My husband has been doing a special diet recently. We heard about it from my sister. It is called Eat Right For Your Type. You eat a specific diet, tailored to each blood type. (positive or negative doesn't matter) My husband and my sister are both O blood types. For their specific diet, they are not to have any wheat. And to eat more red meat than chicken or turkey. The only problem with this is that I'm an A blood type, and under my type, my consumption of red meat is supposed to be kept to a minimum. (which is fine with me. other than my In-n-out hamburgers of course)
There are some other things, but my husband has been doing it for most of the summer. My sister had been doing it for much longer than that. My husband hasn't mentioned that he feels hugely different or anything like that. He did say before he started that he had been experiencing a little bit of heartburn/acid reflux type stuff. Since he's been on the diet, he hasn't said anything about it. (I would have heard about it if he was still experiencing it) My sister on the other was finally out of pain most of the time. For almost two years, she has been experiencing major acid reflux. To the point that she couldn't take care of her family. She has been to multiple doctors, GI specialists and others. They would just put her on medication, and not really mention too much about her diet other than to avoid acidic foods. (before this even started, she was into grains other than wheat, but really strove to feed her family whole grain and very healthy foods) So she found and started to strictly adhere to this blood type diet. She had a huge change. She had to eliminate most dairy (she could only eat mozzarella cheese), all wheat/gluten , and a few other things. She was finally out of pain, for the most part, and rarely had any issues. Well, recently she went and got an allergy test. She had been suffering from seasonal type allergies and wanted to find out what her problem was. Well, she found out that she was allergic to dust and dust mites. But also to wheat and oatmeal!!!! And tomatoes. No wonder she was in so much pain. She had been eating oatmeal for breakfast and ate sandwiches on whole wheat bread. She has eliminated both of those from her diet, and can now eat dairy. What I find interesting about that is that I used to feed Andrew oatmeal for breakfast, and while I was cleaning him up noticed that around his mouth where the oatmeal had touched, was a little red. And his diapers were always horrible and for the first few years of his life, I was constantly battling horrible diaper rashes. I stopped feeding him oatmeal regularly, and his bottom cleared, his diapers were no longer so horrible. With Lucy, I would feed her sweet potatoes, and she would get hives on a very small area of her body. They wouldn't ever stay in the same place, but would jump around on her body. I stopped feeding her sweet potatoes, and never saw the hives again. Food allergies have never really run in our family, but all of this makes me question a lot of what we ate growing up, and about my grandparents stomach issues.
My best friend has two boys. The oldest has always been on the very small side. In fact, he is 3 1/2, but isn't any bigger than his little brother who just turned 2. He has always had a hard time sleeping through the night, and eating. They recently moved to Southern California for her husbands job, and before their insurance ran out, she took them to the doctor for a well baby check up. They ran a blood test on her oldest, and there were some interesting things that came out of that. They recently had a biopsy done on his intestines, and this poor little guy has Celiac Disease. He cannot have any wheat/gluten at all. As I was talking to her yesterday she was going through her cupboards and looking at all the ingredients of everything, with specific directions on what has wheat/gluten in it and what doesn't. She almost felt like she needed to go back and take an organic chemistry class. The names were really confusing. Anyway, they are going gluten free as soon as possible.
There is a company called Bobs Red Mill that makes many many things that are gluten free. And also has many different grains like Amaranth, Quinoa (pronounced Keen-wa), and Spelt. There are many many other companies that sell gluten free cookies, bread, cereal......
We ate the Bobs Red Mill gluten free pancakes this morning, and they are good!! They fluff up and taste just as good as any other pancake I've ever had.
My sister was telling me about a friend of hers that has a little boy that can only eat 6 different things. There are others in the world that cannot eat anything, but have to have a feeding tube going directly into their intestines.
After all of this, I am really wondering about food allergies. And the food that is in our grocery stores. I would love to get my husband and I tested to see if we have any. And in a few years, the kids. They can grow out of some allergies, but I still hesitate to give Andrew oatmeal. And not long ago, we ate some baked sweet potatoes, and we gave some to Lucy since she hadn't had any in at least a year. Her diaper was horrible. So, no more sweet potatoes for her. Acid Reflux issues just may be that you're allergic to a specific food, rather than stomach acid issues.
Why am I posting about this?? Because I think it is interesting, and eating some of these different grains sure can't hurt us. And maybe you have stomach issues and this will get you to the doctor to get an allergy test.....
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4 comments:
There is a big difference between an allergy and a sensitivity. An allergy is life threatening and causes anaphlaxis.
A sensitivity could cause indigestion, discomfort, hyperactivity, sleep problems, concentration problems, weight gain/loss, acne, etc etc etc.
That said, my son Jordan is lactose intolerant. He has a very rare congenital deficiency and has been way since birth. Less than 50 people in the world have ever been diagnosed with this, and we constantly face issues with misunderstandings-people thinking he will die if he has milk products- he will just get a severe stomachache & diarrhea. He would die if he had too much milk for a prolonged period, and almost died as an infant because breast milk is loaded with lactose.
However, a person literally *allergic* to milk could die in minutes of drinking it, unless he gets an injection. For my son, this would not be the case.
I guess what I'm saying is that if your kids had actual allergies, you would know about it because they would be having trouble breathing and/or getting hives, etc when they are exposed to a certain food. If they have sensitivities, you can find this out by eliminating a food for 3 days from their diets and see if the health/behavior problems go away. With many sensitivities, a doctor will tell you to do the exact same thing, so why not save yourself the copay?
To get a medical diagnosis for the cause of a sensitivity besides just an elimination diet is much harder than for a actual allergy. Allergies are tested for using scratch tests, but for instance, to be positively diagnosed with what my son has, you have to have samples taken from the small intestine and sent to Norway for analysis.
Other things that can help with sensitivities without making diet changes are taking probiotics or digestive enzymes.
i looked up wheat allergy, and on WebMD it said that you would also have hay fever as a reaction to wheat. usually hay fever isn't associated with a food allergy. usually with things that are in the air. sometimes it isn't so easy as eliminating just the one food. going completely wheat free is a huge thing.
my sister couldn't function hardly when she was in a lot of pain. and she tried enzyme supplements, and other things, and nothing got better. now that she is aware, she is hoping to get off of the acid reflux meds that she is currently on.
my post was just to make the few people that actually read my blog a little more aware. growing up and even as an adult, i had no idea that people could be allergic to wheat, or even milk. lack of education i guess. but even when we are well informed, we still don't know everything about it. but for now, andrew won't get to eat oatmeal, and lucy will not be eating sweet potatoes. (and i don't have copays. but i know most everyone else does...its pretty easy for me to go to the doctor. living next to a major military hospital has some advantages...)
I hope my comment didn't come across wrong...by eliminating one food, I meant if you were eliminating say wheat you would eliminate every food in your diet containing wheat for 3 days to find out if wheat is causing the problem. That is why I mentioned doctor visits, its a waste of time (& money for most of us) for something you can easily determine on your own.
I did not mean to create the impression I was criticizing or disagreeing with your & your family's experience, I was just trying to provide more information that might be helpful.
Have a great day!
TJ -
I am so glad that you posted this! Not just because it's my kid that has Celiac - but because it is Celiac Awareness Month and not everyone knows that the disease exists.
I sure didn't until Will got the diagnosis....
Thanks!
Jen - I am sorry to hear about Jordan! I just read an MSN article about a child that can only eat six things - he is allergic to EVERYTHING else. I struggle just to comprehend what life will be like for my 3 year-old with ONE issue, that I cannot fathom this. Thanks for your information too!
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