Apart from the sudden burst of flavour into my food, the first six day of this challenge were really not that interesting. There had been no symptoms to note. Which is why I was so surprised about what happened on the seventh day and the days that followed.
As part of the talk they give you when they are explaining the elimination diet they provide this analogy of how intolerance limits is really like having a bucket. Your bucket will only take so much, but once you overfill the bucket, even just a little bit, the entire bucket falls over and everything falls out.
This was more than just falling over. This was a catastrophic explosion.
On the last day of this challenge we had gone out to a friend’s place for a birthday celebration, had a lovely evening and came home. As I write this I don’t even really remember what happened, but I got upset about something, and it was all down hill from there. I cried for a substantial period of time before I was just so tired I passed out. Waking up the next morning I felt like I had been hit by a bus. I could barely think straight. My energy and motivation levels had gone into negative gear, which was noted by a friend and work colleague over the next two days. At this point I had stopped eating the salicylates and was back on the baseline.
And then finally, a couple of days later I just went completely loco! I was so hysterical, I think I went into ultrasonic mode where only animals would be able to hear me, let alone have anyone understand me. I couldn’t move off the couch either. My face was numb. My poor Dave didn’t know what to do. Luckily he has the powers to fix almost anything and finally just came over and gave me a really long hug.
While that was comforting and did help calm me down. The whole experience was just completely unexpected. I was prepared when I did the wheat challenge, but neither of us was prepared for this.
Throughout this while week after the challenge, I had soldiered on, and continued to go to work every day. I explained to a friend/colleague how tired and drained I was when I got to work, and he wisely said to me “There are more people who are a lot less sick than you are and don’t come to work. Seriously.” I have always felt an obligation to go to work unless I am physically unable to get out of the bed, but in hindsight, I am definitely going to be keeping that in mind.
So while I was lucky that I didn’t crack at work, I’m sure my behavioural change was noticeable, but worst of all, I had left it to my husband to be responsible for taking care of me again, and that was just unfair on him.
So the final results are, while I had a severe reaction to salicylates, I will be able to have them in my diet again, just in limited amounts. My specialist will explain all that when we get to the end of the testing.
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Monday, April 27, 2009
challenge - salicylates
“Salicylates are a family of plant chemicals found naturally in many fruits, vegetables, nuts, herbs and spices, jams, honey, yeast extracts, tea and coffee, juices, beer and wines. They are also present in flavourings (e.g. peppermint), perfumes, scented toiletries, eucalyptus oils, and some medications. (Aspirin is a member of the salicylate family).”
So it’s in a lot of stuff and it makes stuff interesting. So this challenge is even more interesting than the milk one because you don’t just get to add one ingredient, you get to add a whole bunch! You have to have at least 6 serves of salicylate foods each day for seven days, where one serve is about ½ a cup or 100g. How hard could that be? As long as you stay within the guidelines – not that hard.
The vegetables included in this challenge: asparagus, beetroot, carrot, chinese vegetables, lettuce (except iceburg), marrow, parsnip, potato (red), pumpkin, snow peas, snow pea sprouts, sweet potato, turnip, alfalfa, artichoke, capsicum, chilli, chicory, corn, cucumber, endive, onion, radish, water chestnut, watercress and zucchini.
Other things included in this challenge are things like some apple juices, peppermint tea, some jams, your standard herbs and spices and honey.
The real challenge for me was how to get as much variety in as possible, without over eating or wasting food. This was going to be a breeze though. I didn’t really have a problem with vegetables and I used to have peppermint tea every day for 2 years. So I was set.
What I found really interesting about the week I was doing this challenge was how much I came to appreciate the basic and natural flavours of some of these vegetables.
Snow peas are sweet, crunchy and juicy. They are great in a salad and with chicken or just on their own. They don’t need much work, just lightly steamed or blanched. Butternut pumpkins (also known as squash – though squash here in Australia is also another vegetable) are also full of flavour on their own. They are sweet too, but in a different way, not sugary. Roasted with a tiny bit of oil and salt really enhances the flavour. Perfect with roast chicken and great in a salad. They do have a strange texture that feels a bit starchy and stringy, but soft and warm, softer than sweet potato.
