Welcome to my blog!

Hi. My name is Angela. I’m 23 years old and a recent college graduate. I am writing this because I have been diagnosed with many, many food sensitivities in the past few months and have not found enough information online that helps me cope with multiple sensitivities. Before I get too much into my problems now, I am going to give you some of my back story so you can understand what I have already dealt with.

On and off for about 13 years of my life I have battled with an eating disorder. When I got into college it started to consume me. It got to the point where I decided that I could not continue the way I was going or I was going to die. A month after my 21^st birthday (February 2008), I checked myself into a treatment facility. Even though I hated it at first, I complied with the treatment and did everything I needed to do to get out. I did a few weeks of Partial Hospitalization, which was Monday to Friday 8:30am-2:30pm, then a month of Intensive Outpatient, Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday 5:15pm-8:30pm. I came out of treatment with new friends, new skills to handle stress (otherwise known as life), and a new outlook. I continued to work with my outpatient team, which consisted of my therapist and my nutritionist, for about 6 months before I decided that I could do it on my own. I stopped seeing my therapist, but before I got to stop going to my nutritionist I got extremely bad pains in my kidneys. My PCP decided that it had to do with the eating disorder and thought I was lying when I said that I was behavior free for over 6 months. My nutritionist believed that it was kidney stones. After several weeks of pain in my kidneys, the pain spread to my stomach. I wish I could accurately describe the pain that I experienced. Almost every night I would curl up on the couch or in bed and just hope that I found a position that would let me sleep.

I knew that I couldn’t go back to the PCP who thought that I was lying, so my nutritionist recommended that I see someone at the place that she works. They specialize in natural and supplemental medicine. I switched to Visions Medical Center and had tests upon tests done. Food sensitivity tests, Vitamin tests, traditional blood tests, and many more that I cannot think of at the moment. My initial list of food sensitivities: dairy, beef liver, cod, lamb, clam, cilantro, sage, broccoli, peas, green beans, kale, cucumber, cantaloupe, pineapple, date, ginger, sesame, safflower oil, walnut, and vanilla. I already knew I was allergic to soy and was lactose-intolerant, but I had no idea about all of these sensitivities. I found this out the day before Thanksgiving 2009. My boyfriend, Brett, and I went to his sister’s house for Thanksgiving and I ate turkey, leftover rice, and cranberry sauce. I couldn’t eat anything else. It was not fun, but I eliminated these foods immediately and started to feel a little better.

A few months later I started getting the same pains again. My second sensitivity test showed these sensitivities: beef, yeast (brewer’s and baker’s), banana, peanut, and aspergillus niger (mold found in leftovers that are more than 2 days old and bruised fruits). My nutritionist put me on the Anti-Candida Diet which consisted of rice and chicken for every meal. NO Yeast, Sugars, Acids, or Processed Foods of any kind. I made rice pudding with unsweetened rice milk and cinnamon. It was my only treat on that diet. My new PCP didn’t agree with the diet because of my past and took me off of it 2 weeks later since my Candida (an overgrowth of yeast in the body) tests came back negative. She wanted to add in foods gradually, starting with carrots for 3 days, then moving to something else for 3 days, then something else for 3 days. I refused to go along with it and ate almost everything in sight (that didn’t include any of my sensitivities). You can’t deprive me of chocolate for 2 weeks and expect me to not eat it for a couple more months. My will power is not that strong.

Again, I felt fine for a few months, then (like before) I started to feel worse. I was checked for more food sensitivities and got this list: gluten, wheat, lobster, red beans, horseradish, mango, pistachio, oyster, black-eyed peas, radish, rosemary, teff, and turmeric. This is where I am now. I am still trying to figure out meals that do not include any of these sensitivities and are still healthy. I need to diversify what foods I eat, so that I don’t end up with more sensitivities.

For the past few weeks I have been trying to find blogs that are gluten-, soy-, and dairy- free. I have found many on the Autism diets, but I don’t need to know how to adapt kid’s food. I want something more than Mac & Cheese and chicken nuggets. I have decided to start this blog to keep track of the changes in my life and to hopefully find others in my position so we can help each other. I want to figure out why all these sensitivities are showing up all of a sudden. Is it just because I had an eating disorder in my past? Or could it be genetic? Or could they just be popping up for no reason?

Thanks for reading.