Another 2 years past, almost to the day, before I find the drive to write again. Where shall I begin?
I've been dairy protein-free for a good while now. Not that I can tell you how long. I don't believe it's written anywhere. And if it's not written down, that information has disappeared from existence. I do remember making attempts at dairy-freedom before we moved from our Mini-farm in the City to our Cookie-cutter in Farmtown, which means it been a good 2+ years since the trial and error started and a good solid year, at least, since dairy has been evicted from my life.
And the change in me? Wow! Just
WOW! Since I cut out dairy, the mood swings are under control, the migraines are ever-so rare, the brain fog has mostly lifted, the aches in my joints and muscles has subsided, the ever-uncomfortable tummy has calmed, the energy has appeared, the break-outs have been relegated to memory, and I'm 20-lbs lighter. All issues that I barely noticed existed (except the weight), until they were gone.
FREEDOM!
Except when I forget, or slip up, or invite myself to a dairy-binge pity-party. Then it all comes back, all at once, and makes me a whimpering, emotional, achy, flu-like mess for about 3 days. I'm one of those people who often learns the hard way, then forgets what I've learned, and has to relearn all over again. *sigh.* It's a process.
A little over a month ago I finally took myself to see an Allergist. I say finally because I had this gut-feeling I should go 14 years ago, but I was afraid of what (s)he'd find so I procrastinated... and procrastinated... and procrastinated... Right up until a simple ear-infection that wouldn't heal sent me to a ENT who treated the infection. Then he shared his alarm about what was hiding behind it... negative-pressure on my eardrums. Now, I'd never heard of this before, so I wasn't alarmed. However, he insisted I come back in a few weeks for a follow up. After those few weeks, the ears were still negative, so that very worried ENT sent me right across the street to an Allergist, who made space for me right then.
Now, I've had trouble with airplane travel (and high elevations) for years, as far back as I can remember. It takes a good week for my ears to equalize after landing, no matter what tricks I employ. I've never thought to mention it to a Dr because... who knows? Trust me, a week with an unequalized head is no way to enjoy a vacation, especially when snorkeling is involved. But, I digress...
The Allergist scratched my poor little forearm 40+ times. Most of those 40+ scratches showed at least a mild reaction. Only pollens are free and clear. Let me tell you, I'll be sticking my face into as many flowers as I can get my hands on and running through as many grassy fields as a can find my feet in :) Milk was a mild reaction. Four scratches reacted equally to the Histamine, a moderate reaction. Those four were Corn, Bananas, Citrus, and a sometimes airborne fungi called
Aspergillus.
Okay, so now what.
Bananas? I can live without. The store-bought Chiquita type are pretty low on my food preference list anyway.
Citrus? I feel pretty disappointed removing that lovely food group from my diet. I love lemons. A good chunk of my calcium comes from fortified OJ. Most of my favorite foods have something to do with citrus, but I'll figure how to make substitutions. I'll survive and learn to thrive.
Corn? I was feed tons of the stuff as a kid. We lived in a corn farming community and we were poor. Really poor. My mom would follow the trucks as they left the fields, to pick up the corn that jumped from the back of those uncovered trailers. Many times fresh, sweet corn-on-the-cob was all we had to eat... for weeks. Let's just say it was overkill and I don't go out of my way to prepare it now. Easy, right?
Well, corn is much more than on-the-cob, or cornmeal, or corn chips, or corn starch. I know it's everywhere. I know it has lots of names. I know this because I've done the Dairy and Gluten avoidance dances before. I know the good ol' US of A is a corn-based economy. I know corn is highly subsidized, so farmers grow as much of it as possible and something has to be done with all the excess. I know corn is not one of The Big-8 making disclosure rare. I decided to Google a list of all the things derived from corn.
YIKES! HOLY SH-NIKE! (here's a
link for your own bewilderment)
Shock puts it mildly. It's in
EVERYTHING. The processed junk I eat when I'm short on time, energy, and care. Sure. I expected that. But it's in the juice I drink. My dairy replacements. The seasonings in my pantry. Almost everything eatable in a can, bottle, jar, or bag. Vitamins. Almost everything I use for hygiene. Product packaging. It's on my fresh produce. My store-bought meats. To top it off, citric acid, which is used as an additive or a rinse to slow decay on most foods is often made by fermenting corn with that damn Aspergillus fungi. ugh.
What in the world can I actually eat? On my $500/month food budget for 5 people?
I was soul-crushingly overwhelmed. I tried to turn to those closest to me for support, but not one could wrap their mind around the magnitude of it all. Somewhere in all the chaos in my mind, I decided the best course of action was to chuck all my food avoidance out the window and dive in whole-hog. I decided to throw myself a dairy and corn binge pity-party. And a pity party it was. I helped my 3 Super Children into bed and headed out to commiserate with one of my very best friends. She and I sat up until the wee hours talking and stuffing our faces with jalapeno poppers, spinach dip, cheese, tortilla chips, ranch dip, baked potato skins, corn-syrupy beverages spiked with (only one shot total of) corn alcohol, cookies, HFCS filled Halloween candies, etc. I even threw in some dried bananas for good measure.
I felt liberated.
and itchy.
and broken out.
And terribly miserably sick within a few hours. Bummer.
During the subsequent 3 days that I've spent recovering, it dawned on me: If cutting out dairy could make such a drastic difference in the way I feel (and it's only a mild allergen for me) what could removing corn from my life do? I think I feel pretty healthy now (when I don't have a Casein hang-over, that is). How much better will I feel when all the allergens are out of my life?
I don't know the answers, but I'm looking forward to finding out. The first step on my newest adventure starts today.
Wish me happy trails!
