Elimination diet follow-up

[moominmolly]

So, that whole month-long experiment led me to be wary of two things: wheat in quantity, and eggs at all. I've been fiddling with my intake of these two foods since the diet ended at the beginning of December, and I've found four things to be true:

* Egg yolks seem to make me feel sick, but egg whites do not.
* Wheat in moderation is okay, but if I have it at more than one meal in a day, my stomach feels tight and unpleasant.
* Diner food doesn't make me feel queasy, if I replace eggs with egg beaters and skip the toast and pancakes.
* I didn't realize how often I felt sick to my stomach, until it went away.

Now, let me add a fifth one to the list. My typical nervous reaction to various triggers is nausea, and perhaps vomiting. I keep my tension in my stomach, and I always figured that was why I got sick to my stomach in stressful situations. But no: no! That is gone. I've poked some pretty significant nausea triggers in the past few weeks, and not once have I thrown up, or even felt sick to my stomach for very long. This is -- I mean, this is phenomenal.

Goodbye, fried-egg-over-easy-on-wheat-toast! You are officially not worth the bother.

Comments

[twoeleven.livejournal.com]

I mean, this is phenomenal.
most excellent!

i had a similar reaction when i stopped snorting all the things i'm allergic to. :)

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

stopped snorting all the things i'm allergic to.

My oldest brother discovered he was slightly allergic to cats by going to college and suddenly... clearing up!

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

Man, I want a fried egg on toast now.

Of course, I'm not actually hungry, the smell of eggs is also a nausea trigger for the husband, and we have neither eggs nor bread in the house ;). So I think I will be able to resist the temptation.

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

Fried egg on toast! Shit yeah.

Actually, I probably shouldn't admit this in public, but I will also miss egg-and-cheese croissant sandwiches from Dunkin Donuts.

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

You're right. You shouldn't have admitted that in public ;).

[dbang.livejournal.com]

How sensitive are you to eggs? You mention eggs as an entree, but what about the amount of eggs used in, say, muffins, or in a custard or something?

the wheat in quantity, man, that just SUCKS.

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

A whole egg yolk seems too much, but a muffin or a slice of cake seems to be fine (or at least acceptable).

I actually find that limiting wheat to one meal per day isn't hard! I didn't like trying to cut it out entirely, but once a day actually just entails choosing the best possible wheat option for the day (usually, wheat bread or something at lunch).

Saddest loss: creme brulee. I can have a spoonful or two, but not a whole one. *snif*

[dancingwolfgrrl.livejournal.com]

There are at least a couple of eggless creme brulee recipes, although I have no idea if they're any good!

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

I'm willing to jump on that grenade and find out. I even have chestnut puree hanging around!

[dancingwolfgrrl.livejournal.com]

I even have chestnut puree hanging around!

*looks admiringly at you*
Your food geekery, it is vast and powerful!

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

Though, on the second one, I might try the full-fat dairy and just use egg substitute. It probably won't be perfect, but more dairy fat has got to make it tastier.

[gentlescholar.livejournal.com]

Congratulations on figuring all that out! That's great stuff for you to know!

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

Thank you! To be honest, I didn't actually expect to get results, and so this is a pleasant surprise. :)

[harimad.livejournal.com]

Then why did you do it?

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

Just in case.

[veek.livejournal.com]

I will learn to make meringue for you. Or just cheat and buy it at a good bakery, preferably somewhere in Holland. Do the Dutch like meringue? Maybe we'd need to go elsewhere. All in search of meringue, you understand.

Wonder what it is in the yolk that makes it disagree with you... food and other allergies are fascinating to me.

[weegoddess.livejournal.com]

I've spent many years perfecting a baked meringue recipe. It's fussy but not impossible. And well worth the effort.

[veek.livejournal.com]

Well, I've botched it a few times, so if you care to share a recipe and/or tips I'd love it.

Same goes for D!

[weegoddess.livejournal.com]

I juust found this while going through some ancient emails. Whups.

My meringues tips? Use the insides of clean new paper bags and make them only on sunny (read: not humid) days. Every oven is different and you might need to experiment with yours to see how hot/how long it needs.

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

D makes excellent meringues, actually. But perhaps we should find the source of meringue, just to be sure that he's got it right.

I'd love to know what it is that disagrees with me, and whether it's just that there's less of it in the whites, or perhaps none at all? but I have no good way to find out.

I also wonder precisely where my wheat tolerance is. But, I bet that one's a sliding scale, and not worth pinning down.

I really did find the elimination diet experiment to be fascinating.

[ex-digitalis869.livejournal.com]

That's very cool! I'm glad your experiment produced some interesting results.

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

Yeah! I'm so thrilled!

elimination diet?

[vespid-interest.livejournal.com]

Can you tell me a little more about your elimination diet? Your past entries don't say anything, unless it is hidden from prying eyes such as mine. I have somewhat similiar symptoms to what you're describing, but maybe not bad enough that I could tell if anything is better on a particular day.

Re: elimination diet?

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

Hi!

