I wanted to share a little bit about food allergies and how they are usually classified because it may be helpful for you to understand what’s going on with any food reactions you might be having. It also helps you to know the best way to test and get to the root of your health problem.

Even though I had a really good inkling that part of my health problems were from food allergies I wanted the doctor I worked for to test me. He used a test from Meridian Valley labs that tests a combination of IgE and IgG. IgE allergy is the type of allergy that someone who is allergic to peanuts might experience. Their throat tightens and they could go into anaphylactic shock. I was told by another allergy doctor that I should carry an epipen around just in case I had a reaction like that. She had done a skin prick test which showed altogether different allergies than the blood test. I had wanted her to confirm my first test by doing a blood test but the conventional allergy doctors typically do a skin reaction test. IgE allergies are considered ‘true’ allergies.

Food sensitivities as spoken about by Carolee Bateson-Koch DC, ND, “Food sensitivities is a common catchall term employed for food allergy, food intolerance and other adverse reactions to food. Proof of food allergy is still often difficult to establish. Most laboratory blood tests deal primarily in identifying the IgE antibody and often do not screen for reactions that may produce the IgG, IgA or IgM antibodies. It is interesting to note that the most accepted diagnostic test for allergy, the elimination diet and subsequent reintroduction of suspected substances, does not differentiate between the two terms, allergy and intolerance.”

IgG allergies are what is called delayed reaction food allergies because you may not feel any symptoms until 24-48 hours after you ate the food you may be reacting to. This is what was happening to me especially with dairy, sugar, wheat, and sometimes eggs. It was horrible because I would eat brown rice or barley and wake the next day literally feeling very hung over with a headache, feeling lethargic, swollen glands and just exhausted.

My boss who was a naturopathic doctor told me that I had leaky gut syndrome because on the test I was reacting to all the foods. That meant small particles of not fully digested foods where getting into my blood stream causing an immune reaction. It was actually a big mess at the time because while I did the best I could to stop eating dairy, beef, and sugar I would still at times react emotionally to stress in my life and eat it again. This went on for a couple of years. I knew full well that I could die from all sorts of different diseases if I did not heal the leaky gut. I truly did the best I could at the time but looking back some of what I was doing seems like a joke now.

One statement I just love and never want to forget is one I read in the book Hidden Food Allergies by James Braly, M.D and Patrick Holford that talks about how you can overcome your food allergies. I wasn’t sure I believed this and I didn’t touch dairy for about five years. My husband had prayed diligently for my healing for the last three years and this statement may be in part why I can now eat Kefir which is made from dairy without any problems. “The good news is that you can grow out of most food allergies. While celiac disease and IgE-based food allergies are almost always fixed and permanent for life, most food allergies only involve IgG antibodies, and your immune system can ‘unlearn’ its IgG sensitivities. If you strictly avoid a food you are currently IgG sensitive to for three to four months, there will be no more IgG antibodies left tagged for that food and the immune cells producing food-specific IgG anitbodies appear to lose interest in doing so over time. This means you won’t react allergically to that food when it’s reintroduced.” This is because immune cells that produce IgG antibodies don’t pass their ‘memory’ on to the next generation. They often forget.

Leaky gut and IgG food allergies or sensitivities are very connected. These are subjects I go into greater detail in a digestion education class I am in the process of putting together right now.

If this interests you go to my website and get the free download of 7 ways to improve your digestion now and you will get on my list where I will let you know where, where, and how of getting the support you need to overcome your digestive issues.

Love and blessings

Joan

Empowering you to revolutionize your health

Since this quest to get pregnant I have been trying several different things I have not tried before. The thing I have done most recently is start eating more meat and dairy. In the past five years those were things I hardly touched.

One of the reasons I decided to start eating dairy is because I wanted to try Kefir. A probiotic rich liquid made from milk. It tastes a bit like yogurt and is filled with healthy probiotics. While I have known for a little while now that kefir would be a good way to get more probiotics into my system, I didn’t want to touch dairy – AT ALL.

