The Reluctant Raw Foodist
"I used to be a' foodie' and now I am a "foodist'"
Welcome to my health and wellbeing blog.
I’m not a raw foodist by choice. I was recently diagnosed as having a complicated autoimmune condition including severe Histamine Intolerance and a form of reactive arthritis. I have become hypersensitive to high histamine foods, pollen, dust and some everyday chemicals. My condition affects every area of my life.
I have Mast Cell Activation Disease (MCAD).
I was prescribed a low histamine diet and then a raw food diet to ease my symptoms and over the past 2 years I have overcome my reluctance to a new way of eating and living. I have been experimenting to combine the two diets and I have been learning how to eat a diet comprising mainly of low histamine raw fruit and vegetables and how to change the habits of a life time.
I am starting to feel healthier than I have ever been before. I have also lost 35 lbs in weight.
I will be sharing with you how I got here and I'll be exploring low histamine raw recipes, natural beauty products, how to cope with being "allergic to everything" and generally how to regain health and fitness and live life to the full despite my unusual condition!
Please feel free to message me with any suggestions, questions, or comments. I'd love to hear from you!
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These are some ads for where I buy my coconut water and stuff like that :
… are what greatly contributed to my ill health.
During my teens, while at school, I declared myself to be a vegetarian and I went through a stage of eating very little other than liquorice and drinking black coffee all day and then eating some vegetables at night. I was very thin. I was never diagnosed with an eating disorder but I definitely had one.
Things changed and in meeting my first husband and cooking for all the students in our house my eating habits changed and I ate more and felt better for a time.
I had taken a lot of my symptoms for granted during my teens. I thought the diarrhoea and other symptoms were normal. My depression was put down to being a teenager and I reacted very badly to the contraceptive pill which I took for horrendous period pain.
My symptoms got worse over the years. I consulted doctors and dieticians who advised me that I must eat from all the so called food groups.
Everyday I used to consume milk and cheese (favourite foods!) and most days I ate fish, meat and eggs and I regularly consumed quantities of coffee and tea. At several times in my life I returned to eating as an ovo/lacto vegetarian but when I left off meat and fish I increased the eggs and cheese. Caffe latte became my favourite drink after a workout. Sometimes I would have two - after all, I had worked out very hard!. I could not drink a lot of alcohol but I loved what I did. I loved sweet things and regularly succumbed to a chocolate bar or a piece of cake. I loved bread but I loved it more when covered in butter and cheese or peanut butter. Oh and marmite! I was a marmite baby!
Over a period of time I grew fatter and fatter and more and more miserable as all my symptoms worsened and then my hair started to fall out. My joint pain and body ache became acute and my energy levels were unstable. I became increasingly stressed out and tired. Tired to my bones. I struggled with increasing depression and the feeling that my body was out of control. I reacted adversely to common chemicals and my skin would throw out sudden rashes with no warning.
I tried a number of so called diets… When I went to Weight Watchers I tried WW sweets which contain a sugar substitute. I was so dizzy after eating a few sweeties and my already bad IBS symptoms immediately worsened!
I used to think I could exercise it all off. How wrong I was. I could not outrun my ever increasing ill health.. It was a lot faster than me ….
I keep reminding myself of this.
Recently, while mum was in hospital, I ate food from the hospital restaurant and fell out of my strict diet. It started me off craving a lot of foods again. The results are remarkable in that I got an itchy eye, sore bottoms to my feet, red weals on my skin, horrendous knee pain, pain on urination, headache, sharp elbow pain, stomach ache, diarrhoea, constipation, general body ache a rash on the tops of my arms, my frozen shoulder started to hurt more ….. I didn’t even eat much in the way of junk food, just things such as jacket potatoes, baked beans, a bread roll, a plain scone….
I was interested at how quickly these symptoms started to take hold. I was also interested to note that I have become used to not having them around! I think I can conclusively say that I cannot go back to my old way of eating. Changing my diet changed my immune system and my life and my old illnesses were all very much connected to what I ate and what I used on my body. I am in the process of sorting myself out now.
My illnesses lurk waiting to return …. I must remember this!
(via veghealthy)
What I do believe is that when I changed my diet I eliminated a lot of the foods that were either causing and or contributing to my condition.
Why do I believe this?
When I moved to a plant based diet my symptoms faded away. Some disappeared almost immediately others followed more slowly. I didn’t take to this diet change easily and I didn’t get it right first time. I have experimented a lot and suffered a lot of recurrences of my symptoms.
Now, if I try elements of my old diet I can get massive joint pain flareup/muscle weakness/ chronic fatigue/ migraine/ rash on my face and or body/ diarrhoea/ sudden sleep/ swollen dry eyes/ brain fog/ stomach ache/ choking/ vomiting/ dizziness/ intense pain in the soles of my feet… quickly and usually over night.
Why do I even try foods that hurt me? You see, I used to eat these foods all the time and just very occasionally now I rebel/can’t resist trying a little/ can’t believe that I can no longer eat them/ even forget! Fortunately (?) even a mouthful or two usually reminds me as my mouth starts to get sore and my tongue often starts to swell…. so I do not eat much of the offending food. I am talking about basic foods such as a piece of new bread or a small piece of (raw) chocolate here, nothing fancy!
On a low histamine diet one is still “allowed” young cheese such as feta or mozzarella but these produce severe reactions in me as stated above. I eliminated eggs from my diet for the same reason.
I do believe that my simple plant based high raw diet (lots of fruit and greens, some nuts and seeds) provides me with a load of nutrients which help my body to calm the inflammation within. My immune system approves, that’s all I know.
I don’t believe I am being “cured”. I do believe that, with my current diet and lifestyle, I am holding my illness at bay and giving my body the best chance it has to heal itself.
Now you know why I call myself The Reluctant Raw Foodist :)
Making a veggie mash for my elderly neighbour who has bowel problems. She will eat this with hummous .
(via fitnessloco)
It will make a difference! I promise!
