Elimination Diet Wrap-Up

I neglected to do a timely overview of the results of my elimination diet experience when I finished it, mainly because life got in the way. But overall I loved doing it because it gave my diet a much-needed injection of clean living with vegetables and protein sources. I only ended up losing a few pounds as a side effect, but I'll take it! :-)

About the results. I was expecting a gluten sensitivity. But I could not detect one. My naturopath thinks that if I still have thyroid antibodies, I might try to go gluten-free again for a while. But that's going to require time and testing. I'm up to the challenge though!

I am not surprised that I have a little sensitivity to chili peppers. I think we all probably do to some extent. It's kind of like a necessary evil living in Mexico. It's one that will have to be consumed in moderation though.

The big surprise from this diet was that I discovered that I have a sensitivity to eggs and potatoes. Both give me gastrointestinal symptoms, but I'll spare you the details. I even tried challenging them a few times afterwards, but it's really true. No more french fries, mashed potatoes, and omelets. I almost feel like I should be crying as a type this, because these were two totally cherished components of my regular diet (I even raise egg-laying chickens!) and I was NOT expecting to be sensitive to them. But I was also not expecting to feel as indifferent as I do about letting those two foods go. I still have small amounts from time to time as they are often ingredients in commonly-served meals (pancakes, for example...). But gone will be the days of having these as my main course. Oh well!

I was also happy that as a result of having done this, I have more empathy for folks who are gluten-free, and I have something to contribute when people talk to me about food issues they have or if they too are considering trying the diet. The coolest thing perhaps was being able to examine my own self without having to go to a lab for tests.

To that end, here is the wrap-up of several go-to recipes I made while I was on the total elimination diet, as well as a few from when I started to challenge. This is by no means a comprehensive list, and I hope to keep coming back and adding to it as time permits. Happy Food Trails!

During the total elimination phase

• Black bean soup
• Raw food chocolate pudding (can be adapted as a superfood smoothie)
• SPRING ROLLS
• Baked figs with cinnamon 
• Red Quinoa and Lentil Pilaf
• Homemade Sesame Rice Crackers
• Homemade Hummus

During initial Challenge Phase (these recipes are not all 100% elimination diet, because they include one or more challenged ingredients):

• Coconut Tapioca Pudding (maple syrup)
• Crunchy Cumin-Chicken-Celery Tacos with Tahini Dressing (corn), a Nicole original ;-)
• Spinach-Walnut Pesto (vinegar or lime) also by yours truly.

Elimination Diet: Final Two Weeks

I didn't post about my experience with the elimination diet, partly because I was busy, and partly because I was just wanting to hurry up and get it over with. I wasn't seeing a lot of difference—I lost no weight at all—and I continued having my typical aches, pains, & hayfever.

I was also getting impatient to start challenging the multitude of foods I'd been missing for weeks (wheat, dairy, eggs, sugar, corn, nightshades, alcohol, citrus, preservatives, etc.). I was holding up pretty well, considering what a major change it was to avoid all the above foods. The fact that each one of those foods takes 3 days each to challenge one by one (1 day to consume and 2 days to observe any effects—suspending again if no effects are noted) meant I was looking at at least another month of almost elimination diet. Of course, if you don't note any effects from the re-introduced food after the 3 day challenge, you're okay to incorporate it back into your diet.

The bland factor of this diet—no lime, chile, or sugar—meant occasional taste frustration for this chica, and so although I used a wide variety of spices, I also found myself upping the salt intake more than normal—not a healthy habit. So needless to say, I started getting antsy to get on with things, toward ending this elimination phase, and start challenging. Going to parties where pizza, beer, & dessert was served or having the endless explanatory conversations with friends and colleagues was getting a bit old as well.

On the other hand, there were a few noteworthy benefits of this diet. For example, I definitely upped  my intake of fruits and vegetables to a degree beyond what I had been hoping for originally. I also noticed myself chewing slower (to maximize whatever enjoyment experience I was having with bland-ish food).

I started challenging a few days ago—which is to say, I ended the elimination phase a few days early. The first food I challenged was the one I'd been craving the most—sugars. Interestingly, I didn't go straight to the white sugar (I gave up most white sugar & white flour a year ago), but for the taste thing—maple syrup. Then some honey in a salad dressing. No negative effects that I could observe. I did have a bit of a sad spell that same afternoon but since I've been under stress lately, I didn't attribute it to the sugar, though I wouldn't rule out a sugar low as a possible factor. I began to challenge corn today with none other than corn tortillas. So far so good.

