My life is over.....and so is Emma's

Almost 3 weeks ago I had 7 vials of blood taken for a battery of tests. Ive been feeling pretty crummy all year so I was hoping the tests would come back with something and hopefully not be too serious.

It seems my liver, kidneys and vitamin D (to name a few) are out of whack and food sensitivities could well be the culprit. Easy fix huh? well...here's my comprehensive list of intolerances: Asparagus, Avocado, Banana, Almond, Lima Bean, Beef, Blueberry, Cauliflower, Celery, Carrots, Cocoa, Cottage Cheese, Chicken, Codfish, Garlic, Gluten, Lettuce, Mustard, Nutrasweet, Peanut, Black Pepper, Safflower, Salmon, Squash, Malt, Cows Milk, OATS, Mustard, Peach, Chili Pepper, Green Pepper, Turkey, Walnuts, Watermelon, Bakers Yeast, Brewers Yeast, Yoghurt.

I have to say I was completely shocked and stunned when I saw my results and especially the number of intolerances. Having a relatively bland British diet and two fairly picky eaters (including the husband) I rely on a lot on convenience and fast meals, like the rest of the world, not particularly fast foods but chicken salads, cereals, homemade juices and fresh breads. So now Im gluten free and dairy free on top of the 37 other foods I have to avoid. So what can I eat? Well..... thats a good question. 

There are two types of sensitivities: immediate and delayed. Immediate food reactions occur straight away and it can take 72 hours for a delayed reaction to appear. The day after I received my results, I headed to Wholefoods with Emma who was also diagnosed with 20 of her own food intolerances. Shes now gluten and dairy free and also has to avoid citrus foods. We both avoid our food intolerance list for 90 days and then slowly start reintroducing the foods to see how well our systems can handle them.

We spent a very hungry two and a half hours in Wholefoods reading labels and understanding how their store works. A purple tag on the shelves means gluten free products but I have to be very careful of whether they have yeast in them. I spoke to one of the servers on the deli counter who pointed us in the direction of GF hot dogs for Emma. (She enjoyed the hotdogs but not the GF hot dog rolls.)

We left with a few GF DF items including pasta, blueberry muffins and bread rolls and a price tag of over $200. Its a pretty expensive diet. I am relying on the iphone app FOODUCATE to help me shop. I scan all my items and if a product isn't in its database then I dont buy it. I can also use the app to create a daily food tracker and shopping list.

For now I have challenged Kelly the Culinarian to create me a GF, DF, 37free dessert. Ill keep you posted!