A Lil Help from my Friends

Diet and Nutrition
1

Hey everyone,

This is my first post on T-Nation after having read it for nearly 4 years now. The reason I reach out now is because I am fed up with my food intake and require some additional help.

After being sick for nearly 4 years I got food allergy tested in June 2006. As can be imagined, for a food lover, it was not the most pleasant experience to learn what I would not be able to eat again. Alternatively, I have never felt better in my life… so it is a blessing and a curse!

I am here to request help, stories of experience, and suggestions on what I may do to continue on my muscle building journey with these intolerances. There is a total of over 95 foods and food additives I must stay away from, but I won’t list them all. I will list the foods which tend to come up quite often, or are often ingredients in bodybuilding foods.

The following list will be in two parts: Foods I cannot eat, and Foods I can eat smaller amounts of infrequently.

Foods I cannot eat:

Dairy (although I can eat whey)
Wheat
Oatmeal
Sugar (processed, brown, etc.)
Gluten
Corn or Corn based foods
Pork
Citrus fruits
Bananas
Pumpkin
Blueberries

Foods I can eat infrequently:

Peanut Butter (or other nut butters)
Tuna

All other foods I can eat regularly (Beef, fish, chicken, rice, potato, and most veggies) and I do.

Now, hopefully someone out there in this big bad world of bodybuilding has dealt with issues similar to mine and can offer me a little dose of help, let me in on some tricks they use.

Thanks for reading the post. I appreciate any constructive comments.

Tater

2

You can probably just follow a low-carb diet, which will pretty much automatically eliminate some of your food allergies. Just base your meals around meat and vegetables, and you’ll be fine.

Since your carbs would be pretty low already, you can probably add any safe fruits when you want something sweet.

You should give Laroyal’s training log a read, titled “Laroyal’s Return to Powerlifting.” He details his diet in the thread, which is essentially just meat and vegetables with weekly carb-ups. He was gaining strength and size using this approach, so I think it would be worth a try. I do something similar, and don’t have any issues with size or strength.

As an aside, what did you have to do to find out about your food allergies? I’m interested in doing the same thing, but I’m not sure where to go for such a test.

3

Hi,

Thanks for your input. I have mostly stuck with meat and veggies for meals which has been great cause it keeps me lean! :wink: I do find the size building process to a be little slower than I would like… but that is why i’m here!

One of the things I am finding most difficult is Pre, Intra, Post workout nutrition. Since the only fast acting carb I can basically eat is honey or maple syrup. I have been reading a ton on nutrient timing and definitely want to take advantage of this important window.

I will absolutely check out that log. Thanks for giving me the name.

I went to a more holisitc style allergy tester. I know some of those things sound hokey but I am extremely happy with the results, plus you get the results right away and it is non-invasive.

The clinic I went to is in Toronto, Ontario. It is called Red Paw Data Services (redpaw.net). Even if you do not live anywhere close to there you should give that website a check to see what that type of testing is all about. If you like the sound of it then just find a clinic that does it in your area.

I strongly recommend getting allergy tested to a lot of people. My entire family got tested. My mother and I initially (since we both felt really sick/fatigued for years) but eventually my brother and father got tested as well

(neither of them had ever felt any symptoms like myself or mother) and my brother came back allergic to more things than me. So each persons “symptom response” is seemingly incredibly different.

Thanks for your help/suggestion. Hopefully mine will be of some use to you.

Tater

4

What about potatoes, rice, or eggs?

5

Yes I can eat potatoes, rice and eggs.

I eat eggs everyday usually around 4-5, rice, sweet potatoes, and white potatoes I rotate. I tend to only eat one meal a day containing one of those carb sources. Rice is probably the one which is easiest on my system, and comes in the most varieties of serving types: rice porridge, rice, rice milk…etc.

Tater

6

You can eat beef, pork, poultry, fish and eggs. Potatoes, rice, veggies and some fruit. Your choices are obviously limited, but you have options to eat for growth.

7

Yea I already eat all of those (minus the pork, that is another allergy I forgot to mention).

