Post-college, I started to pay attention to the connection between the food I ate and how it made me feel, so I started to read labels and journal. Doritos and how they made me feel, stands out the most. They made me feel awful but I loved them so much. In fact, I would eat an entire bag in one sitting and even put them on a sandwich. MMMM…crunchy!
What I realized most of all was that the labels that had the words I could not pronounce were the foods that made me feel the worst. Also, combinations of certain foods would cause an occasional asthma attack.
With all of my trial and error I decided it was time to see an allergy doctor. I went through ALL the testing and the only thing they found that I was “officially” allergic to was eggs. I was beyond frustrated.
However, after showing my doctor the correlations between certain foods and how they made me feel, he mentioned the idea of having a sulfite allergy. This was not something that you could be “tested” for. At least at that time. If you are not familiar with sulfites, they are a preservative used to keep foods fresh. This was when my quest to feel better felt unstoppable. After all, food was starting to scare me.
I would order food at restaurants in my own “special” way and avoid anything and everything that might have sulfites, which is almost EVERYTHING. But I FELT AWESOME!! It became a part of my lifestyle and that was it. It wasn’t easy but I had NEVER felt better and to me that was worth it.
When I say it became a part of my lifestyle, I didn’t eat our wedding cake but instead ate a delicious sulfite free donut for that famous snapshot of the bride and groom shoving a piece of their cake into their mouths. When we ate out my typical order at a restaurant was, a plain, uncut baked potato so there was no chance of sulfites on it after cutting, plain chicken breast with the emphasis of NO seasoning or oils and carrot sticks. You are probably thinking this is so BORING and it was but I felt great! My relationship with food grew stronger. Our rehearsal dinner was at an Italian Restaurant. For this occasion I wanted to look “normal” so my mom brought my spaghetti dinner and the gracious kitchen warmed it up and plated it so I could be like everyone else. I had spent so many years feeling terrible, I just accepted it. I was so grateful to have the support of others but I had plenty of people that questioned it which was a challenge and hurtful but I stuck to it.
Until Wild Oats aka Whole Foods now, came to town. SO MANY MORE OPTIONS! As I tried new foods, I slowly started to feel bad again. Items that didn’t have sulfites made me feel “uncomfortable in my own skin” and I began to gain weight especially with my second pregnancy. I started to feel “out of control” with my eating again. This was about the time that gluten started to be a topic of conversation with many so I thought I would try to eat “gluten free”.
After months of trial and error by eliminating gluten, I went back to the same doctor, to find I had a gluten sensitivity. What I had realized was before the new products came into my life, I wasn’t eating much gluten. So once again, I FELT AWESOME! I do not have celiac disease but a gluten sensitivity and I have continued to maintain a gluten free lifestyle with the occasional slip up which usually does not make me feel great but I have learned my limitations too.
emi – coach kristen
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