Change it up!
It sounds like an oxymoron: reduce your food reactions by eating a wider range. Granted, I was helped along this journey by following the Hypoallergenic Diet, during which I had to restrict my food intake quite substantially. Well, so I thought, at least. The diet also opened my eyes to a plethora of nutritious grains and alternative foods that had remained under my radar (probably because they’re out of my comfort zone!) until I began the auspicious diet. Amaranth, buckwheat and teff replaced oats, and I trawled the food markets for vegetables I’d never tried, nor encountered. I also discovered the abundance of herbal tea varieties, each claiming to help cure different ails. Why would I just choose a relaxing chamomile each night when I could be targeting other issues, too?
When you have food intolerances, it’s easy to start reducing your diet down to a list of seemingly safe foods that don’t seem to cause you grief. The problem is that too much of initially harmless foods, such as oats, can spark intolerances over time. I thought I had a relatively broad diet, but realised I’d been relying on the same porridge for brekkie for a long, long time and ignoring the other aforemetioned nutritious grains out there! In You Are What You Eat, Gillian McKeith recommends rotating foods every three to four days; oat porridge twice a week, for example, and different grains and fruit on other days. Amaranth and buckwheat make great-tasting porridges, once you get your tastebuds on board, and each carries different nutritional benefits.
Each time I take a trip to the market, I try and find a fruit or vege that I’d normally skip over and buy that for a change. I mean, how often do you cook with turnips, celeriac or silverbeet? They certainly weren’t commonly used in my kitchen. If you’re unsure how to use something new, just do a Google search and find the most interesting-looking recipe. With access to billions of recipes online, we can’t use the excuse that we don’t know what to do with something anymore!
If you do find you’re intolerant to something (dairy, amongst other things, in my case) find out what others with similar issues are using for substitutes. I’ve found some amazing-looking vegan recipes for things often reserved for cheese fiends, which require a bit of creative thinking and ingredient use. I, for one, am inspired to think of clever ways to rejig my favourites for my tummy; my peppermint choc-chip ice-cream is a prime example!
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