Update on Health

Some of you all have been wondering why I'm taking wheat out of my diet and not eating much.

Well, this post will hopefully take care of those questions.

Starting in February, I started to get hives and they've progressively have gotten worse.  I finally made an appointment to go see an allergist after much prodding from friends and family.  They took a lot of my blood to find out the results of my condition.  The blood test also revealed another issue my body was having . . . I'll get to that later.

I found out I was allergic to (brace yourself, this is quite the list):

Sunflower Seeds (including artichokes, escarole, chicory, endive, dandelion, tarragon)

Cashew Family (Cashews, pistachios, Mangos)

Wheat (bran, bread crumbs, bulgur, couscous, cracker meal, durum, farina, flour (there's a huge list there), gluten, kamut, matzoh, pasta, seitan, semolina, pelt, vital gluten, germ, malt, sprouts, wheat grass, whole wheat berries, flavoring, hydrolyzed protein, soy sauce, starch, surimi)

Palm Family (Coconut & Date)

Pea Family (Peanuts, Peas, Pinto, String, Soy, etc)

Plum Family (Plum, Cherry, Peach, Apricot, Nectarine, Wild Cherry, Almond)

Walnut Family (English walnuts, Black walnuts, Pecan, Hickory Nut, Butternut)

Sesame Seeds

Soy (edamame, hydrolyzed soy protein, miso, natto, shoyu sauce, soya, soybean, soy protein, soy sauce, Tamari, Tempeh, textured vegetable protein, tofu - including Asian cuisine, natural flavoring, vegetable broth, vegetable gum and vegetable starch)

Tree nuts (almonds, artificial nuts, Brazil, caponata, cashews, chestnuts, filberts/hazelnuts, gianduja, hickory nuts, macadamia nuts, mazipan, almond paste, nan-gai nuts, natural nut extract, nougat, nut butters, nut meal, nutmeat, nut oil, nut paste, nut pieces, pecans, pesto, pine nuts, pistachios, praline, walnuts)

Peanuts (artificial, beer nuts, cold pressed expelled or extruded peanut oil,  goobers, ground nuts, mixed nuts, monkey nuts, nutmeat, nut pieces, peanut, peanut butter, peanut flour - Including African, Asian & Mexican dishes, baked goods, candy, chili, egg rolls & enchilada sauce)

Shellfish (abalone, clams, cockle, crab, crawfish, lobster, mollusks, mussels, octopus, oysters, prawns, scallops, shrimp, snails, squid, bouillabaisse, cuttlefish ink, fish stock, flavoring, seafood flavoring, surimi)

Latex (What?!?! you say.  That's not a food!  Well as I have discovered it is in many foods like: Banana, Avocado, Chestnut, Apple, Carrot, Celery, Papaya, Kiwi, Potato - I can actually eat that one, Tomato, Melon, Pear, Peach, Cherry, Pineapple, Strawberry, Fig, Apricot, Passion Fruit, Rye, Wheat, Grass, Ragweed, Mugwort, Hazlenut, Walnut, Soybean, Peanut, Buckwheat, Dill, Figs, Grapes - I can eat that one too), Oranges)

So all those foods, unless I specified otherwise, I absolutely cannot eat.

If you read an ingredient label on any food product, you are most likely to find at least one of those ingredients if not more on that label.  It has been very difficult finding foods to eat, but I have found a handful, and my sweet husband is trying to mix it up and create new and interesting recipes for me to try.

At the same time I was given this list of foods to avoid, I was also informed that I have Hashimoto's Disease.  It's a thryoid disorder.  I'm at the point where medicine will be of no benefit to me.  Not because it's too far along, but because the part of my thyroid that isn't working, they don't have a medication for.  They reassured me, that in time the part that they do have meds for will also go and at that point I'll start a med.

Okay, so there it is.

Thanks to all of you who have asked about me.   I truly do appreciate your concern.