Thursday, June 23, 2011

New allergies, new fun

I seem to have developed some food allergies recently. Most noticeably to dairy- any and all traces of dairy. So much as a kid who had eaten buttered popcorn to touch my arm will cause a burning rash, and butter powder on chips will cause my lips to burn all day.

Fun..... since dairy parts and proteins are hidden across a wide swath of food products.

I am currently on an elimination diet- to eliminate many potential allergens.... which means I can eat some fruits, veggies and a few weirdish grains. After looking high and low for foods I can eat... home seems to be about the only place they are served. Since I am currently off of wheat, soy, corn, potatoes, tomato, citrus and peanuts, pork, beef, shell fish, mushrooms, peppers and refined sugars of all sorts. Plus dairy.

This diet is to continue for about 2 weeks until my body behaves all happy like- then I can try 1 potential allergen at a time- for about 3 days. If I have no reactions then I can include it in my diet. I have been debating what I want to try first- wheat, corn or soy? Those are definitely the first to try to include again to gain any sort of normal eating patterns.

Why am I doing this?

Well- for about the last month I have endured constant gas- bloating, farting, burping - up to 60 times per hour (or more). And a rash started developing on my upper arms. After doing research on gas and rashes I realized that symptoms I have been having, including constant runs, heartburn and other stuff all seemed to point to hidden food allergies. So I am now teasing out what those are... after I keep a record of everything I eat and how I react... I plan to get allergy tested and see of the 2 correlate at all- but digestive allergies don't always show accurately on typical allergy tests. There are often false negatives and false positives.

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Civilization takes civilaized behavior

I read this article today: http://www.businessinsider.com/18-signs-the-collapse-of-society-is-accelerating-2011-6#

And it does point out some trends I have been seeing this week.... now I understand what was talked about in General Conference as we were admonished to be kinder, more helpful, and really watch our behavior to be/stay an example of Christ.

And indeed I have found more times this past week were I have had to censor my own language or thoughts. And I was wondering what makes the swearing seem normal? Of course, all I had to do was look around at the media, mass and semi private to see it. It is way more common and way more accepted. But that does not mean that we need to allow ourselves to follow the trend towards less civilized behaviors.

Stand up for goodness, stand out due to polite behavior.