In the past week I've cooked french toast, chicken schnitzel, veggie fried rice, sauteed chicken fillets, bread and butter pudding, chicken and leek soup with garlic bread - I've never been in the kitchen so much in my life.
No, I'm not training to be the next Masterchef, I'm cooking my own food to reduce my food preservatives and additives on this super strict Elimination diet. It's not some weird thing that I decided to pick up myself, I've been instructed by a dietician to do it for a few weeks to cut out all the naturally occurring food chemicals that I could possibly be allergic to. I can't have anything from coffee, diary, all fruits except pears, all vegetables except for a handful of green things I've never heard of in my life, soy sauce, pepper, any meat that isn't prepared by a butcher, even down to the type of oil I use...the list goes on.
Food intolerance is a rather uncomfortable (at best) and severe (at worst) phenomenon. It's so easy just to 'put up with the symptoms' and let your health slowly deteriorate, which is what I've done for a long time. Unfortunately, it got to the point where I would start stressing about eating in general because there was no knowing what could set me off. One night, it was a Max Brenner brownie sundae that created severe stomach cramping impending my ability to drive. Another day, it was a cheese board at work that gave me heart palpitations, hives, headaches and the shakes.
Finally, I decided that this was enough and finally decided to get it sorted by going to a dietician. If someone was to tell me that I would not be able to eat what I wanted, going out to eat, and that I would be spending copious amounts of time in the kitchen, I would have laughed in their face. I'm the biggest foodie around so this diet has been extremely tough for me.
The first few days were the worst, I was getting withdrawal symptoms from not having the usual foods that I have which resulted in extreme fatigue, constant hunger, and stress. I needed to go grocery shopping everyday to figure out what I wanted to eat, source out a butcher and ask them specifically when the meat was prepared, and prepare my own lunch everyday. And this is from someone who eats out 75% of the time.
The hardest part is finding a happy medium when socialising with friends. If you're going to a restaurant, you need to make sure that you ask the right questions to avoid any bad symptoms or reactions to what you are eating. You won't be able to eat what everyone else is eating and it's a bit of risk as to what you end up getting. So far, it's worked out alright and I'm glad that it hasn't put me off socialising.
After a few weeks of being on the strict elimination diet, I'll gradually begin to introduce different food chemicals in, one at a time. It will then become clear what I am exactly allergic to, whether it be several different additives or just one. The worst thing is, if I break it now, it will be difficult to tell later, and suddenly introducing something could send me into an allergic shock. It's basically treated like a scientific experiment, you reduce everything to baseline and then slowly test different chemicals and the reaction.
With the Christmas period just around the corner, things would probably get more difficult. I'll have to bring in my own dishes to any parties and make sure I stick to what I can eat when out at parties. I've already lost some weight from the diet, eating much more healthier and learning to cook some new dishes in the process. The outcome could only be a good thing, and like everything else, you suffer in the short time for long term gains.
Have a great Christmas everyone and I'll report back to how I'm feeling after this is all over.
