I’ve decided to conduct this experiment in nutrition to find out if I have a food sensitivity to dairy, to alkalize my tissues, build up my minerals, reduce my toxic load and to lose weight. This experiment will also help me to transition into a more healthful, whole foods diet and hopefully increase my metabolism. I’m publishing it here because I need to be accountable.
In February 2005 I quit smoking, which was one of my greatest accomplishments. I have smoked over thirty years. But something had to replace the pacifying influence of cigarettes, so I turned to food. My favorite foods are pizza and ice cream. I typically ate a pizza every week, a large pizza. (Actually, I did that for years even before I quit smoking.) My favorite snack is cheese and crackers. But I upped the ice cream consumption considerably.
Also, several months after I quit smoking, I quit caffeine, and was caffeine-free for a year and a half. But I substituted that habit with a daily decaf hot mocha from the coffee drive-up. I’m not a milk drinker (I believe pasteurized milk is very harmful), but here I was drinking a cup of milk with my mocha. A new addiction. By the end of the year I had gained forty pounds on top of the extra twenty I’ve carried most of my adult life.
Food Sensitivities
And so I think I am sensitive to dairy, because I crave it and seem to have it almost every day. Watch out for foods that you need to have every day. The George Mateljan Foundation has written a most excellent article on food sensitivities. It discusses the difference between food allergies, intolerances, and sensitivities, gut permeability, and addiction to such foods. It’s well worth reading.
The simplistic explanation of food sensitivities is that faulty digestion and damage to the intestinal wall lead to undigested food particles entering the blood stream. These particles are toxic to the body and the body responds. The response produces “symptoms.”
You could have a range of symptoms that are indicative of a sensitivity to certain foods. Wouldn’t it be foolish to take toxic drugs to suppress symptoms that are the result of a few foods you could easily avoid?
Many of the symptoms of food sensitivities including vomiting, diarrhea, blood in the stool, eczema, urticaria (hives), skin rashes, wheezing and runny noses, are associated with an allergic reaction to specific foods. However, food sensitivities may also cause fatigue, gas, bloating, mood swings, nervousness, migraines and eating disorders. These symptoms which are more commonly related to food intolerance are less often associated with the consumption of food. Clinical research is accumulating evidence that the sensitivity to food can also increase the severity of the symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis, asthma and other diseases normally not considered food related. –The George Mateljan Foundation
Day One’s Consumption
11:00 half a cantalope
11:50 1 white peach
13:00 3 plums
16:40 5 carrots, 6 stalks celery, some cabbage juiced
17:15 several handsful of roasted peanuts (whoops)
20:00 1 pear
20:50 large salad with romaine and red leaf lettuce, half a cucumber, 2 small heirloom tomatoes, cilantro, and a little olive oil and lemon juice
11:15 to bed
I noted that after I ate the pear I had a small bout of heartburn. I believe the peanuts were still being digested in my stomach. Next time I eat peanuts, they’ll be the last thing I eat in a day. It’s apparent from seeing this list that I don’t eat a lot. Years of dieting have slowed my metabolism. No wonder I’m fat!
What You Can Do as a Start Toward a Healthier Diet
Keep a diary of your daily food consumption. Take note of what percentage of your diet consists of whole foods. Watch out for foods that you have to eat almost every day. Sometimes just putting it down on paper will reveal imbalances that can suggest changes you need to make.
Now, I’ve gotta go eat!