I also am grateful to be increasing my repertoire of delicious protein-rich and vegan recipes. I never ended up learning how to butcher a lamb. But not overdoing it on the animal fat and protein, and replacing them with plant-based alternatives is never a bad thing.

Here are a few more recipes I've enjoyed in the last 2 weeks (adapted in some cases to adhere to the diet):

• Red Quinoa and Lentil Pilaf
• Homemade Sesame Rice Crackers
• Homemade Hummus

During initial Challenge Phase (these recipes are not all 100% elimination diet, because they include one or more challenged ingredients):

• Coconut Tapioca Pudding (maple syrup)
• Crunchy Cumin-Chicken-Celery Tacos with Tahini Dressing (corn), a Nicole original ;-)
• Spinach-Walnut Pesto (vinegar or lime) also by yours truly.

I will be doing a separate post for more of the recipes during my challenge phase, and will do a recipes wrap-up for the full two months at the end of this all :-)

Elimination Diet: Days 4-7

I DID IT! I made it one week on the elimination diet.

I wasn't sure I was going to make it...especially around Days 4 or 5. I was having a hard time, mainly because I was feeling a little bored with the options and craving sweets. So I tried mixing up meals and ingredients again (reaching further back into the fridge, looking up new recipes). I also took spirulina which helped with the sweets craving.

I can definitely say that I feel a difference. At first it felt "edgy," then it felt "clean," and now I feel like I've just plain had more vegetables in the last week than I've had in the last month. I think that's a good thing... :-) I will be curious to see if any weight was lost in the 1st week. To be clear, this is *not* a weight-loss diet, but my doctor said almost everyone who's on it does.

For the 1-2 weeks to come, I am ready to move on to new horizons, like getting some local meat, i.e. lamb. My brother-in-law has sheep, and lamb, a meat I really like, is on my "ok" list. But as for how to get it to my plate... well that will take some investigating. I think it's a bit more than what's involved with butchering and skinning a rabbit, or taking the feathers and gizzard out of a chicken. We shall see if my quest will be fulfilled.

But in the meantime... new highlights from the last few days:

• Black bean soup
• Raw food chocolate pudding (cacao with avocado and banana)
• SPRING ROLLS... YES! By far the most exciting acquisition to the meal plan this week.
• Baked figs with cinnamon (surprisingly delicious)

Stay tuned...

21 Days to a New View of Food | The Elimination/Anti-Inflammatory Diet

From my Facebook wall this past weekend:

"I'm finally taking my naturopathic doctor's advice and going on the full elimination diet for 3 weeks to see if I have any food sensitivities. I got the allergy prick test panel >10 yrs ago and no food allergies other than soy showed up, but I did register mega allergies to pollen and a mild soy allergy. 10 years later, I still have the hayfever, and I also have IBS and reason to suspect that Hashimoto's might be causing my thyroid dysfunction. So I figured it's about time to take a closer look."

So, for the next 21 days, this is the list I'll be following:

WHAT I CAN'T EAT:

Gluten (wheat, barley spelt, rye)
Sugar (sugar/sweetener of any kind)
Dairy (cow sheep goat)
Beef, pork, chicken with skin, eggs (duck ok), shellfish
Peanuts, peanut oil, peanut butter
Canola oil, cottonseed, hydrogenated oils
Juices (veggie or fruit) and oranges & grapefruit
Corn & corn products
Soy & soy products (soy sauce, tofu, tempe, edamame)
Alcohol, coffee, and black teas
Nightshade veggies (eggplant, tomatoes, peppers, potatoes)
Processed foods and food additives (flavorings, colorings, what you can’t pronounce)
Allergens or irritants

WHAT I **CAN** EAT:

Organic Vegetables- all colors and lots of them (fresh or frozen)
Organic Fruits (fresh or frozen, NOT dried)
Legumes
Rice, Quinoa, buckwheat, Gluten free oats
Meat hormone free, grass fed, wild: skinless chicken, Lean lamb
Nuts and seeds (especially walnuts and fresh ground flaxseeds)
Fish: salmon (wild Pacific or Alaskan- Not Atlantic), halibut, sardines
Fats: olive oil, flax oil, walnut oil, avocados, coconut
Herbs and spices (especially tumeric, ginger, cumin, garlic
Tea (herbal)
Water

Also from my FB wall: "I love natural foods but am on a tight budget, get stuck in ruts, and I have 2 other people in the house to feed... so I'm looking for the easiest, cheapest, yummiest recipes with ingredients from the 'what I can eat list.' "

I'm really interested to see what will happen or what I will find out about myself as a result of going on this diet. I'm guessing it will be at least a little hard to eat many of the foods I normally eat, and maybe a little harder when I'm at parties or when my husband and daughter are eating something I'm "off of." But it will probably be good to have to mix up my food routines and eat more of food I don't eat as often. Later on, when I introduce foods back in, I might discover some foods I'm sensitive too.

