Food Rotation Blues

Issue 135
by Peggy O'Mara

This week I began a diet in which I avoid foods that I'm sensitive to and rotate other foods on a four-day cycle. I'll be doing this for one or two months in order to decrease my food sensitivitiesand afterward, I hope to be able to reintroduce some of the offending foods. I have so much sympathy for those of you who are using rotation diets in your own homes or trying to figure out your children's food sensitivities. It isn't easy. It was not until my menopause years that I realized I was sensitive to food and other things. In 1998, my eyelids and face swelled up for the first time and I went to the emergency room, where an antihistamine was prescribed. The antihistamine only made things worse. (I've since learned that this was because I have a low histamine level.)

As usual, I fell back on my primary mode of healing, acupuncture, and began to get regular treatments. At the same time I consulted with an environmental doctor who specializes in allergies and began a series of treatments that helped but did not heal me. By now I knew that what I had was eczema, sometimes accompanied by mild to severe swelling of my eyes and face. I knew that this inflammation wasn't a good thing, but I didn't know how to control it, or even if I could. People suggested I use the steroid drugs commonly prescribed for this type of inflammation, but that didn't seem a satisfactory long-term solution to me.

When I didn't respond to the environmental doctor's treatments as well as we'd hoped, he suggested that I follow up on my intuition that my teeth were the problem. I'd had my mercury-amalgam fillings removed in the 1980s, but I still had a lot of crowns that contained mercury and other metals. The dentist I went to, however, turned out to be a charlatan. He alarmed me by falsely telling me I had a fatal condition, and suggested that he redo all of my crowns at once, for $14,000. I was panic-stricken.

Fortunately, I didn't have the money. Instead, I found a reputable biological dentist in Albuquerque, who removed the remaining mercury in my crowns over a series of visits, and who agreed on a payment plan. Having all of my mercury out and all my teeth repaired with biologically compatible materials really helped my allergies. In fact, after several visits, I experienced huge boosts of energy. However, I was not yet cured. I still had what I had reluctantly come to accept as a chronic disease. It was hard to believe that I had a chronic disease. I didn't want to think of myself this way. I didn't want to be "one of those people" who is sensitive to everything, yet I was. I certainly didn't want to watch what I ate. I love to cook and experiment with food, and I resented having to treat certain foods with suspicion. It made me feel deprived to have to limit how much I ate of my favorite foods.

I'd begun to limit my intake of those foods when I was going to the environmental doctor. I eliminated wheat and dairy and, later, eggs and corn. At first, it was terrible. I didn't know what to eat, and when I waited too long between meals and still didn't know what to eat, I would have a low-blood-sugar panic. I'll bet children have these all the time. Now I understand that, while it was never identified as such, I had had low blood sugar throughout my childhood.

Eventually, I realized that there was a whole other world of food out there. I walked the aisles of natural food stores looking for things that I could eat and, sure enough, there were wheat-free breads and cookies, soy creamers, rice milk. I began to introduce these things into my diet and even grew to like them. Before long, I no longer craved cream in my black tea and actually preferred green tea.

After a couple of years of pretty much eliminating the foods I was sensitive to, I began to reintroduce them into my diet because I felt so much better. It seemed I could tolerate them again. At first I ate such foods only occasionally, but over time I began to eat some of them again every day.

By last summer, I was convinced that I could eat anything if I did so in moderation. At the end of August, however, my eyes swelled up for a day or so, and in the fall I had one of my worst reactions ever: puffy eyes, red and itchy face, and eczema for six weeks. I was discouraged, but determined to figure out once and for all what was really going on. I began my research again in earnest.

I researched Chinese medicine and learned a lot about the hot and cold natures of different foods and food preparations. I realized that I was mistakenly eating hot foods in the summer months, when I should be eating cooler foods. This contributed to my reaction, which always happened between midsummer and late fall. From India's Ayurvedic tradition I learned that my particular constitution is aggravated by pungent, salty, and sour foods: my favorite flavors. I discovered foods I could use to pacify this hot tendency and cool my system. Ayurveda's principles of hot and cold helped me to see my condition in a new way. I realized that my eczema and swelling were actually healthy responses to my eating habits. As Chinese medicine says, "Disease enters through the mouth."

Once I began to think about my inflammation as a healthy reaction rather than a chronic disease, I realized that something was missing. I had been heroic in trying to figure out my health, and had of course sought the help of my regular health practitioner. She offered many good suggestions, and I found many in my own research as well. Even so, I began to feel that I was grasping at straws. A lot of things helped, but nothing really worked. I needed a comprehensive analysis.

