IgG Response

After the urging of several colleagues, I finally decided to take a blood test that can supposedly determine not only food allergies, but food intolerances. The test determines the number of antibodies produced by the immune system when exposed to a food, along with the number that were already present in the blood, to determine sensitivity to the 98 most common foods that cause allergies. Since food allergies are normally pretty apparent, you know, the whole throat closing, hives thing, I wasn't so interested in that. But, the intolerance thing, very interested! It'd definitely be nice to have some sort of obvious medical proof that cutting diary out of my diet really made me feel better, and I was hoping that it'd help clear up the fogginess surrounding gluten, and the pain that seems to get worse only sometimes when I consume wheat.

After waiting for the results for 10 days, I can safely say that I do have a diary intolerance, therefore cutting it out of my diet a couple of years ago was indeed a good thing and has now been medically proven to provide me with relief. I'm also happy to say that gluten-free has become a thing of the past for me, but that I'm still going to limit that amount that I consume. I'm now convinced that I ate WAY too much of it, as most American's probably do. Here comes the surprising part, something that's found even more commonly in all pre-packaged foods than wheat, is apparently a huge contributor to my pain (and suffering, if you will.) Ready for this? I reacted the most (had a moderate antibody response) to...sugar cane! What? I didn't even know that was possible!

The top 10 things that I reacted to the most severely were:
1: Sugar Cane
2: Chicken Egg Yolk
3: Cranberries
4: Chicken Egg White
5: Milk (I reacted quite a bit to the whole dairy section in general)
6: Sesame
7: Oyster
8: Tomato
9: Garlic
10: Pecans

The top 5 things are the ones I'll focus on for now and I'll just be aware of the others. I'm gonna have to talk to a dietitian or a nutritionist about this one. I figured out how to do the no dairy and the no gluten thing, but I don't even know where to begin on the sugar cane thing! My mom suggested sugar from sugar beets, but I dunno if that'll be any better. I bought some today and apparently some people tolerate it better that cane sugar and others react to it in the same manner. Crazy! I guess that explains why I thought that gluten might be the problem. There's tons of sugar in breads and such! It's what the yeast feeds off of. Oh yeah, and I guess anything and everything that comes in a box or a bag is pretty much out for now. Sugar is added to absolutely everything! It's the freaking second ingredient most of the time!

Eggs and cranberries are gonna have to become history too, I guess. Crazy. I've been popping craisins like crazy! Who knew they were making it worse? They even have added sugar. Double bad!

Well, that's all for now. I'm still kind of in shock, yet hopeful that this might provide me with some more relief. I'm trying to stay positive anyway. If anyone has any dietary knowledge, suggestions, or advice, feel free to share. I'll take whatever I can get!