Re: Doctor's orders?

[Guest guest]

Thank you , Katcha, and Styxia for your thoughts on this -- I really appreciate it.

Styxia, as far as the "science" behind my doctor saying that we are often allergic to the things we crave - I didn't question her, because I have heard this at various times myself, but perhaps the veracity of it would be worth investigating. I actually have done a couple of versions of the food allergy testing, including the ELISA test, and basically came back negative on a whole host of foods I crave, so what does that mean?

Katcha, I like your idea of using my own body to tell me what is harmful and what is not. This feels like a very important muscle that I am building, which is also helping me to recognize what is truly nourishing for me in EVERY aspect of my life. That's a skill I dearly want to learn, and will not give it up in the name of someone else telling me what's "right" for me.

And , I can't thank you enough for sharing your experiences with me. I really resonate with so many things you said, and it gives me greater confidence to TRUST MY INTUITION now. And my intuition tells me that the IE path is the very best one that I can take for my health and for weight loss. It's amazing to witness myself listening to what my body requests and rejects, and how it knows just how much it needs for sustenance (now, if I can just learn to listen all the time!!).

With gratitude and appreciation for your insight and support....

"It's only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you realize your true potential."

~ Barack Obama

[Guest guest]

Miranda wrote:

> Styxia, as far as the " science " behind my doctor saying that we are often

> allergic to the things we crave - I didn't question her, because I have

> heard this at various times myself, but perhaps the veracity of it would

> be worth investigating.

It might be really worth it. Especially when you're looking forward to

having to eliminate whole food groups. If that is not really necessary I

wouldn't do it because it really is a hassle.

I'm not against nutrition therapy, but I'm always suspicious when it

comes to things that require drastic actions. I notice less allergic

reaction myself when it comes to pollen in spring when I manage to

eliminate animal protein from my diet, especially dairy. My husband

notices the same and there actually seems to be evidence that

eliminating animal protein[1] helps with allergies. I don't know though

if that still is only empiric or if there is more evidence available

now.

> I actually have done a couple of versions of the

> food allergy testing, including the ELISA test, and basically came back

> negative on a whole host of foods I crave, so what does that mean?

I would say it means that you aren't allergic to them. Tests can be

false negative though. It would surprise me though that ALL of the tests

were false negative.

However, when thinking about this " being allergic to what we crave "

isn't it interesting that we CAN eat other foods with similar

" offenders " in them without reacting " allergic " ? That is why I question

this. I have not enough knowledge in the field of food

allergy/intolerances though to label the " people crave what they're

allergic to " -claim as BS. :-)

I know a person who is allergic to raw apples and one who is allergic to

raw carrots and my own sister can't eat kiwis without her tongue

starting to tickle and burn and I'm sensitive to some ingredient in

certain multivitamin juices myself. The person who is allergic to raw

apples actually REALLY craves them but only from time to time and dare I

say not in the same way he craves chocolate and chips. I don't crave

multivitamin juice. Sometimes it would be nice to have a little bottle

of it but it is by no means the same craving I have for chocolate or

other foods I usually crave and the juice-craving maybe happens three

times a YEAR and not three times a DAY.

Regards

s.

[1] it doesn't have to be vegan; one can eat butter, honey and a bit of

heavy cream

[Guest guest]

> > P.S. My doctor also said that most people tend to crave foods they

> > are actually allergic to! Sigh...

>

> Why? Did she say something about the science behind it? I came across

> this statement a few times but why should people crave stuff they are

> allergic to?

Okay, I'm going to try to help explain my understanding of this

concept... My son has developmental delays and a condition called

Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD), which is a condition a lot of

autistic folks have. For a while, I put my son on a gluten-free,

casein-free diet, which is a diet that has helped so many autistic

people " recover " or dramatically improve their lives.