I realise it's obvious that honey and maple syrup are two different products with two different flavours. Honey is thicker and a lot sweeter. Maple syrup is lighter and does not go very well in quinoa porridge. I quite like maple syrup, but it was nice to have honey again.
Plain corn chips may not seem that interesting, but they were a nice break from plain potato chips. Corn is just so much more interesting than celery and is even better than butter beans and borlotti beans.
So this week was great, I got more interesting salads, I got my peppermint tea back, and I got to add flavour to my chicken. Everything was perfect, until I got to day seven.
So it’s in a lot of stuff and it makes stuff interesting. So this challenge is even more interesting than the milk one because you don’t just get to add one ingredient, you get to add a whole bunch! You have to have at least 6 serves of salicylate foods each day for seven days, where one serve is about ½ a cup or 100g. How hard could that be? As long as you stay within the guidelines – not that hard.
The vegetables included in this challenge: asparagus, beetroot, carrot, chinese vegetables, lettuce (except iceburg), marrow, parsnip, potato (red), pumpkin, snow peas, snow pea sprouts, sweet potato, turnip, alfalfa, artichoke, capsicum, chilli, chicory, corn, cucumber, endive, onion, radish, water chestnut, watercress and zucchini.
Other things included in this challenge are things like some apple juices, peppermint tea, some jams, your standard herbs and spices and honey.
The real challenge for me was how to get as much variety in as possible, without over eating or wasting food. This was going to be a breeze though. I didn’t really have a problem with vegetables and I used to have peppermint tea every day for 2 years. So I was set.
What I found really interesting about the week I was doing this challenge was how much I came to appreciate the basic and natural flavours of some of these vegetables.
Snow peas are sweet, crunchy and juicy. They are great in a salad and with chicken or just on their own. They don’t need much work, just lightly steamed or blanched. Butternut pumpkins (also known as squash – though squash here in Australia is also another vegetable) are also full of flavour on their own. They are sweet too, but in a different way, not sugary. Roasted with a tiny bit of oil and salt really enhances the flavour. Perfect with roast chicken and great in a salad. They do have a strange texture that feels a bit starchy and stringy, but soft and warm, softer than sweet potato.
I realise it's obvious that honey and maple syrup are two different products with two different flavours. Honey is thicker and a lot sweeter. Maple syrup is lighter and does not go very well in quinoa porridge. I quite like maple syrup, but it was nice to have honey again.
Plain corn chips may not seem that interesting, but they were a nice break from plain potato chips. Corn is just so much more interesting than celery and is even better than butter beans and borlotti beans.
So this week was great, I got more interesting salads, I got my peppermint tea back, and I got to add flavour to my chicken. Everything was perfect, until I got to day seven.
Saturday, April 25, 2009
challenge - milk
Despite what you might think, or what I might hope, this challenge does not include all dairy products. It is predominately milk based and does not include cheese, which was very disappointing to learn. Having said that, soymilk really isn’t that great, especially when added to things like eggs or mashed potato. So bring on the milk I say.
It’s a seven-day challenge. You can have any type of plain, unflavoured milk you like (such as full cream or skim etc). You start day 1 with 200mls of milk, 400mls on day 2 and 600mls on day 3. Days 4 to 7 continue to have 600mls and you can include some cream cheese, yoghurt or ice cream off the allowed shopping list (provided before you start the baseline).
I learned before the challenge that there are dependencies between the first few challenges and the later challenges. The results of this challenge impacts what you can have for the others. So if you have a reaction to milk, you don’t get to have milk chocolate or cheese in the amine challenge. And you have to take milk back out of your diet until the tests are over! Geez, no pressure.
My prior history of lactose intolerance was not not helping my confidence levels. I mentioned to a friend that I would just lie about the results if they weren’t that bad, and at least that way I could a little bit of white chocolate and some normal tasting mashed potato. They protested quite strongly, and I knew they were right and it would defeat the purpose of doing this in the first place.
I struggled to finish the milk on the first day, not a good sign for the rest of the challenge. But it turns out that hot frothy milk is harder to drink that just plain cold milk. As the week went on, I was getting some strange headaches and periodic narcolepsy type symptoms (at work), feeling bloated and some small blotches on my face. Things didn’t look like they were going in my favour here. I might have also got a little but ambitious by adding all other possible allowed foods including yoghurt, white chocolate and ice cream.
