You may ask yourself what does an elimination diet have to do with homesteading? If you don’t feel your best, you won’t be able to crank out the amount of work needed to get your farm chores completed. An important additional benefit to knowing what foods you are sensitive to is that you can know exactly what to stockpile for the future. Be sure to purchase a notebook that you can jot down foods consumed and any follow up reactions.
Physicians and medical staff get anywhere between 2 hours to about 19 hours of nutritional training, so even they can’t tell you what you should remove. To be quite frank, I’ve known my fair share of doctors and medical personnel who were alcoholics, chain smokers, consumers of pain meds and many were very promiscuous. To say the least, these individuals are not the ones to tell you what to eat, and neither am I, but I will highly suggest you take a hard look at how you feel after eating. It shouldn’t ever be the norm to feel bloated and uncomfortable.
During my time working on the Board of Directors for Feingold, I was able to meet numerous individuals who had side effects that would range from red ears, nausea, diarrhea, irritability, difficulty focusing, headaches, memory recall issues, itchy skin, behavioral problems, anxiety and flatulence. What you eat, does in fact effect how productive you are in society.
In the beginning, you will want to do things very simple and take it slow because you want to watch for any changes in whoever is on the diet. If you do not see any improvements within 6 weeks in your child, there are fruits, vegetables and nuts that contain high levels of salicylates which some sensitive individuals may react to.
Meats (Watch out for MSG, dyes, artificial flavors and preservatives)
- Beef
- Chicken
- Pork
- Seafood
- Turkey
- “Exotic meats” such as venison, elk, moose, quail, etc.
Dairy (Watch out for artificial dyes, flavors, sweeteners and preservatives)
- Yogurt
- Eggs
- Savory Cheese
- Ice Cream
- Sour Cream
- Cream Cheese
- Cottage Cheese
- Milk
- Butter
Vegetables & Fruits (Watch out for MSG and flavoring and preservatives.)
Grains (Watch for preservatives sprayed on the inside of the package)
White Rice
Brown Rice
Oatmeal
Barley
Quinoa
Wheat
Millet
My list is obviously not very extensive, but I want to give you an idea of where to begin, and you can even go to a search engine and put in “elimination diet” or “The Feingold Program” and you will find more in-depth assistance.
The inner aisles of the grocery store will have the biggest offenders like cold cereal, fruit bars, popsicles, snack cakes, candy bars, meal helpers, canned soups, rice & pasta mixes, soda, pies, salty snacks and anything kid friendly.
While the base of most elimination diets revolves around food, the reality is that all those candles, air fresheners, dish soaps, bubble baths, shampoo, toothpaste, hand sanitizer, perfume, cleaners, laundry detergent and other household products contain a whole slurry of chemicals that could cause the very same issues that foods typically trigger a response.
Feel free to shoot me a text on facebook if you have any questions and I’ll be glad to assist you as best I can. Good luck!
Suburban & Rural Homesteading Today 