Another Challenge Begins
Good news, everyone! After eight months of being on my elimination diet, I finally got the green light from my allergist to begin my food challenge. For those of you who aren’t familiar with a food challenge, here’s how it works: In an effort to reintroduce foods that have been eliminated, you start with one serving of your least allergic item and then wait two days to see if anything happens — hives, vomiting, rash, bloating, abdominal pain, etc. If nothing happens in those two days, you can consider this a negative reaction and then reintroduce the next item and so on and so on. Be aware though, you are STILL ALLERGIC to these food items, so even if you have no visible reaction, it is indeed doing something inside of your body and you should only eat these foods sparingly. You can imagine my excitement when I was told that I could end my diet. Just think about it — eight months without spaghetti with marinara, lemon pound cake, margaritas, salsa, and the list goes on and on. Talk about deprivation.
Grapefruit
My food challenge began with grapefruit. I have eaten grapefruits most of my life — though not often. I ate a half of grapefruit and over the course of two days, nothing happened. What was interesting though was that the grapefruit didn’t taste the way I remembered. It was more tart and not satisfying, at all, and I wondered why I had ever eaten it before. That being said, I don’t think I will be rushing out to buy grapefruits now, but at least I know that if I come into contact with it in a fruit salad or other dishes, I will be ok.
Lemon
While the beginning of my food challenge was a little uneventful, I was extremely excited to reintroduce my second allergen — LEMONS! Behind tomatoes, I have REALLY missed lemons. I cut the perfect slice of fresh lemon and placed it in my oversized Eeyore mug filled with English breakfast tea and it tasted INCREDIBLE. I will admit though, I experienced some stomach bloating, but if that's the only reaction, I can learn to live with that every once in awhile.
Stay tuned ... I will continue to document the results of my food challenge in future blog posts.
