My testimony

Gassy, bloated, itchy, acid reflux-y…not exactly the shining list anyone would want to use to describe themselves. Which is exactly why I never mentioned my symptoms…ever. The gassiness was, of course, the most socially embarrassing of the symptoms and the one I sought to rememdy with altoids, beano, tums, gas-x. Nothing worked. Part of the problem was that I had felt that way for so long, I couldn’t remember there ever being a beginning, so I assumed my body was tempermental and quirky and I’d just have to live with it forever!

 Then, a few years ago, my sister started complaining of bloating and extreme stomach aches, bowel irritablility and all the things I was experiencing myself- though hers was much more severe. Her wieght fluctuated up and down due to her inability to eat without feeling awful and the constant bloating. Unlike me, though, she recognized that something was out of order and tried desperately for two years to figure out what. Finally, after tons of unhelpful doctor visits, she saw a naturopath, who almost immediately saw that food was the likeliest problem. They ran some tests and found that she has a gluten and dairy intolerance along with H. pylori. Once she cut out gluten and dairy (and treated the H. pylori with antibiotics), her health improved dramatically.

That got me thinking.But I still didn’t do anything about it, suffering in silence until finally my acid reflux was plaguing me daily and my restless legs kept me up every night.  I went for a visit to the Bastyr Clinic in Seattle and my naturopath started me on an elimination diet (and iron supplements for my restless legs). I chose to do the all-out, eliminate everything diet, which included almost anything you think of as food aside from garden vegetables: dairy, gluten, corn, soy, nuts, alcohol, caffeine, sugar and citrus. I, in my infinite wisdom, promptly decided that sugar, caffeine and alcohol were highly unlikely and continued eating those as normal. I hope by now you see the irony here.

I felt much better and I suspect now that, well, because I’m not exactly in the habit of downing spoonfuls of sugar, most of the foods I was able to eat under the new regimen didn’t contain much or any. Then, as I added foods back in, I would feel fine eating them one week and then out of the blue it would hit me. So I couldn’t pin it down, the symptoms were all over the board as far as what I was and wasn’t eating. After about two or three months on the elimination diet, I decided to get a second opinion by taking the allergy test. Expensive, but at least it might give me a new direction to try.

The results came back and there it was- sugar cane, along with whey (dairy protein). The least likely suspect I would’ve guessed. Its been maybe a month since the diagnosis and I’ve probably had a total of two weeks that I haven’t inadvertantly had sugar of some sort. Just two days ago I made some Bob’s Red Mill GF cinnamon raisin bread. I had given a quick read to the ingredients and thought that I was getting off sugar free. After eating the bread and having some mild symptoms, I gave another look to the package and realized the culprit was right there: molasses and vanilla powder (sugar, corn starch and vanilla extract). Lesson learned- READ CAREFULLY, not quickly.

At the time of the allergy test I was unaware that you are likely to get more accurate results if you have recently eaten the suspected foods- I had been off of gluten and dairy for a few months and had I known this then, I would have relished the excuse to run out and buy a cheese jalapeno bagel- maybe my last! The results showed no spike in any of the gluten/wheat categories and an ambiguous, maybe-maybe not, spike for the whey. My little heart still hoped that dairy had nothing to do with it. The thought of life without cheese seemed dreary indeed. Then, at my husband’s work Christmas party, the dinner buffet left me literally with nothing to eat but raw vegetables (and of course, the dip was off limits), so I decided to do a full scale test of the dairy intolerance. I ate about a plate-full of cheese bites- monteray, pepperjack, swiss and cheddar. Heaven. For the evening, at least. The next day was not so pleasant and had I not known what I might be in for, I probably would’ve thought I had the flu.

The things is, without my sister’s discovery, I likely would’ve never persued it and become healthy again. In fact, I wouldn’t have even suspected that I was unhealthy! Food intolerances when ignored  still ravage your intestines and can cause more disfunction later. I’m thankful for finally figuring this out and considering all that I am now reading about the health impacts sugar has on our bodies as a whole, I see that this may be an unlooked for blessing. The other godsend in all this is that I am surrounded by friends and extended family that not only have a gammut of intolerances (which makes family gatherings more enjoyable because everyone cooks to accomodate them), but who also know a thing or two about nutrition and the value of real, unprocessed, God knew what He was doing, food. 

My sister’s experience helped me to figure out my intolerances and the wisdom of people around me has been a huge lifesaver when it comes to getting the better of it, so if anyone would like to share their stories, symptoms or tips, please comment below or on any one of the posts and recipes!