I love food. Who doesn’t love food? For many years though, food bothered me. I tried lots of doctors and medications but nothing worked as good as it should have. I finally saw a Naturopath and was tested for food intolerances. We embarked on a path to heal my injured stomach lining and to avoid the irritants I could now label: dairy (OMG no more cheese?), eggs, yeast (this is more than bread people. I wish it was just bread), malt (this is surprisingly a lot of places as a flavoring), garlic (again garlic is like glitter–it’s everywhere), almonds, cashews, red beans, cranberries and a few things I’ve never heard of so am in no danger of ever eating accidentally.
I felt overwhelmed. Where to start? It took a few years but I’ve got a lot of this under my belt now. I also cook for people with similar and additional intolerances from time to time which makes it more interesting (apples, cinnamon, beef, wheat, bananas, pineapple). This blog is where I plan to list the store bought items (Yay!) I’ve found that I can eat and are awesome (shh some are better than the “original”) and recipes I’ve modified to suit my new lifestyle.
A quick note that intolerances are not the same as allergies. I will not need an epi pen if I eat a piece of awesome pizza. I will not die from eating a granola bar with almonds and cashews in it. I will, however experience a myriad of physical symptoms that make me miserable–brain fog, headaches, fatigue, gas, bloating, irritibility–and if I continue to eat them I will again damage my stomach lining and lead to other issues. So sometimes I sneak stuff if I feel it’s “worth it”. but I do this in moderation and weigh the choice carefully. Is that really worth feeling cruddy for 1-3 days? And the answer is yes! sometimes it is. But most of the time the answer is no.
So welcome. I hope you find something useful here.
~~Heather
alternativefoodcreations 