Elimination Diet for dealing with and discovering allergies

My allergist has placed me on an elimination diet in which we have eliminated all known allergens, and actually since I seem to be reacting to so many different things, even things I'm not allergic to, we have eliminated all but the things I react to. At first that left me with rice and pork. Currently I'm eating Rice, Pork, Beef, (once or twice a month max and only from places the cows were treated humanely up till becoming steaks)  salt, sugar, olive oil, and water. We're trying a new food in there every once in a while. This week I'm trying peaches. I'm not so sure how that's going. My body isn't very happy in general right now, even if I don't eat peaches. There was a fire nearby and the smoke brought allergens with it, plus it's a time of year where there are a lot of plants which I'm allergic to drying out and blowing around in the heat. It's not a good time to be in this body.

My allergist called it Oral Allergy Syndrome if memory serves. I'm on 3 types of antihystamine drugs. I've jokingly called it foodie hell because basically anything in the air cross reacts to a bunch of different foods. We have eliminated all those foods from my diet.

On the up note, I have been getting creative with those few ingredients left to me. And the rare occasions when we add other flavors are even more delicious and notable than they would have seemed previously. A peach is a wonderful thing even if I have to cook the heck out of it to safely try it. This week I am trying peaches but haven't been sure if they're causing my allergies to get worse or not. So there will be some days when I'll just do rice and pork, and other days where I'll include peaches this week, and I'll compare the reactions and decide if it's worth it. The allergist is also doing blood tests. You can follow  my health progress on baresimplicity.blogspot.com where I occasionally post a health update. BACK to the food!

Here are some recipes we have concocted that I have really enjoyed. Hopefully you will too:

Sweetened Louisiana Pork Ribs:
SO YUMMY

Ingrediants:
1 rack Louisiana Style Pork Ribs
2 teaspoons Salt (separated)
1/4 cup Water
2 Tablespoons Brown Sugar

Remove membrane from back of ribs if it hasn't already been done at the store
Rub 1 teaspoon salt over ribs
Place pork ribs and 1/4 cup water in the crock pot on low for 8-10 hours (while you're at work perhaps)
Remove ribs and rub with 1 teaspoon salt and 2 Tablespoons brown sugar
Place in broiler for 10-20 minutes allowing brown sugar and salt to create a nice coating

Allow to rest so sugar can cool and because meat is always best after it rests a bit.

I enjoyed this with a nice long grain rice medley (various types of rice cooked together, nice light nutty flavor)

And for desert see the recipe I posted over on Bare Simplicity
Brown Sugar and Olive Oil Cookies.
I wanted a slightly chewy cookie, and this is what I came up with
http://baresimplicity.blogspot.com/2013/06/brown-sugar-and-olive-oil-cookies.html

Comfort Foods the Healthier Way - Savory Recipes

What do you think of when you think of comfort food? What do you tend to reach for? I lean towards carbs and creamy things. It's been a hard couple of days, and I've been doing really good about not over indulging in foods that will make me sick and keeping to delicious healthy yumness. I'm pretty proud of me in fact. And the last couple of days have been really challenging. But here's some of the comfort foods I made, so that I could have guilt free yumness:

Carlie's Turkey Chili

Walnut Deep Dark Chocolate Fudge 

Coconut Milk Chocolate Bars (no bake)

Peanut Butter Caramel Dip (really good with the fudge on top of the last of last week's mango sorbet)

Almond Cookie Dough Truffles (covered in chocolate and frozen, not baked)

Chocolate Cookie Dough Dip & Dark Chocolate Chunks (no baking required)

And this morning I made Pumpkin Coconut Curry Soup with Coconut Macadamia Crunchies. SO GOOD! 

So I know, you must be thinking none of that sounds healthy Sean-Michael! And you're right it doesn't SOUND healthy. But trust me, they are all much healthier than they sound. Actually you don't have to trust me, just check out the recipes. I'm working on variations, and a group of my brave friends will be trying them all out, so the recipes I'm about to post are tentative and probably not exactly what they'll be in the end. But we enjoyed them as they are. I'm just a perfectionist and I like to tinker and tweek my recipes until they're just right.  Plus, I'm seriously considering writing a cook book some day for people who want recipes that are delicious while being healthy. For now, I've decided to perfect a few recipes I can give to friends and family for the holidays, and maybe even trade barter and sell locally. Stay tuned for more on that. Today I'm going to focus on the savory recipes out of the bunch. Please feel free to make them yourself and see how they turn out, and if you have any suggestions, please let me know!

Carlie's Turkey Chili is a long time favorite of ours. She likes to make extra because we all love it so much. It has a decent amount of protein, low carbs, and turkey is a low fat meat. It's a nice mild chili which is great with melted cheese on top. I like to use a Monterey Jack and Chedder mix. I don't have any photos of this, will try to remember to take one next time we eat it. In the mean time, here's the recipe: http://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-detail.asp?recipe=1345488 ENJOY! 