I kept all the elimination diet posts in this (http://www.livejournal.com/tools/memories.bml?user=moominmolly&keyword=elimination+diet&filter=all) memory category. It took a month, and I had to be ultra-strict about every single thing that I ingested, but it was worth it.

Re: elimination diet?

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

And for a somewhat more dramatic account, you can read about (http://www.livejournal.com/tools/memories.bml?user=tafkar&keyword=Elimination+diet&filter=all) tafkar, who went on an elimination diet to figure out why she felt like she had achalasia.

Re: elimination diet?

[vespid-interest.livejournal.com]

Thanks to both of you -- this is both encouraging and horrifying.

Re: elimination diet?

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

Out of curiosity, why is it horrifying? A few people have said similar things to me, but I found the whole thing kind of fiddly and fascinating, and in retrospect I'm thrilled that I did it. At the time, it even forced me to cook all of my meals, which was an entertaining exercise.

Re: elimination diet?

[vespid-interest.livejournal.com]

Horrifying for four reasons:
- I will have to pay attention to food, something I haven't done and don't really know how to do. Ingredients, calories, nutrition -- not domains I know about.
- I don't really cook anything, with this I'll have to cook everything for six weeks. I expect to do it badly, and I'll have to find the time.
- I have a weird schedule with food and I'll have to break it to do this diet (which is sure to make me feel sick). Also, if this works then I'll get sick. And what if I am allergic to something I really like?
- No sugar or caffeine? HORROR! :) What if I start the elimination diet with just these two things, and expand from there?

But I know doing this would eventually help me.

[weegoddess.livejournal.com]

I sooooo hear ya, hon. I never realized how congested I was during my ENTIRE childhood until I got away from dairy long enough. That, and living without pets.

What a revelation. And I cna never go back.

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

Yes! I've tried cheating, and it just immediately isn't worth the suffering. Kind of fascinating.

[rednikki.livejournal.com]

Yay! I'm so glad that you're having the kind of results that I did - in the "wow, this horrible physical problem that I thought was just me was actually caused by food" way. *bounces*

[keyne.livejournal.com]

This is -- I mean, this is phenomenal.

Hip, hip, hooray!

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

How's your inverse experiment going with dairy?

[keyne.livejournal.com]

Well, not badly at all, at all. I should be posting about it before long. In the meantime, well -- with dinner I had my first 8-oz. cup of regular ol' milk in twenty years, and I'm not dead yet :)

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

Wow!! That is awesome. I look forward to hearing about it more, when it's post-worthy. :)

[harimad.livejournal.com]

How do you do with other grains?

My SO doesn't much like wheat at all but likes other grains. We've eaten a great deal of rice in our time together. Recently I've gotten the trick of brown rice quickly (15 minutes + pressure cooker = whole grain happiness). A couple of weeks ago I made Smoked Pheasant & Barley Soup and the SO remembered that barley is tasty. Since then I've made two or three "pots o' stuff" with barley.

Congratulations on eliminating an unpleasant part of your life.

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

To be honest, I've been avoiding most grains aside from rice. But they seem okay -- and man, do I love barley! I've got some in the cabinet, and I'm in a mood for soup. Perhaps I'll actually make some. :)

Smoked pheasant? Did you buy it, or come by it more naturally? What does it taste like?

[harimad.livejournal.com]

My boss hunts and gives me a bird or two each year. This year the bird was smoked. Stripping the meat off the bones took quite a while, the rest was easy.

Smoked pheasant in soup tastes pungent & tasty, smoked pleasant along probably is a bit gamy and I know its tough. I've always made soup from the birds I get. There are two more, unsmoked :-< in the freezer. I think I'll tea-smoke one for soup and actually eat the other.

Cruiser says "[Smoked pheasant] tastes like chicken." Not helpful.

[wolfkitn.livejournal.com]

wow! that is so cool!

this reminded me of when i made my favorite brownie recipe (moosewood) with certain alterations for a gathering which included one friend who couldn't eat eggs or wheat flour. they turned out a bit weird, but certainly edible (i substituted apple sauce for the eggs, and oat flour for the wheat flour). the result was kind of... i dunno... sticky, sweet, gooey, not "cakey" at all... but the pan of brownies disappeared just about as fast as they typically do when i make them with the regular recipe (which includes 5 eggs!). (i wonder how they'd be with a different type of flour. i have heard since making those brownies that oat flour reacts significantly differently than wheat flour that changing the type of flour might change the consistency a great deal in itself.)

[harimad.livejournal.com]

http://www.chebe.com/

I have a glowing third-hand recommendation for these guys, saying the regular mix is good but the pizza mix is better.

[dietrich.livejournal.com]

This is great!

I wish I were as happy with my own results. It seems I had mild sensitivities to so many things that I'm still sick a lot even though I've completely stopped eating yeast. I'm working on limiting my wheat and dairy intakes, and not getting readdicted to coffee (that is, withdrawing from it yet again at this point). But man! I wish it could have been ONE thing, y'know?

I feel like I might have to do it all over again.