I will be trying to post daily with any new recipes I am creating or trying. Wish me luck and post recipes if you know of any good ones... they need to adhere to the list I'm working with, at least for the first 21 days. In the meantime, I look forward to a new view of the food I eat.

Discoveries around "The Diet Cure"

I posted a while back about a fascinating book I read, "The Diet Cure" by Julia Ross. Ever since I read this book, I've made a number of discoveries about my health.
Inspired by the book, I was testing out several specific food groups to see if I had any adverse reactions to them. I did a week without refined sugar and white flour products, a week without any gluten products at all, and a week without dairy. At the end of the weeks without the specific foods, I introduced them back into my diet gradually in order to observe if any adverse reactions such as headache, weight gain, bloating, digestive complaints, etc. arose.
The first thing I discovered was that sugary and white flour products did have some slight to moderate reactions for me, including headache and some bloating. I also lost several pounds after the week without them.
Then I went on to "test" for a gluten reaction by eliminating all foods containing gluten (wheat, oats, and rye). At the end of the trial gluten-free week, I was expecting (perhaps dreading) bells and whistles when I re-introduced them (in the form of whole grains) back into my diet. But to my surprise there really were no noticeable symptoms. The same happened with dairy—no problems that I could notice. I was sort of relieved because wheat and dairy are big parts of my diet and I wasn't looking forward to possibly having to eliminate them. My naturopathic doctor isn't 100% convinced of my self-testing results because I did the tests one at a time rather than all together. But for me, it's a good start. I say this because when I first heard about checking for this kind of stuff, I was very closed off to the idea of an elimination diet. In fact, I remember almost laughing at my doctor when he suggested the idea.
Now, however, the few things I discovered about my reactions to refined sugar and white flour/rice products were enough for me to start making an effort to avoid refined sugar when possible and replace white flour products with whole wheat, and white rice with brown rice, etc. I'm happy with the results, and also knowing that I'm getting more fiber into my diet.
I'm also interested in doing a week without corn, to see what happens.
Perhaps the most interesting discoveries were two things I found out about myself around the time of this self-testing. In her book, Ross suggests that once your diet is balanced in favor of proteins and vegetables, with just enough healthy carbs and fats for satiation, the pounds should begin to melt off. The caveat is that this can only happen if you're biochemically stable. And should the initial weight loss peter out (or never occur), you might need to get checked out for imbalances such as low thyroid. I noticed my weight loss occurred when I removed the refined products from my diet, but then tapered off. It didn't bug me too much because I am more in favor of exercising than dieting, but it did catch my attention.
It just so happened that I had decided to get my thyroid levels checked during my yearly checkup, around the time I had finished this elimination diet. When I went to discuss the results with my doctor, he told me I had thyroid dysfunction. I was sort of shocked because I've been getting my thyroid checked for years because both my parents have low thyroid, and I've always tested normal. But according to my doctor, it's often underdiagnosed, and in my case, although my T3 and T4 levels are normal, it's the TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone) that's too high—working harder than it ought to trying to stimulate an underactive thyroid, in his words.
There's more: he ordered a test of my cortisol levels, which apparently are also connected to thyroid function. I just found out that they came back "low," but have yet to discuss the implications of the results with my doctor. Rather than feel upset, I'm actually relieved that there may be some underlying reasons for my sluggish metabolism (and my cold extremities, and possibly even joint pain among other things). I'll have a lot to learn about how all these puzzle pieces fit together: diet, metabolism, hormonal levels, stress. But I'm up to the challenge and grateful to have found a practitioner who seems to be willing to think outside the box and find the root of the problem (finally).

A Closer Look at My Nutrition | My First Few Weeks with "The Diet Cure" by Julia Ross)

It's been an interesting "food month." Last month I read a compelling book called "The Diet Cure" by Julia Ross, MA. director of Recovery Systems in Northern California. It was so compelling that I decided to test if I had a gluten insensitivity and went off gluten for a week. Today I'm reintroducing it to "see what happens." It just happens to coincide with a visit we're getting from our very own private chef—yes, you read right: I won a raffle at a local supermarket and a private chef is coming to our home tonight to prepare food using their special cooking equipment (which they'll of course try to sell us and I'll politely decline...but it'll be fun in any case :-)

About the wheat-free week, as I said on my Facebook page when I first decided to put this book into practice, "I'm not really a "diet" person—I buck the fads in favor of common sense & nutrition. That being said, I do have some "issues" I'd love to improve: extra pounds, joint pain, and occasional depression. The book I'm currently reading has me convinced that there's more than meets the eye to 'everything in moderation.' As a result, yours truly is now investigating her body's relationship with refined sugar & wheat (among a number of other substances)."

