Food allergies / sensitivities

Recently Jason and Josh have been diagnosed with some food allergies and food sensitivities. Here are some good sites to explain these:

http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=faq&dbid=30

http://acupuncturenutrition.com/food-sensitivities/

http://www.livestrong.com/food-sensitivities/

http://www.ecomii.com/food-allergies

http://naturalbias.com/food-sensitivities-and-your-reactions/

These are not life threatening, however we are trying to avoid these foods, as instead of digesting and getting all the nutrients from these foods their bodies actually attack the foods, much like they attack a virus that enters the body.

Jason tested positive for soy and corn allergies; and gluten and dairy sensitivities.

Josh tested positive for yeast and mushroom allergies; and gluten, soy, and dairy sensitivities.

Since it has been overwhelming to eliminate these all at once we have eliminated one each month. May was soy. June was corn. July will be gluten. Aug. will be dairy.

Before this we also eliminated all artificial food dyes and high fructose corn syrup.  We are still eliminating these as well.

I also have switched milk already and at home the boys use non sweetened Almond milk (some brands have way too much sugar.) I cook with this in place of milk as well. Occasionally they still will have a glass of organic milk to drink (they don’t mind the almond milk in their cereal, but hate to drink it as is.)

So what can they eat?

Safe foods are:

all fruits
all veggies (except corn)
meat (as long as it has no added soy, corn, or gluten; some hot dogs and cold cuts add these things.)
white rice
brown rice
any of these products
eggs
potato chips (as long as the oil is not soy or veggie, veggie usually has soy.)
almond milk
beans
quinoa
gluten free certified oats

The hardest thing has been bread. Almost every bread you pick up on the food store shelf has soy or corn, and gluten of course. I found one brand at Wholefoods that has no soy or corn added. I also have used Pamela’s flour to make bread and pizza dough and homemade bars. Pamela’s is free of all the things the boys shouldn’t have (except when I add yeast to bread.) I will use this exclusively when we eliminate gluten as well.

Jason has noticed since eating like this he has less headaches and stomaches. They are not completely gone yet. Both boys also seem to have more energy.

After we have eliminated everything (end of Aug.) we will maintain that for 3-6 months and then start to reintroduce some of these foods. Sometimes with food sentitivities after some time a person can have them again. That is Jason's hope. And mine as well, as this allergy / sensitivity stuff is hard work on me (and costly too.)

Although 100% elimination is the goal, we are human and that is hard, so it is a good day if we have 85% or higher elimination.
But this could be easily be blown with just one processed item that has all of the above, so we still have to be careful.

Do you or your kids have any food allergies or sensitivities?

-Becky