28 Days Later...
Well, I am feeling better about how far I have come but realize that I still have far to go. I created a list of things I can and cannot eat while preparing for a dinner invitation to a friend's house. This allowed me to do 2 things, well 3 really:
- I actually saw a progress of things I could now eat
- I could better prioritize the order of the things I still have yet to test and
- Bonus! I realized that I did have a pretty good working list already but the downfall lies in the top 5 things I cannot eat yet (dubbed The Nasties as they are contained in more than 90% of foods and recipes out there and more than 80% of restaurant menu items).
The list:
Let's see, things I can eat:
grilled chicken breast
eggs - though its seems I do better with fresh eggs as opposed to older eggs.
Spices allowed: garlic, salt, pepper, paprika, oregano, onion salt, vanilla bean (bean only, no extracts), thyme, basil
celery
Root veggies like carrots, turnips, beets
onion
peppers - mostly just bell peppers and mostly only the red, orange, and yellow ones
artichokes
avocado
black olives (green olives are right out until I test vinegar) Black olives serve as a good texture and moiture replacement for tomatoes in salads.
citrus (orange, lime, lemon, etc - I was glad I didn't have this intollerance!)
almonds, cashews, pecans - must be cooked though - cannot eat raw. We discovered this the hard way. And we already know that I am allergic to Brazil nuts - they burn my mouth.
apples, berries, peaches, pears
asparagus
cruciferous veggies like broccoli and cauliflower
butter - but only in limited quantities
potatoes and yams
rice and rice flour
oats and oat flour
mushrooms - I can have them but Thor hates them so I get them rarely. I still detest portabellos
olive oil, canola oil, safflower oil
legumes - added them on Friday and so far absolutely no problems, not even the standard gas that most pople get with legumes. And I relished my lunch meal of hummus on ricecakes. Yum!)
Things I cannot have:
The 5 NASTIES:
Soy - so far vegetable oil is ok but I haven't tried soy oil by itself yet). Hydrolized soy protein is in *everything*.
Wheat (includes breads & pastas)
Milk and milk products - except for butter
Corn and corn products - cornstarch and corn oil is ok
tomatoes and tomato products
The other untested items:
vinegar - probably will try soon as I would like to have mayonaise back
tropical fruit - Since pineapple is a tropical fruit and in practically everything a non-wheat person can have, I need to try this soon.
melon of any kind - Will try after I do tropical fruit, probably interspersed with the 5 nasties
eggplant - since the 3 main ways I would eat this involve wheat, dairy, or tomatoes, testing this is low on my priority list
peanuts - have to test seperately from legumes because of the severity of allergies people have with this food
seafood - note that this is really not going to be a problem for this non-seafood eater
processed meats - not that I am big on eating meat - its just that with soy and milk gone, I have to eat more chicken and turkey and it all has to be unprocessed. sigh.
Any spices not currently listed
I am going to try some cheese next - its more processed than milk so lower on the allergy scale and damnit, I want some for St. Patty's day.
I have a theory about fat content related to milk. Wouldn't it figure that a full fat cheese or whole milk would be less intolerant than a fat-free version? I mean oz for oz, the ratio of fat cells to sugars and protein would be more equal in the fattier products and thus the fat-free items would be more likely to cause the intolerance as they would have a higher ratio of protein and sugars. I started this whole allergy process when I switched from 1% milk to skim and from regular cheese to fat free and noticed an increase in gastronial distress. I would welcome anyone's feedback on this. I intend to ask my dr next time I see him.
Meanwhile I still dream at night about dancing cheese and bean burritos...
Friday night I dreamed about a new food desire - A & P took Thor and I to a wonderful restaurant in Europe on the advice of M (DWC prez) to a place called Grueldeners where upon discovering it was banquet of Italian - wall to wall plates of pasta with cheese and tomatoes with mmounds of fresh garlic bread. I sighed and debated which allergy to test and happened upon a plate of pasta with pesto. Ah, only allergy there is wheat. Yeah! Um, wrong! pesto has cheese you goofus. I was so frustrated that I woke myself up.
Sigh. I *can* do this.