Recovering from food allergies?

[mcasburn]

I have a lot of food allergies. Some of them don't bother me because I don't miss the food (cow dairy, casein, legumes, eggs and asparagus) but some of them are a serious bummer (bananas, grapefruits, pineapple, all glutenous grains, and slight irritation from oranges, mushrooms and nutritional yeast).

I know I'm not the only one, and my question is: how much success have folks had recovering from food allergies on raw? I'm currently 6 weeks into the "three-month avoidance plan" to let my system heal, and taking probiotics and gut repair supplements.

I'm interested in your stories about food allergies and raw foods. And I really, really want my bananas and grapefruits back.

[Helen Of Tennessee]

Dr. Tim Trader was allergic to watermelon and oranges. After going all raw he can now eat as much of them as he wants:

http://www.vegetarianusa.com/rawenergy/

I also know that Dr. Doug Graham was allergic to oranges but no longer is. I can't find his story on this.

[juliebove]

My daughter and I both have food allergies. In my case, the only one that would apply to a vegan diet is almonds. I can live without those. Doesn't bother me. I have bad reactions to pineapple and oranges. I just don't eat them. Didn't much like them anyway.

Technically, food allergies can go away for anyone, raw diet or not. They don't usually go away in older people though. From what I've read, you stand the best chance if you have total avoidance of those foods you know you are allergic to and varying your diet so you don't eat a lot of something. If you do that, you could develop an allergy to that. You do need to totally be off the allergens for a couple of years and only maybe then can you re-introduce those foods in small amounts to see how you react. Do not do this if you have a life threatening allergy though.

[rawpriestess]

I used to have an allergic reaction to all citrus, oranges, lemons, limes, grapefruit, even celery tomato and lettuce, once I got rid of dairy, I no longer reacted to the citrus, so now I can eat as much as I want, before, when I was eating dairy, it would end me up in the emergency room, with no breathing, my throat would close up, it was very scary!!!


I am 53, so age isn't a problem for changing allergic symptoms.

[dreamrawalwz]

I don't think any "allergy" is an allergy (at least not to raw fruits and veggies). It's like the body is just SO toxin and fed up that it'll react to anything ya know? Before raw I couldn't have pineapple, strawberries, grapes, ect. After raw I can now :)

[mcasburn]

dreamraw: I agree with you. The reactions are signs that my immune system is compromised in very specific ways, and needs to be healed. I just want to know whether folks have, in fact, healed, and am happy to hear that you, RP and others are having success.

I was actually born with a cow dairy allergy, and was rushed to the hospital as an infant for intestinal distress. I was switched to goat milk as a result (not sure why my mom did not breastfeed me). At some point they switched me back to cow dairy, and I recall NEVER wanting to drink my milk as a kid. I never liked it, and had to be forced to finish it during dinner. I also remember mono-eating TONS of oranges as a kid during the summer. Kids have a cool sixth sense when it comes to food.

[rawfigure]

My food allergy is in the form of Fish and Seafood, Eggs and Soy ! So I am all set with the Raw Food Diet...in fact that is the main reason I am Raw !

[paleogirl]

Rawfigure, food intolerances are what got me (eventually) to raw also. It annoys me that so much prepared/gourmet raw food has soy in it (raw or not, it's still soy and I'm allergic to it). But on the whole this is a very liberating diet, I actually have more options raw than I did cooked, which has to be unusal!

[SeaRose]

I have tons of food allergies, too. These are true food allergies, not food intolerances or sensitivities. Most of what I am allergic to are fruits and vegetables, like bananas, pineapple, zucchini, avocado, etc.

I have been trying to stay as close to 100% raw as possible, but I have been having major stomach problems, so severe that I ended up in the hospital for three days. I have to admit that I was sneaking in fruits and veggies that I am allergic to, out of desperation to try alot of the recipes in Allisa's book.

Mcasburn, you talk about a "three-month avoidance plan". Can you please elaborate on this? Maybe it would help me, too. Also, what supplements are you taking? I am at my wit's end, and any help would be most appreciated.

Thanks!

[mcasburn]

It's actually just what it says: you completely avoid all allergens for 3 months so your system can heal from the damage. Then, you re-introduce them one at a time, watching for signs that you're not recovered. If you have a flare-up, stop eating immediately and give it another month (or 2, or 3...)

This is for sensitivities, though... I'm not a doctor and cannot recommend anything for a true allergy. I'd find a Naturopathic Doctor (ND) who specializes in nutrition, if I were you.

I take a probiotic, which is live B. Infantis. I also take a supplement called Gut Repair Formua that has a variety of ingredients whose names I cannot recall (glucosamine? l-glutamine?). Both were prescribed by my ND when we reviewed the results of my food allergy test.

If you are not allergic to them, fresh pineapple and papaya are excellent for gut repair as well.

[juliebove]

It's actually just what it says: you completely avoid all allergens for 3 months so your system can heal from the damage. Then, you re-introduce them one at a time, watching for signs that you're not recovered. If you have a flare-up, stop eating immediately and give it another month (or 2, or 3...)

This is for sensitivities, though... I'm not a doctor and cannot recommend anything for a true allergy. I'd find a Naturopathic Doctor (ND) who specializes in nutrition, if I were you.

I take a probiotic, which is live B. Infantis. I also take a supplement called Gut Repair Formua that has a variety of ingredients whose names I cannot recall (glucosamine? l-glutamine?). Both were prescribed by my ND when we reviewed the results of my food allergy test.

If you are not allergic to them, fresh pineapple and papaya are excellent for gut repair as well.

There is something in fresh pineapple that makes me very ill. I used to be able to eat canned pineapple with no problems. Haven't had any in years so I don't know if it still does. I presume it is the bromelian in the pineapple that is the cause. If I put a piece of pineapple in my mouth, my lips and tonge break out in blisters, so I spit it right out.

Well, for some reason I determined that I needed to take bromelian supplements. So I did, but they caused horrid burping and eventually, stomach pain. So I stopped.

Recently, my ND used my blood labs and some computer program to determine what she thought I needed. Bromelian was in there. I told her I couldn't tolerate it but she assured me that these pills would be fine because they had other things in there. So I went home, took them and immediately got huge blisters on my tongue. And then the burping began. Had a sleepless night. When I showed her my tongue the next day, she agreed that I shouldn't take them.

Oddly, I do not show an allergy to pineapple on the RAST test. But it sure doesn't do well for me!

[paleogirl]

From what I understand, food sensitivities (IgG mediated reactions, usually delyaed in onset) are the only kind that can be reversed, or that you can grow out of so to speak. Food allergies (IgE mediated) are for life and food intolerances (true IgA mediated ones) are for life too, and wreak all kinds of havoc on the body, contributing to autoimmune disorders, etc. It's so confusing that there are all these different kinds, and downright dangerous for those of us with IgA or IgE reactions because people presume all 'allergies' are the same, and 'a little bit won't hurt'. :(