robi2106's Journal: Allergies: What's Left Won't Kill Me (Not A Guarentee)

If I remember way back, I had a bad bout of allergy problems that started all of a sudden. Well I haven't talked about them, but the allergies still are there. In October, after blood testing results, I eliminated all wheat products from my diet. This hurts. I LIKE bread. I LIKE pasta. I LOVE rolls with lots of butter. I LOVE gravy smothering a good stew or mashed potatoes.

But in the interested if being able to open my eyes and not scratch my skin off entirely, I eliminated all wheat from foods I ate. But the problems remained. Random bouts of eyes swelling shut. Constant itching. Constant eczema on the order of the "medium" case pictured at the Wikipedia link.

So two weeks ago my wife and I re-read through the blood work to find some of the other allergens and exactly how intense each reaction was. It turns out that wheat was near the bottom and I had far worse reactions to two other very common substances. Eggs where the worst, followed by milk and then wheat.

So we took the all encompassing step of eliminating all of those foods from my diet. Nothing with eggs, milk, or wheat. Try eating out anywhere with those allergies. Even the gluten free menus at the larger chain restaurants won't help you there. Only the big ones seem to have caught on to the portion of the population that has such unnecessarily strict dietary requirements.

Of all the foods I will miss..... of all the foods I ate with reckless abandon..... of all the foods I combined with any other food as often as possible.... of all the foods that delighted my taste buds..... I will miss cheese the most.

What an amazing food. So much variety. So much nutrition. So many flavors. Exotic Greek feta. Soft Havarti. Crisp mozzarella. Spicy blended pepper jack. Smooth cream cheese. Tasty cottage cheese.

I will miss putting cheese on salads, chips, potatoes, sandwiches, bagels, crackers, burritos, and on and on. I used to go through a 32 oz baby loaf of cheese in just two weeks. R.I.P. poor cheese slicer. To the back of the kitchen implements drawer you go. May be one day science will find a way to provide my body with the ability to digest and enjoy the many flavours of cheese.

Jason

Don't forget the crackers

[stoolpigeon]

Oooooooooh, I do like a bit of gorgonzola!
 
(sorry - can't even think about cheese without having multiple Wallace and Gromit scenes running through my brain)

bleh

[eglamkowski]

I've never liked eggs or milk anyways, so most of my life has been eating without them.

At one point I even stopped using eggs in cakes and baked goods as I had found a suitable substitute, but I don't remember it off the top of my head. The wife loves eggs, however, so now we have eggs around when I want to bake things, but I still won't eat eggs by themselves. *shudder*

Since getting married I've just about given up on wheat products too, with the exception of soy sauce, and I don't use that in everything

So did it work?

[Degrees]

I don't see that your cheese-free life has reduced your allergies. Are you now itch free? I have a patch of skin on my neck that can itch - man that is hard to not scratch. When I remember, I have some anti-itch cream that helps out but only for a little while. So mine is localized, which I expect means "not an allergy".