My specialist she did suggest that perhaps we started the challenge to soon, and that I could either count this as a reaction, or at some other stage, retry the challenge. With so much riding on it, agreeing that perhaps these symptoms were leftovers from the wheat, and looking for any excuse to get a no reaction result, I decided that I would try again another time.
But this also meant back to the baseline until I was symptom free for at least 3 days in a row.
It’s a seven-day challenge. You can have any type of plain, unflavoured milk you like (such as full cream or skim etc). You start day 1 with 200mls of milk, 400mls on day 2 and 600mls on day 3. Days 4 to 7 continue to have 600mls and you can include some cream cheese, yoghurt or ice cream off the allowed shopping list (provided before you start the baseline).
I learned before the challenge that there are dependencies between the first few challenges and the later challenges. The results of this challenge impacts what you can have for the others. So if you have a reaction to milk, you don’t get to have milk chocolate or cheese in the amine challenge. And you have to take milk back out of your diet until the tests are over! Geez, no pressure.
My prior history of lactose intolerance was not not helping my confidence levels. I mentioned to a friend that I would just lie about the results if they weren’t that bad, and at least that way I could a little bit of white chocolate and some normal tasting mashed potato. They protested quite strongly, and I knew they were right and it would defeat the purpose of doing this in the first place.
I struggled to finish the milk on the first day, not a good sign for the rest of the challenge. But it turns out that hot frothy milk is harder to drink that just plain cold milk. As the week went on, I was getting some strange headaches and periodic narcolepsy type symptoms (at work), feeling bloated and some small blotches on my face. Things didn’t look like they were going in my favour here. I might have also got a little but ambitious by adding all other possible allowed foods including yoghurt, white chocolate and ice cream.
My specialist she did suggest that perhaps we started the challenge to soon, and that I could either count this as a reaction, or at some other stage, retry the challenge. With so much riding on it, agreeing that perhaps these symptoms were leftovers from the wheat, and looking for any excuse to get a no reaction result, I decided that I would try again another time.
But this also meant back to the baseline until I was symptom free for at least 3 days in a row.
Friday, April 17, 2009
the baseline
Bamboo shoots, cabbage, celery, chives, dried beans, green beans, leek, lentils, iceberg lettuce, mungbean sprouts, white peeled potatoes and red cabbage. These vegetables are my new best friend. Sadly, there is only so much you can do with them. Pears in syrup, chicken without skin, salt, eggs, sugar, canola oil and quinoa are pretty much the only other things I can add to my diet. It’s really not that exciting. Not only that, but the first part of the diet consists of four weeks of these baseline foods.
Also at first I thought I would only have to eat this kind of food for the first four weeks and that would be the end of that. But it turns out that is not the case. If at any point I have any kind of symptoms during the tests, I have to revert back to this food until the symptoms clear for a period of time.
While I knew that not eating wheat would make me feel better, I was surprised at how quickly it started to work. Emotionally I could feel a difference within the first week. Sadly, it did take quite some time for all the other symptoms to disappear. Slowly, but surely I was improving. I just hoped that the results of the challenges would swing in my favour, and I was confident that with wheat out of the way, and the support of these new colourless and flavourless foods, I would do just fine.
What's even worse is that I can't even eat some of the baseline foods - just to make it even more of a fun challenge. Rice and some other foods are also included on the baseline for the more normal people, but it sure does make it more interesting... or less depending on how you look at it.
Also at first I thought I would only have to eat this kind of food for the first four weeks and that would be the end of that. But it turns out that is not the case. If at any point I have any kind of symptoms during the tests, I have to revert back to this food until the symptoms clear for a period of time.
While I knew that not eating wheat would make me feel better, I was surprised at how quickly it started to work. Emotionally I could feel a difference within the first week. Sadly, it did take quite some time for all the other symptoms to disappear. Slowly, but surely I was improving. I just hoped that the results of the challenges would swing in my favour, and I was confident that with wheat out of the way, and the support of these new colourless and flavourless foods, I would do just fine.
What's even worse is that I can't even eat some of the baseline foods - just to make it even more of a fun challenge. Rice and some other foods are also included on the baseline for the more normal people, but it sure does make it more interesting... or less depending on how you look at it.
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