Sent some to a friend for taste testing

Pumpkin Coconut Curry Soup which happens to be vegan. I just created this recipe this morning because I had seen a recipe for a curry soup but didn't have the ingredients. If I were going to change any one thing about the recipe it would be that I'd add a bit of lemon or lime, but I'm allergic to those, so I may try adding a bit of citric acid and see if that gives it some acidity. But if you're wanting a warm, comforting, creamy soup, give this one a shot and let me know what you think. Although Patch is not a pumpkin fan, and hates Curry (she says it smells like stinky feet) she ate this and said "Wow, that's actually pretty good!!" and then polished off her bowl. Here you go, give it a try and please let me know what you think.  http://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-detail.asp?recipe=2238145 oh and I made these crunchies to sprinkle over the top with some chopped mint: http://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-detail.asp?recipe=2238095

More on the rest of these recipes soon.

What is your diet?

First of all, let me just point out for those who haven't been keeping up with this food blog, that I am not dieting. I am working on finding delicious foods that contribute to my health. I also am not on a weight loss plan although I am losing weight, and will probably continue to do so for a while. Part of getting healthier is weight loss for me, tho not for everyone, and I certainly have no intention of ever being skinny or muscle bound. I would like to be a nice healthy weight and to improve my musculature, but I do not want to over do in any area.

Secondly, I will sum it up for you like this. I am eating twice as many vegetables, and half as many carbs with  at least 8 cups of water a day. Most days I drink 8 -10 cups of  water. Of course that is not the entirety of what I'm doing, but that's the simple description, and if that were the only thing I did, it would have improved my health. I am also avoiding most processed foods, and limiting those processed foods I do eat, to mostly things with as few ingredients as possible, and that those ingredients are things easily pronounced such as whole wheat, salt and water = egg free pasta or rice, basil, water as the ingredients on some simple crackers. Things made with whole foods are more likely to end up in my grocery cart than highly processed foods, and whole foods themselves are the most likely to end up there. This along with eliminating foods I am allergic to or intolerant of has made a huge difference in my health.

I use sparkpeople.com as a free food and exercise tracking device, and I also use their site for getting recipe ideas, networking with others who are working on their health. Sometimes I take a day or week off from tracking food, but during that time I still eat in the same basic manner. If I don't feel like measuring things out with actual measuring cups, I use this plate planning method: http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/downloads/pdf/csi/obesity-plate-planner-13.pdf which is basically 1/2 a plate of vegetables, a fist sized portion of protein and a first sized portion of carbs. Sometimes I have a piece of fruit or glass of milk with it. Often I save my fruit for dessert.

Healthy fats. There are a lot of disagreements out there about what healthy fats are, but I have noticed that when I eat more plant based fats I lose more weight, and my cholesterol has been lower, so I've been sticking to that. If I want to eat something higher in carbs, I make sure it's combined with protein and healthy fats, as I learned from the Prevention Magazine titled DTOUR, and later in the DTOUR diet book. I do not follow the DTOUR diet and exercise plan 100%, but I have used it to help me plan my meals. The cook book is great,  so I'm hoping to get that in the future. Every recipe I've gotten from them is pretty easily altered to avoid allergens, and the cookbook has helpful lists of replacement foods for just such a situation. (I scan it every time I'm at a book store) it's really helped me to manage my diabetes and so far I've been able to get off 2 medications since starting to eat more vegetables, less carbs, and all the rest I said above.

Avoiding chemicals has also been really helpful to getting rid of my migraines and reducing my chronic pain. I'm still having a difficult time during Monsoon season, but other than that I have been seeing some great changes. Some are gradual, and some are almost instantaneous. For example the hives I have suffered multiple times a week for my entire life, haven't happened in quite some time. They stopped as soon as I eliminated all allergens and foods I'm intolerant of. Since then I have been able to add some foods from the intolerance list back in carefully bit by bit, but others I haven't been able to add back in. I've come down to a list of about 30 things to avoid. It used to be a much longer list. That, the addition of stretching and relaxation techniques, and avoiding flashing lights, I have greatly limited my migraines which used to be chronic cluster migraines which affected me daily for almost 2 years in a row, but now are much milder and happen much less frequently. I had a migraine the other day after accidentally eating some dehydrated meat with chemicals in it, and then seeing lightning. So they do sometimes still happen, but at least it was only a couple days of being sensitive to light and having a headache instead of months worth.

Two new things I've been trying are natural sweeteners with a lower glycemic index than fructose or sugar, and sprouting things to get higher nutrients from them. In 2 weeks I'll meet with a dietitian to discuss I will write separate posts about each of those as I come to some conclusions.

Hope that helps answer some of the questions people have had. :) Please keep asking questions, and I'll keep posting my experiences. And please feel free to share what has helped you to be more healthy! I'm just learning as I go.

Smoothies not dead?

When I was diagnosed with diabetes earlier this week I thought smoothies were a bygone pleasure. And since spring is very short here and summer is starting in Laveen, I was looking forward to some creative smoothies. Then I noticed that my sparkpeople.com menu was recommending an orange smoothie. I altered it a bit, but it's pretty yummy. A bit tart, a bit sweet. I think the amount of sweet depends greatly on the sweetness of the fruit you use.

