Sheila W Results

[Sheila]

Red:Goat's Milk
Whey
Cocoa
Carrot
Amaranth
Kamut
Crab

Yellow:Potassium Nitrate
Saccharine
American Cheese
Cayenne Pepper
Mint
Paprika
Blueberry
Olive
Apricot
Cherry
Orange
Plum
White Potato
Oat
Rye
Spelt
Corn
Catfish
Chicken
Coffee
Tea
Tapioca
Walnut
Pecan

[Gloria]

No meats, but chicken was probably a surpise, also white potato, corn and cocoa. Are you surprised by the results?

Gloria

[Sheila]

Hi Gloria,
I was surprised and really unhappy about some of the foods on the list. Couldn't care less about goat's milk but cocoa??? chicken??? mint??? carrots??? Who the heck can't tolerate carrots? After throwing a hissy fit, I got down to business and emptied my pantry, refrigerator, and freezer and took it all to my neighbor. She's going to distribute the stuff around the neighborhood. This will make eating out, even at a family member's home, very difficult. I think I will have to bring my own food with me to family parties or to dinner with close friends. I really think that some of it is my own fault. When I find some recipe or food that I like, I eat it continuously. I've been making a breakfast smoothie with the same ingredients every day. I've made gallons of chicken/leek/rice/carrot soup and consumed it and Costco roasted chicken endlessly. The rotation diet makes a lot of sense and will force me to get out of food ruts.

You have been doing this for a while and I've read your posts about how you cope while traveling etc. After reading one of your posts my DH bought a refrigerated cooler so we could travel by car. I'm glad I waited to do the MRT because I think I would have been in total shock if I had gotten the MRT at the same time I got the Entero Lab results. Too much to digest at one time. Did you read Zizzle's post about the young man with celiac disease? It's great.

Sheila W

[Gloria]

Who the heck can't tolerate carrots?

I can't tolerate them; I even tried baby food carrots and reacted to them. They did add a delicious flavor to the turkey soup. I'm sorry that they are on your red list. Mary Beth's was retested this year, and many of her intolerances were different, plus she's non-reactive to food formerly listed as reactive. There is hope.

I've been drinking cranberry juice for the past three days. It was the second highest red food on the MRT. I haven't tried cranberries since the MRT test 2 1/2 years ago. So far, I haven't noticed any reaction to them. In fact, I've only gone once yesterday and today. That could be attributable to the antibiotic, however. Let's hope these results aren't set in concrete, but we do need to avoid the foods for at least a year, I believe.

Gloria

[Sheila]

Do you think that some of the highly reactive foods are foods that we eat very regularly? I didn't eat carrots often before I started making soups and muffins filled with them. I began eating amaranth and tapioca when I started making my own GF bread. I never ate either before that. I use a lot of olive oil, chomp on peppermint Altoids, ingest saccharine in soda and have always eaten a lot of white potatoes and put walnuts in cookies, muffins etc. Perhaps when we stop eating those things regularly the reaction lessens. I know dairy has been a problem for years and that wasn't a surprise. I've had a cup of tea every morning for 45 years and it has never bothered me.

It is interesting that you have had cranberry juice for 3 days without a reaction. Perhaps if you drink it every day for 2 weeks you would have a reaction. It will be an interesting year and I do think I will retest again at the end of it. This whole process is really tiresome and it is easy to just get fed up with it and eat a bacon sandwich, which I did yesterday.

Sheila W

[Gloria]

Do you think that some of the highly reactive foods are foods that we eat very regularly?

I'm not sure. I was highly reactive to chicken, but I rarely ate it; however I did eat chicken broth a lot. Most of the foods I can eat today are foods I didn't eat regularly before. I've always wondered if the reason corn is the only grain I can tolerate is because I didn't eat it, or any derivatives of it, for the first three years after my MC diagnosis.

I think Tex's theory is that we don't acquire an intolerance; our genes are predisposed to having it. He can correct me if I'm wrong. Nonetheless, there are many, including those in the LEAP program, who believe a rotation diet can reduce potential intolerances.

I am going to drink the cranberry juice on a rotation basis. I think I was taking one Entocort pill a day when I last drank it each morning. I'm taking two a day now. As we know, Entocort suppresses symptoms, even at a very low dosage.

Gloria

[tex]

I think Tex's theory is that we don't acquire an intolerance; our genes are predisposed to having it. He can correct me if I'm wrong. Nonetheless, there are many, including those in the LEAP program, who believe a rotation diet can reduce potential intolerances.

Yes, that's my opinion. But remember that before we reach the point where we react to a food, we have to "develop" our intolerance, by being exposed to the food enough times (on a regular basis) to boost our antibody production level to above the minimum threshold at which a reaction is triggered. IOW, if we have never eaten a food, or if years have passed since we have eaten a food, we aren't producing any antibodies to it. We have to "condition" our immune system to respond to the food by ingesting it.

IMO, a rotation diet can certainly postpone the day of reckoning, by interrupting and retarding the progressive buildup of antibodies, but it can't prevent eventual sensitization unless the amount ingested is relatively small, and the dosing is on an infrequent basis.

The rotation diet should be somewhat effective for all antigens except gluten. It will never work for gluten, because anti-gliadin antibodies have a half-life of 120 days. The half-life of most other antibodies to food antigens, is approximately 5 days.

Tex

[Sheila]

Thanks for the explanation. I have a yellow response to blueberries but never ate them before I started the Paleo diet and began putting them in my morning smoothie. I have always disliked many fruits and couldn't really explain why I didn't "like" them. According to common knowledge, my diet was seriously lacking in the fruit category. It turns out that I am in the high yellow range with lots and lots of fruits, many of which I've never eaten. So, that is a genetic intolerance to certain fruits. The red items that I have never eaten also are genetic intolerances. I don't think there have been many days that I haven't had at least a taste of chocolate so that intolerance is very understandable. Same with tea, saccharine, white potato, corn and chicken. Theoretically, if I eat no chicken or chocolate for a year or two or three, I would test back in the green range for those items. If I eat something that is now in the green category, say apples, and eat an apple or two every day, apples could end up in the yellow category. Rotation diet should delay that reaction. Right?

Figuring out this rotation diet is going to be like a part-time job. Cooking all of this stuff will be the other part-time job.

Thanks, guys.

Sheila W

[tex]

Theoretically, if I eat no chicken or chocolate for a year or two or three, I would test back in the green range for those items.

That's correct for tests based on antibody detection, such as the EnteroLab tests (which are based on IgA measurement). For mediator response testing, however, that rule doesn't necessarily apply because the test responses are not based on antibody detection. Remember that mast cells don't need antibodies to degranulate.

Rotation diet should delay that reaction. Right?

Yes, in general, a rotation diet should delay the development of an adaptive immune system response. It will have no effect on innate immune system responses of course, but that's irrelevant, due to the fact that food sensitivities are always adaptive immune system responses.

Tex

[Gloria]

Sheila,

I tested non-reactive to cocoa on the MRT, but I still reacted to it, presumably because it is a high-histamine food. I gave it up, but recently have begun eating 3 pieces about every 10 days to 2 weeks. I take a Histame tablet each time I eat the it.

Like you, I used to eat a couple of pieces of chocolate every day. I used to think about having my chocolate at days end while I was standing at the blackboard teaching students. It was hard to give it up because it was such a comfort. It's no longer a comfort food now that I'm eating it so infrequently. I eat it just to have a little bit of variety.

Gloria