Elimination Diets

I’ve been fighting with my ALCAT Results for about a month now in that I keep getting dosed with cinnamon. In addition, I’m starting to see some reactions to foods that I have a “mild” intolerance to including: gluten-free oats, blueberries, cranberries, oranges and possibly honey and mustard.

And why did I have this testing done? I have developed chronic urticaria in the last year, and it’s been with me more often than not in the last six months.

The only solution is to go scorched earth for a while and eat only foods on my green list. This means cooking everything myself, with a few rare exceptions where I know something is freshly cooked and free of banned seasonings.

Here’s the banned list. Keep in mind that I had only 100 foods and 20 additives tested. Eating only things on the green list guarantees that I won’t be eating any mystery foods.

First, the “never eat” list:

- Gluten (wheat, barley, rye, spelt)
- Onion
- Brussels Sprouts
- Iceberg Lettuce
- Cod
- Strawberries
- Cinnamon
- Carob (guar gum and locust bean gum)

Notice a few things that are heavily used in paleo diets? Yes, this explains a lot.

In case you’re new here, I haven’t eaten gluten on purpose in almost four years. Barley malt seems to be the glutenous item I react to the most violently.

These are the “sometimes” foods that I’m going to be completely eliminating:

- Casein (pretty much all dairy, including butter. ghee is OK)
- Certified Gluten-Free Oats
- Corn
- Soybean
- Blueberries
- Cranberries
- Apple
- Orange
- Celery
- Mushroom
- Mustard
- Squash (Yellow)
- Crab
- Clam
- Chicken
- Turkey
- Halibut
- Cocoa
- Honey
- Potassium Nitrite
- Sucralose (Splenda)
- Yellow#6 Sunset Yellow (In every lipstick known to man, BTW)

What’s left? Everything on this list:

Vegetables
- Asparagus
- Bell Peppers
- Broccoli
- Cabbage
- Carrot
- Cauliflower
- Cucumber
- Eggplant
- Green Pea
- Spinach
- String Bean
- Tomato

Grains and Starches
- Butternut Squash
- Millet
- Rice
- Sweet Potato
- White Potato

Legumes
- Pinto Bean
- Peanut

Nuts and Seeds
- Almond
- Coconut
- Cashew
- Pecan
- Sesame
- Cottonseed

Fruit
- Avocado
- Banana
- Cantaloupe
- Cherry
- Grape
- Grapefruit
- Lemon
- Lime
- Olive
- Peach
- Pear
- Pineapple
- Plum
- Watermelon

Meat, Egg and Seafood (must be freshly cooked)
- Beef
- Eggs
- Lamb
- Pork
- Lobster
- Salmon
- Scallop
- Shrimp
- Snapper
- Sole
- Tuna
- Whey (no reaction – only to Casein)

Coffee and tea
- Blk/Green Tea
- Coffee

Spices and baking
- Baker’s Yeast
- Basil
- Black Pepper
- Brewer’s Yeast
- Garlic
- Ginger
- Hops
- Oregano
- Parsley
- Vanilla

Sweetners
- Aspartame
- Saccharine
- Erythritol
- Xylitol
- Cane Sugar
- Fructose (Hfcs)

Additives
- Benzoic Acid
- BHA
- BHT
- MSG
- Polysorbate 80
- Sodium Sulfite
- Sorbic Acid
- Psyllium

Colors
- Blue#1 (Brilliant Blue)
- Blue#2 (Indigo Carmine)
- Green#3 (Fast Green)
- Red#1 (Crystal Ponceau)
- Red#40 (Allura Red)
- Yellow#5 (Tartrazine)

My guess is that I won’t be eating any processed foods at all, so the additives and colors are not really relevant. There are non-paleo foods on this list, certainly. Will I be eating them? For now, probably I will be. The three I am most suspicious of are whey, pinto beans and millet, so I will try to eat those by themselves at some point.

There are some foods I really regret not having tested but especially mint, cumin, chili peppers and walnuts.

I did not have a problem with *any* of the nightshades tested, so I’m not particularly worried about those. I also didn’t react to any of the tree nuts or the peanuts.

If there’s any interest, I can post what I’m eating each day. It shouldn’t be a long list!