Has anyone tried food allergy elimination diets?

[karma13]

Hi all,

I posted this in the food allergy forum, but didn't get any info - since I'm trying this for CFS symptoms, figured I might have better luck here :)

Love to know if any of you guys have tried an elimination diet, and what you think about the idea that some CFS might be caused by undiagnosed food allergies?

If you have, anybody know the EASIEST way to do one? Like meal replacement shakes? I'm DESPERATE, and can't really food shop to any extent, or even cook if it's very involved - h*ll, I'll eat baby food if necessary - I can't live this way.

I'm lost, a wreck, and just want to rule things out ...the idea my life could have turned into this black hole over something like gluten? ~ ugh. Can't even describe the feeling...

Also, just out of curiosity ~ how many of you have family support with this? I don't. I feel like this is the only illness you constantly apologize are tortured with guilt for having.

If one more person tells me to just "pull myself together" or that they're: "tired too, but still get up & do what they have to do", I'm going to end up in a mental ward.

Thanks,
Best wishes for health, happiness, and a nice holiday

[Jennifer9]

Hi Karma,
I can't offer any recommendations on the elimination diets, but I can say that getting substitutes for wheat and diary help when you are eliminating them. I mean almond milk, gluten free bread (made with rice flour or some other non-wheat flour), soy or rice cheese, etc. Sometimes I have white rice or brown rice as my carb and that doesn't seem to bother me, along with vegetables and a protein, like meat, fish or beans. I found that personally my symptoms are alleviated when not eating wheat or dairy and reducing/avoiding refined sugar. If you don't like to cook, boiling rice and veggies and beans is easy. And the cookbook the Self Healing Cookbook by Kristina Turner is good for easy recipes.

Family support has been near non existent. My sister said, "What is wrong with you?, Why don't you just get up?" when I first started experiencing the symptoms. My brother said, "It's obviously in your head." My mother said, "Everyone has pains, and we really don't want to hear about yours (anymore)". It sounds kind of comical now, and I have come to accept that there are few I can really talk to about this. I kind of mention how I am doing with family, as a sort of "by the way" but I don't expect any real conversation about the topic from them and I don't expect them to understand. That has made things easier on me. I am thinking of joining a support group just to be able to talk freely once in a while about all this. And in my area Meetup.com has some related groups. A lot of people I dated I couldn't see eye to eye with, and fortunately my current boyfriend is very understanding of my situation and also understanding of the lack of empathy and understanding I get from family and friends who do not have similar experiences.

I like juicing with vegetable juice (I have a Juiceman juicer) and use the Montel Williams healthmaster juicer sometimes for meal subsitutes, but not lately.

I am working on figuring out what works and I don't have "answers" yet, only a few things that have helped alleviate symptoms. Exercise helps a lot too. My favorites are the elyptical machine, yoga, cardio and other gym classes, but walking and the treadmill and most any other exercise seem to help too. The diet change usually takes 4 days to 2 weeks to start to help for me and then after a couple months, I notice more drastic a change. I am thinking about eliminating coffee but still drink it and tea, too. Baths with about 5 or more hands full of Epsom salt are good for some relief sometimes, I find. I am still shocked that this is really intefering with a lot of my life plans, but I am doing my best to cope and include things that will help me.

Best wishes,

Jen

[LordUgh]

Hello Karma,

I discovered I am allergic to dairy and gluten.  I can't even eat goat cheese.

Tips on how to change your diet?  Just keep at it.  My gut started getting better after about a week of no dairy and gluten.  Yes, it really, really, really *****.

I treat breakfast like dinner.  I have a hunk of meat and fruit and/or veggies.  I usually cook something on the weekend like a roast, pork chops or an amish chicken.  Then I cut it up/de-bone and freeze it.  In the morning I microwave some.

I found an okay rice bread in the freezer of the health section of my grocery store.  It's $6/loaf but I can have a few sandwiches.

I strongly recommend you stop taking any kind of artificial sweetener.  Aspartame is vile.  I had to stop drinking coffee and hot tea *sigh*.  I really miss hot tea.  I drink water almost exclusively.  I get spring water to avoid the fluoride.

I have to avoid onions and potatoes too.

Sincerely,
Lord Ugh