And it's true: I'm not really a diet person. But I have struggled with being anywhere from slightly to moderately overweight for a good part of my life. And many of my relatives have suffered from obesity and obesity-related illnesses such as diabetes or low thyroid on both sides of my family. So although I'm not attracted to fad diets, or crash dieting, I am very aware of what I put into my body and am a big health advocate. Most of my friends know that I'm an amateur herbalist and swear by my Nutritional Healing book for being able to get rid of ailments, like nixing colds with Vitamin C and garlic.

So it wasn't too much of a stretch for me to be convinced by Ross that there are eight basic nutritional imbalances that individuals can have which can affect their health—both physical and mental.  She asserts that by answering a series of questionnaires you can start to detemine which imbalances might be affecting you.

What were most interesting to me were arguments that sugar and refined grain products like white flour can be addictive. Ross discusses the brain's chemical reactions to certain food substances and why we can become "addicted" to foods that are actually adverse to our health—in a very similar way as we do to substances like drugs or alcohol. The chapter about re-regulating naturally mood enhancing brain chemicals through healthy eating (NOT undereating the right foods or overeating the wrong foods) was most fascinating to me. She also went on to talk about other imbalances that often go undetected, such as thyroid imbalances or systemic yeast overgrowth, which are harder to diagnose but that plague people all the same until they undergo comprehensive testing.

In my case, I decided to first cut out extra sugar—it seemed the easiest, fastest, and most important thing to try. It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be, and I think it'll still be okay to consume it in moderation, just with more awareness. Toward the end of the first week, I cut out refined grains products—white flour and white rice—also, not as hard as I expected. The reason why it wasn't so hard was because I was making sure to consume a lot of protein, vegetables, fruit, and healthy fats. Ross believes that undereating/malnutrition is more common than we think and leads to a depressed metabolism. This is a tactic I never quite understood, or at least couldn't get to work for me, but I think it's because I wasn't eating enough nutrient rich foods.

I wasn't doing this for the weight loss effect, just for the health-enhancing effect—Ross believes that gastrointestinal upset and joint pain, two things I often complain of, can be caused by certain foods. But I didn't mind when, two weeks later, I checked the scale and saw that I'd lost 5 pounds.

This next week, I go off dairy, again, "to see what happens." I've gotten a skin allergy test before for hayfever allergens, and it came up negative for most major food groups, except a slight allergy to soy. But Ross explains that some internal adverse reactions to foods go undetected by the skin tests, which is why they promote the elimination diet approach. I like this approach in that it's learning a little more about my body, and I'm only doing one food at a time, not all at once. I especially like the unexpected effect it's had on my cooking—having to go a week without bread, pasta, or crackers meant I had to obtain a few more interesting grains for my kitchen like amaranth flour and make garbanzo flour patties. I made my own mayonnaise with a fresh egg from our chickens and olive oil, great because regular mayo is made out of soybean oil (and even better for how delicious homemade mayo is!). I also made Thai food for the first time in years to go over brown rice. Any excuse to spice up the action in my kitchen is welcome around here, and if it has the pleasant side effect of losing a few kilos in the process, all the better!

I'm a little nervous about the upcoming week without cow's milk because I am quite beholden to my dairy products—yogurt, cheese, kefir, etc—I love probiotics. But I got some goat cheeses to hold me over, and if the wheat-free week was any indication that depriving yourself of one food can lead to embracing several others, then I should be excited about what the week ahead has in store.

Allergic to Injustice

A good friend of ours was staying with us this past week.  He was here to discuss our plans for collaboration on a writing project which I am very much looking forward to.  So in a way, it was more than just a vacation stop -we were "working"- but even so we got the typical tourist looks while we were showing him around town, well, the backpack and fair skin with blue eyes are usually a dead ringer.

One of the things I enjoy most about having friends visit is the inspiration it gives me to fire up all burners in the kitchen.  I mean, we eat well when it's just the three of us, but somehow we get into a predictable routine of certain staples, I guess they are our comfort foods.  But when we have company, I feel more compelled to go the extra mile and show off what some of the most delicious local dishes are, such as those I compiled in my cookbook.

