid them during your three-week elimination diet. Also, avoid or minimize stimulants, additives, sugar, fried foods and highly processed foods.
Not to worry, you can feast on an abundance of fresh produce, non-allergenic whole grains, (amaranth, buckwheat, millet, quinoa and wild rice), legumes, meat, poultry, and unrefined fats and seeds (pumpkin, flax, sesame and sunflower seeds).
My ebook The Quick Fix - Detox & Cleanse is a comprehensive program with directions plus a menu plan and 21 recipes that are free of the common allergens.
As you fill up with tasty and healthful foods, you’ll feel great. And, as you eliminate what was toxic to you, your symptoms will subside.
Following your twenty-one day elimination cleanse, continue enjoying your healthy diet but introduce, on day 22, one of the common allergens. Start with the one you’ve missed the most, such as wheat. For that day enjoy any wheat-containing food with.
Then on day 23 and 24 return to the allergen-free diet. If any of your old symptoms reoccur on days 22-24, then you’ve identified the culprit! Common symptoms include fatigue, belching, poor concentration, mood swings, bloating, bowel irregularities, sinusitis, headaches or puffiness above the inner corner of the eyes.
On day 25, test a second food, like soy or nuts and then wait for three days to determine if it causes side effects. Continue working through the list until you’ve tested all suspect allergens. If you suffer from chronic health problems, you’re apt to identify more than one problematic food.
Yes, it requires diligence and discipline to complete this elimination cleanse. Also, as you eliminate foods that were causing you discomfort, you’re apt to experience detox symptoms. Please persist. The earlier you identify, and then avoid, problematic foods, the faster you’ll regain your health.
Your other option is not so inviting. If, for example, you’re sensitive to peanuts but continue eating them, they’ll continue pushing your body above its toxic threshold. In time, your health becomes further compromised. No fun. And attempts to remedy damage after break downs are not cheap!
It is possible to regain your health and to shed your sensitivities and allergies. The first step is a 21 day elimination program to clearly identify what foods are bad for you. The second is the cure and, this includes enjoying a balanced, healthy diet of freshly prepared foods.
May you be well nourished,
Rebecca Wood