We visited the dietician today, and she really didn’t have too much to add to our rough draft diet. She made a few suggestions of things that would be good to add, and offered advice on a few things that we might be surprised were allergens – like olive oil and stevia. Otherwise, the most useful thing we got out of the visit was a website listing almost all vegetables by their family. For example, beets, spinach and quinoa are all from the same family, so if you have a problem with one you may have a problem with the others.
In the end, our family elimination diet is probably much larger than what most people would think of when thinking of an elimination diet, but it is still fairly small and restrictive. I’m trying to keep in mind the quality of life for my husband and older son as well as the needs of my youngest son. If he still shows reactions when I’m eating this way, I’ll leave the Geek and Mr. Charm to go ahead with adding things to their diet, and I’ll drop down to just 3 or 4 things and work up from there.
So, here goes. What our Family will eat for the next 4-6 weeks:
Beef (grass-fed, hormone free)
Quinoa
Russett Potatos
Lettuce
Spinach
Kale
Chard
Cucumbers
Bell Peppers
Tomatos
Carrots
Beets
Celery
Onion
Garlic
Honeydew Melon
Cantaloupe
Watermelon
Pineapple
Blueberries
Honey
Olive Oil
Coconut Oil
Salad Vinegar
Salt
Pepper
Basil
Oregano
Tea
Stevia
OJ
Cocoa Powder
Coconut Milk
Nutritional Yeast?
The nutritional yeast we may hold off on. She pointed out that some people are allergic to the yeast, and Mr. Happy does have an overgrowth of candida in his gut right now. Probably it is from the anti-biotics in the hospital, but until I can find a safe probiotic for him to take, we’ll probably wait on that one.
So that’s 33 items to eat for 6 weeks. 34 if we can add the nutritional yeast back in. Not a lot…but I can make homemade potato chips, kale chips, and dehydrated fruits for Jed for snacks, and smoothies for breakfast, and salads for me and the Geek to eat at dinner and lunch, and Pot Roast – one of our FAVORITE meals – is still totally on the table.
I think we’ll survive.
One thing, though…the Geek has to leave the store when we get to the checkout stand. The cost of these organic, free-range, locally grown ingredients is rather daunting! (And if we’re trying to eliminate cross-contaminants and eat as healthily as possible, may as well go organic and local. Less chance of a corn spray being used on the produce, if nothing else!) Good news, though, because that’s really all we have to buy for the month!
I’ll keep you posted about how it goes.
