The Allergies Just Get Worse

So in September I went and got tested for food allergies because I had been feeling like crap for months.  Stomach pains, swollen joints, just a lot of discomfort since I changed my diet over a year ago.  It was really perplexing to me that when I really made a change for better health I started getting so sick.  I thought maybe I had an ulcer or something until my mom, who has rheumatoid arthritis, went and got tested for food allergies and discovered that she was allergic to a bunch of every day foods, like eggs.  When she cut all the bad foods out she really started feeling better.  her swollen joints unswelled and she is so much more mobile and in so much less pain.

So I thought that since my joints were swelling up a lot along with the stomach pain that maybe it was food that was affecting me. So off I went and when I got my results it was totally obvious why the only days I felt at all well was on days I didn’t eat.  I am allergic to green beans, cabbage, carrots, garlic, onions, sesame, soy, baker’s yeast, pistachios and hazelnuts.  And not just a little allergic either, a lot allergic.  So that explains why I was feeling sicker when I changed my diet to healthy…I was eating SOY every day all of a sudden.  When you cut dairy out you substitute soy.  Also, all the ehalthy foods I was eating I was flavoring with garlic and onions.  Duh!  So I cut out those foods in September and my health is night and day now.  No more stomach pains.  No more swelling and joint pain.  I am like a new person.

So I took my kids in the other day for testing, too.  Lucy and Nelly have been plagued by bad stomach pain.  Leo has been having lower intestinal issues.  maud has headaches, sinus pain and migraines.  Nelly couldn’t be tested because a Calritin she had taken the week before hadn’t cleared her system.  But the other three got tested and cooking in this household just got a lot mroe interesting.

Maud is allergic to wheat.  I am giving you the easiest one first.  Now Maud claimed that it was silly, that wheat wasn’t a big deal.  But after a week of not eating she announced to me, in only the way a teenager can, “Mom, I hate to admit it to you but I feel a lot better now and my mood is much better.”  Ha ha!  Victory for mom!

Now for poor Leo.  He is allergic to mushrooms, salmon, sesame, malt, vanilla and brewer’s yeast.  It is the last one that is really bad because along with beer, win and champagne, brewer’s yeast is in vinegar which means he can’t have any prepackage mustard, mayonaisse, kethcup, salad dressing, most soups, jarred sauces etc.  Vinergar is in everything because it acts as a preservative. The vanilla is a pain too because it means I have to bake special cookies and such fo him with no vanilla and the ppor kids can’t eat most chocolate because chocolate almost always has vanilla in it.

Now Lucy.  Lucy is allergic to green beans, carrots, garlic, CHICKEN, EGG YOLK, and cashew.  Chicken and egg yolks?  Okay…so this weekend I baked peanut butter chip cookies with egg white only and no vanilla and oat flour.  Phew…something every single child could eat!  Not easy to find!  But, the egg, chicken and garlic explain why she is always having stomach aches.  Those are staples in her diet.

I am trembling at the thought of Nelly getting tested!  I just hope she doesn’t add any thing new to the lists!  As long as she is allergic to some combination of the things the other three are allergic I am okay.  As it is, mealtime is a huge enough challenge.

xo