I have "food issues". Oh, how I ridiculed people who complained of "too rich", "too spicy", dairy and gluten sensitivities (undiagnosed, so not "real" in my mind), too sweet, or not vegetarian, etc etc. I'd roll my eyes and dig into anything put in front of me.
Then a dozen years ago or so I started to get a very dramatic reaction to rich foods and gone were the cream sauces. No more Fettucini Alfredo. Not long after that I noticed a similar reaction to spicy fare. Thai food, among my favorites, became a one-star affair instead of three.
I read two brilliant books a year or so ago, "Salt, Sugar, Fat" and "Grain Brain". The first put me off any processed foods, the second was an indictment of gluten and most grains and carbohydrates. I started to clean up my diet and let my eating choices be not only health-related, but also a statement about my opposition to being sold a lie by corporations that wanted me to be addicted to unhealthy processed foods for profit.
Four years ago (today!!!) I quit drinking alcohol. Two years ago I mostly gave up caffeine (now only a cup of half-caf in the morning and decaf any other time.) For several weeks last fall, including over Halloween (a real test of my commitment!), I went sugar-free.
Then I fell off the wagon. Grains and gluten snuck back in. I started to have a nightly helping (or two or three) of dark chocolate with nuts and sea salt. I reached for the pastries instead of the veggies at church coffee hour.
And then the headaches and gut issues this summer had my anxiety rearing its ugly head, trying to convince me I had something dreaded happening inside me. Hub more rationally suggested a couple of weeks ago these symptoms could be diet-related.
Well, I don't eat hardly any meat -- no beef, just a little pork (oh, delicious pig!), some chicken and lots of salmon and seafood. Pretty healthy. I do love mozzarella cheese sticks and Greek yogurt. Ice cream is a trigger food which I limit due to its addicting qualities. I watch the carbs. But the grains and gluten had snuck back in with the sugar and the ongoing dairy. My weight started to creep up too, beginning to negate the 25 pounds I'd lost a few years ago.
So, here we go....elimination diet. NO dairy. NO gluten. It's been 2 weeks and my headaches have subsided and some days are gone completely. My GI system seems to be on the mend. I've lost 2-1/2 pounds.
I'd feel happy and self-righteous if I wasn't so annoyed that this is working. I know that makes no sense. Of course I want to eat clean and be healthy. I just don't want to be "one of them". I want to eat any damn thing I please! But that is wishful thinking. No one can do that and not pay the price in weight gain and disease or be party to the profit motive of Big Agra and its less than stellar track record with farm animals, pesticides, and creating addicting combinations of tastes and textures in fake processed "food".
So, I'll keep on, slowly and moderately re-introducing a bit of dairy in a couple of weeks to see how I respond. I sorely miss my nightly Greek Yogurt and blueberries with a sprinkling of walnuts and cinnamon. Oh....my....I miss it. And a smidgen of dark chocolate can't possibly be deadly can it? I'd like to reintroduce that soonish too. The other stuff I find I don't really miss.
Except, well, for the occasional "special treat", like the teeny tiny slice of the Key Lime Pie my son and daughter-in-law made for Family Dinner this week...it would have been rude to refuse. See? I'm not perfect, but I do confess my sins of ingestion.
Bon Appetit!©
At least that's the view from here....