I was extremely ill five years ago and it started after eating three bowls of cereal with milk. I have always loved milk my whole life. I liked to make coffee milk, yes it was my grandmother who made those drinks with that syrupy stuff that tasted like coffee, I liked coffee yogurt, coffee ice cream – I’ll talk about coffee on another blog. I used to fill my regular coffee up with at least 1/3 milk or cream.

Getting off dairy and unhealthy food was a bit difficult at first for me even though I was quite ill. Without wanting to I thought about milkshakes, hamburgers, cake, and cookies – A LOT. I struggled for about year and half through trial and error eating bad foods, drinking green smoothies, feeling bad stopping more bad food, repeating that cycle until I was eating almost vegan. I ate fish and chicken rarely; I hardly ever ate eggs, or sugar and ALL dairy was out unless I forgot to ask a restaurant about ingredients which was not very often because I hated feeling bad after eating.

Now after all that I am starting to eat Kefir?!  Well I have to say it went well. All the prayers my husband said over my body for the last two years for healing has started to almost fully manifest. Even the food allergy tests I recently had redone showed that the dairy allergy was extremely lessoned and one showed I had no dairy IgG sensitivity at all. I’ll explain IgG in a moment. After seeing those tests I felt freer to try Kefir. One side effect that I have not liked much at all is that I have gained 10 lbs.  I had finally lost those last 10 lbs in my recent juice feast and felt great. Minor candida symptoms have gone away after eating Kefir and upping my probiotic intake. I did all that because I had severe gum infection this past February that I needed to correct so I used so much hydrogen peroxide and other bacteria killing mouth washes that my tongue hurt very badly. I had given myself a candida infection on my tongue and mouth. I’ll tell you about that in another blog.

I really wanted to make sure I will get enough protein during pregnancy. I know many people talking about health out there in internet land say that Americans as a whole do not have any protein deficiency and I would for the most part agree except that under certain conditions having protein deficiencies is not uncommon like during or after surgery, trauma, and stress and stress can include anxiety and depression.

In a previous blog I talked about a urine amino acid test I had done last December that came out almost all normal except three amino acids I was thrilled because the one I had done in 2009 showed extreme deficiency even though I was eating a lot of protein at that time. I was deficient in ALL the proteins and their metabolites. How was that possible – STRESS. I was under extreme emotional, physical, mental, spiritual, and even financial stress at that time.

Needless to say I want to make sure that I have all the proteins I need to make healthy babies. I just did another urine amino acid test after eating fish, beans, and more meat and legume protein every day than I usually do. I usually eat lots of veggies and smaller amounts of fruit but a test I had done in May showed more amino acid deficiencies. That was not a 24 hour test and I was two days into my juice feast and I thought for sure it would come out great because I was even JUICING when I took the test. I got alarmed and wanted to see how I will do with eating more animal protein. We’ll see how that turns out in a couple of weeks.

In the meantime I will be eating less but more varied foods while doing a little more exercise with my new trampoline and weights to lose those ten pounds again. I do know that it was the dairy, cheese, and large portions of meat that caused that weight gain. I also usually gain weight when I eat larger portions of nuts which I was doing too, just so I could get more protein into me.

I plan to make a protein drink that is uniquely suited to me and not one already out in the store because I still have problems with some beans like garbonzo beans, peas  and grains like brown rice which most protein drinks are made with some combination of unless they are dairy. While I have enjoyed eating Kefir I do not plan to return to eating processed dairy or large amounts of cheese, sour cream or butter. I can do them in very small amounts and I thank God I can live more normally now but I also like to feel healthy, energetic, and clear minded and don’t want to compromise those benefits I get from a seemingly restricted diet.

I am confident I will be able to create a protein drink that I like and has all the protein I need without too much grain, or dairy. This will be a challenge. If you have any protein ideas please post them below I’d love your feedback.

Joan

Empowering you to revolutionize your health