Paging Polly

[artteacher]

Hi Polly,

A long time ago you asked how close our diets are and I lost my post. So I’ve recovered from the loss: I’ll try this again.

No:
1.dairy
2.grains (corn, rice, and soy included)
3. beans
4.“dextrins” (seems to be the ingredient in soda/Pepsi that doesn’t work for me)
5.highly sulfited things like lemon juice, margarita mix, lots of flaked coconut, dehydrated onion, frozen fish or shrimp
6.cantaloupe and melons (they make my throat itch)
7.grain derived alcohol, like beer and whiskey, and most wine
8.fried or scrambled eggs
9.vitamins, especially B vitamins and gel caps (maybe due to the sulfites?)


I do eat:
1.meat (unless it’s got lots of additives, like sausages/bologna, hot dogs, etc) bacon, Canadian bacon, Jimmy Dean sausage
2.vegetables (esp. cabbage, carrots, lettuce, celery, potatoes)
3.fruit (but I don’t eat big amounts of banana)
4.small amounts of cornstarch as thickener for gravies – if I had arrowroot I’d use it instead
5.sugar & most spices (if they look like they’re sulfited or glutened I avoid them)
6.MoonRose soymilk, coffee, tea
7.Kahlua and one brand of red wine (beugolais? I can’t be spelling it right)
8.Eggs in baked goods
9.Brewer’s Yeast (Solgar brand grown on beets)
10.Solgar dry vitamin A, vitamin C derived from palm, Caltrate 600 + (600 mg a day)
11.Chocolate Neccos, Green & Black’s dark chocolate, Nestles choc. Chips, gum

There are some things in there that shouldn't be allowed on a strict gluten free diet (like gum, I think). I read that people who problems with wine should try varietal wines, because they are just one type of grape, and less likely to cause headaches. (Also the production can be different with each type of wine) Eurika! I found a wine. And I’ve been thinking about it, and wonder if the problem with scrambled and fried eggs might be the margarine they’re fried in.

Also, one of the reasons I’ve felt so good lately might be the brewer’s yeast. It is pure protein and B vitamins. Since I can’t take manufactured B vitamins, I experimented with different brands of brewers yeast and finally hit on one that doesn’t make me sick. I used to take it (when I was pregnant and nursing) and I’m a big fan of brewers yeast. But it tastes terrible unless you do it right. I mix it in soy milk with a drop of vanilla and saccharin (any sweetener would do) and let it sit overnight. In the morning it tastes “yum” not “yuck”. It’s an insider secret.

OK. I wrote a book. I bet you’re sorry you asked. The best thing I could do is stop typing now . . . Love, Marsha

[Polly]

Hi Marsha!

Your list is very so interesting and so much like my list. Did you get there by trial and error like I did, or did you read a book and decide?

Re the eggs.......can you tolerate hard boiled ones? Luckily, I do OK with eggs, although I'm going to start using Eade's recommendation - make up scrambled eggs or an omelet using 1 or 2 eggs and a few egg whites. Yep, I finally bought "Protein Power" and am loving it. Especially the discussion of fats and how to interpret lipid profile blood tests.

Do you eat any seafood or supplement with omega 3 (fish oil) capsules?

That's a good tip about the varietal wines - I almost always choose a merlot and seem to do well with it.

Interesting that you can tolerate yeast. Unfortunately, I was tested for it by Dr. Fine and I was positive. Otherwise I'd use that tip you discovered for making it palatable!

Did you ever find out why you can tolerate that one brand of soymilk?

Does the caltrate contain vitamin D? If so, how much do you take a day?

I just read a new article and have decided to take 800 mg of vitamin D a day - and am thinking that maybe 1000 would be better.

Thanks again for re-doing this post. I love learning about how each of us learns to deal with our intolerances.

Love,

Polly

[artteacher]

Hi Polly,

I'll try and type fast so I don't get kicked off.
1. I'm not sure about boiled eggs, because I don't eat a big enough quantity at a sitting, or often enough. Scrambled eggs, all by themselves at breakfast, will bother me a little 30 hours later, but 2 days in a row gets worse, and 3 days in a row will give me D for 2 weeks. So it's a cumulative thing. I'll experiment and try and narrow it down. I've been eating the eggwhite merangue/macaroon type cookies since this summer, and every day for the last couple weeks with no problem whatsoever, so it must be the yolk, or the margerine. I'm not losing an weight, that's for sure.
2. I eat fish, mostly tilapia, fresh, baked in lemon juice. Omega-3 oil caplets make me really sick (D), as does cod liver oil caplets. That's why I tried the dry vit A by Solgar, and have no problems with it.
3. No idea, really, why only MoonRose is ok, except it's organic, vegetarian, and non-GMO. So there is no wheat at the genetic level, no barley-derived sweetener, or rice-derived sweetener, or corn sweetener, or sulfited white sugar. Although my merangue cookies are pure white granulated sugar (therefore slightly sulfited in the process of separating the sugars from the fiber), and that hasn't caused D. Matter of fact, I've had the opposite of D for about 3 weeks now.
4. When I have active D, I've take as much as 5 600mg tablets of Caltrate a day to slow it down. Now I'm taking 1/2 tab before breakfast and another before dinner, and that's just to get calcium/D/zinc, etc, not to control D.
It does have Vit D in it, but I'm afraid to take the time to run to the kitchen and read the label. I'll get back to you, ok?

All my diet stuff is trial and error, and then later I read about why it might be working for me. Except for Caltrate. That's the one thing I read about first, tried, and found it to be helpful. If I do find out that the margerine I've used for 12 years is actually part of the problem, I'll have to think about whether or not I actually have a problem with fats, and whether it's a gall bladder problem. Although I've had it checked, and have been told it's normal. Since I've felt so amazingly good the last few weeks, some of the things I've considered to be possible causes are a)the complete omission of grains
b)the brewers yeast
c)no margerine or oils in the cookies, not even the oils from the egg yolks, since they're all egg white. Also I haven't had margerine on anything in the last two weeks, just coincidentally
d) raw egg whites can be minimally helpful for sulfite sensitivity, so maybe that's a factor, since the cookies are as much "set" by heat as cooked. But I think that's really reaching for an answer.

Wish me luck, I'm pressing the "send" button.
Love, Marsha