Apparently, gluten (a substance found in wheat and other grains) and

casein (a protein found in dairy products) act as opiates in the body

and cause the body to crave them more and more. This is especially

true if you are allergic to or even have a physical intolerance to the

specific food products. Think of it as though the person is a drug

addict; they ingest the opiate(s), feel great, then " come down " from

their high. Once they have " come down " , they want and actually crave

more of it, both mentally and physically. It's a difficult diet to do--

you can't have even the slightest amount of these things, just as a

drug addict cannot have " just a little bit " of drugs.

You can read more about the GFCF diet at http://tiny.cc/b61UW

(TACA.org--Talk About Curing Autism).

I don't claim to be an expert in this area, but I've done quite a bit

of research. It's worth it to look into if you feel as though you have

a condition that warrants it, but it certainly messes with the IE

mentality, that's for sure!

Hope this helps~

Marla in Charlottesville, VA

[Guest guest]

Is it just me? I don't get this thing about food " allergies. " An

allergy is when you have a immunological response, i.e histamines,

to a food or substance. Eating something that doesn't agree with you

is not an allergy, it just doesn't agree with you. That's like

saying I'm allergic to cats because I don't like cat hair on my

furniture. Are you truly allergic to this stuff that your doctor

doesn't want you to eat, or is she just calling it an " allergy " so

you won't eat what she doesn't want you to eat and you'll jump on

her restrictive eating bandwagon...

Sorry, one of my peeves...

- Very smart girl...

Meg

IE Since Feb '08

>

>

>

> P.S. My doctor also said that most people tend to crave foods they

> are actually allergic to! Sigh...

>

[Guest guest]

mkwhittenburg wrote:

> Apparently, gluten (a substance found in wheat and other grains) and

> casein (a protein found in dairy products) act as opiates in the body

> and cause the body to crave them more and more.

I heard about this opiate release, too. At least when it comes to dairy

products.

> This is especially

> true if you are allergic to or even have a physical intolerance to the

> specific food products.

But why? What does this have to do with " allergy " ?

> Think of it as though the person is a drug

> addict; they ingest the opiate(s), feel great, then " come down " from

> their high. Once they have " come down " , they want and actually crave

> more of it, both mentally and physically. It's a difficult diet to do--

> you can't have even the slightest amount of these things, just as a

> drug addict cannot have " just a little bit " of drugs.

Sounds like an addiction, that's right. Just like some people can't

" simply handle " alcohol or cigarettes, some other people (like myself)

can't " simply handle " certain foods. I completely agree with this. Maybe

I'm just being dense or missing the point here but I still don't get

what this has to do with allergies, i. e. why people *especially* crave

the foods when they're allergic to them. It makes sense that people

crave these foods because of the opiate release though. As far as I

could see the link you provided unfortunately doesn't answer this

question. (Maybe there simply is none?) They seem to go with reason and

are all for testing the children FIRST.

I looked at the link you gave me and I especially welcomed this line:

" Get your child's allergies tested - a blood test called the IgG and

IgE. [...] Both tests are NECESSARY. "

Which seems to imply that one should test for allergies FIRST before

restricting foods.

Thanks for the link again!

Regards

s.

[Guest guest]

,

I know I'm a little late in responding and hope you don't mind my

two cents.

I have done my share of " healthy " and " clean " eating including the

Ultra Metabolism Book and many tries at Candida diets which were

exptremely restricting ie. no dairy, no sugar, no wheat etc. I have

to say that I felt amazing when I did them. Howver, they took ALL

my time and energy. The excess energy I had from eating that way

went into all my meal and food preperation.

Since starting IE and have definately done my share of " unhealthy "

eating ie. lots of sweets, carbs, fast food, high saturated fat etc.

I have concluded that there is a natural balance that our body

strives for. I believe it is unrealistic to expect ourselves to

live in such a restrictive way. You will literally drive yourself

insane with obsessing over your food and nutrients. If you go

through the legalization phase of all your " forbidden " foods you

will eventually come to a place of " balance " . Sometimes you will

eat extremly healthy and other times you will eat nothing but crap.

