Wow, very interesting article. I got an education.
Finally, I am properly introducing myself. I have digestive problems (mom had ulcerative colitis/gluten intolerance, dad has crohn's) and PCOS, and various minor allergic symptoms that I never recognized until recently. My son has some behavioral/mood problems and dyslexia. We both get itchy skin/mild eczema at times. He just had the ELISA + immune complex testing from Sage Labs, and came back with delayed food allergies to LOTS of stuff. I'm afraid our new rotation diet still may be too broad, but it feels VERY restrictive already. Can anyone recommend any info on total elimination diets, best core/safe foods, how to implement with kids, sources of elimination diet-friendly products, etc.?
I'm in week 2 of our elimination/rotation diet, and the kids just went back to school. I am planning school lunches, and just trying to get comfortable with this. I am still finding it pretty challenging, although meal planning has helped a ton. Any suggestions for gut healing in a dairy-free, egg-free, beef-free, gluten-free, gelatin-free, soy-free, white potato-free, garlic-free, salicylate-free family? We have eliminated lots of other stuff too, but those are the biggies. I now make almost everything from scratch, and we avoid all preservatives and additives. We are rotating almost everything except for rice and sweet potatoes. The staples in our diet are chicken, turkey, salmon, garbanzos, other beans, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, millet, quinoa, rice, flax seed, hemp seed, basil, cilantro, onions, pears, banana, mangos, kiwis, cantaloupe, pineapple, lemons, limes, papaya, pomegranate, persimmon, and I am slowly trialing some nuts like: walnuts, brazil nuts, pine nuts, almonds, and pistachios. I am planning to try lamb, but haven't yet. We use mostly olive oil and coconut oil, although I'm trying to rotate coconut products strictly as I am afraid we might be developing sensitivity to it (stomach aches, runny bowels). We supplement with probiotics, flax seed oil, vit C, moringa tree powder (a vit/min supplement), and are recently starting to do cod liver oil, but my kids aren't crazy about it. I'm also thinking of ordering chia seeds. And we'll be doing a basic multi-vitamin. I'm also planning to start including more sea vegetables.
This way of eating seems to be gradually having some positive impact, but my DS has developed some very mild eczema symptoms he never had in the past (his symptoms are mainly behavioral). I don't know if it is just cleansing, or maybe winter dryness, or if he is allergic to something new in our diets.
Does anyone have any advice for us as we are new to gut healing and it seems we cannot at this point do many of the suggested gut healing foods like: yogurt, gelatin, bone-broths, eggs, etc. Can someone offer details about water keffir, coconut keffir, kombucha mushroooms and other things I keep hearing about? Can anyone suggest some more fairly allergy-safe fruit (my kids love fruit)? Is their a source of dairy-free, gluten-free, soy-free chocolate chips/ chocolates that I could order to trial in a few weeks? (My kids don't seem to be allergic to plain cocoa, but almost all chocolate has soy-lecithin which I am afraid they do react to). That would be a nice treat for them. Also how do I find out about raw milk (for when I am ready to trial dairy)? Would Alta Dena raw aged cheddar be a good substitute?
Sorry for the book, and all the questions. Any input, advice, info, encouragement really is welcome. I just really need to keep up my motivation and learning on this gut healing journey. Thanks.
I'm still working my way through, too.
to you harmonymama. That sounds so hard. I know there are some good allergy cookbooks out there, although I'm not sure how helpful they would be. I have the "Allergy Self-Help Cookbook" and it has a lot about rotation diets and several recipes that have ingredients by food family (several have only arrowroot and amaranth, for example, for the dry ingredients). I know that Trader Joe's has an organic dark chocolate bar that has no soy in it, and one other brand that they sell at Whole Foods has no soy in it, but I don't know about chocolate chips. You could buy a bar and break it up into chunks.
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