I guess I am finding that my current intake of food is rather limiting for growth. I eat all the protein needed, I know that for certain…

I guess I wanted to see if anybody else suffers from this type of issue and has any recommendations on what they have done.

Thanks for your input though Elusive.

Tater

8

[quote]Tater Salad wrote:

I went to a more holisitc style allergy tester. I know some of those things sound hokey but I am extremely happy with the results, plus you get the results right away and it is non-invasive.

The clinic I went to is in Toronto, Ontario. It is called Red Paw Data Services (redpaw.net). [/quote]

Thanks for the info. I was looking a little into getting tested, and I found this article on Webmd ( Food Allergy Guidelines ). It mentions in there that the skin testing (which I assume is what you got done, since you said it was non-invasive) is not completely accurate. Another article I read said something similar.

I guess my point is that if you are having trouble working out a diet given all the foods the test said you can’t eat, maybe you can try adding in small amounts of some of the foods you miss or that you think would fit into your diet. If you start to feel like shit when you add those back in, you know the test was right about those.

It’s worth a shot, and could add more variety to your diet.

Thanks again for the info.

9

Hey Eggers,

As with most types of non-invasive testing (for allergies) there are likely to be some fallacies or inaccuracies. I have basically decided I am fine with that. The main allergies (Dairy, Wheat, Gluten, Sugar, Corn, Banana, Blueberries) I know 100% I should not eat those whatsoever… the remaining 87 foods/food additives are not all foods I would eat anyways. I do realize this way I am choosing to “potentially” reduce my food selections, but I know the severe pain I suffer from when I do ingest a food on the list (and that pain lasts for days) so I would rather just leave those foods alone.

I guess as well there are plenty of doctors who are going to say this type of testing is completely inaccurate. But we all know from being in the nutrition/iron game long enough that all that doctors say is not accurate either.

It is up to you if you still want to get tested this way. If not then find a method you feel you believe in and go for it. Being tested was likely the best thing I have ever done for myself in my life.

Just prior to being tested back in June 2006 I was severely ill: extreme fatigue, terrible intestinal discomfort, etc…and these symptoms were persistent (never went away). Then one night I slipped into unconciousness having needed to sit down on the floor outside of my bathroom unable to make it to my bedroom mere steps away. Within the next few days I was able to go to my doctor and get a blood test done to make sure everything was on the up and up. The morning of the blood test I remember like it was yesterday: I woke up and had 2 bowls of frosted flakes (in water since I already knew i was lactose intolerant) and a glass of orange juice. This meal likely totally approx. 80-100gms of carbs. Shortly after breakfast I went and got my blood taken at the doctors. Two days later my doctor calls me to tell me my blood sugar is sitting at 1.9 … i.e below what it should be. So he asked me if I was taking anything which would lower my blood sugar…which of course I was not. So he informed me that I should just eat more protein and that would fix the problem of the low blood sugar. I was already consuming easy 220-250gms of protein a day already… so I don’t think lack of protein was the issue. I remained sick for another 3 months (same symptoms) until I could get to my appointment time (there was a huge waiting list). I got tested on a Saturday. By the next Saturday I had lost easily 5-7 pounds of water…and felt like a million dollars. 7 days later!

The only reason I am posting this is because this style of testing worked like magic on me, and I no longer suffer from any of the previous symptoms.

Thanks again for posting the info Eggers…it is always great to read both sides of the story!

Tater

10

No problem. Just throwing that out there.

11

Much appreciated!

Tater

12

your worrying about to many things. Your overcomplicating things.

PEANUT BUTTER is probably one of the most allergic foods out there, not to mention raises estrogen.

enjoy the mercury tuna
and peanut butter diet.

13

Thanks for your constructive input.

Tater

14

[quote]eggers wrote:
Since your carbs would be pretty low already, you can probably add any safe fruits when you want something sweet.
[/quote]

OP is allowed to eat potatoes and rice so he can still manage getting lots of carbs.

To the OP: I guess you are allergic to gluten, but what about to buckwheat, quinoa and legumes? All of them don’t contain gluten.