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!
Everything I post is the property of its respective owner/creator unless stated otherwise. Everything will have a click-through link whenever possible. If you see something of yours that I have posted and would like me to take it down, please message me and I will remove it.
These are some ads for where I buy my coconut water and stuff like that :
The phone calls have stopped. The calls of concern have come to a halt. Your friends and coworkers eyes glaze over every time you speak of your “problems”. You can hear it in their voices. They’re just plain tired of you.
But when did it happen? Was it that last hospitalization that you had. Was…
No it isn’t just you. I call it “compassion fatigue” and it is very common. I was always the strong one helping others and then when I needed help it was different people, to those I was expecting, who stepped up.
Yes we are self absorbed to a greater or lesser extent- well at least I am or was. I think is understandable as we have to adapt to something huge in our lives which changes everything. We mourn the loss of our freedom, our mobility, our lifestyle,… whatever we have lost. We also have to adapt to changes imposed upon us. We also tend to forget that people forget us when they are taken up in their own worlds. It all takes time and if our illness is progressive we get worse and so we are always having to adapt. It is a vicious circle…
I have found dealing with my illness to be massive and exhausting. It took over my life as it was time consuming to say the least. Eventually I realised I could dominate the conversation and took to the strategy of emailing friends who did ask me out to tell them what had happened to me and what I could eat etc so I didn’t monopolise the discussion when I saw them.
I have lost a lot of my so called friends since I changed my diet and lifestyle. Always happy to still go out to eat with people but I suppose when your companion is eating salad and drinking water maybe you might feel uncomfortable about what you are eating. I don’t comment or criticise in any way as, after all, I used to eat and drink those things too, but I guess sadly for some people it is just not the same…
The performance yesterday was very good and I did not have any big mast cell problems although I could smell perfume all around me. I even managed to keep awake throughout the performance and on the very crowded train going home. Sudden overwhelming sleep is another of my symptoms and, in the past, I have been mugged on the train owing to being out for the count.
We ate at the Wild Food Cafe In Neal’s Yard London. I ate all raw food and managed to keep my histamine levels within a reasonable limit. Some joint pain this morning but nothing like the old days.
Today is my birthday but histamine levels will be kept down. I know from experience that if I eat over my histamine limit 2 days in a row I will be in agony over night.
.. I had a rare mini binge on something. I do this from time to time and don’t beat myself up as change is difficult and I do sometimes rebel and eat some raw chocolate, some bread or something like that . It usually tells me I need to adjust a little.
Wow, the difference over night in terms of joint pain. I had a mini flare. Like an echo of what I used to get. I also had a bad stomach almost immediately. Who would have thought that food would make such a big difference??
Shows me how far I have come and that there is no going back to my old ways now.
My “dragons within” rouse, turn and sleep on…
This was a lovely juice made this morning from a large bag of green salad leaves, 3 sticks of celery, some ginger root, and an apple. Unfortunately there was a lot of spinach among the leaves and stupidly I just thought they would probably be ok as I don’t usually eat a lot of spinach but I do eat a very few leaves on occasion. As I started to drink the juice my heart started to race and my chest started to ache. Spinach is high in histamine. No more spinach juice for me! I poured the rest onto my garden as a green fertiliser.
And here is the juice.. Carrot, celery, cucumber, lettuce, apple, ginger root. It actually made 3 glasses I had already drunk mine…
went to hospital - got joint pain! LOL
…the smell of fresh bread now makes me sneeze and start to wheeze! Bread was one of my favourite things to eat. It must be said that my stomach used to bloat and I would get a sore mouth, mouth ulcers, or feel sick, or my joints would swell. I never really attributed this to the eating of bread, of course, but that was because I was eating so many other things that were also causing me to react.
Because it is generally made with yeast/fermentation, I have had, reluctantly, to cut ordinary bread right out of my diet. I never thought I would manage to give up fresh bagels or croissants but now I react even to the smell!
I can just about manage my own flat bread on occasion.
How things change…..
Think I have been all of these in relation to my condition. I am hoping I am at the realist stage now. The Reluctant Raw Foodist
(via hintalogalopp)
