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Welcome to Step Four! The focus is: Food Sensitivities
The purpose of Step Four is to find out:
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if removing certain foods (e.g., milk products,
wheat, corn or sugar) for a week helps you to feel better |
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what you can do to deal with any food sensitivities |
- Read the description of the
symptoms outlined below.
- Select the type of food
that is associated with any of the symptoms you are experiencing.
Make up a menu to exclude this food for one week.
- Fill out a Symptom and Food
Diary before you begin, every day during the weeklong elimination,
and for the three days in which you reintroduce the food(s) into
your diet.
- Find out how to live in a
way that helps you to feel as good as you can feel.
- Do the Self-Evaluation.
- Proceed to Step
Five - Other Factors.
1. Read the description of the symptoms outlined below.
MILK PRODUCTS
Symptoms: lots of colds, flus or ear infections
as a child (more than 2 per year). People often naturally avoid
the foods that are not good for them; others may crave them. If
you tend to avoid milk or feel like you can't live without it,
this may be the one to take out of your diet. Asthmatics are often
sensitive to milk.
WHEAT PRODUCTS
Symptoms: bad moods for no apparent reason. The person acts like
a "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" kind of person. An example
of this might be someone who is nice and pleasant one minute and
grumpy the next. Their reactions to the same event might differ
drastically from one day to the next. Even if you think that it
is appropriate to feel irritable, this can be caused by wheat.
CORN/SUGAR PRODUCTS
Symptoms: obsession with corn and/or sugar. This might be a family
that has popcorn every night, a person who craves sweets or has
a history of diabetes or alcoholism in the family.
If you have a problem with yeast in your system, taking out sugar
will starve the yeast and it will die off. This often causes a
reaction that is known as "toxic die off" and you might
feel unwell. To avoid this reaction, Dr. Peter Bennett, a naturopath
from Victoria, suggests drinking lots of water each day with a
1-3 teaspoons of lemon juice in each cup. He also recommends taking
Vitamin C up to "bowel tolerance" during the week you
take the food out. This means taking as much Vitamin C as you
can without getting diarrhea. In the experience with my clients,
I have found that 2000-3000 milligrams is usually enough to prevent
a negative reaction.
2. Select the type of food that is associated with any of the symptoms
you are experiencing.
I tell my clients that they only have to take
one of the food groups out of their diet for a week. The problem
comes when they have symptoms of more than one of the groups.
Most of the people I see want to feel better as quickly as possible,
so I encourage them to take out any of the food groups (i.e.,
milk, wheat or corn/sugar) for which they are showing symptoms.
Some adults know that alcohol and caffeine are bad for them too,
so the most motivated ones decide to go off these as well for
a week. When they go off caffeine, it seems to take about 10 days
before they are over the symptoms of withdrawal (i.e., extreme
tiredness and craving for the substance that has been removed).
Therefore, you may want to do this before you take the food out
of your diet, as well.
3. Make up a menu to exclude this food(s) for one week.
Keep your diet as much the same as possible,
while eliminating only the food(s) you are testing. If you need
menu ideas, download our Sample
Menus.
 Remember,
I encourage you to "go for the gold" and take out all
the food groups that are implicated by the symptoms you have!
It'll only take a week to see how good you can feel.
4. Fill out a Symptom and Food Diary before you begin, every day
during the weeklong elimination, and for the three days in which
you reintroduce the food(s) into your diet.
The purpose of the Symptom
and Food Diary is to help you keep track of what you are eating
and how you are feeling. It might even help to identify substances
that you were not aware were hurting you.
Be sure to put a number (0 to 3) in each box. Adding the totals
each day will help you to evaluate the differences in how you
feel. If you have eliminated more than one type of food, reintroduce
it one at a time to test your reaction. Use your helper during
this step to notice any changes in your mood, physical symptoms
or behavior.
5. Find out how to live in a way that helps you to feel as good
as you can feel.
If you feel a lot better off a particular food, you may be able
to have it once a week and still feel good. For some other options,
see FAQ 2 in We're Here to Help.
6. Do the Self-Evaluation.
Our goal in Step Four - Food Sensitivities was to see:
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if removing certain foods (e.g., milk
products, wheat, corn or sugar) for a week helps you to
feel better |
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what you can do to deal with any food
sensitivities |
Did removing certain foods (e.g., milk, wheat, corn or sugar)
for a week help you to feel better? Yes or No?
