Ok girls I'll warn you - my life over the past 4-6 years (since kidlets were born!), has been so focused on dietary interventions that I can get a little carried away when I talk about it!! (I have friends that have eyes that glaze over when I start LOL)
Both my girls and I suffer heaps of food allergies (I have 17 allergens! The list includes: wheat, dairy, soy, rice, corn, egg, goat milk, sheep milk, almond, chilli, cocoa, and some others that I can't even remember right now LOL), I have hypoglycaemia and also low blood pressure, we are all intolerant of fructose, as well as fairly sensitive to natural chemicals found in foods - such as salycilates, amines and glutamates. Earlier this year we completed a 2 year biomedical intervention program that focussed on avoiding our allergens, ensuring we were on the right doses of supplementation due to our limited diets, and also helping with just general other issues. It was an amazing learning experience, (overwhelming so at times!), but the results have been worth it.
So, the main things I've focused on for my own issues are lots of protein (meat at 2 meals per day), lots of quinoa grain and flour - its very high in protein as well as being low gi, we use chickpea flour as our main flour though, 6 meals a day - protein at every single meal & snack. We've had to focus on meats as complete proteins because we can't eat the other animal sources and to combine proteins to ensure we get enough protein, we just physically couldn't eat as much as we'd need. Protein is vital to helping recover from allergies. I've also had to ensure that I have a caffeinated drink (tea) as soon as I wake up and again around 3pm, to help boost my blood pressure, as well as ensuring I have an adequate salt intake - these two things seem to keep the BP under control. Of course, every meal is low gi and if we do eat something high in gi it must be with something low gi at the same time.
Fruits & Veg don't feature highly purely because between the fructose content, and the natural chemicals, there are very few that are easily tolerated by us all.
Interestingly, I've recently discovered that hypoglycaemia can be worsened by fructose intolerance - I can attest to this as I had my worst ever hypo after eating some apple pie! (Apple is very high in fructose).
But, I'm still waiting on a few tests at the moment because the hypoglycaemia has been a bit out of whack at the moment - so it will be interesting to see what comes of that. I must admit, I haven't cut sugar (regular sucrose that is) out entirely yet, but I know I'm better without it - I am just reluctant as I KNOW I'm addicted LOL I strongly suspect it will be suggested to me at my next appt though.
As for the chemical side of things... BM I don't know if there is any specific test my friends had (I only got to know them after they were diagnosed and here in Aus, if you mention MCS to certain medical professionals you are lumped into the "nutjob" group and ignored). But, its become very evident in their lives when they avoid things, and then have exposures.
Both my girls are also chemically sensitive (both the foods as above, and other chems), and something as simple as being in a room where fly spray has been used, can invoke a nasty reaction - behavioural, constipation, headaches, skin etc. Chlorinated pools are no go, fragranced deodorant and personal care products cannot be used in my house etc.
I don't know if you guys have heard of the "Failsafe Diet" - its quite big here and I know a few US followers, but its very good at helping to work out food chemical intolerances.
Lately, I have been introducing some of my allergens, and I'm now doing ok (after a very strict 2 year abstinence) with some of them - hello cocoa and chilli LOL, but whenever I eat dairy and wheat I can guarantee i will react... the difference now is that I can easily spot the reaction and I now indulge knowing full well there will be consequences!
I could write for days on this, but I wont bore you all to tears LOL But feel free to ask me anything you like about our lives with so so many food issues and chemical sensitivity!
