Understanding why yourself or your child has started to react to a food you have eaten for along time and out of the blue can be frustrating and confusing.

Over the years and through lots of experience I have leant not to demonise that one food like the tomato or strawberry to name 2 of the worst culprits. But to indentify why you or your child is having that reaction.

I like to imagine the nervous system like a pot a big shiny pot. Once that pot is full it starts to overflow. Bubble and spit and boil over. What’s it over flowing with? Toxins, chemicals in the home and personal beauty products, processed foods, sugar, alcohol, gluten, additives, E-numbers, preservatives, stress, lack of sleep, over exercising or lack of exercise . . . If you remove some ingredients, the pot will calm down and simmer along nicely again.

We went down the path of eliminating most foods on the RPAH Elimination Diet and running around like head less chickens panicking about if the kids had eaten a carrot, which was medium on the RPAH Salicylates list. This panic in it’s self was not helping. So learn from my experience. Yes you have to eliminate a few food groups and temporally remove trigger foods and toxins but the most important thing to do is to learn why it’s happening and to remove those items but then repair the body. All food intolerances, out of character behavioural issues and skin reactions are a symptom of the gut. Repair the gut and the symptom will calm down. Remove the foods, limit your triggers but faller to repair the gut or underlying problem will mean you are chasing your tail for many years blaming eggs, nuts or nigh shades. For me I blamed dark raw chocolate, when really it was the stress that leads me to eat chocolate as when I eat chocolate without stress my body copes with it just fine. With my son he can cope with nuts but only when life is calm for him. If there is stress from a new school term, or daddy is away for a while then his pot rises and his body reacts to more things and I can’t give him as many foods as his nervous system is heightened. So instead we steer clear of his trigger foods until he is calm. Then he copes just fine as his pot is very low. What comes first the reaction or the food or both we will never know. Stress plays a big part in gut damage and why you may be reacting. Practice mindful eating. Chew your food. Turn your TV off and focus on sitting straight and enjoy your food that is nourishing your body. Example. I can’t eat nightshades very often. So if I make a 5 minutes tomato and capsicum omelette, eat fast then rush to get out the door whilst screaming at the kids to hurry up we are late . . .and not digest it properly I will react. But If I’m out to dinner with friends and I have nightshades on my plate, as I am calm and happy my body copes with it better. Again how full is your pot depends on what you can cope with.

REMOVE-REPAIR-RE-TRY

So where to start?

Firstly before I go on to show you the best paths to take and how to tackle what must seem like mind field too most.

I must explain the damage Antihistamines, pain killers, Steroids and Anti-fungal or Antibiotics can do on an already weakened under attack Immune system and a nervous system that is over flowing (remember the pot). These are suppressing the symptoms so putting a big lid on that pot that is boiling over. Well we have all done that whilst cooking and what happens? it still over flows and splits worst, often making more mess and not fixing the issue. You have to turn down the heat to stop it and remove some ingredients. By using antihistamines and steroid creams you are pushing it down and it will come out another way and worst. So what was a skin rash might come back as a chest infection or earache. Keep suppressing that with more medication without looking at the cause, it will come out in an asthma attack lets say or a headache because you body is no longer getting the minerals it needs because of holes in the gut lining and food particles are being attacked in the blood stream and your brain is being starved. Keep going with more medication and it comes out as something worst and so on till you get a really nasty problems. So please don’t use a short-term fix, look at the real reason and repair the gut.

There are natural herbs and foods that are antihistamines that work brilliantly to calm your body’s reactions whilst you fix your body. Also you could use Homeopathy, but not synthetic drugs.

An allergy is something your often born with an your reaction is acute or deadly an Intolerance is something you can calm and change with diet and lifestyle. Although I have seen many people over come lifelong Allergies to nuts and pollen through healing their gut that they were born with. But most doctors will tell you that is impossible.

Healing and repairing diets to work towards adapting in your family would be:

A 100%raw food diet low in fats high in carbohydrates and fruits, melons, berries and nuts and seeds and free from anything else.

These are not quick fixes but lifestyle changes that will mean you can change your outcome and stop a life of needing creams, medication and avoiding foods.

No sugar coating: You must eliminate all (MSG), preservatives, additives, flavour enhancers, gums, vegetable proteins (TVP) E-numbers, food acids, thickening agents, sugars and fake processed foods including soy bi-products like dairy milks, soy lecithin in chocolate, chocolate, caffeine , alcohol ect and trans fats and all oils. (Real food only not from a packet)

Understanding the main chemical and allergy food groups:

Salicylates: this big word is a plant chemical found naturally organic or non organic fruit like strawberries and vegetables like tomatoes and eggplant, honey, spices, teas, coffee, yeast and products which use them like laundry powder, aspirin, perfumes, toothpaste, cleaning products.