But most of the time you will eat a balance. After all, I think

that's what a normal intuitive eater does. Learn to listen and your

body and it will guide you. Listening to someone else and what they

tell you what you should be putting into your body is not IE.

It is your choice what you choose to do. That is the great thing

about IE is that we have choices. I wish you the best no matter

what you choose to do.

Alana

>

> I have just begun the IE path a couple of weeks ago, and already

feel

> so much more connected with my hunger levels, taste sensations and

> experiencing real satisfaction and less fear about eating or not

> eating something.

>

> But I saw my naturopathic doctor this morning, and she told me

again

> that she feels strongly that I should be doing a " very clean

diet " -

> no sugar, white flour, no processed or fried foods and have

lightly

> steamed vegetables only. This is not just for weight loss, but to

> help me lower high levels of inflammation that I have throughout

my

> system.

>

> Well, upon hearing this, of course what I want to do is EAT! I

feel I

> am really finally on the right track, in terms of healing my

> relationship with food, which I believe will result in the weight

> loss that I so very much want to attain.

>

> I just really don't know what to do... right now I am thinking

that

> maybe I could make attempts to eat less " inflammatory " foods, but

> then I know I am back to diet mentality and not trusting my body

to

> tell me what it is hungry for.

>

> Has anyone else had to contend with doctor's giving advice that is

> contrary to the IE journey, and if so, how have you dealt with it?

>

> Thanks so much for your feedback.

>

>

>

> P.S. My doctor also said that most people tend to crave foods they

> are actually allergic to! Sigh...

>

[Guest guest]

Alana,

Thanks for posting this! Reading it helped me, too!!

Kim

IE since Aug 08

Subject: Re: Doctor's orders?To: IntuitiveEating_Support Date: Friday, December 19, 2008, 12:31 PM

,I know I'm a little late in responding and hope you don't mind my two cents.I have done my share of "healthy" and "clean" eating including the Ultra Metabolism Book and many tries at Candida diets which were exptremely restricting ie. no dairy, no sugar, no wheat etc. I have to say that I felt amazing when I did them. Howver, they took ALL my time and energy. The excess energy I had from eating that way went into all my meal and food preperation. Since starting IE and have definately done my share of "unhealthy" eating ie. lots of sweets, carbs, fast food, high saturated fat etc.I have concluded that there is a natural balance that our body strives for. I believe it is unrealistic to expect ourselves to live in such a restrictive way. You will literally drive yourself insane with obsessing over your food and nutrients. If you go through the legalization phase of all your "forbidden"

foods you will eventually come to a place of "balance". Sometimes you will eat extremly healthy and other times you will eat nothing but crap. But most of the time you will eat a balance. After all, I think that's what a normal intuitive eater does. Learn to listen and your body and it will guide you. Listening to someone else and what they tell you what you should be putting into your body is not IE. It is your choice what you choose to do. That is the great thing about IE is that we have choices. I wish you the best no matter what you choose to do.Alana>> I have just begun the IE path a

couple of weeks ago, and already feel > so much more connected with my hunger levels, taste sensations and > experiencing real satisfaction and less fear about eating or not > eating something.> > But I saw my naturopathic doctor this morning, and she told me again > that she feels strongly that I should be doing a "very clean diet" - > no sugar, white flour, no processed or fried foods and have lightly > steamed vegetables only. This is not just for weight loss, but to > help me lower high levels of inflammation that I have throughout my > system.> > Well, upon hearing this, of course what I want to do is EAT! I feel I > am really finally on the right track, in terms of healing my > relationship with food, which I believe will result in the weight > loss that I so very much want to attain.> > I just really don't

know what to do... right now I am thinking that > maybe I could make attempts to eat less "inflammatory" foods, but > then I know I am back to diet mentality and not trusting my body to > tell me what it is hungry for.> > Has anyone else had to contend with doctor's giving advice that is > contrary to the IE journey, and if so, how have you dealt with it?> > Thanks so much for your feedback.> > > > P.S. My doctor also said that most people tend to crave foods they > are actually allergic to! Sigh...>