Day 2: Am I Taking This Seriously Enough?

As far as I know, today went fine. I had lunch with family and got a scramble with eggs, vegetables, black beans, chicken and potatoes. As far as I know, all of that is fine. But I don't know if that's all that was in there. I didn't get the cheese or the sour cream or the toast. I didn't put creamer in my coffee or ketchup on my potatoes. I avoided everything I know I should, but I didn't ask exactly how the potatoes or chicken or eggs were prepared and whether it involved any milk or butter or something that could carry sulfites. Since any allergies I have haven't caused a serious, acute reaction so far, I'm not as motivated to seek out every single ingredient in everything I eat as I would be if there was a serious possibility of my airway closing. This is good, but it also means I'm not treating this like my life depends on it, and it leads me wonder whether I'm doing enough.

My breathing has been kind of cruddy the past couple of days. Not the worst it's ever been, but I'd say a 6 or 7 if 10 was the worst. There was a time a few weeks ago when I strictly avoided everything that could cause me a problem for about five days. By the end of that, I was feeling pretty good (which is why I tend to think food has something to do with my breathing in the first place). But right now, while I'm trying to avoid the potential problems while waiting to feel better, I'm having a hard time believing I'm doing the right stuff and that I should give it more time to kick in. Last night I was in Barnes & Noble looking at allergy books, and one had an elimination diet that's different from the one I'm doing, and another, written by an MD, sided with the allergist I saw and said that asthma is not related to food allergies. I started getting overwhelmed and wondering whether what I was doing was right, and I finally had to just put them all back and walk away. I really don't know if what I'm doing is going to help, but it's only temporary, and it's almost certainly not going to hurt, so I'm going to give myself until next weekend before getting concerned if I'm not feeling a difference.

The Good, the Bad, and the Challenge

Keeping the food log last week was helpful. Because I was keeping track of everything and knew someone else was going to look at it, I ate pretty well, avoided soy and nuts (well, except for some cashews on a salad...). In my first visit they said that wheat and dairy can promote inflammation and probably aren't helpful, so I largely avoided them, too. And then Wednesday night happened. Wednesday night I went to a wine tasting with friends. It was lovely. Eight wines with bread and four or five cheeses and a platter of chocolate to match. I had some of all of it, and then Thursday couldn't breathe very well. So of course on Thursday I had more wheat and dairy, and made matters worse. When I went in and reported all of this to my naturopathic friends on Friday, they suggested I do a challenge diet to figure out what's going on. As part of the challenge diet, they have asked me to completely eliminate certain foods for two weeks, watch my symptoms, and then introduce one category of food at a time, every few days, and to see how my body reacts. This sounded challenging, but reasonable enough, until I started to take stock of exactly what they asked me to eliminate: dairy, gluten, and sulfites.

The dairy I expected, and I can do. The hardest part of that is giving up the half and half in my Americanos. I can avoid cheese and drink black coffee for two weeks.
I was expecting them to ask me to avoid wheat. I can handle no bread, tortillas or crackers temporarily. But in researching it further, avoiding gluten also means no oats or barley (aka beer). That's a little harder, but alright. That brings me to sulfites... I had never heard of sulfite allergy until yesterday. I had never thought about sulfites and what they might or might not be in, but it sounds like they're in all kinds of stuff, and some of it I like. Like wine. I like wine. Unfortunately, I won't be drinking it for at least two weeks. Sulfites are also in dried fruit. And shrimp. And guacamole. That's kind of a low blow. Add to that the soy, peanuts and tree nuts that I'm already trying to avoid, and things are getting really tricky really fast.

So far, here's what I have...

The GOOD (foods I can have):
fruits and vegetables - especially dark leafy greens, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, oranges, and broccoli)
whole grains with no gluten - brown rice, quinoa, and some others I've never tried
beans
corn
fish, chicken, turkey and beef (assuming they don't have sulfites)
eggs
olive oil

The BAD (out for 2+ weeks):
Soy - tofu, edamame, miso, tempeh, and everything else that uses it
Nuts/Legumes/Seeds - peanuts, almonds, hazelnuts, other tree nuts, and sesame seeds
Dairy - milk, cheese, cream, yogurt, cottage cheese, butter, chocolate etc. etc.
Gluten - wheat, bread, pasta, oats, beer, gravies, custards, ketchup, soy sauce, malt vinegar, cereal, cookies, cakes, what am I missing...?
Sulfites - baked goods, soup mixes, jams, canned vegetables, pickled foods, gravies, dried fruit, alcohol, beer, wine, vegetable juices, bottled or canned juices, tea, condiments, shrimp, molasses

Where does that leave me? Sort of overwhelmed. And hungry. And open to suggestions. Any ideas for foods or recipes that don't use any of the eliminated foods are greatly appreciated. As are thoughts of things I can eat when I'm out and about, because I don't have the best track record of making all of my own food ahead of time.

Dear god, help me.