Allergy Woes
It’s been a while since I wrote about our health woes – namely our battle with allergies. But recently I had a few people writing to ask me about what I cook and eat to deal with allergies. So, I thought I could share on the blog our experiment with different diets to heal allergies and what I have discovered for those who are interested. It will be helpful for my own memory’s sake since time tends to blur what I did or did not do.
We Don’t Eat Like “Normal” People
Due to the allergies we face, we have been experimenting with various diets and generally do not eat like “normal” people. The most obvious difference is that we don’t do bread and spread or cereal for breakfasts. (More on what we eat later.)
Allergy Issues Since Young
I have written about our battle with allergies many times before here. (Search Health or GAPS in the Search Box for more posts). In a nutshell, I personally have suffered from eczema on and off since I was 7 or 8. Some of our children also battle with eczema while others battle with sinus issues (not asthma, thank God!) since both sides of the family have allergy issues. Thankfully they only started battling it when they were older not as babies (perhaps due to breastfeeding? Who knows?)
Healthcare – Conventional and Alternative
We have done the conventional medicine route (steroids and antihistamines from National Skin Centre, dermatologists, etc) as well as the alternative route (supplements and diet modification, essential oils, etc). We have also gone for many Healing Services.
And still we fight on.
Steroid Addiction
As I researched into dealing with allergies (eczema more than sinus issues), I have learnt that the standard operating procedure in dealing with allergies by conventional doctors is to prescribe an antihistamine and a steroid (oral or topical or spray). However, as I read on, I also read of the awful side effects of steroid usage. One can actually become addicted to it!
RELATED POST: Steroids Just Make Eczema Worse
Now, I know not everyone becomes addicted to steroid creams/pills/inhalers but there are people who do. Besides, steroids do not cure allergies. Conventional doctors call this “managing” the disease while alternative doctors call it “suppressing” the immune system.
In other words, these drugs suppress the symptoms until it cannot. And then stronger and stronger creams and pills would need to be prescribed. Oftentimes, the patient “graduates” from steroids to immunosuppressant drugs because even the most potent steroids don’t work anymore.
What we should be asking is “why is my body manifesting these symptoms?” not, “how can I suppress the symptoms so that they are no longer expressed?”
As an aside, it is not just steroids that have serious side effects, there are also serious side effects to taking antihistamines long term too. Here are 2 articles for you to read further.
Zyrtec Side Effects: Withdrawal Symptoms (Antihistamine Withdrawal) and this is a forum where patients share their experience
Looking Into Diet Modifications
So, I started looking for alternative options. Despite what conventional doctors say, I strongly believe that diet plays a huge part in triggering allergies. It is not the only reason why people have allergies but it does play a big contributing factor to it and often times make it worse.
Think about it – we eat at least 3 times a day and drink even more times. Food fuels our bodies. I like the analogy of cars and the fuel we put in them. Would you put inferior/fake/ dirty fuel in your car and expect it to perform the way it is supposed to? Likewise, how can we have good health when we are eating processed and man-made food-like substances?
What Do We Eat Now?
After much experimentation over the years, today, we eat a Paleo-ish diet. This means that we eat very little grains (wheat, oat, rye, barley, rice, millet, amaranth, etc), pseudo-grains (quinoa, buckwheat), legumes (soy, peanuts, lentils, chickpeas, etc), dairy (from all animals), sugar, and chemical, additives and preservatives.
Before arriving at this diet, we went through the Elimination Diet, the grain-free diet, the GAPS Diet and the Paleo Diet. And within the Paleo Diet, we have also done the Whole 30 Diet, a stricter form of Paleo. We have also dabbled with The Eczema Diet.
With the various diets, I have discovered certain things about my own body. With my children, it is harder to be sure since I can only base it on what I was observing. They couldn’t really articulate how they felt.
But generally, less sugar (in whatever form) is best.
Here is a quick rundown on what we did and what we/I experienced.
Elimination Diet
The first diet we went on was the Elimination Diet where we eliminated what the allergy test results told us to eliminate. You can read more about it in The Elimination Diet.
RELATED POST : So What Are We Allergic To?
You can easily DIY this diet by eliminating the top 8 allergens (gluten, dairy, soy, corn, eggs, nuts, shellfish (prawns/crabs) for about a month and then slowly re-introduce back the items, one-by-one.
Or, you could get an IgG test done. As an aside, I find IgE tests pointless as it tests immediate reactions which you can easily observe yourself. An IgG Test tests delayed reactions and food sensitivities rather than true allergies. But it is expensive. And like all other tests, has lots of false positives and false negatives. For example, it said that Sarah was allergic to cod but we never eat cod! So even after you have gotten the list of foods that one reacts to, you need to confirm it by removing it from your diet and then re-introducing it.
Grain-free Diet
Our main grain staple was rice rather than wheat. And removing rice saw vast improvement. I distinctly remember Sarah’s face turning red within minutes of eating kueh tutu, a rice-based Chinese dessert.
Question: was it rice per se or was it the fact that it was broken down into sugar in the body?
Rice for me led to intense cravings for starchy, carb-rich foods. Which led to bloating! It was crazy how fast I felt bloated when I ate rice.
GAPS Diet
We then moved on to the GAPS Diet.
After about 6 months on it, we saw great improvements.
RELATED POST: Doing GAPS in Singapore
We did not do the supplements recommended by Dr Natasha Camp-McBride as they were expensive and hard to come by. So, I would say it is mostly from eating REAL food and avoiding grains, legumes, dairy, sugar, chemicals, preservatives and additives that helped us the most.
