Back to the Blog...Maybe.

This is an old post I never published in 2015. I have learned a lot since then, but because this is part of my journey to get to where I am now, I decided to share.

I stopped writing. You may or may not have noticed. I didn't do it on purpose, but I didn't have time. I was still cooking and making recipes and wishing I could share them with everyone (and sharing them on the cooking show in my head), but three little boys didn't leave me with enough brain juice at the end of the day to make them coherent for the general public.

not to mention the whole home school thing...

Time went by (ten months to be exact) and I starting wondering if I wanted to write at all. I love cooking and nutrition and science, but I don't always like sharing. Sometimes I just like to hide in the corner. I was enjoying soaking up information and learning about my surprising new passion, all by myself in my cozy house.

Then I realized: in the time that I was not writing, I had figured out what was causing my health problems. My body had changed since becoming a mother, and I needed to understand what was going on in order to nourish it properly. At the end of my short-lived blogging stint last winter, I tried eating Paleo for a month. I thoroughly enjoyed it and wrote a review of it. But it opened my eyes to a condition that I didn't realize I had - Histamine Intolerance.

Photo Credit

I am still learning about it, but through reading and interactions with strangers in Facebook groups (which I am so thankful for!), I am getting a handle on controlling my symptoms and deciphering what triggers them. The reason why eating Paleo made my Histamine Intolerance (or HIT) more obvious is that many of the main foods that are staples of a grain-free, high animal protein diet are either high in histamines or cause the body to release extra amounts of histamines. That means that even though I was feeling better in a lot of ways, I was getting hives, mild wheezing, itchy eyes, irritability, migraines, and bowel problems.

this dinner was delicious, with itchy results

Foods that are high in histamine or can cause a histamine release include aged/cured meats (salami, bacon, sausage, hot dogs, etc.), egg whites, canned fish, aged cheese, fermented foods like vinegar, sauerkraut, kefir, and yogurt, bananas, avocados, dried fruit, dark chocolate, alcohol, tomatoes, spinach, citrus, peanuts (because of the aflatoxins/mold), leftovers -- and the list goes on. (source)

Photo Credit

When I experimented with eating a typical Paleo diet, I was eating loads of high histamine foods. Eggs and bacon for breakfast, probably with a banana. A big salad for lunch with canned tuna, cheddar, and homemade dressing with vinegar. A handful of nuts and dried fruit for an afternoon snack. Then a nice burger with melted cheese, sauerkraut, a veggie and sweet potato. I'm almost getting hives just typing all that. It's not that I had become allergic to those foods - it was that  my "histamine cup" was getting full, releasing all of the unpleasant symptoms.

Stay tuned for part 2...