To Eliminate, Or Not To Eliminate
In my 30 years as a nutritionist I have heard many people say that certain foods or chemicals are affecting them negatively. We know that if you have a problem with candida albicans, mushrooms can bother you—but so can yeast; mold; bread; sugar; milk; aged cheeses; strong smells; fermented foods like beer, wine, or soy sauce; refined grains or even unrefined grains; and even leftovers, which might contain mold. Beef, for example, is aged and is partially “moldy” when you purchase it.
But what if you don’t have a problem with candida? What if you have been tested for allergies and you have none—but somewhere in the back of your mind you are pretty sure that something you are eating is making your symptoms worse? What can you do?
Typical Immune Suppressors
The first thing is to make sure you aren’t doing anything that suppresses your immune system like consuming sugar, grains, caffeine, alcohol, or the foods listed above that trigger candida problems. Many other things can suppress your immune system--including stress.
Is it Stress?
Of course a huge stressor could be food sensitivity. This is not a true allergy, but a sensitivity to certain foods or food groups. A lot of people suspect they are sensitive to wheat or gluten, sugar, caffeine, corn, nicotine, or beef products, and have found great relief from eliminating those items from their diet. Of course, this requires reading labels.
Two DIY Solutions
There are two easy ways to determine if any food or food group is giving you a problem or creating a stress on your body. One is an elimination/rotation diet and the other is the Cocoa Pulse Test. Both are easy to do and require patience.
Elimination or Rotation Diet
The basic idea is that eating the same foods day after day can create a problem or suppress your immune system. Historically we considered dairy, wheat, chicken and/or eggs, oranges, and sometimes potatoes the most common food sensitivities because those were typical breakfast foods that most people ate every day.
Then it was discovered that certain food groups, if eaten frequently, could trigger problems. Thus the elimination/ rotation diet was born. It is considered that it takes up to three days for a food to get out of the body, so eating certain foods or food groups on one day and then not eating any of the foods again for three days would eliminate them from the body.
The same basic foods are the first to be considered for elimination or rotation. To eliminate a food or food group, do not eat it for two weeks then add only that food into your diet on day 15. If you have no symptoms, then the food isn’t an issue. You might get different symptoms than you had originally, so keep a watchful eye. It could take weeks or months before you can go through and “challenge” all the foods you suspect. Keep a journal of the foods you eliminate or introduce to your diet, and note how your symptoms vary.
To rotate a food (and that means all foods in the group), you eat the food on day one and not again until day four. For example cabbage, kale, broccoli, and cauliflower are all in the same food group and can be eaten on one day and then not eaten again until four days later. If your symptoms worsen when you eat that food, you will know that the foods in that group affect you. That doesn’t necessarily mean you are “allergic” to those foods, just that at this time they are triggering your symptoms. Ideally, you can use the rotation diet and only eat them once every three days.
Cocoa Pulse Test
The Pulse Test is another way to test your allergies. Dr. Arthur Cocoa noticed that the first indication of an allergy is often a rise in a person’s pulse. A rise in the pulse is often an indication of a food allergy or sensitivity. By avoiding foods that cause an increased pulse rate we can aid in clearing allergies and improve a person’s general health, including pain, stiffness, poor memory, and other symptoms.
It is best to do a clearing or water fast first, but it is not necessary. With this test you take your pulse multiple times and then record an average pulse. When you eat a food that creates a rise or sudden drop in the pulse, you can be pretty sure that the food is creating an allergic situation that can result in many illnesses and symptoms. Each time you challenge your body with a new food, you get closer to eliminating a possibility of any food causing or worsening your symptoms. You must stop smoking, at least for the duration of the testing; cigarettes raise the pulse.
1. Take your pulse (usually on the wrist) for one whole minute (not for 1/4 minute and multiplying it by 4, as done in the hospitals) at the following times:
a) Before rising (before sitting up in bed upon waking)
b) Before meals
c) Three times after each meal, at half hour intervals
Average the readings to get your baseline reading and record it. This will allow you to know when your pulse has risen or dropped at any of the times indicated.
2. Record all foods eaten and your pulse at the times listed above.
Repeat steps 1 and 2 for two to four days or longer.
Any food that seems to elevate or drop the pulse by six points or more should be avoided. Always check with your doctor or get a referral to an allergist if you have any questions about certain foods and symptoms. Let your doctor know that you are going to try these methods to see if any foods or food groups are affecting you and triggering symptoms or worsening them.
Always start with the individual foods you suspect, like sugar, wheat, gluten, corn, beef, and any foods containing these ingredients.
Kathleen O’Bannon is a Certified Nutritional Consultant with more than thirty years experience helping people with health problems. She is the author of eight books on nutrition, including the latest, The Anger Cure: A Step-by-Step Program to Reduce Anger, Rage, Negativity, Violence, and Depression in Your Life. Kathleen and her partner psychologist, Dr. Eke Wokocha, have formulated NutriHeal™ Food, a Functional Food that will eliminate immune system problems and viruses and are traveling to River State, Africa to set up clinics for HIV/AIDS adults and children, specializing in eliminating mother-to-child transmission of HIV/AIDS and reversing malnutrition and undernutrition. For more information on their humanitarian work and nutritional supplements go to http://www.healthalive.net/