Paleo Diet
To me, this was a compromise on the GAPS Diet. While similar to GAPS in avoiding grains, legumes, dairy, sugar, chemicals, preservatives and additives, Paleo allows sweet potatoes and even white potatoes! We could also use tapioca and/or arrowroot flour to thicken sauces and as batter. (We did not like batter made with almond or coconut flour). It was slightly easier to eat out on this diet.
Here are a few Paleo sites to check out:
The Paleo Diet and The Paleo Mom
Whole 30
Woah! It promises to “change the way you think about food. It will change your tastes. It will change your habits and your cravings. It will restore a healthy emotional relationship with food, and with your body. It has the potential to change the way you eat for the rest of your life.”
Get more information from the Whole 30 website.
This diet allowed me to see what I was addicted to! I thought I was already eating clean on the Paleo Diet but nope, I was depending a bit too much on the baked (and sweet!) stuff to get by! This is a great diet to be on to wean oneself off too many baked stuff and healthy sweets, even if they are all natural.
Vegetarian/Vegan Diet
We have done a few rounds of the biblical Daniel Fast. There was no real obvious improvement except that my bowel movements became super regular. But bloating was an issue. And I felt hungry all the time!
The Eczema Diet by Karen Fischer
To be honest, by the time I came across this book by Karen Fischer, I was tired and cynical of the promises each diet promised. But I told myself that I would read it with an open mind and learn from someone who cured her own daughter. She believes in removing foods high in salicylates and histamines. So, her diet is even stricter than GAPS or Paleo because even in the vegetable group there are restrictions! And coconut, the mainstay of GAPS and Paleo eating are off-limits. One basically eats white meat with as little fat/oil as possible.
This was the last diet experiment for us. We did this for 2 weeks. Removing pork seemed to have helped. So did avoiding oily and fatty foods (beef, chicken skin, etc). But after the initial 2-week improvement, things quickly went back to square one. Adding flaxseed seemed to make our skins drier! This is weird because she said that there are studies which showed that flaxseed is best for hydrating the skin inside out! So we did not persist.
What Did I Learn From Going On All These Diets?
Having experimented for so long (since 2010!), the only thing I can confidently conclude is that not only is there no one diet fits all, there is also no one diet that fits all for all seasons.
This means that we have to be flexible and open to listen to what our bodies are telling us. What works in one season may not work in the next. And just because a diet works for someone doesn’t mean it will work for you.
But don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater either. You will need to try them out one by one to see if it works for you. Is it tedious? Yes. But when you finally figure out what food is doing to your body and mind, it is a relief.
When Should You Move On Versus Persist?
Use your current itchiness/nasal congestion as the baseline. The new diet should not make it worse. It probably would not provide the instant relief you want but it should not make it worse. And if going back to your old diet makes you feel worse (itchier/more congested) then you know that the new diet IS working.
For me, personally, I have come to the conclusion that too much sugar (be it in the raw form, fruits or grains – because it converts to sugar in the body) is not healthy in the long run for us. So, I do control the amount of sugars (in whatever form) we eat.
My Triggers
In case this helps you, these are my main triggers:
- Nose issues (running and/or congestion) – dairy and sugar (even when they are from complex carbs and fruits)
- Ankle rash – MSG
- Neck rash – carbs and sugars
- Bloating – grains
- Craving – carbs and sugars
I can get away with eating foods from the above list if I have been very clean for a while. But if I choose to eat those foods day after day, there will be consequences.
What Exactly Do We Eat?
Protein and vegetables with real fat. For breakfast, lunch and dinner.
For condiments and spices, I use Himalayan Rock Salt (bought from NTUC Finest) and western spices (oregano, Italian, garlic, onion).
Fats – I render my own pork lard, or else use olive and coconut oil. After trying different brands, I choose either the Nutiva or Garden of Life brand because of the lovely aromatic coconutty taste they offer. The other brands taste oily and sometimes, even rancid!
Organic?
No. Because for one, it costs an arm and a leg. Secondly, I do not trust the labelling. Same with the term “grassfed”. It has now become a hip marketing term. And I am not willing to pay so much more for it. If it is slightly more expensive, I will buy it. But not when it is double or triple the price of “normal” food.
What About Eating Out?
If I am having a serious flare up, I avoid eating out. And if I really have to, I will bring my own food along. If I am having a minor flare, I will choose meals that are have just meat and vegetables, avoiding the carbs and sweets and will choose food with no gravy or sauce.
At a recent wedding dinner I attended, I ate the chicken, beef, prawn and vegetable dishes. Those dishes had no sauce or gravy on them. Then, I had watermelon and rock melon for dessert. No rice, no noodles, no cakes.
Generally, western food is slightly “safer” in that you can order it without the sauce or gravy. Chinese/Asian food have a lot of gravies. Plus, who knows what else they include in the gravy? For example, traditionally cooked Indian food is safe and yet, when I ate it, I itched like mad!
Helpful?
I hope this helps someone out there who is figuring out what to eat if they want to go on the GAPS or Paleo Diet. It can be done. It is not easy but if there can be healing from diet rather than medication, why not?
And, for me, I would always try changing my diet before resorting to medication. These diets are not unhealthy, especially if done in the short to medium term. Eating real food is always healthy because that was what we were designed to eat. Not food-like substances like coke and oreos!
The only downside is the inconvenience of not being able to just order in or grab something off the shelf. And of course, if you are like me and detest cooking, it is HARD!
Let me know if I have missed out any point or if you would like me to delve deeper into any Diet.
Your Turn
Have you ever tried diet modification to relieve a health issue?