Our Family is Allergic to the Grocery Store

I never thought we would be that family.  You know?  The allergic to this, intolerant to that, gluten free family.

Food issues were headlined in magazines or the focus of blogs, which I conveniently passed over.  They weren’t our reality…

Until a couple of years ago, that is.

It all started with my husband.  Then, like a snowball rolling down a hill, it gained momentum and moved on to our son… then to me.

We thought we were on the right track, eating relatively healthy, drinking mainly water with a splash of lemon.  We’d been following the primal diet for a couple of years, meaning low carb, no breads, potatoes, or pastas.  We could enjoy the good fats like whole dairy, real butter, real cheese, and avocados.

We should have been all good, right?  Wrong!

My husband was sick.  Like, all the time.  It was one upper respiratory infection after another.  Finally, our doctor suggested he have a special blood test done called the ALCAT which would single out specific foods that his body was intolerant to.

We didn’t know what to expect with the results, but his high intolerance to lemon wasn’t all.  We learned he also needed to avoid gluten, grapefruit, and oregano, to name a few.  It took a bit of research, but I did my best to remove all gluten from our house.

Our son and I tried to be compassionate. We played along.

The reality though, was that our son had two types of rashes.  An eczema looking rash and a bumpy rash.  More than likely he was suffering from some of the same intolerances as his daddy.  We tried an elimination diet with him for a while but only had minimal improvement.  There was obviously something we were missing.  So, earlier this year, our son had the ALCAT test done as well.

His results became his best friend and worst enemy all in the same day.

He had many more foods to avoid than his dad.

I laugh now as I look back and remember all the times I lectured him on eating his vegetables.  I used to sneak them into other foods on his plate, unknowingly adding toxins into his body. Vegetables including string beans, cucumber, pinto beans, sweet potato, onion, pumpkin, zucchini and yellow squash were making my son sick.

The list goes on, but the biggest impact to his rash condition we discovered were strawberries and string beans.  The kid ate green beans raw, straight out of the garden, y’all.  And strawberries, his favorite fruit, were consumed on a daily basis. Like his dad though, within a few short weeks of avoiding the do-not-eat foods, his rash had vastly improved.

What we learned was psoriasis, was all gone.

I’m now a believer that the foods we eat can have a tremendous impact on our bodies.  Like his dad, our son has learned which foods from the list affect him more than others.

Then comes me.  I learned I had a healing deficiency and inflammation in my joints.  Already having one autoimmune disease (Graves), made me susceptible to acquiring another (like Lupus or Rheumatoid Arthritis,) unless I made major changes, changes my doctor said would affect my longevity of life.

That scared me enough to take him very seriously.

As it turns out, there are specific foods that contribute to inflammation that I needed to avoid.  Eating gluten free and avoiding nightshades were my new agenda.  What are nightshades you ask?  Well, white potato, eggplant, tomatoes, and peppers of all types, including bell pepper, jalapeno, and chili peppers. Additionally, I had to say goodbye to ketchup, salsa, or BBQ sauces.  Boo-hoo!

After learning of my own food issues, the wheels fell off the meal train.

That sounds dramatic, but I remember standing in my kitchen at meal time, wanting to throw up my hands and shout, I quit!

What one of us could eat, the others couldn’t and vice versa.   My mind was spinning.  It was utterly overwhelming.  How was I ever going to figure this all out?

Honestly?  It has not been an easy process for me.  I consider myself a failure in the kitchen on a good day, much less when all of our idiosyncrasies are added in.  But, I’ve persevered.  I started menu planning and find that having a plan helps so much.  We still stick mainly with a primal diet, but I’m testing the waters with Paleo to see how that might help keep our symptoms at bay.

Is it worth it?  We have discovered that while it is not easy, it is definitely worth it.

The various symptoms we all deal with are gone or minimal when we abstain from the foods that negatively affect us.  So, this is our new normal.  It’s our way of life.  Do I miss tomatoes?  Oh yes! Oh, so very much!  And occasionally I let myself have some in salsa or a salad.  It isn’t about complete deprivation after all.

What about your household?  What allergies and/or intolerances do you have to deal with?  Surely I’m not the lone ranger here.  I’d love to hear about what your family has to work around in the kitchen.