Gwennaford wrote:A long long ... L O N G ... .......................................... They recommended an elimination diet that you could do to help you track down foods that caused pain to flare when you ate them. .............................. Then you just kept adding back foods until you hit on one that caused a significant pain flare. ............................... So...today I'm thinking, could it actually be the CORN? ................................................ but d'ya think it could be the corn?
Gwen -
INDEED, it could be the corn! Years and years ago I put myself on an elimination diet - eliminating the "sinister seven" - wheat, corn, dairy, eggs, sugar, soy, and yeast. For several weeks, I ate none of these. Then I added them back one at a time. If there was no reaction (this wasn't for pain, but I JUST didn't feel good), then back to the elimination and then a couple of days later, another food was added. This is how I found out that I had a dairy allergy. The day that I added the dairy, within 30 minutes, I had a horrible headache, my pulse raised 13 beats per minute, my nose TOTALLY stuffed up, and I was so disoriented that it felt like I'd been drinking.
I ended up not eating any dairy for a year and a half.... just an interesting little side note -
Non-Dairy Creamer?
It has DAIRY in it! Non-Dairy Whipped Topping (aka Cool Whip)? -
Contains DIARY! That was when I became a meticulious label reader. My allergy was triggered by anything dairy - and there is something called sodium caseinate -
this is a dairy product!! It is a milk derivitive - a milk protein... At that point in time, not only would this ingredient give me an allergic reaction, but if I ate too much beef, I also had a reaction ("google" it in - it's true!!)
It was also during this period that I discovered sheep's milk products - Pecorino Romano - MARVELOUS - I used this in place of parmesean - in fact, I still do. Also, I ate sheep's milk feta cheese - DELICIOUS! A bit milder than cow's milk feta, but I LOVED it... After being off milk products for that extended period of time, I was gradually able to add dairy back into my diet. But to this day, I never have dairy more than one time during the day.... it's the "half glass" theory... If I keep the glass under 1/2 full, I can tolerate the mild symptoms. If I had (back in the day) cereal with milk for breakfast, a slice of pizza for lunch and lasagna for dinner - I would be a MESS! I would run red lights - HORRIBLE!!
Another benefit during that year and a half - no big black circles under my eyes! :-)
Anyway - Corn allergies are EXTREMELY common! And regardless of the weather, if you have a corn allergy and it's causing your symptoms, you'll have them.
And YES, I am interested in hearing about what happens!
Carolyn