Saturday, August 10, 2013

new clues to encourage a happier body

A couple of days ago a new realization filtered into my brain....  The way Dr. Donaldson ("Strong Medicine") designed his dietary recommendations, his approved food list ("allergy bandwagon" he called it) turned out to be LOW HISTAMINE.

I read a little bit about the question a couple of years ago, but while doing the program it didn't occur to me -- i have no idea why it popped into consciousness now.  But yeah -- freshly grinding a beef chuck into burger and cooking it the same day decidedly gives you a smaller histamine dose than buying that family pack of ground beef.  A lot of the foods Donaldson frowned on are high in histamine irritation:  wheat, tomatoes (all nightshades in fact), citrus, strawberries, chocolate....  It seems also that some foods which give me hypothyroid symptoms -- sauerkraut leaps out -- are also high in the nasty bioamine, too.

Oh, and also those "neolithic agents of disease" grains, legumes and polyunsaturated (ie. rancid) seed oils.

I think it's highly likely that i'll feel much better by trying to minimize histamine-containing foods in my diet.  According to "thelowhistaminechef.com" one of the huge number of histamine-intolerance symptoms is trouble with the thyroid.  Gotta read up more....

The worst part of this is that red wine falls into the "avoid" category.  :-(

13 comments:

  1. recently I found 100% grassfed hamburger on this Island sourced from the neighboring Island of molokai, it no BS make a difference in how you feel, worth the extra money IMO.

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  2. The range of quality in GF burger is surprising -- the stuff i tried from Trader Joe's was too finely ground and packed so tight in the shrink-wrap it was remarkably un-juicy, and what i buy at Whole Foods doesn't taste very fresh although it's better. i've found grinding my own (coarsely) from GF chuck roast gives me the best results. :-) having a good high fat content is important, too!

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  3. Thanks Tess, I was toying with the idea that my itchy skin and runny nose was histamine from wine drinking...but I saw that if I want to imbibe i can drink gin or vodka. ;)
    I am going to give the low amine diet a go and see if I can lose this last bit of bloat!
    Thanks again,
    Lauren

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    1. Usually drinking an alcohol makes any existing allergy worse.

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    2. though some are a lot worse than others....

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  4. Lauren, thanks for the encouragement! i suspect i'm in the same boat (especially during allergy season), and am trying to think up ways of getting my husband to cook low-histamine stuff when he takes his turn in the kitchen. ;-) histamine might explain a lot, when it comes to getting differing results from an almost-identical menu....

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  5. I love G&T, however tonic has 17 carbs per drink and the sugar free tastes like ass.

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    1. :-) we use a saccharin-sweetened tonic, which IS significantly improved by a wedge of lime! last year i bought some cinchona bark with the ambition of making some tonic of my own, but i haven't gotten to it yet. one thing i've also done is dilute tonic with club soda to lessen its impact....

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  6. I commented several times before that the standard official diet for people with allergies in Russia excludes chocolate, citrus fruits, strawberries, tomatoes, hot pepper, smoked meats and fish, strong broths, frayed food ,nuts,honey, alcohol, even red and yellow fruits and veggies for children with allergies. I had many chances to observe that such recommendations worked. It is what "everybody knows", like eating chicken soup during cold, not something promoted by a blogger or some controversial guru.

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    1. unarguable! i have to wonder why people stray from truths that are proven over and over....

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    2. Interesting Galina. My son does best with that type of diet (Feingold) and although I know this, I feel like I'm a failure by withholding most fruits and veggies. Lot of guilt tied up in that for me.

      Tonya

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    3. Tonya,
      Avoiding yellow and red fruits and veggies could be really important during early childhood, at the more mature age the problematic ones are mostly strawberries, citrus fruits, hot peppers, cooked tomatoes. There are less problematic plants from allergy point of view. It is better to know,for example, that a green apple is the better choice for a small child with a dermatitis than a red one, and strawberries are better to avoid or limit. Most children overgrow such sensitivities. The strictness of the avoidance depends on the situation. If somebody is in an acute phase of asthma, eczema, pollen allergy, after serious allergy reaction, it is better to keep for a while more strict diet.
      It is better to know that some foods and surprisingly many plant foods are not benign for people with allergies. General rule - don't binge on anything, especially fruits and berries. It is the area where moderation is the key.

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    4. ...and yet people are encouraged to center their eating around just such foods by "authorities" [shaking head with wordless astonishment]....

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