Food Sensitivty versus Food Allergy - Dr. Rao's advice

Not sure I agree with his list of do's and dont's foods, but good article overall.

http://www.wellwire.com/health/nutrition-health/food-sensitivity-versus-food-allergy

Sugar, you delicious beast

For some of us sugar can be the hardest thing to eliminate. I have found the trick to sugar is not letting yourself have any. Once I have a taste of it, I crave it for a week. While I am no longer "eliminating" so to speak, I have continued to keep sugar out of my diet most of the time. Some days or weeks I'll fall off the wagon, but for the most part I try to live sugar-free. My advise for the eliminators is to avoid the alternative sweeteners too. I know that sounds cruel, but I think agave and stevia will just prolong the agony. Stick to fruits and if you really need something sweet grab a banana or a clementine.

Fruits and Veggies with the highest pesticide load

RANK - FRUIT OR VEGGIE- SCORE
1 (worst) Peach 100 (highest pesticide load)
2 Apple 93
3 Sweet Bell Pepper 83
4 Celery 82
5 Nectarine 81
6 Strawberries 80
7 Cherries 73
8 Kale 69
9 Lettuce 67
10 Grapes - Imported 66
11 Carrot 63
12 Pear 63
13 Collard Greens 60
14 Spinach 58
15 Potato 56
16 Green Beans 53
17 Summer Squash 53
18 Pepper 51
19 Cucumber 50
20 Raspberries 46
21 Grapes - Domestic 44
22 Plum 44
23 Orange 44
24 Cauliflower 39
25 Tangerine 37
26 Mushrooms 36
27 Banana 34
28 Winter Squash 34
29 Cantaloupe 33
30 Cranberries 33
31 Honeydew Melon 30
32 Grapefruit 29
33 Sweet Potato 29
34 Tomato 29
35 Broccoli 28
36 Watermelon 26
37 Papaya 20
38 Eggplant 20
39 Cabbage 17
40 Kiwi 13
41 Sweet Peas - Frozen 10
42 Asparagus 10
43 Mango 9
44 Pineapple 7
45 Sweet Corn - Frozen 2
46 Avocado 1
47 (best) Onion 1 (lowest pesticide load)


Note: We ranked a total of 47 different fruits and vegetables but grapes are listed twice because we looked at both domestic and imported samples.

Source: http://www.foodnews.org/fulllist.php

Detoxing

I forgot about the importance of detoxing. You need to let the toxins out of your body when you are eliminating. This can be done a number of ways:

• Exercise - the sweatier the better


• Hot baths with Epsom salts


• Jacuzzis and saunas


• There are some supplements you can take - ask your doc

For the ladies...

Do yourself a favor and skip testing during your period. In fact, skip the days leading up to it as well. There are so many things going on with your body during that time between cramping, GI, acne, moodiness, depression, etc. that there really is no point to testing during that time. If you are testing for a symptom that couldn't be confused with your PMS then don't worry about it.

Eat WHOLE FOODS

And no, I don't mean the store. There is this concept of eating that is very popular in the healthier circles. It is not a fad or trend, but basically a step back to a simpler human existence. Eating whole foods means eating the food "God intended." Unadulterated, unprocessed, unrefined, etc. I highly recommend you pursue a whole foods diet while on the elimination diet. It is really the only way you can know what you are eating.

I think people have a tendency to fool themselves. For example, you are at a burger place and you order and burger and fries. So you are thinking meat and potatoes - hard to screw up right? Well what you don't know is that the burger contains all sorts of hormones and preservatives, was corn-feed and there is gluten in the "spices" blend used to season it. Meanwhile the fries were cooked in soybean oil with wheat-covered onion rings... I admit that was a terrible example, but you get my point. You need to prepare you own food and/or get it from a source you trust, and you need to focus on eating fresh foods without a lot of ingredients. Go back to basics.

And if you want to buy something prepackaged and easy don't bury your head in the sand theorizing if you don't look it's not there; turn over the package and read every ingredient. There really is no point cheating with this "diet" - otherwise it can be all for not! Why suffer 90% of the time for compromised results? It doesn't make any sense.

Want to know more about whole foods? Watch a video on the whole foods diet from a Bastyr University faculty member Cynthia Lair: What is a whole food? (It's a little silly but informative.)

Breakfast ideas

It is important to try to get protein for breakfast. After weeks of suffering I finally figured out rice cakes and almond butter. This was a huge breakthrough for me. Normally I would eat two rice cakes with generous almond butter each morning. I really prefer the freshly ground almond butter over the bottled manufactured kind, but eat what ever you have access to.

Other breakfast ideas? Fruit and lots of it! But don't forget to avoid the citrus.

Have any ideas to suggest? Let us know.