While I dont think I actually have food allergies, I do feel that there are possible some foods that my body is not fond of. In my quest to eat in a healthier manner, I dont know were to start and what to believe. I have read about people keeping a food diary, but I am unclear about how to start one. Should I just write down everything I eat every day, and then start eliminating things? How long do I have to wait to add things back in?

My reasons for this is I have read so much about how our bodies process foods and what the effects are that I am on information over load and tend to 2nd guess everything. Some of the issues I would like to address personally is as follows.

Skin~ while I have never had perfect skin, it was never bad either. A break out here and there. Lately how ever, I have been getting very very deep painful "pimples". And not just one or two but several. A few weeks ago my whole forehead was covered in these.

tBloating~ I have lossly noticed that when I consume a lot of processed carbs, I really become bloated, but I have never really put my mind to watching this.

Over all mood~I have days where I just cant even stand to be around myself.
Edgy, uptight, at wits end, lack of interest, sleepy. All those things. I dont want to be like this, but before I rush out and look into meds, I would like to make sure its just not my body's response to a certain food or group of foods.

BM's~ This one has to do with my youngest ds. But I am unsure of what causes it in him. I believe it could be dairy, but am not sure. And if so do I need to eliminat all dairy? The kid LOVES yogurt. I just am really sick of loose messy, smelly stools. Add to that he is a bean pole who could put on some weight.

Sorry that this is all over the place, but I hope you can follow what I am trying to ask. It could be that I dont have allergies at all, or could be I have a mild intolerance to certain things. All I know is I want to find out what foods my body dose great on and which ones I should limit/avoid.

And for the record, while I dont think my current diet is perfect, its also not to bad. Then again if I had it my way, my food groups would be
Bread
Cream soups
Choclate
pasta w/cheese sauce
butter

That should give you an idea of the types of foods I enjoy!:eat:

Coffeebeanz

Because of the mood stuff, I'd look into adrenal fatigue.
Because of how much you rely on gluten and dairy, I'd make them prime suspects. I'd also suspect zinc deficiency - do you ever eat beets? If they turn your pee pink, that can be a sign of low stomach acid and zinc deficiency.

I know it's just more information (so feel free to ignore) but I've been trying to simplify things a bit here:
http://www.detoxpuzzle.com
www.eatingcultures.com

With gluten and dairy sensitivities, it's hard to identify anything on a food journal - they take so long to leave your system that it's like you're constantly eating them.

I kept a food diary for a while for my son, it helped identify a couple foods that were problematic. For him, I saw rashes about 1/3 of a day later. So write down the time of day, the food (with a brand, or just all the ingredients, depending on how much is involved) and the approximate amount--a tiny bite of something vs a heaping serving. Some intolerances seem dose-sensitive, and more causes more problems, but for some people, even the tiniest trace amount causes the same problem as a full-size serving, and it just takes trial-and-error to figure out which category you fall into for each food.

I too would vote for taking out gluten and dairy for a while. Gluten is insidious, it often takes quite a while to see the improvement, and it seems to cause subtle, non-specific problems, and yet when you go off and read about it, it has more potential to be more problematic for more people than just about any other food. I do think some people are fine eating gluten, but I think everyone who's considering whether food(s) could be a problem should consider a gluten-free trial.

For gluten, I'd keep it out for at least 3 months, dairy's often a bit shorter, maybe 6-8 weeks to see if it's changed anything--years ago when I first cut out dairy, I didn't think anything had changed, so then I drank a glass of milk. Yikes, the improvement had been subtle, but the effect was dramatic when I drank a glass.

I wouldn't start adding in things until you've figured out what's going on and the symptoms you're concerned about go away. Like whoMe said, I'd think about nutrients as well, things you may be low on--I think most of us who have been consuming foods we're intolerant to, well our bodies have been stressed by that and that stress has depleted one or more nutrients, and we may need some time to figure out what's what and build back up.

Also, for digestive support, I'd consider either a probiotic supp or fermented foods. We make kimchee, we love kimchee, it is amazing stuff. It is a lot easier to make than I assumed at first (I put it off for months because I thought it would be hard), and it's really helpful for getting the bacteria back in balance in peoples' digestive tracts.