 If
YES, you felt better when certain foods were removed, have you
decided what you can do to deal with any food sensitivities?
Yes or No?
If
YES, which group did you fit into - symptoms disappeared within
a week or you felt some improvement? How are you going to
manage this part of your life?
 If
NO you haven't decided how to handle this, please review the
options outlined in We're Here to Help
- Food Sensitivities FAQ 2, 3,
4 and choose one that feels right to you.
If
NO, did you fill out a Symptom
and Food Diary every day? Did you reintroduce the foods
one at a time so that you could tell how they affected you?
Yes or No?
If
YES, to all of the above questions, then you did a great job!
These results suggest that you might not have any food sensitivities
to the foods we tested. Check with your local allergist or
naturopath to be sure.
If
you answered NO to these questions, please consider doing
this part thoroughly. The more closely you choose to follow
the steps in this Self-Managed Journey, the greater the chance
that you will feel better with a minimum of time, effort and
expense. Eliminating offending foods may not completely solve
your issues, but it can make a big difference in how you feel.
7. Go to Step Five - Other Factors.
  
Q1: Why are we looking at food sensitivities?
A: The
purpose of this page is to make sure that possible food sensitivities
are not interfering with your functioning. Many people don't know
that there are certain foods that may be preventing them from
feeling as good as they could be. That's why we look at this area
for everyone - just to make sure.
Q2: I know that I don't have any allergies or food sensitivities,
so why should I do this step?
A:
Many people think of allergies in the traditional way of sneezing,
sniffling or itching. However, we have many different systems
in our body that can be affected by food sensitivities. You may
actually be reacting to a substance and not even know it. That
is why it is good to first rule out the most common food allergens.
Q3: How can removing a food from my diet help my mental, emotional
or spiritual life?
A: Being
exposed to something which we are sensitive or allergic to is
a source of stress on our immune system. When our immune system
is stressed, our ability to handle any of life's challenges is
compromised.
Exposure to allergic substances can result in symptoms in different
systems in our body. The system that is affected by allergens
is sometimes referred to as "the shock organ". For example,
if the respiratory system is involved, we will experience symptoms
of coughing, wheezing or sniffling. If the skin is the shock organ,
we may feel itchy or get hives. Stress on the neurological system
results in changes in the brain. In this case, the symptoms can
be emotional reactivity, anger, or anxiety.
It is amazing how much better we feel when we make even a couple
of small changes in our lives. It can reduce our stress to a manageable
level.
Q4: What if my child or I have already had formal testing and we
know that we have allergies and/or food or environmental sensitivities?
A: It's
great if you know what bothers you. Are you able to stay away
from it? Is it working for you? If so, great. If you are finding
it challenging, click here FAQ 6, 7 and
8 in We're Here to Help - Food Sensitivities. Some types of
allergy testing are not able to detect food sensitivities, so
I encourage you to do this step and take out whatever food goes
with your symptoms. It only takes a week and might lead to some
interesting results. You never know.
Q5: What is the difference between
"food sensitivity" and an "allergy"?
A:
The distinction between food sensitivity and allergy is one that
may be important to some people and some allergists. If you want
to know more about this area, see We're Here
to Help. In this Self-Managed Journey and the Basic
Empowerment Plus® Evaluation that I do with my clients,
we use the term "food sensitivity" interchangeably with
"allergy" as the distinction doesn't really matter to
the assessment or recommended treatment strategies in the Self-Managed
Journey.
Q6: How can you be dealing
with this area when you are a psychologist?
A:
I look at the possible effects of food on functioning because
it has made a big difference for my family,
my clients
and myself.
This was the main reason that I went into private practice - because
I felt that I was morally obligated to share some of my knowledge
in this area with clients. Dr. William Langdon, an allergist who
assisted our family, developed the method we use to screen for
challenges in the area of food sensitivity.
My research Retrospective
Evaluation results show that a total of 84% of my clients
feel better (i.e., the score on their Symptom
and Food Diary is significantly less). Of this 84%, 13% experience
complete relief of their symptoms of attention or depression within
one week of removing the food(s) that we choose from their diets.
For 16% there is no difference. We will not know what category
you fit into until you try.
You might want to read a little about my journey and how food
sensitivities were causing my son's bronchitis and my depression.
(See Teeya's Story)
 More questions? We're Here to Help
If not, see Step
Five - Other Factors.
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