Lady Ariel wrote:
>> The constipation is probably caused by allergies, rather than a lack of
>> fiber.  Since the paleo-diet avoids many common food allergens, you may
>> notice an improvement.
>Hrm...Interesting...I'll give no wheat a try again....it certainly can't
>hurt.  The other noticable thing that happens to me when I eat wheat is
>that I'm normally freezing cold...if I actually stick to a wheat free
>diet for about a week...I warm up so so much.  Even my husband tend to
>notice.

Interesting symptom; in my case, I tend to overheat when I eat something I
shouldn't.  Unfortunately, simply avoiding wheat may not give you the
desired results; you may have other allergies as well.

>> Wheat is the number one food allergen in North America.  Are you really
>> allergic to *all* fish, or just certain species?  Allergies to cod,
trout,
>> and mackerel, for example, are fairly rare [but cod is gross, in my
opinion,
>> so I can understand why you might avoid it regardless ;-)].
>Well...I quite possibly buy the wrong kind of fish or something too.  I'm
>not sure about *all* fish...I think I can eat shrimp and be ok.   I know
>that I bought some kind of gortons fish things that were not breaded last
>fall.  And I had to take a benadryl after eating it because I couldn't
>breathe well.  I'm sure staying away from any hugely processed fish is a
>real good idea.

Yes, processed foods in general are a bad idea.  If you get in the habit of
reading labels, you'll be shocked by the long list of additives in processed
foods (flour, wheat starch, corn syrup, corn starch, sugar, sulphites, egg
white [I'm allergic to eggs], casein, whey, hydrolyzed soy protein, yeast,
etc.).

[...]

>Wheat seems like it's allergic reactions HAVE to be more elusive than
>other allergens.  I mean wheat is in almost *everything* if it comes
>in any kind of package, or is processed in any way...it most likely has
>wheat.  So, look at the sheer numbers of people who are allergic and must
>not know it.  I had a friend in college who had all the tests and he'd
>go to a restaurant and say, "I'm allergic to wheat."  And every single
>time the waitperson would get a funny look and say, "unbelievebable...I've
>never heard of such a thing."

Unfortunately, conventional methods of allergy testing are very primitive,
and mostly useless for detecting food allergies.  The only publicized food
allergies are those that sometimes provoke anaphylactic shock (e.g., peanut
or shellfish allergy).  Representatives of the dairy industry claim that
milk allergy is virtually non-existent, when it's actually the second most
common food allergy.  Most food allergies *are* elusive; that's why the term
"masked (or hidden) allergy" was coined.  Once you avoid food allergens for
several days, however, the reintroduction of a problem food provokes obvious
symptoms.

Cheers,
-- Aaron