I shouldn't have felt badly, this after all, is only the second day of the elimination diet - it can certainly take longer than this for any food-related symptoms to clear. But, after thinking we were seeing results already yesterday, it was a let-down.
However, this is a complicated process because there are just so many factors involved. Allergic people tend to have multiple allergies and their allergies can shift. Harry's always had springtime allergies: grass and who-knows-what-else. He mowed the lawn yesterday and this could be a delayed reaction to that. Or, he could have run past something that was pollinating today that set him off. Or, maybe it was the chalk dust in his classrooms. The list goes on and on.
I didn't write much about gluten sensitivity yesterday. For an excellent article on it, see Dr. Mark Hyman's blog at http://www.ultrawellness.com/blog/gluten. Dr. Hyman points out that gluten sensitivity is an autoimmune disease that creates inflammation throughout the body and can effect any organ system. It is estimated that 99% of people with gluten sensitivity don't know they're sensitive to it. We're probably as sensitive to gluten as we are because it's not a food we're genetically adapted to eating, we just didn't eat grasses as our species developed. Wheat was introduced into Europe only in the Middle Ages and 30% of people who hale from Europe have the gene for celiac disease. Because of our love of light, airy bread, the wheat used in the U.S. has a higher gluten content than that used in Europe. And gluten is everywhere - including in soup mixes, salad dressings, sauces, lipstick, some vitamins and medications, stamps, the glue on envelopes, and Play-Doh! Celiac disease can be found through medical testing, but other gluten sensitivities need to be found through eliminating it from the diet and seeing if you feel better with it gone. Some of the symptoms and diseases linked to gluten intolerance are: osteoporosis, IBS, anemia, fatique, rheumatoid arthritis, MS, anxiety, depression, the list goes on and on. Scariest of all, a study in the Journal of the AMA found that people with celiac disease or gluten sensitivity (whether or not diagnosed) had a higher risk of death from heart disease and cancer than the rest of the population. Yikes!
On that less-than-cheery note, here's what Harry ate on Day 2:
Breakfast: A smoothie made with Amazing Grass Green SuperFood, 1T fish oil,1/2 t flax oit, 1/2 T chia seeds, and a banana. He also had a bowl of Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free hot cereal. Water and his supplements (see Day 1 for list).
Lunch: 2 almond butter sandwiches on quinoa bread, carrot sticks, an apple, walnuts, pumpkin seeds, and a seltzer.
Dinner: Baked haddock, most of a hamburger, brown rice, sauteed cabbage.
Post-dinner snack: sauteed chicken breasts.
The biggest shock of this so far is how much protein Harry's eating. He ate 1 1/3 pounds of chicken breasts on Day 1 for lunch! Last night, after dinner he ate almost a pound more. I don't think this necessarily has anything to do with the elimination diet. He is a 17 year old distance runner after all - tearing those legs muscles and using all that energy each day is going to require quite a bit of nutrients for the repair!
Harry's still being a good soldier about this. His sister brought him back sweets from Italy. He wanted to at least see them, but knew it would be a while before he could eat them and he was fine with that. However, this morning he asked if he could forego the diet, just for tomorrow night, as there's a pre-meet pasta dinner at one of his teammates homes. He loves these - it's partly social, of course, but also, at these dinners, it's regular white pasta (which I don't cook often) with pasta sauce that probably has sugar in it (most do) and again, I don't cook with sauces with sugar in them. So, these dinners have his two favorite foods: white wheat and sugar. He's a good sport though, I explained that one meal off means starting the diet from Day 1 again so he agree to bring his own food. I'll be mixing up a batch of gluten-free pasta with some kind of plain sauce (check back tomorrow for details). Hopefully, the social aspect will be enough....
On that less-than-cheery note, here's what Harry ate on Day 2:
Breakfast: A smoothie made with Amazing Grass Green SuperFood, 1T fish oil,1/2 t flax oit, 1/2 T chia seeds, and a banana. He also had a bowl of Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free hot cereal. Water and his supplements (see Day 1 for list).
Lunch: 2 almond butter sandwiches on quinoa bread, carrot sticks, an apple, walnuts, pumpkin seeds, and a seltzer.
Dinner: Baked haddock, most of a hamburger, brown rice, sauteed cabbage.
Post-dinner snack: sauteed chicken breasts.
The biggest shock of this so far is how much protein Harry's eating. He ate 1 1/3 pounds of chicken breasts on Day 1 for lunch! Last night, after dinner he ate almost a pound more. I don't think this necessarily has anything to do with the elimination diet. He is a 17 year old distance runner after all - tearing those legs muscles and using all that energy each day is going to require quite a bit of nutrients for the repair!
Harry's still being a good soldier about this. His sister brought him back sweets from Italy. He wanted to at least see them, but knew it would be a while before he could eat them and he was fine with that. However, this morning he asked if he could forego the diet, just for tomorrow night, as there's a pre-meet pasta dinner at one of his teammates homes. He loves these - it's partly social, of course, but also, at these dinners, it's regular white pasta (which I don't cook often) with pasta sauce that probably has sugar in it (most do) and again, I don't cook with sauces with sugar in them. So, these dinners have his two favorite foods: white wheat and sugar. He's a good sport though, I explained that one meal off means starting the diet from Day 1 again so he agree to bring his own food. I'll be mixing up a batch of gluten-free pasta with some kind of plain sauce (check back tomorrow for details). Hopefully, the social aspect will be enough....
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