It has been months since my last blog post. After double jaw surgery I needed to take some time to recover, and then I was immersed in self-publishing a book, which will be released by the end of the summer (fingers crossed). The book provides the inspiration for today’s topic Finding Foods That Love You, so let me start by telling you about it.
The book is unlike any other dietary book on the market. While there are many books that focus on specific dietary protocols, my co-author (the amazing Luka Symons) and I wanted to create a book that anyone with a complex health condition can pick up and use. How were we able to do that? We factored in all the food compounds that can be problematic for health: lectins, histamine, salicylates, oxalates, mold, and foods that trigger autoimmunity and mast cell activation.
Why did we do that? We had both been working with clients who were struggling after trying different dietary protocols, and weren’t feeling better. People were coming to us after doing protocols like GAPS, AIP, or keto and they weren’t seeing the expected results. Sometimes people came to us specifically seeking guidance in combining protocols, such as adding low oxalate to a low histamine diet. There was a need for a resource that took the complexity of combining protocols and made it all simple and easy for people to use.
Many people have no issues with these food compounds, but if you have a chronic health condition some of these compounds can be at the root of your symptoms. Regardless of what your symptoms are, and regardless of what your diagnosis is, food plays a role in contributing to the physiology behind your symptoms. Food impacts your biochemistry and can be used to target that biochemistry and change it.
If you can figure out which food compounds are contributing to your symptoms, you can make better food choices, and eat foods that make you feel better.
Read the Signs
What symptoms do you struggle with? Read through the following questions to see if any of these sound familiar. This is an opportunity to ask yourself which food compounds could be behind your symptoms.
Do you love a wine and cheese event? A beautiful and tasty charcuterie board filled with cheeses, olives, cured grass-fed meats and dried fruit, complimented with a well paired organic wine is perfect for social gatherings.
Get a migraine or GERD from aged meat and cheese?
Does it love you back, or do you get a bit of heartburn or GERD afterwards? Or maybe a migraine develops.
Do you love a good Italian meal with eggplant, tomato and bell peppers in the mix? An eggplant parmigiana smothered in rich tomato and bell pepper sauce just hits the spot. These vegetables are classics in Mediterranean cuisine.
Does it love you back, or do your joints feel achy the next day? Or maybe your bowel is telling you it’s a bit irritable.
Do you love a flavourful stir-fry? Broccoli florets are so good at soaking up all those sauces, and onion and garlic make a great flavour base to build on. It’s such a simple and fast meal to make at home.
Does it love you back, or do you end up feeling bloated shortly after eating it? Or maybe you get some dairrhea (or bunged up so you can’t poop).
Do you love to have a smoothie with spinach or kale each morning?
Do leafy greens love you back? Have you had kidney stones? Or maybe you struggle with joint or vulvar pain.
Figure Out Which Foods Love You
Aren’t those foods healthy? If you answered yes to any of those questions, these foods may not be healthy for you.
There are many foods that have been researched to be healthy and beneficial to human health, but that doesn’t mean they are healthy for everyone. Tomatoes are great sources of two important antioxidants, vitamin C and lycopene, which support good health (1). They also contain alkaloids and histamine, both of which can contribute to your symptoms.
Broccoli is rich in sulforaphane which has been researched to have many protective benefits in conditions such as cancer, diabetes, and neurodegenerative conditions (2). It is also high in FODMAPs and sulphur, which can both be problematic if you have a lot of bloating, IBS or SIBO (small intestinal bacterial overgrowth).
Leafy greens and tubers like potato and sweet potato are high in oxalates that can contribute to the formation of kidney stones (3), or to pain in various parts of the body.
Wine, cheese, chocolate, bone broth, and fermented foods are all high in histamine, which can impact any symptoms you have. What? Aren’t bone broth and ferments great for gut health?
You are trying your best to eat well, but have symptoms that are part of your daily life. It’s time to figure out what those symptoms are trying to tell you. It’s time to find foods that you love, that love you back.
Symptoms are your body’s way of telling you that something is wrong. It can be hard to imagine that all those delicious and healthy foods are contributing to symptoms, but your body is trying to communicate with you and let you know something isn’t right.
If you have symptoms shortly after eating, it’s pretty easy to figure out that something you ate made you feel a bit blah. If you have stomach upset or diarrhea after eating some foods you know your body doesn’t love them. You may even get hives, rashes, asthma, a drippy nose, or headaches. Worst case scenario is pseudoanaphylaxis that lands you in emergency.
It becomes much harder to figure out which foods your body loves (or doesn’t love) when symptoms are ongoing, or that occur the next day or maybe even later. Do you always have tinnitus? Do you always have pain? You struggle with anxiety or depression. Maybe you have to get up and pee frequently some nights, or maybe you notice you struggle to breathe through your nose sometimes (especially at night?)
5 Steps to Take
Figuring out which foods love you (and which ones don’t) can be challenging. Here are a few ideas to help:
Keep a food and symptoms diary
Keep a food diary or use an app like mySymptoms to see if you can correlate foods with your symptoms.
Testing through an integrative or functional practitioner can help identify high levels of histamine or oxalates in your body.
If you think FODMAPs are an issue for you, consider SIBO testing.
Consult an experienced nutrition professional.
Get the book Histamine Haven: the essential guide and cookbook to histamine and mast cell activation
Okay, that last step is a not-so-subtle-hint for you to buy my book. I think it’s a great book. Perhaps I’m biased (probably). Luka and I have created recipes that are low lectin, low histamine, and low mold with recipe variations for low salicylate, low oxalate and for those on AIP. We took the complexity of combining various protocols and made it simple and delicious.
You can get it here. I promise you it contains an abundance of simple and delicious recipes that your body and your taste buds will love. If you order now during our presale, you’ll get 10 recipes in your inbox right away to tide you over until the book is in distribution.
Happy, Healthy Eating!
Tracey