This time around, I was especially lucky that I knew several corn-based recipes, because our guest has a gluten intolerance that precluded him from joining in chowing down on any foods that had wheat or wheat derivatives as ingredients.  When he first told me this, I nodded and made a mental note, but I must not have registered the gravity of this requirement, because I kept slipping up and offering him things with wheat, especially beer.  Once we finally got the hang of it, eating mostly corn tortillas, gorditas, and anything of the fruit, vegetable, or dairy variety, I felt like we had it down pat.  Then we were preparing a meal of arrachera (skirt steak) and potatoes, when my husband threw in some worcestershire and soy sauces.  My friend happened to notice (thank goodness), and told us he wouldn't be able to eat it.  We were shocked but he was right.  Sadly, the brands of sauces we had both contained gluten, and so we guiltily ate our meal while he ate some quickly made quesadillas. 

After that incident, I said I'd have to write this down.  He claimed I'd refer to him as the annoying friend, but quite the contrary, I appreciate his stay because I never realized quite how many foods had wheat in them.  I mean, breads, pastas, cookies, sure- but beer and soy sauce?  The ingredient really runs deep in our culture, much like corn syrup, sugar, or salt- as that last two are something another friend is trying to avoid in the preparation of her baby's food. 

There are so many things that we ought to avoid in our diets, you'd think that food is the biggest problem in terms of health.  Anything we put into our bodies- the water we drink, the air we breathe, are all suspect these days.  GMOs are the latest consumer item that we could really stand to suffer from- hopefully the government will step in to protect us from the pressures of industry to water down consumer safety standards.

Although I have a mild allergy to soy, and have seasonal hayfever, these are things that can be controlled.  I avoid or limit my intake of soy, and I take an antihistamine in the late spring and early summer.  But what about other, more intangible forces to which we can be allergic to?  How do they affect our health and mental well-being?

I got the undesireable answer to this question the day my friend left.  The topic we had been discussing has to do with my husband's undocumented immigrant status in the U.S.  It's a subject that brings me great distress, since it's affected our lives so harshly and in every aspect.  For that reason, I don't talk about it regularly, and pretend to have mostly resolved in my mind. When in fact much pain still lingers below the surface.  I happened to mention something about how I felt it was unfair that most of our ancestors in the U.S. had such an unfettered access to immigrating to the States, before harsh law controlling immigration were passed, and how now it's so much harder for people to move back and forth.  I said how I didn't feel as bad for myself in having to live in Mexico as a result of my husband being unable to get papers as I feel sorrow for him not being able to realize his own dreams.  Tears sprang to my eyes, but I pushed them away as quickly as they came.  The discussion ended, and I forgot I was feeling so bad.

The next morning, the feelings resurfaced  but I tucked them away again so as to not appear overemotional.  Even my husband feels bad when he sees I am so bummed about certain things.  But my attempt to hide my true feelings had its consequences.  My back began to throb in pain and by the time I tried to walk down the stairs, my posture was contorted to the side with spasming muscles.  Unfortunately, this is a condition I know all too well, since 2001 when I first moved in with my husband.  After visiting many modalities of physical therapists I finally read a book lent to me by a friend called Healing Back Pain, and realized my pain was due to repressed anger.  The author describes the causes much differently than I do here, but a way to see it is almost as if swallowing my distress causes an allergic reaction in my body.

The thing I'm reacting to is a perceived injustice, something that upsets me, but that I feel I have no control over.  At first it's a conscious effort to not think or talk about it, but over time it becomes second nature.  A buildup of suppressed feelings for me can lead to disabling back pain.  Luckily I knew this is how my mind and body interact, and I reminded myself it was important to not fear the pain, and focus on clearing my mind.  At first, I was lying on the living room floor.  But later, after a good cry, I was back on my feet.  In the past, I'd had bouts of pain that lasted for 2 weeks.  I missed work because of it.  One time it got so bad that my husband had to carry me.  But today, after making the connection, I was almost back to normal by the evening.

It's a little scary to think that our minds have so much power over our bodies, to the extent that we feel we may lose control.  It's instructive that we need to be sensitive to the influences we subject ourselves to, or at least be open-minded about what can affect us, and not lose sight of the connections between things.  I do not just get sad about my own personal problems, but feel a real indignation when rights are infringed worldwide.  They can plague me just the same.  My allergy to injustice is real and not just perceived.  But rather than stick my head in the sand and ignore issues, or take some pill to help relieve my "symptoms," I must address the root causes and work toward healing ourselves of these ills.