What the heck should I be eating?
Not really sure whether you should be eating something or not? Can your friends and family eat certain things that just make you feel yuck when you try them? The latest fad diet doesn’t seem to sit well with you???
Your body is always giving you lots of signs about what it is loving and what it is not enjoying so much and I want to help you to decipher these little messages a little bit easier.
So other than teaching you to follow a certain diet, I want you to be able to decipher what works best for you. Now, I am not going back to basics, we all pretty much know that we need to be eating lots of fruit and veg and protein, carbs and now I hope you all know that fat is good right (good fat I mean!!!). What I want to cover today is food sensitivities that are causing inflammation in your body…
OK so let’s start with the easy stuff….
You know those foods that you eat and you have an immediate reaction to… You may get shortness of breath, itchy, rash, swelling, tingling, nausea vomiting. Now that stuff is the easy stuff right. Just eliminate it from your diet. I would be talking a minimum of 6 months to start with and then look for a reaction if you reintroduce it back into your diet, but I would be looking at only having it in your diet very irregularly - maybe once per week maximum after reintroduction.
OK, so what about the foods that are not so easy to decipher. The ones that you don’t notice anything straight away but then three days later you feel yuck but you can’t seem to attribute it to any food in particular. These are what we call IGG reactions. They are delayed in their reactions but usually includes more symptoms. If you are suffering from things like chronic inflammation, fatigue, brain fog, allergies, asthma, headaches, joint pain then you may just be having an IGG reaction to some of the foods that you are eating.
These can be a lot harder to decipher because their reaction times are generally 24 to 72 hours after eating something. Now the easiest way to check for IGG reactions is to do a food sensitivity test (IGG Test) - here is my favourite one . But what can you do if you don’t want to go to the expense of getting tested.
Well there are a number of things that you can do…
Follow an elimination diet, then rotate foods
The most common things that people are sensitive to are:
Dairy
Eggs
Gluten
Soy
Tree Nuts and peanuts
Corn
Red meat (usually digestive based issues rather than sensitivities)
Cut these things out of your diet for 21 days then slowly reintroduce foods back into your diet and watch what happens.
Here’s how reintroducing works. Reintroduce one food at a time….. Introduce one food into the diet twice, over a day or two (it is usually the 2nd time the food is eaten that you will get a response). If you do not have a reaction within 1 - 3 days then you can introduce the 2nd food. Make sure that you are only changing one variable at a time….
If this all sounds like a bit much and there are too many things to stop eating then step it back a little bit and get rid of the BIG THREE…
The three main sources of reaction for most people are:-
Dairy
Gluten
Eggs
Do the elimination again for 21 days and then reintroduce as before.
For most people this will make a huge difference for them. If you find that you have a big reaction when you reintroduce something then leave it out for longer. You may end up not being able to eat that food again and YAY isn’t that awesome that you know that and that you are minimising the inflammation in your body. But generally if you have had a reaction before and you reintroduce you will be able to suss out how much you can eat that food, it may mean you can have it once per week, maybe twice per week (but maybe leave a few days in between!).
See how this pans out for you. Remember to listen to your body. You know what is best and your body will give you signs, just listen xxxxx
If you are still suffering from bloating, low moods, headaches, gas, skin rashes and depression then you may have some other gut issues going on that need more help, like candida, bacterial overgrowth, parasites etc. All easy to eliminate and easy to heal and seal the gut but just a different approach that you may need guidance from a health coach for this one. Believe me when I say that it is SOOOOO worth doing if you have gut issues!
Super exciting to see there are so many simple ways to help you out and the majority of people will see an amazing difference with a few small changes..
So please, start listening to what your body is saying and work with it to get the best results possible.
If you are wanting to find out more about options on how you can lead a more vibrant life or if you have made plenty of changes but they don’t seem to have you running at your full capacity then I would be only too happy to help you to navigate that path. Please click here to get in touch with me and find out how I can help you to be your most healthy vibrant self…..
Have an awesome day.
BIG LOVE and gratitude.
Mel
xxx