- Feb 14, 2004
- 48,977
- 5,590
- 136
In November 2007, I learned I was allergic to dairy (Type II Dairy Allergy). I was pretty much sick my whole life and had no idea why; the allergy tests showed nothing. Anyway, over the past 2 years I've learned a lot about food, cooking, allergies, and intolerances. In no particular order, my allergies/intolerances:
-Dairy
-High Fructose Corn Syrup
-Hot Sauce
-Deep-Fried Food
-Palm Kernel Oil
-Sugar
-Chocolate
-Bananas
-Paprika
And pretty much any kind of chemicals & preservatives, like in McDonalds food. Dairy is the real killer for me, if I have anything even cooked in butter, I'm dead for 2 days. High Fructose Corn Syrup was another killer - I get a headache instantly on the right side of my skull. Annoying because it's even in ketchup. Hot sauce is another biggie, I get instant acid reflux if I eat like a chili dog or anything with hot sauce on it.
Certain oils bother me a lot. Deep-fried food kills me, although if I make it at home and don't eat too much, I seem to be okay. I think it's because restaurants use cheap oil, which is who knows how old, and has had all kinds of crap in it. Absolutely rips apart my stomach. Palm kernel oil is another real killer, I get about 2 hours of stomach pain if I eat anything with it. Also, hydrogented oil doesn't seem to agree with me too much, not a horrible reaction, but I don't feel great.
Sugar doesn't agree with my stomach and it makes me extremely tired. Drinking a soda will pretty much put me to sleep, unless I have it at night, in which case it causes me to be wide awake and unable to sleep. Chocolate really, really doesn't agree with me either - goes right through me. Bananas seem to give me a headache and go right through me too. Paprika is the oddball, it kind of gives me acid. Found it in mustard, Season-all, and my Hamburger Spice. Bummer.
Paprika & bananas were the most recent ones. Been off everything for about 3 days & I'm feeling fabulous. I also avoid chemicals & preservatives, like anything from McDonalds and anything really processed, as that stuff doesn't make me feel great. I'm extremely thankful to have a Whole Foods store nearby; they stock a lot of alternative foods, which makes shopping so much easier.
I've found that having allergies has opened up a lot of culinary doors for me. For starters, I didn't eat great before, and now I do. I tend to have 7 small meals a day now, with stuff like oatmeal, sliced turkey on wheat bread, and chicken breasts & broccoli for meals. I've had to learn how to cook a lot more, which has been great for my budget as well - I usually ate out at least once or twice a week before. My food bill for myself is now typically under $200 a month, eating super-healthy. I've also explored a lot of neat foods - Thai, sushi, Indian, Vegan, etc., stuff that I really wouldn't have been interested in before.
Other stuff
Overall I'm a lot healthier and I feel a lot better. It's been a huge pain to figure out what my allergies are, to really identify what's been bugging me, but it's so nice to feel...normal, lol. That's the best way I can describe it...my head isn't pounding, my stomach isn't hurting, my nose isn't running, I can breathe, I can sleep...I had so many problems before. Daily headaches, weekly migraines, really bad asthma, anxiety, restless leg syndrome, constant cough & leaking sinuses, you name it. Going off dairy helped with about 90% of that, especially being able to sleep, and getting off High Fructose Corn Syrup (thankfully) got rid of my daily headaches.
I've also found out that I have sleeping problems. The closest thing I can identify with is a Circadian Rhythm Disorder called Delayed Phase Sleep Syndrome (DSPS). Basically it means I have two windows to fall asleep - early and late. For me it's about 8:30pm for the early one, and 2:00am for the late one. Otherwise it's pretty hard for me to fall asleep. I also feel like 100x better if I wake up at 6 or 7am, even if I go to bed at 2am in the morning. If I let myself sleep in, I kinda feel like crap all day long.
As far as exercise goes, I've found it not only helps elevate my mood, but also helps me sleep. It was hard at first, as I had some extra pounds to lose and wasn't into exercising at all (bad asthma on milk). It also regulates my bowel movements, which was a problem with all the foods I'm allergic to. So exercising is definitely a good thing. I got really into biking a year or so ago, which is something I enjoy, but I also found out that I have a trick knee that gives out after about 1/4 mile of jogging or running, so I pretty much stick to biking or walking for my outdoor activities.
