My diet it is a changing. I suppose the new purpose of this blog is to document my next two months, when I will be struggling to stick with an allergy-free diet, given to me by a nutritionist who I'm not sure if I should believe.
My nutritionist is under the impression that I may be succeptible to salicylates (or, as I misapprehended, "salicytes") and gluten. Salicylates are good for you - it is salicytic acid in all its forms - and salicytes are in almost everything. To go on a salicyte-free diet is to eliminate all the foods that make eating a pleasure - chile peppers, herbs, mushrooms, broccoli, most spices, berries, almonds, tomatoes, olives, summer squash, wine. To make matters worse, my nutritionist is at the same time making me go gluten-free. So no wheat, oats, rye, buckwheat (it is a grass, but it appears on some lists), amaranth, or spelt. I am allowed to eat quinoa, but even that is rumored to have gluten!!! Sugar is going away, as are peanuts. I have purchased sunflower butter for a sweet treat...this is going to be so hard.
My nutritionist also told me that I don't take in enough protein. So I am increasing my consumption to 12 ounces a day!!! This is not easy for me, as I don't love eating meat - I haven't eaten red meat since 1984. And Soy is not an option - I'll be eliminating that as well.
She has taken me off Nexium, and of course, I am instantly suffering from reflux. These all-natural antacids seem seem to be doing the trick. She thinks that over time, if I decrease acid intake, then my reflux will go away. She hates Nexium and says that it prevents the absorption of many minerals and some vitamins.
If all goes well, she believes she can get me off a few other medications that I have been taking. She is giving me 5 days to get my house together - throw out the foods on the verboten list and shopping for things that I can eat. I've started easing into the diet today - no bread, no tomatoes, no breath mints (oops, just ate one). I think I can get through this....
Five-month Update: Successfully off the gluten, and the reflux is mostly gone. I don't have to take baking soda pills anymore - thank goodness. I've not been good about sticking to the salicylate-free diet, unfortunately. The salicylates I'm eating do not seem to be impacting my reflux, so I think I'm fine. Huzzah!
For more information on low-salicylate diets, you can check out these resources:
www.nutritionalconcepts.com - my nutritionist. She's wacky, but good. Nothing really specific to salicylates, but some interesting papers she's written on various diets.
HealthTouch Online has a one-pager that explains the foods that should be avoided.
Alternative-Doctor.com has a section on salicylates. Scroll down to "The Feingold Diet".
I like this chart of salicylate content of common foods
Hours of fun for hypochondriacs: here's a list of possible symptoms of salicylate intolerance. How many can you check off?
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