Here's the recipe they recommended:
1/2 cup plain lowfat yogurt
6 oz orange juice
2 tablespoons 1/2 and 1/2

Here's the recipe I used:
1/2 cup plain greek yogurt (not vanilla, i'm allergic to that plus it usually means more sugar in the yogurt)
1/2 cup orange juice (another thing I thought I couldn't have now)
3 tablespoons almond milk (plain, unsweetened)
5 medium strawberries (these would give a great texture and more sweetness if frozen, but I believe that also might alter it's healthfulness so didn't use frozen ones)

Let me know what you come up with. Smoothies are very personal and unique. I used to LOVE strawberry banana smoothies, sometimes with a bit of peanut butter. But when I found out bananas were one of the foods causing my hives I quit eating those immediately. I still miss the flavor, but there are plenty of other smoothie flavors to be enjoyed, so I look forward to trying some of them out this summer.

Food Triggered Migraines

This morning I was reminded of why it's so important to read labels. There was a box of cereal taunting me from the pantry for the last couple of weeks which Patch bought for herself. Apparently she wasn't sure if I'd be able to eat it or not. She never spoke to me about the cereal, so I had no idea what was going on in her mind, but as usual I read the label before eating something I'd never seen before. Unfortunately I tried reading the label through blurry, just woke up eyes. It tasted funny to me, and I started getting an upset stomach so I stopped eating it. I started getting flashing lights and other "aura" symptoms so I thought a migraine might be coming on, but I could of sworn there was nothing in it that was on the "No no" list.

When I started getting light sensitive and headachey I got up to look at the label since it was the only possible migraine trigger I'd eaten. Really should have gone to check as soon as I suspected a migraine was coming on, because the meds work best if taken BEFORE it hits. Turns out, it had barley syrup as the last ingredient. I don't know how I missed it. Barley is definitely a trigger for me. I don't know how that didn't pop out at me the first time. I thought I'd read every ingredient, but apparently not. At that point I was worried the meds wouldn't work but took one anyway. A zoloft under the tongue. DISGUSTING and didn't help the nausea at all, if anything made that symptom worse, but it did make me want to lay down in a dark place and knocked me out for most of the day. BUMMER, but at least I woke up without a migraine. Still felt fuzzy headed and only 1/2 here, but at least I was able to get up, feed the kittens, listen to some soft music. I chose to listen to Coyote Grace on low.

It was such a bummer to miss out on my day. I had plans, but it was a good reminder of why I tend to make tentative plans for everything, and an even bigger reminder NOT TO EAT things I'm unsure of. Apparently reading labels first thing in the morning is not a good idea. Because migraines are only unpredictable if I'm not paying attention. For me, they are triggered by a combination of things. I do best when I am eating right, working out, avoiding things I'm chemically sensitive to, and not around flashing lights.

Today was a stay at home in dim light day. It's a reminder to be mindful of what's going on around me, and what I put in my mouth.

Post tonsilectomy eats

I've been keeping track of my food and liquid intake since getting my tonsils and lower part of my uvula out monday morning. Doing this at the request of a doctor, so I am being very specific. only the cool liquids are currently not making throat pain worse. And i have found drinking plenty of ice water reduces the pain. So I'm consistantly drinking sips of iced or cooled water or chewing ice chips throughout my day and night whenever I'm not sleeping or typing. Some of the results have been tasty and I may post some specific recipes as I get them perfected. My main concern has been how to get enough protein and not overload on sugar while primarily eating liquid and soft cool foods. Suggestions are welcome! In the mean time, here's the list:

Monday sept 13th - (between noon and 11:30PM)
20 oz water * 4
20 oz ice chips * 2
8 oz beef broth
8 oz lactaid
8 oz vanilla nonfat sugsar free yogurt
8 oz lowfat strawberry yoplait
1 berry popsicle
10 oz creamy potatoe soup broth
8 oz apple juice
8 oz grape juice

Tuesday Sept 14th -
Early AM:
20 oz water
8 oz lowfat strawberry yoplait
20 oz ice chip
8 oz apple juice (mixed with water gradually)
Breakfast:
20 oz water
20 oz ice chips
8 oz lowfat peach yogurt
8 oz apple sauce
Snack:
16 oz creamy sweet potatoe broth
16 oz freshly juiced apple, celery and pear
20 oz ice water
Lunch:
20 oz ice water
4 oz nonfat sugar free yogurt + 4 oz coconut milk + 3/4 scoop whey protein
4 oz creamy sweet potatoe broth + 4 oz apple/pear/celery juice + 2 teaspoons cinnamon
Dinner:
40 oz water
16 oz ice chips
2 servings instant mashed tatoes extra creamy
8 oz lowfat milk
20 oz water
4 oz greek yogurt (plain, lowfat, low sugar)
1 tblspn berry antioxidents
1 tblspn honey
2nd Dinner:
1 cup blended, cooked black beans
with 1 tablespoon chedderella
20 oz water * 3
4 oz vanilla gelato

Published with Blogger-droid v1.5.9