[tweetmeme source=”elizabethev” only_single=false]After a month of following a low FODMAP diet, carefully tracking what I ate and how it made me feel, and spending more time in grocery store aisles reading labels than I ever imagined possible, I returned to the RD yesterday morning for my first follow up appointment.
I continued to keep notes on my diet and symptoms after the four week elimination phase, so I brought notes about what I thought was bothering me.
I’ve avoided all caffeine and artificial sweeteners (except for a sip of Nick’s Diet Coke post-Reach the Beach, but I absolved myself of that sin immediately because I was barely human at that point). The only alcohol I consumed in five weeks was two sips of Champagne, and I didn’t have a single drop of agave or honey.
Lactose was on the original “no” list, so when I had a slice of pizza and just barely lived to regret it (slight exaggeration… slight), I assumed dairy was the culprit. Similarly, when I got a stomach ache after slurping (in a ladylike way) down a cup of tomato soup, I surmised that someone slipped some cream into the pot. And when a tomato, mozzarella and pesto panini nearly did me in, I blamed the mozzarella. Obviously.
Turns out, feeling good is not a matter of guessing. There’s a science to all of this. And medical experts and medical experts because they have medical expertise, not because they guess about what’s in their soup. Duh.
After we reviewed the results of my comprehensive food panel (a blood test I took a few weeks ago), it appears that I am strongly reactive (like, in a negative way) to baker’s yeast, brewer’s yeast, and coffee. I’m moderately reactive to garlic (whyyyyyyyyyy), gluten, grape, peanut, white potatoes, tomatoes (again, whyyyyyyyyyyy), and wheat.
Please note that I am not at all reactive to milk. Lobster’s fine, too. Not that I have any desire to eat one. But still. I guess that’s good to know. In case I swim by one, or something.
Because I’ve felt a lot better since making the first set of changes, my RD set up a plan for the next six weeks using a low FODMAP diet as the baseline, with a few changes to reflect the potential aforementioned allergies. Oh, and I get to add beans back to the mix. Hallelujah for that. Over the course of six weeks or so, I will reintroduce specific foods (in a specific order) for one day at a time, note any symptoms, and go back to my baseline diet for 24-48 hours before introducing a different food or food group. This “challenge phase” will help us narrow or expand my diet based on how I am feeling.
The foods or food groups in question:
- Gluten
- Milk
- Wheat (as long as I don’t react to gluten)
- Baker’s yeast
- Brewer’s yeast
- Tomato
- Peanuts
- Fructose
- Fructans
- Sorbitol and Xylitol
- Garlic (if I don’t react to fructans)
- Lactose-free, low-fat dairy (if I react to low-fat regular dairy)
Sound like fun, right? Right. I’m inclined to want to entirely avoid anything that might bother me (if it feels good, do it… if it doesn’t feel good, don’t do it), but I suppose trial and error is important. I am more than willing to try just about anything once, though. Or twice. Especially if the end result is feeling better. And I promise to stop playing amateur allergy detective. I don’t promise to stop playing amateur regular detective, though.
I’m off to eat six hundred beans, four containers of hummus, and a bowl of sprouts for good measure.
Also On Tap for Today:
- Spray tan time (yes, really)
- #photoadayjune starts tomorrow… because June starts tomorrow
- Breaking out the pink pants
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Do you have any allergies? Or are you the perfect human?
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