Giving Up Processed Foods

[OakLeaf]

Have you ever tried a challenge diet? Eliminate all suspect foods (grain, dairy, nuts, chocolate, yeasts/mold/fungi (which includes any fermented products and processed fruits), shellfish, strawberries, eggs - what am I missing? and anything that you have a suspicion about) for four days, then reintroduce them one by one. Reintroduce grains singly, since it's common for people to be allergic to some grains and not others, or at least in differing degrees.) If you react when something's reintroduced, then tick it off, and stay clean for another four days before reintroducing the next one.

You pretty much have to eliminate processed foods to adhere strictly to an allergy diet, but as you point out, it's worth it for so many other reasons anyway. "Hit by a truck" is a good description of how I feel if I've been significantly off the wagon (e.g. the morning after pizza and beer night ). At best I'm sluggish, which is why I always clean out before a goal event.

Staying off processed foods is a lot less time consuming if you're willing and able to eat a fair amount of meat. But it's not really hard, just time consuming.

(What specifically can't you imagine not using for cooking? Throw it out here and some of us will probably have suggestions for substitutes. If it's pasta, and it turns out you're allergic to wheat, Tinkyada brand rice pasta is pretty good. And unless you're on a paleo diet, I don't think most people consider pasta too highly processed.)