Health is Wealth

Well, I was hoping I wouldn't have to do this again, but it looks as if I must, if only temporarily.

I have a chronic disease that remains largely "dormant" about 85% of the time (thank goodness!), but for some reason it does occasionally come back when I least expect it. In any case, the first time it happened and my usual meds didn't heal my poor body, an osteopathic doctor I was seeing in Dallas prescribed a very strict "elimination diet." The term comes from the fact that one pretty much eliminates half of everything one eats for a certain period of time. At the time I had to be on it for two months, as my symptoms were just awful, but boy, once I was on the diet, everything calmed down within a week. I still had to stay on it for the remainder of the prescribed time period, but I felt great. Heck, even other chronic conditions that usually weren't an issue went away.

Anyway, until I see my specialist, I'm going to put myself back on the diet. There are a few downsides but more than a few upsides, which are definitely well-earned:

The Downsides: It's very restrictive. No soy, alcohol, caffeine, shellfish, all nightshade veggies/fruits (tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, potatoes), sugar (of any kind, including maple syrup, honey, molasses, "fake" sugar, etc.), corn (including corn oil and corn syrup and all its variations), all citrus, dairy, eggs, red meat (except for lamb and certain kinds of game), non-organic poultry, pork/ham/pork products, wheat and anything containing gluten (which includes oats, spelt, etc., because they may contain trace amounts of gluten), grapes and raisins, peanuts, pistachios, and a few other things that escape me at the moment. After the prescribed time lapses, you slowly reintroduce each food every three days and monitor your progress. The idea is to determine what particular food(s) your body is allergic to and eliminate or limit the intake of that food(s) in the future.

The diet can be expensive and time-consuming. I can have canned sardines or beans for protein, but unless I want to consume those three times a day everyday, I'm going to have to occasionally cook lamb (not a problem -- I love it -- except as I've been vegetarian or semi-vegetarian for over a decade, I don't really know how to cook it except for throwing it on my handy-dandy George Foreman). Lamb isn't cheap in my neck of the woods, especially if I want the New Zealand grass-fed lamb. I'm fortunate in that this is happening now rather than, say, ten years ago, when even the smallest towns will likely have a health-food store from whence one can obtain a lot of clean, unprocessed, organic foods, but it's still not going to be cheap.

The first few days will be very difficult. My sweet tooth isn't always raging, but it's ever present, taunting me with its ferocity when it does rear it little head. The first few days of this diet have always been about pure craving -- cheesecake, peanut butter, tomato-based pasta, cheese, even coffee even though I don't drink it very often. I check the labels of various foods (even those labeled "gluten-free" and find bold-faced warnings along the lines of: This product has been processed in a facility that also processes wheat, soy, etc. etc. etc.) and find that 75% of products in a chain grocery store are verboten.

The Upsides: After the first 3-4 days, the cravings go away. Not completely, mind you, but I can pretty much handle anything after this. During my last go-round on the diet, I was even able to bake a lot of cookies and brownies for B. without feeling an ounce of deprivation (B. happily played the role of taste-tester). By the time I'm in my 3rd week, I frequently feel as if I can continue the diet forever. (This feeling never lasts, of course, but it does give me hope that if need be, I can do it again.)

Also, by the 2nd week, I feel so calm and centered. Maybe it's the total lack of caffeine and sugar, each of which can create their own artificial energy in the body and can upset the delicate balance of the nervous system.

My skin clears up! That alone can cheer me up. I don't know what specific food(s) contribute to skin problems, but it's obviously something(s) in that very long list above.

I lost (and never regained) fifteen pounds. My body just felt cleaner and leaner; when I returned to my former (still largely veggie) diet, my stomach took a hit quite often, rebelling when I consumed something it had so blissfully been avoiding for weeks.

The diet obviously does have its advantages. While it's certainly not the French Women Don't Get Fat Model, by consuming mostly fresh, organic foods for such a long period of time, one can easily learn good habits and rebalance one's body to achieve its equilibrium. I don't really need to lose weight, but I could stand to get leaner, and eliminating fatty foods will certainly help in that direction. You're not really encouraged to engage in strenuous physical exercise while on the diet (the idea is that you're giving your body a chance to rest and rejuvenate itself), but I usually keep to my running and yoga regimen when I'm on it without any problems.

In any case, when one's health is at stake or one's body is so out of balance that one's health is compromised, one learns to accept and appreciate the advances in traditional and complementary medicine practices that allow one to heal properly and fully. I'll stick with it for a month and hope that that will do the trick.