Once more, a session with a client has got me thinking: if you don’t know whether or not you have difficulty metabolizing particular foods such as wheat or sugar, do you try to eat them “normally” or avoid them completely? Obviously, if you’ve been tested and diagnosed with a food allergy, you’ll want to steer clear. Remember, testing is the only way to know for certain that you have a bona fide food allergy (see my blog archive). Craving and having difficulty staying away from a food does not constitute a food allergy or addiction, so please don’t convince yourself that the problem is physical when it could be mental/emotional.
That said, it’s difficult to know how to proceed if you react badly to a food. You could give it—sugar, fats, wheat or even most carbohydrates—up completely. However: OA members avoid food for decades, then sometimes try a bite and succumb to overeating it because they can’t stop. Does this mean they have a physical addiction or a psychological dependence? My guess is that a “normal” eater who, for some reason, was unable to eat a certain food might also find a well remembered taste heavenly when she resumed eating it, so falling in love with the food again seems natural. The question is whether you spin out of control for emotional or physical reasons.
If a food really spells trouble and you’ve tried and failed to eat it “normally” (with rational beliefs about it for at least six months), it’s okay to stop eating it as long as the decision doesn’t make you feel deprived and crave the food more. Your thinking might go something like this, “I feel awful every time I eat this food and can eat it, but choose not to because of the consequences. Everyone makes choices about things and I’m making one here.” You need this exact mindset to not feel deprived—in order to look around and see other people eating the offending food and not want what they have or, to be more exact, to want it and decide against eating it.
There’s nothing wrong with cutting foods out of your life for the right reasons: if you don’t think that you’re bad for eating them or virtuous for passing them u[, if you don’t believe that life is unfair because you can’t eat whatever you want, if you’re not obsessed by what you forbid yourself, if saying no doesn’t keep you focused on food. I strongly advise you to try learning to eat challenging foods “normally,” and to get tested to see what you truly can’t eat. Having a food allergy is serious business, as is making peace with food whether you have an allergy or not. Either way, you need to have your head on straight to make healthy food choices.
Best,
Karen
Visit the message board exclusively devoted to my new book, The Food and Feelings Workbook, at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/foodandfeelings.
PLEASE NOTE: I encourage you to comment on my blogs and will do my best to address topics/questions you raise in future blogs. Unfortunately, however, due to time constraints, I cannot provide individual responses.
I want to clarify 'allergy testing'. I lead a celiac disease support group. Many group members have additional allergies (besides gluten intolerance due to CD). However some have been tested by naturopaths or docs who only use skin tests for detecting allergies. Unfortunately skin tests do NOT show food allergies. We don't put food under our skin, when we eat.
Although some food allergies produce immediate reaction, anaphylactic shock symptoms, most food allergies have delayed reactions, especially gastrointestinal or other internal reactions (including headaches, muscle and/or joint pain, etc.). Immediate reaction allergies are called IgE antibody reactions, whereas delayed reaction allergies are called IgG or IgA antibody reactions. Only blood tests or stool tests can determine delayed reaction IgG or IgA allergies.
Some reliable tests are the ELISA (blood) and Enterolab (stool) tests. However even the most sensitive test depends on the lab, which processes results, for the most accurate diagnoses. So if you suspect food allergies, look for a doctor or naturopath who uses a reliable test which they send to labs with good quality control standards.
Also good doctors and/or labs can help you interpret your test results. If you have reactions to many foods on the test (one form of ELISA tests 96 different foods), you should consider the overall pattern and spikes. Qualified docs will advise you to only consider the highest scores or peaks as your food allergies.
Finally consider whether you physically react to foods which your test results showed as 'allergies'. The final 'test' is empirical: if you absolutely abstain from food allergen ingredients and your physical symptoms disappear, you most likely were allergic to those ingredients.
Posted by: sue corning | December 13, 2007 at 11:40 AM