I had heard of the work of the Pfeiffer Institute in Warrenville, Illinois. While best known for their work with mental illness, their unique combination of testing, personal biochemical analysis, and prescribed nutritional supplements is effective with many chronic conditions. They have done important research in the areas of postpartum depression and autism, among others.

In December I went to an outreach clinic of the Pfeiffer Institute in Scottsdale, Arizona, and had blood, urine, and hair samples taken for biochemical analysis and allergy testing. The cost was affordable, and much less expensive than other, less effective treatments. In conversations with my primary care provider, and based on my preliminary Pfeiffer results, I began thinking of planning a detoxification program. My facialist, Geneie, reminded me that detoxification is a way of life, not something you do only once or twice a year. I started putting powdered chlorella, a powerful antioxidant and detoxifier, in the water I drink throughout the day.

At the Pfeiffer clinic, I learned about the book The pH Miracle: Balance Your Diet, Reclaim Your Health, by Robert O. Young and Shelley Redford Young (Warner Books, 2002), and ordered it and Felicia Drury Kliment's The Acid Alkaline Balance Diet: An Innovative Program for Ridding Your Body of Acidic Wastes (Contemporary Books, 2002). I had an epiphany reading these books. They explained why some foods bothered me sometimes and not at others. My whole system was too acidic, and when I ate too many acidic foods on the same day, the scales were tipped in favor of my eczema reaction. I decided to get some pH drops to add to the water I drink throughout the day. It's a solution of sodium and potassium, much like an electrolyte solution, that alkalizes the water, which in turn helps to alkalize my system. I have been alternating the water with the pH drops and the chlorella water throughout the day for a month. Since starting this regime, I have had almost no swelling or eczema. The area under my eyes is less puffy and I have more energy.

I don't mean to imply that having a healthy body is as simple as putting some drops in water. I'm also eating a larger proportion of alkaline foods, such as fruits, vegetables, seeds, and legumes; and fewer acid foods, such as wheat, meat, and dairy. Sometimes this is hard for me to figure out because I also need a lot of protein to keep my blood sugar up.

I'm finding it surprisingly hard to focus on myself enough during the day to do this. I'm trying to eat six small meals a day. I like the idea of small meals throughout the day, and can see that it suits me. However, I have to give a lot of thought each day to what I'm going to eat. It has made me think about how often I delay my urge to eat or go to the bathroom because I have "just one more" thing to do. Like many of us, I often find the physical needs of my body inconvenient.

In trying to take better care of myself, I am embarking on the food-rotation diet indicated by my biochemical results. However, I was reluctant to disturb my eating habits; it took me a couple of weeks to get used to the idea. I have gradually warmed to it, and now am almost enthusiastic about trying new foods. It's important for me to strike a balance between exploring new food habits and not overpowering myself, not trying to change everything at once, because if I do, I'll inevitably rebel.

I have to strike a fine balance between taking care of myself and not making food into an obsession. We face this challenge every day when we feed our children. When I lose the joy of food, even healthy food goes down poorly. I have to admit, however, that the foods I'm most sensitive to are the foods I used to eat all the time. It makes sense not to overexpose ourselves to the same foods and food groups by eating them every day, let alone at every meal.

Changing eating habits and experimenting with new foods raises many emotional issues. I am surprised at my range of feelings as I try to limit customary foods and introduce new foods. I've found that it helps to anticipate what I'm going to eat during the day and to know what the next little meal will be. This reminds me of feeding my children. Knowing what I now know about food, I sometimes wish I could start over with them.

Even so, what I've learned about my own food sensitivities has informed my whole family. The results from the Pfeiffer Institute confirm what I suspected: that I have some underlying nutritional imbalances, and inherited, high needs for certain vitamins. I now have the big picture I was looking for. This is the medicine of the future. Instead of accepting that I have a chronic disease and taking prescription drugs for the rest of my life, I'm confident that such comprehensive analysis of my unique biochemistry, together with my new understanding of the effects certain foods have on me, will do much to truly heal me. If you, too, are looking for solutions for a chronic physical or mental condition, know that there may be more hope than you realize. Don't give up.

Peggy O’Mara is the mother of four grown children. She has gained international celebrity as publisher, editor and owner of Mothering Magazine. She is also the author of four books: Having a Baby Naturally: The Mothering Magazine Guide to Pregnancy and Childbirth, Natural Family Living: The Mothering Magazine Guide to Parenting, The Way Back Home: Essays on Life and Family, and A Quiet Place: Essays on Life and Family, all of which can be purchased in the Mothering Shop. A dynamic speaker, she has lectured and conducted workshops in conjunction with organizations such as the Omega Institute, Esalen, La Leche International, and Bioneers. She has appeared on numerous television and radio programs and has been featured in national publications including The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, Mother Earth News, and Utne Reader.

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