Our Food Journey Has Taken an Interesting Turn

What do you do when you find out you should not be eating dairy, gluten or soy?



Have a Midori margarita on the rocks, of course. And pass the chips and salsa, because corn is OK (just try really hard to ignore the fact that the corn used to make the chips was probably genetically engineered).

Yesterday we went as a family to have our food sensitivities tested. I've suspected for a while that some of the foods we eat have been causing either digestive problems or some behavioral issues, namely moodiness, irritability, and sometimes fatigue and muscle/joint pain. In our quest for a healthier diet, I thought it best to figure out which foods work best for our bodies and which foods work against our bodies.

Now this is where my belief that our bodies work in miraculous ways and my skeptical nature collide. We had our food sensitivities tested by a Chiropractic Doctor using Applied Kinesiology. You can read more about the testing here, but in a nutshell, the doctor tests your muscle resistance, then puts a small sample of the food for which sensitivity is being tested on your tongue or under your tongue, and tests your muscle resistance again. The theory is that if you are sensitive to a certain food, your muscle resistance will decrease. Believe me, I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it. And I probably never would have tried it had I not heard about several friends and family members that have had good success with such testing. The woman who recommended the doctor saw one son's brain tumors shrink and her other son's asthma correct itself upon changing their diet after having their food sensitivities tested. Even still, it seems just a tad bit quacky to my science loving brain.

This testing is not "scientifically proven" or endorsed by mainstream medicine. I could read plenty of articles that would make me feel a fool for paying good money to have the testing done. But to be quite honest, this is something I believe is worth a try for our family. We spend hundreds of dollars every month on food and I spend hours every day preparing food for my family, so why not spend that hard earned money and valuable time on food that will nourish our bodies and improve our overall health, rather than food that can potentially aggravate our systems and cause pain, discomfort, inflammation and possibly more severe health problems?

The good news is that my husband the homebrewer is not sensitive to gluten. It would have been a sad day if the test results had been different. Each of us tested sensitive to dairy products, and Avery and I are both sensitive to gluten. I was the only one to test sensitive to soy.



My goal now is to focus on what we can eat, rather than what we cannot eat. Act rather than react as my tea bag so kindly suggested; thank you Yogi for your wisdom (and in case you're curious, I compost my tea bags). I see this as an opportunity to try all sorts of new foods and recipes and hopefully enjoy a life free from some of the issues we've been having with certain foods (yes Mom, you were right about Avery and dairy all along). Coincidentally, many foods that we will be eliminating from our diet due to food sensitivity are the very same foods that we had decided to eliminate due to GMOs.

So all my gluten and dairy sensitive friends out there (you know who you are), feel free to email me with your favorite recipes and meal ideas. And anyone else that I don't "know" yet, send your suggestions my way. My family will thank you, believe me.

P.S. I've added my email address at the bottom of the page.