The new plan I'm working on is basically 30/7/7:45 - 30 minutes of exercise a day (cardio currently, working on losing about 20 more pounds), 7 small, healthy meals throughout the day, and 7:45pm bedtime. It still takes me awhile to fall asleep, so if I'm in bed at 7:45pm, then I can usually fall asleep by 8:30pm or so (I've found audiobooks really help to keep me from being bored while laying there, bored to death). When I do that on a consistent basis, I usually wake up by 4:00am or 4:30am (no grogginess, yay!), but I've been forcing myself to wake up no later than 7:00am just so that I don't feel sluggish all day from missing my "wakeup window".
Aside from getting off dairy & my other allergens, I've found that going to bed early has been the biggest benefit that I can give myself. It provides me with amazing motivation & energy, more than food, more than exercise, more than anything. If I can get to bed early, then within a few days I'm feeling really pumped up all day, which is awesome. Food also helps boost that a lot - I've found that eating small meals every few hours really keeps my energy up, which helps me stay on task during the day and get things done. Never really had the opportunity to be athletic before, or even feel motivated during the day because I just was always tired & felt like crap, so it's a treat to be able to go bike for a few miles and be able to breath for once.
Anyway, just thought I'd share. Food allergies are terrible & can be really hard to pinpoint. I just never had energy, never felt that great, never had high motivation, and it was all because what I was eating was really screwing up my body. I pushed through on a day to day basis, but life wasn't what I'd call super fun haha. None of the allergy tests I did showed that I was allergic to anything, which of course makes sense because they were all internal stuff, not skin rashes or anything like the allergy pin-prick tests would show. It's taken me a good 2 years of messing with my diet, tracking what I eat, and paying attention to things to really figure out what's bugging me. I actually think I've reached the point where I've more or less got "all" of them documented, which makes cooking & shopping a LOT easier, so that's pretty cool. Yay for feeling good!
Cliff's:
1. Discovered I have a bunch of food allergies
2. Feel better now
3. Yay
-Dairy
-High Fructose Corn Syrup
-Hot Sauce
-Deep-Fried Food
-Palm Kernel Oil
-Sugar
-Chocolate
-Bananas
-Paprika
And pretty much any kind of chemicals & preservatives, like in McDonalds food. Dairy is the real killer for me, if I have anything even cooked in butter, I'm dead for 2 days. High Fructose Corn Syrup was another killer - I get a headache instantly on the right side of my skull. Annoying because it's even in ketchup. Hot sauce is another biggie, I get instant acid reflux if I eat like a chili dog or anything with hot sauce on it.
Certain oils bother me a lot. Deep-fried food kills me, although if I make it at home and don't eat too much, I seem to be okay. I think it's because restaurants use cheap oil, which is who knows how old, and has had all kinds of crap in it. Absolutely rips apart my stomach. Palm kernel oil is another real killer, I get about 2 hours of stomach pain if I eat anything with it. Also, hydrogented oil doesn't seem to agree with me too much, not a horrible reaction, but I don't feel great.
Sugar doesn't agree with my stomach and it makes me extremely tired. Drinking a soda will pretty much put me to sleep, unless I have it at night, in which case it causes me to be wide awake and unable to sleep. Chocolate really, really doesn't agree with me either - goes right through me. Bananas seem to give me a headache and go right through me too. Paprika is the oddball, it kind of gives me acid. Found it in mustard, Season-all, and my Hamburger Spice. Bummer.
Paprika & bananas were the most recent ones. Been off everything for about 3 days & I'm feeling fabulous. I also avoid chemicals & preservatives, like anything from McDonalds and anything really processed, as that stuff doesn't make me feel great. I'm extremely thankful to have a Whole Foods store nearby; they stock a lot of alternative foods, which makes shopping so much easier.
