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Friday, July 20, 2012

Allergies

I have a lot of allergies.  And not just, "oh I have hay fever" in the spring kind of allergies.  No, we're talking allergic to 89 out of 90 of the most common allergens in the Central Valley.  As in, I reacted to everything but eucalyptus - pollen, mold, grass, animals - if it was on the list, it had + next to it (well, except eucalyptus, of course).  In addition to that list was another smaller list of common food allergies.  I didn't give that much thought, but when peanuts came up with ++ next to it, I was a little concerned.  But the doctor explained that food allergies are really hard to test and false positives on the skin test are quite common.  I laid off peanut butter for a while because that ++ made me nervous, but slowly I've gotten back to having some occasional peanut butter. 

Skip ahead 6 years to my P90X adventure.  For the past 12 days I've been eating egg whites, fruits and vegetables, lean meats - you know, stuff you're supposed to eat to lose weight and be healthy.  Included in my new regime is a protein bar every day as one of my snacks.  Well, I already knew I was allergic to chocolate because when I would eat it, I would get eczema on my arm.  So about 3 years ago, I stopped eating chocolate.  Anyway, because of my chocolate allergy, I can't eat the majority of protein bars on the market, which leaves me with ....... peanut butter. 

I thought nothing of it.  It's been 6 years, after all.  So every day for 12 days, I have eaten a peanut butter protein bar.  And now I have eczema.  It started on my leg, just a little patch.  I thought nothing of it - I have eczema, it comes and goes.  But it's getting bigger and itchier (if you've never had eczema - it sucks!) and I have found more this morning around my armpits - not the center, just around the sides. 

But it may not be the peanut butter - those tests show false positives, remember.  It just as easily could be the eggs I'm eating every day for the past 12 days.  It could be dairy, which means that the whey protein I've been using for my protein shake every day is the culprit.  No matter what, the only real way to test for food allergies is to get the food out of your diet and then introduce it back in.  So I have to revamp my entire eating plan because all the possible culprits have to go.  And that means that some main sources of protein are gone from my meal plan.  Ouch.  At least I'm relatively sure I'm not allergic to chicken (I hope!).

Anyone know any good sources of protein that aren't dairy, egg, or nuts?

2 comments:

Greta said...

Quinoa.
It tastes good with some pinto or black beans, salsa, corn and fresh cilantro.
Just think of it this way, you'll be eating hardly anything, so you'll shed pounds that much faster!
Good luck!
Love from,
Greta

Sue said...

Thanks Greta! I've just recently found quinoa and I like it, though I'm still getting used to it. I love black beans and cilantro, so I'm definitely going to give this a try!