Erik Hill wrote: > > I know you guys aren't doctors, but I must ask, and hopefully one or > more of you will have some idea where to start. Definately NOT a Dr.! But that doesn't stop me from having opinions. ;--) > > I have food allergies like the pope has religion. > > I believe my food allergies are getting worse but it's hard to tell as > it would be quite gradual. However, I can eat so few foods that losing > even one is a complete disaster. > > Does anyone have any ideas? Lots! First, a member of my family is in a similar situation, since her mid-twenties. She only felt relief when pregnant, so she spent a fair amount of time that way! I have lots of nice nieces and nephews. Too bad you are not female (are you?). Fortunately she is better now. She found that overeating one food tended to increase her sensitivity to that food over time. So rule number one, hard as it is, is to try not to eat the same food twice in one day, and as much longer between as possible. Alternate different meats every meal. Beef at breakfast, pork at lunch, chicken at dinner, then the next day go for lamb/rabbit/duck, fish/venison/goose etc etc. Search out all the ethnic and botique food shops in your vicinity, and stock up a big freezer when you find an unusual ,meat. Learn to hunt and fill the freezer with venison, rabbit, pheasant, pigeon, turkey, pig, goat etc. Whatever is within a couple hundred miles of home. Fish too if you can eat it. The finest meat I ever ate was armadillo. Really. Next, from my own experience with allergies (far milder than yours), eating high carb meals seems to bring on an attack. Also, I have never heard of anyone being allergic just to fat. I seem to operate better in the hay fever season on high fat very low carbs. I suggest trying to substitute as much fat calories for carb calories as you can stand. If you still have candida troubles this will also help alleviate them. High calorie diets seem to bring on allergy attacks. Try cutting calories till you begin to lose weight, then add a few back. Keep your body temperature low. Allergies are to foreign protein. Eat as low a protein diet as is consistent with good health. If you are eating a lot of meat, go for the highest fat meat you can find. If your allergies are in a serious phase, try de-naturing the protein by cooking it (simmering) till it disintegrates. Allergies are to specific forms of protein, not to the constituent amino-acids. Cooking destroys the protein leaving the amino-acids that constitute it. These should be a lot less allergenic than the original proteins. So my advice boils down to: eat a mainly fat diet, with just enough protein to keep up muscle and body tissue. Eat as few calories as you can stand without losing weight. You will need to be very careful to eat what high vitamin/mineral foods you can to avoid deficiencies. Take hypoallergenic supplements if you can. I realise this is very similar (in some ways) to the restricted calorie diet some people believe prolongs life (it works for fruit flies). I would not advise anyone to do that unless they have serious multiple food allergies. This is also not particularly paleo, it is desperation. Whatever works. Of course I happen to believe paleo works best for most people.