Allergies, a personal note

So, I finally got the chance to do some allergy testing and not unsurprisingly it turns out I have some allergies. Well, not really just "some" allergies - more like a lot of 'em. Nothing like an "eat a peanut and die" kind of allergy, but at least I know what causes my problems now.  I've tested it; avoiding the foods the blood test points out does work. It's just not easy.

I'm foremost allergic to brewer's yeast, which as I understand thanks to the internet means pretty much all alcohol is off-limits. That's fine, I guess. Most of my life has been filled with little- or no- drinking anyway. There was a time when my friends would see me with a drink and ask whether I actually drank or not.  So, now I have a true, physical reason to avoid it.

But a brewer's yeast allergy doesn't bother me. Neither does the blue cheese allergy which is 3rd on the list of personal no-no's. In second place is corn. Fourth? Eggs. Great. Like those aren't found in absolutely everything!  It's been so long since I've been blogging (since April? Wow.) that I've forgotten a good number of contacts that I had and miss... But at least there are resources.  I'm either going to have to memorize lists like this or just let this influence me to live the way I know I should.

That's the way to look at adversity, right? How can it make me better? Basically the foods I'm not allergic to are almost all vegetables and fruits, and all meats except pork. So I'm looking at essentially a primal kind of diet. I can get used to that, I think.

I don't know whether this one allergy test tells me whether I'm only allergic now and if I can heal and incorporate some of the off-limit foods - like green beans. I also don't know whether this really only tests "mainstream" foods; it says I'm allergic to milk but does that mean raw milk? I personally doubt it.

I'm not sure where to go from here, except to just keep eating more greens.  I'm safe with greens.

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Book Review: The Unhealthy Truth

Cover via Amazon

I literally just finished The Unhealthy Truth by Robyn O'Brien and cannot emphasize what a blessing it is to the state of health for anyone who may read it. The book follows the discoveries of a woman who can easily be described as a very typical working mom. 


Her first awakening came with an unexpected allergic reaction of her youngest child to some eggs, and this discovery eventually leads her to the revelation that the people and organizations she thought were looking out for her health were more concerned about how much money they could fit in their bank accounts. 

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How Sugars cause Allergies

I have to quote this directly from "Lick the Sugar Habit"

Every food we eat needs to be digested and metabolized by a variety of enzymes before it can be used by our cells. Enzymes will (not) work without the proper functioning minerals to help them out. If the usable minerals in the body decrease, such as in the presence of sugar, it is difficult for the body to digest anything in the small intestine because of the lack (or decrease) of functioning enzymes. Therefore, when you eat sugar, any food that is in the stomach at the time will become the food to which you can become allergic. This continued inability to digest a particular food eventually results in an allergy to that undigested, decomposing food.

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The pulse test

While not all foods to which you are allergic will alter your heartrate, if you ingest a food and your pulse rate increases or decreases at least ten beats per minute over the resting rate, chances are you are not metabolizing that food correctly. You have developed an allergic sensitivity to it.

- Lick the Sugar Habit

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