Whether you suffer with pesky health problems like allergies, being overweight, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Fibromyalgia, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Lupus, Crohn’s Disease or certain types of Arthritis, your daily diet plays a major role in how you feel, what symptoms you battle and how successful you’ll be in feeling better. I’ve lived through such an experience; I was sick for fifteen years. I started healing five years ago. Now I’m completely well using the same strategies and techniques that I share with my clients every day.
Step 1- Think for a moment and decide if there may be a food bothering you and/or making you feel bad. Fact: we’re human and eat things that we know will irritate our bodies. We may be aware of which food causes an unpleasant side effect, but do we always stay away from such a food? No, not necessarily. Sit down today and make a list of what foods should go on an “offender” list. (Hint: If a food produces one unpleasant symptom, it may cause other less noticeable ones, too.)
Step 2- Stop eating all offending foods! Okay, you say, I can think of a couple of possible troublemakers, but how can I figure out all of my problem foods? Fact 2: some trouble foods may not be easy to spot. Consciously, you avoid Uncle Charlie’s chili, but never consider that Aunt Sara’s yeast rolls may be harming you, too. Why? Because you love to eat them! We often crave foods that are “bad” for us. Plus, this second class of offending food may not produce immediate symptoms thereby prodding us to make that conscious link between eating the food and how badly you or I feel. (Doctors call this “delayed reaction food allergies” when the symptoms arrive later and cannot be easily attributed to consuming one particular food.)
Step 3- Clean up your diet by eliminating the confusion. One method to pinpoint problem foods is by using a simple Food Elimination Diet. This can be a good tool to help you figure out the foods that bother you-in other words, causing food allergy or food intolerance. Allergists or dieticians can advise and help you through the process, however many people are quite capable of carrying out an elimination diet on their own. It takes patience, persistence and being a bit of a detective.
*Bonus Tip #1: When I started on such a quest years ago, my allergist put me on a limited diet of rice, beef, bananas, green beans, celery, tea and water. (These were supposed to be “good foods” that were easily digested and caused few problems, but not everyone finds this to be true today. Beef is no longer recommended and some people cannot consume caffeinated products like tea, cola or coffee.) Be observant, listen to your body and figure out which foods cause your symptoms. Then restrict your diet to a limited number of foods until you stop having symptoms completely. Stick to this food regimen for a few weeks. Later you can add one new food choice about every third day to see if it causes a symptom. (Hint: when you re-introduce a “new” food, overeat it for a few meals to try to provoke a reaction.)
Note: If you have a complicated problem, this process can take months, but taking such a diet inventory may be worth your time and energy. Be willing to be your own detective. You may discover the foods that irritate your system and you won’t spend a dime at the allergist!
Step 4- Refine this process further by looking into other diet issues, such as blood type and genetics. These issues can play big roles in how your body functions in our complicated world. Some of the best books on this subject are in Dr. Peter J. D’Adamo’s series that begins with Eat Right 4 Your Type (4 Blood Types, 4 Diets). Dr. D’Adamo discusses how foods can create symptoms, including weight gain and hypothyroidism.
**Bonus Tip #2: In the beginning, people with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Fibromyalgia and similar illnesses function better by totally eliminating certain foods from their diet. Removing white flour, milk products and all corn products for someone with Fibromyalgia can help to lessen symptoms. Take away Aspartame (i.e. Nutrasweet™ or phenylalanine) and monosodium glutatmate (MSG) and you’ll get more incredible results. Additionally, some people discover that they do better by cutting out refined sugar from their diet altogether. New scientific studies are revealing that consuming a lower amount of sugar tends to reduce inflammation in the body.
Step 5- If you want faster answers than going through this complicated process, investigate one of the new alternative methods of healing and getting well-such as ELT, an amazing energy healing protocol that is helping people by the thousands! With ELT the body systems re-program and re-set to become whole again. ELT helps the body heal itself from disease, dysfunction and (as one example) food problems. The process can occur relatively fast, plus ELT is usually painless, low cost and effective for the long term.
To find out more information about avoiding allergies and healing many health problems, check out a valuable free report, “The Fatigue Factor: 5 Strategies to Leave Fatigue in the dust, Start Feeling Better Fast and Find Your Own Healing From Fibromyalgia, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Allergies or Autoimmune Illness” at www.fatiguefactorreport.com.