I've found that having allergies has opened up a lot of culinary doors for me. For starters, I didn't eat great before, and now I do. I tend to have 7 small meals a day now, with stuff like oatmeal, sliced turkey on wheat bread, and chicken breasts & broccoli for meals. I've had to learn how to cook a lot more, which has been great for my budget as well - I usually ate out at least once or twice a week before. My food bill for myself is now typically under $200 a month, eating super-healthy. I've also explored a lot of neat foods - Thai, sushi, Indian, Vegan, etc., stuff that I really wouldn't have been interested in before.
Other stuff
Overall I'm a lot healthier and I feel a lot better. It's been a huge pain to figure out what my allergies are, to really identify what's been bugging me, but it's so nice to feel...normal, lol. That's the best way I can describe it...my head isn't pounding, my stomach isn't hurting, my nose isn't running, I can breathe, I can sleep...I had so many problems before. Daily headaches, weekly migraines, really bad asthma, anxiety, restless leg syndrome, constant cough & leaking sinuses, you name it. Going off dairy helped with about 90% of that, especially being able to sleep, and getting off High Fructose Corn Syrup (thankfully) got rid of my daily headaches.
I've also found out that I have sleeping problems. The closest thing I can identify with is a Circadian Rhythm Disorder called Delayed Phase Sleep Syndrome (DSPS). Basically it means I have two windows to fall asleep - early and late. For me it's about 8:30pm for the early one, and 2:00am for the late one. Otherwise it's pretty hard for me to fall asleep. I also feel like 100x better if I wake up at 6 or 7am, even if I go to bed at 2am in the morning. If I let myself sleep in, I kinda feel like crap all day long.
As far as exercise goes, I've found it not only helps elevate my mood, but also helps me sleep. It was hard at first, as I had some extra pounds to lose and wasn't into exercising at all (bad asthma on milk). It also regulates my bowel movements, which was a problem with all the foods I'm allergic to. So exercising is definitely a good thing. I got really into biking a year or so ago, which is something I enjoy, but I also found out that I have a trick knee that gives out after about 1/4 mile of jogging or running, so I pretty much stick to biking or walking for my outdoor activities.
The new plan I'm working on is basically 30/7/7:45 - 30 minutes of exercise a day (cardio currently, working on losing about 20 more pounds), 7 small, healthy meals throughout the day, and 7:45pm bedtime. It still takes me awhile to fall asleep, so if I'm in bed at 7:45pm, then I can usually fall asleep by 8:30pm or so (I've found audiobooks really help to keep me from being bored while laying there, bored to death). When I do that on a consistent basis, I usually wake up by 4:00am or 4:30am (no grogginess, yay!), but I've been forcing myself to wake up no later than 7:00am just so that I don't feel sluggish all day from missing my "wakeup window".
Aside from getting off dairy & my other allergens, I've found that going to bed early has been the biggest benefit that I can give myself. It provides me with amazing motivation & energy, more than food, more than exercise, more than anything. If I can get to bed early, then within a few days I'm feeling really pumped up all day, which is awesome. Food also helps boost that a lot - I've found that eating small meals every few hours really keeps my energy up, which helps me stay on task during the day and get things done. Never really had the opportunity to be athletic before, or even feel motivated during the day because I just was always tired & felt like crap, so it's a treat to be able to go bike for a few miles and be able to breath for once.
Anyway, just thought I'd share. Food allergies are terrible & can be really hard to pinpoint. I just never had energy, never felt that great, never had high motivation, and it was all because what I was eating was really screwing up my body. I pushed through on a day to day basis, but life wasn't what I'd call super fun haha. None of the allergy tests I did showed that I was allergic to anything, which of course makes sense because they were all internal stuff, not skin rashes or anything like the allergy pin-prick tests would show. It's taken me a good 2 years of messing with my diet, tracking what I eat, and paying attention to things to really figure out what's bugging me. I actually think I've reached the point where I've more or less got "all" of them documented, which makes cooking & shopping a LOT easier, so that's pretty cool. Yay for feeling good!
Cliff's:
1. Discovered I have a bunch of food allergies
2. Feel better now
3. Yay
Last edited:
Facebook
Twitter