That Does It!

My feet tell me when I've had too much of a food that doesn't agree with me. If I have too much wheat (especially bread) or sugar over the course of a few days, I get itchy welts on my feet.

And I know some dairy makes me feel bloated, and some protein powders make me feel tired, but I forgot how much until this morning. Because I was hungry yesterday, and had some chocolate whey in the house, I had a couple of serves of protein pudding with coconut last night. I've been waking up really easily all week, but this morning I struggled to get out of bed after 10 hours' sleep!

So I'm pretty sure I know what my body doesn't like, but I've decided I want some definite answers instead of just going on guesswork. Today when I was at Evelyn Faye I picked up a allergy food test:

Using a few drops of blood, the Allery-Food Check assessment will analyze your body's reaction to 96 different common foods through detection of food-specific IgG antibodies via ELISA methodology.

Allergic reactions to common foods such as milk, wheat, corn, soy, citrus, tomatoes and peanuts may be mistakenly attributed to passing viral infections or recurrent "colds". The relationship between the many common symptoms (including fatigue, headache, anxiety, as well as itchy runny nose and puffy eyelids) and the allergies that caused them may go unrecognized for years. Increased stress, recurrent infections or declining health may add to the burden of chronic allergies. Over the years, arthritis, gastrointestinal disorders, autoimmune disease, eczema, and migraines, to name a few serious conditions linked with food allergies, can develop into chronic conditions if the offending allergens are not discovered and removed from the diet.

The 96 General Foods to be tested:

Dairy:
Casein, Cheese (Cheddar) Cheese (Cottage), Cheese (Mozzarella), Whey, Milk, Milk (Goat), Yogurt.

Fish/Crustacea/Mollusk:
Clam (Manila), Cod (Atlantic), Crab (Dungeness), Halibut, Lobster, Oyster, Red Snapper, Salmon (Pacific), Shrimp (Western), Sole, Tuna (Yellowfin).

Vegetables:
Asparagus, Avocado, Beet, Broccoli, Cabbage (White), Carrot, Cauliflower, Celery, Cucumber, Garlic, Lettuce, Mushroom (Common), Olive (Black), Onion (White), Pepper (Green), Bell, Potato (Sweet), Potato (White), Pumpkin, Radish, Spinach (Green), Squash, Zucchini, Tomato (Red).

Grains/Legumes/Nuts:
Almond, Amaranth Flour, Barley, Bean (Kidney), Bean (Lima), Bean (Pinto), Bean (Soy), Bean (String), Buckwheat, Coconut, Corn, Filbert, Gliadin (Wheat), Gluten (Wheat), Lentil, Oat, Pea (Green), Peanut (Runner), Pecan, Rice (White), Rye, Sesame, Spelt, Sunflower, Walnut, Wheat (Whole).

Fruits:
Apple, Apricot, Banana, Blueberry, Cranberry, Grape (Red), Grapefruit, Lemon, Orange, Papaya, Peach, Pear, Pineapple, Plum, Raspberry (Red), Strawberry.

Meat/Fowl:
Beef, Chicken, Egg White (Chicken), Egg Yolk (Chicken), Lamb, Pork, Turkey.

Misc:
Cocoa Bean, Coffee Bean, Honey, Sugar Cane, Yeast (Baker's), Yeast (Brewer's)

Approximately 15 business days after receiving your sample, a report indicating your food reactions will be mailed to you. In addition, a customized 4-Day Elimination and Rotation Diet Plan may be sent as part of your results, depending on results.

So I am going to do the test on Monday and hope to have the results back in a couple of weeks. I think I will probably have positive reactions in the Dairy; Grains/Legumes/Nuts; and Misc sections, but I guess I will soon know for sure.

Wheat-free vs Gluten-free

Have just about finished a big job and I'm starting to feel better, both of which are a huge relief. Just wanted to post quickly about the difference between wheat-free products and gluten-free products as there is some talk about food intolerances at the moment, and not everyone knows the difference between these two. In our household we have a person who is wheat intolerant (me) and gluten intolerant (Rob) so I feel semi-qualified to talk about the subject :-)

Gluten is a protein found in wheat, oats, barley, rye, and substances made from those products. Something is wheat-free if it contains no wheat. But something is gluten-free only if it contains no wheat, oats, barley or rye. So oats, while they are wheat-free, are not gluten-free.

The difference in terms of effects can be quite marked. When I eat wheat products I find it quite hard to stop (see my previous Addict post) and wheat products (bread in particular) make me itchy. The roof of my mouth itches when I eat it (always has done, ever since I was a kid, although I didn't connect the two until recently), and my feet break out in an itchy rash a day or so after eating it. Rob's symptoms are more debilitating. After eating a product containing gluten, he goes straight to the bathroom (several times) and then spends the next few days in bed because it makes him feel so tired. So this means that I usually eat gluten-free too (no point cooking separate meals for both of us), although I have been having oats for breakfast lately.

This page provides some more detailed information on a gluten-free diet.

Addict?

From Katie's blog

'Ironically, some people who are sensitive to wheat products crave these foods and have trouble not overeating them. Addictive eating can occur with any food, but wheat seems to be a particularly common addictive food, as most nutrition counselors and members of Overeaters Anonymous will attest. Wheat contains opioids, substances with amino-acid sequences very similar to those in narcotic-like drugs. These substances can set the stage for addictions, overeating and binge eating - what I call "grain-o-mania" and "grain gluttony"--in people with undetected wheat sensitivity. If patients eat many forms of wheat throughout each day and say they can't give up wheat, that's a surefire sign to suspect hidden wheat sensitivity. Typically, cravings lift and other symptoms improve after four or five days on a wheat-free diet.' Melissa Dianne Smith

Thinking back, I have been like this since childhood when it comes to grains. I would come home from school and eat slice after slice of toast. I can also down bowl after bowl of cereal without feeling satisfied. When preparing for comps in the past I haven't eaten grains, so haven't had any problem controlling what I eat. But in my off seasons, as the weather gets colder, I reach for carbs, and they tend to be grain based. Maybe that would explain why every year around autumn I feel like I have trouble controlling what I'm eating.

'Carbohydrate addicts need to minimize their grain and sugar intake in order to break their addiction. If you are a carb addict you should focus on getting your carbs from vegetables and small amounts of fruit.

If you eat grains, it best to eat whole grains that you cook such as brown rice, wild rice, quinoa, teff, amaranth, barley, oat groats, kasha. These whole grains require a lot of chewing and the digestive enzymes have to work hard to get through the different layers of the grain to break it down.' source

Armed with this knowledge, perhaps things will be different from now on.

Food Sleuth

This week, by choice, I've had no gluten and very little dairy (except a little homemade kefir (from lactose-free milk) on my quinoa/buckwheat porridge. Also no whey. This morning we went out for brunch. I had bircher muesli and fruit toast, two of my faves (but also trigger foods that I don't keep in the house). I then had some haloumi cheese from my husband's brekkie and a skinny flat white. Felt bloated after breakfast, then was a bit 'irregular' this evening. My mum told me when I was a baby I couldn't tolerate much milk, and I know I get bloated sometimes when having cheese, milk or cottage cheese. I'm OK with yoghurt and we only have lactose-free milk at home. But I've also noticed that a lot of my trigger foods seem to involve grains. More investigation required.