Sensitivities/Allergies

October 9, 2012 by kelly104 2 Comments

I should clarify something. I say I have many food allergies, but this is not entirely correct. I have many food sensitivities. This means that potentially they could all go away, whereas allergies are permanent. Some of my sensitivities could turn out to be permanent allergies, but at this point I just don’t know. I tend to use the words interchangeably, so please forgive me.

My allergies/sensitivities are sorted into different categories based on the strength of my reaction to them. My 1’s are foods that I can eat every once and a while and should soon be able to take them off my allergy list completely. Some of my 1’s I can’t wait to add back in are potatoes and garlic. Three’s are allergies that may turn out to be permanent, especially if they have been 3’s the entire time I’ve been sick. These include things like broccoli, cauliflower, lettuce, and tomato. Gluten/wheat and milk are 1’s, but eggs are a 3.

I started being tested for food allergies a few months after I returned home from UEA. I had been given loads of antibiotics when I had mono/glandular fever, and this led to an overgrowth of yeast in my intestines, leading to my becoming sensitive to most of the foods I ate regularly during this time. That’s why so much of what I’m allergic to seems so healthy. I was sick, so I was trying to eat a lot of vegetables, and now I’m allergic to so many vegetables. This is what I looked like at the height of my illness:

Once I cut out my sensitive foods and started taking some supplements, I started getting better. I’ve been tested a few times for allergies since then and my list changes slightly each time. My current food allergy list is: wheat, milk, eggs, asparagus, broccoli, cabbage, carrot, cauliflower, celery, cucumber, eggplant (aubergine), garlic, grape, lemon, lettuce, pineapple, potato, rye, sesame, spinach, black tea, tomato, walnut, watermelon, yeast, blackberry, brazil nuts, brussel sprouts, buckwheat, carob, cherry, cloves, cottonseed, cranberry, flaxseed, hazelnut, horseradish, lime, paprika, parsley, pecan, red pepper, pumpkin, radish, sorghum, turnip, and vanilla bean.

This is what I look like now (with my lovely husband):

See the difference?!