Amines: this is from the breakdown of proteins. Amines levels increase in meats and fish and cheese that is char grilled, aged or matured and in fruits and vegetables that are very ripe like bananas, olives, and avocado. Or concentrated sauces like tomatoes sauce, fruit juices, chocolate, flavoured spreads, jams and fermented foods.

Glutamate: this is an amino acid that is an essential building block of all proteins and is found in most naturally foods. In its natural state away from protein it is used to enhance flavour in foods like cheese, tomato, stock cubes, spreads, soy sauce, yeast extract. Like amines they naturally accrue in ripe fruits, so as the proteins in the fruit break down they appear.

Fructose: this is simple sugar found in fruits and vegetables and natural sweeteners like honey and maple syrup. Fructose when eating as a whole piece of fruit can be absorbed well because it has the fibre to go with it. When you have it as a fruit syrup or juice without the fibre or as dried fruit, which is concentrated. It can ferment in the large bowel causing gas and an over production of bad bacteria. Fructose is not a problem for most if it’s eaten as a whole fruit and in small amounts of local organic in season fruit. The problem arises when a cold climate person eats lots of tropical fruits, juices and dried fruits. (Example 1 box of sultans contain up to 50 grapes or 1 roll up contains 7 serves of fruit and often sulphur and sugar is added) fruit juice is pure sugar to the body and it spikes your hormones gives you short term energy without any of the goodness to feed your body. Eat fruit as a whole piece of fruit.

Lactose: this is the natural sugar found in milk. Its a compound sugar made up of glucose and galactose and can not be absorbed until its been digested by the enzyme Lactase in the small bowel. Which if you don’t have that enzyme you cannot digest it.

Gluten: if you have reaction to gluten you might have Coeliac Disease and before removing it you should be tested. For others it may be an intolerance and once others food have been removed and replaced with organic, unprocessed grains that have been stored properly, soaked and prepared properly you may be able to cope with it. But that does not mean shop brought cookies, cakes and breads that means homemade fermented grains or homemade sourdough using traditional methods. For me I cannot cope with grains yet as I still have gut healing to do. This should be one of the last foods to replace.

Histamines: is a chemical, which occurs naturally in certain foods. This is also one of the chemicals that is released in the body as part of an allergic reaction, causing the typical itching, sneezing, wheezing and swelling allergy symptoms. We all have an enzyme which breaks down any histamine that we absorb from a histamine-containing food. When we eat a food, which contains histamine, it does not affect us. However, some people have a low level of this enzyme. When they eat too many histamine-rich foods they may suffer ‘allergy-like’ symptoms such as headaches, rashes, itching, diarrhoea, and vomiting or abdominal pain. This is called histamine intolerance. Foods that are high are. Champagne, wine, beer, cider and other fermented drinks and spirits, sauerkraut and other pickled foods., tofu and soya sauce, aged foods like cheese and meats, mushrooms, tinned fish, sausages and other processed meats (ham, salami, gammon, bacon) mushrooms, dried fruit, seeds, nuts, yeast extract, yeast, chocolate, cocoa, cola.

Check out more information on:

http://fedup.com.au

This is a chart I used back when I was working out what we were reacting too. It may help you too. Fill it in with your symptoms and your triggers.

 Change the column names to suit your symptoms and foods.

Getting started.

I recommend eliminating all trigger foods like dairy, eggs, nuts, soy, gluten, and sugar for 3 weeks to allow your pot to empty. Drinking water away from food and also removing toxins from your home and turning to natural products to clean and wash clothes and avoiding as many outside toxins as you can. As I said earlier ‘No Sugar coating!’

Once you have made it through the 3 weeks without any slip-ups reintroduce one food at a time eating that food at least twice a day for two days using the chart to observe your symptoms.

If you have symptoms like a rash, brain fog, fatigue or a digestive reaction remove it again and write it on the chart. If you are fine with the food you can keep eating it.

Once the reaction has past what a day and start on the next food.

A note about Gluten if you react to it in any way bloating, headache, rash, bowel changes you may need to keep it out until your gut heals.

You can’t be part time gluten free as it takes up to 3 weeks and in some cases 3 months to remove the particles from the intestinal tract. So no cheating on the weekends if you want to be symptom free!

Be patient, as it will take time to reintroduce the foods back watching for reacting and not adding the ones you react to until you have done the gut repairing.

REMOVE-REPAIR-RE-TRY

Look at my Gut healing protocol or contact me to take you through the process of healing.

 Good luck finding your triggers guys!