new foods to eat, new foods to avoid

If this blog is going to be at all useful, I really should be contributing to it consistently. Ah well. It’s a bit of a navel-gazing exercise anyway, unless other people find it and decide to read it … and it helps them in some way to figure out what’s going on with their bodies as well.

So. Some movement in the “what’s in/what’s out” theme.

Back In (In Moderation):

Turkey (lean ground and/or bacon form)
Pork (bacon form)

Out:

Peanuts (I can eat 3 or 4 maybe and then I start scratching; more than that and I have that nauseous reaction)
Cauliflower (suspected — bad gas & heartburn reaction)
Pumpkin Seeds (suspected — bad night after eating them)

Some other notes. If you are using Gatorade to settle your stomach and you have ingredient issues, you need to know that the American formulation is quite different (at least on the label) from the Canadian formulation. I’m not sure whether the ingredients themselves are that different or whether it’s a matter of how specific ingredients are labeled between the two countries.

bad day

Yesterday (and the night that preceded it) was bad.

I had what was either (a) a flare-up, or (b) a bout of the 24 hour stomach flu, or (c) a lovely case of food poisoning.  With me, it’s hard to tell which is which unfortunately.

Given the range of things I ate on Sunday, it could have been triggered by any of the following:

1. Shrimp (defrosted and washed), mixed with mayo and wasabi mustard;
2. A tiny piece of unwashed sheep’s milk feta that I picked up from ARZ Market and which might have come from Iran;
3. New kind of hard cheese that looked like a brown and yellow marble slab;
4. Middle eastern sweet that was essentially an eggroll-shaped pastry doused in honey and filled with a creamy custard filling (had about half of one);
5. Half of a halloween-sized Kit Kat bar;
6. Antipasto squid fresh from the jar and marinated in oil and vinegar;
7. Any of the above;
8. None of the above!!

After a bad night and morning, I spent the rest of the day (and night) sleeping.  Food I ate yesterday that I was able to hold down:

1. Water laced with liquid strawberry sugar something;
2. Toast with strawberry jam;
3. Toast with mozarella cheese;
4. Vegetable noodle soup without the dried vegetables but with the powdered soup broth, a bit of parmesan cheese and a tiny bit of olive oil mayo;
5. Eggelach (egg yolks) cooked in plain boiled potato and mushroom soup;
6. Halloween sized Coffee Crisp bar to deal with the lack-of-coffee headache I had by about 9 PM.

Played it carefully today.  It’s 3:25 PM and I’m about ready to fall over again from tiredness so I may drink another gatorade just to keep my energy going long enough to pick my son up from school after work.  In the meantime, here is what I ate today that I seem to be managing ok with:

1. Coffee with YU basmati rice milk and 2 teaspoons of sugar (in the morning);
2. Eggelach;
3. Grilled cheese sandwich on toasted white bread;
4. Leftover potato mushroom soup heated up;
5. More black coffee (not the best idea – gave me heartburn).

Ugh.

meet the edible woman (part 1)

A few years ago I started writing up what I had hoped to turn into a book: information on multiple and overlapping food sensitivities, and what to do if your child (or toddler) ended up being a picky eater who *also* happened to have tons of overlapping food issues. In the last month or so, I’ve turned the concept into a blog and have been populating it first with information and later (whenever I get around to it) I’ll start sharing some of my recipes as well.

There is a reason I had the ability to help my child. Because *I* suffer from food-related issues.

Right now, I’m unfortunately going through a flare-up period. I’m not sure what kicked it off — it might have been the nasty stomach bug that went around last winter which I suffered from repeatedly. But as of today, here are all of the things I have to either avoid or watch out for:

Avoid Completely:

• Beef
• Lamb
• Pork
  
• Chicken
• Turkey
• Beans
• Chickpeas
• Corn
• Egg whites
• Milk (cow), especially:
   
  • actual milk
  • cooked butter
  • cream sauces
  • cream cheese
  • “fresh” or “unripened” cheese (e.g. bocconcini, haloumi etc.)
  • full fat ice cream or gelato
    
• Milk (goat)
• Gluten*
• Wheat*
  

*Both gluten and wheat are things I should not be consuming. However, for some reason I can’t explain, when I have a stomach flare-up the wheat helps. For a while at least. Plus, I’ve lost so many foods that I’ve been breaking the rules and eating it. Sigh

Have Only Very Occasionally:

• Garlic
• Tomatoes
• Citrus (any)
• Fruit (any)
• Peanuts [more than once in a very blue moon and it either upsets my stomach or gives me hives]
• Flax [after having it 3 consecutive days, either I get hives or my hair starts falling out!]
• Black pepper
• Red pepper
• Green pepper

Have in moderation – i.e. don’t overdo it:

• Salmon
• Egg yolks

This, btw, is my current list … but it’s not necessarily the same with each flare-up. My reactions range from heartburn, diarrhea and hives to nausea and vomiting. Sugar helps a bit (i.e. sucking on something sugary, like a candy or a rock sugar piece); gatorade (or powerade) helps a LOT. Been trying to figure why, but haven’t narrowed down an answer yet.

What I’m going to try to do here is to share what I’m going through as well as some of the recipes and techniques I find to cope with this. If any of what I’m saying resonates with you, please jump in and comment — I’d love to hear from you.

BTW … in case you’re wondering about the reference to “Edible Woman” in the title of this post, it’s a book written originally in the 1980’s by Canadian author Margaret Atwood.