138 Diet Wise
in fact it was so bad she had a virtual “open ticket” at the local hospital,
allowing her to check herself in when things got too bad. On occasion she
would report with her clothes stuck to her skin, oozing blood, and sheets
of dead skin would come away as her clothes were soaked and peeled off.
Very dramatic, I dare say. But actually an easy one. Potato was just
about the only significant food reaction I found and if she stayed off it, she
was fine!
Another case concerns a woman who had severe psychiatric
problems. For over twenty years she had been ill and had numerous major
antidepressant drugs and courses of shock treatment in an effort to treat
her condition, all to no avail. She turned out to have a potato allergy. It
was her habit to consume, with her husband, some 3 lbs. of potatoes daily!
Remember what was said about food addiciton in chapter 7.
Once off potato and the rest of the nightshade family the woman
was fine (potato belongs to a fairly toxic food family called the nightshades
(after Deadly Nightshade Atropa belladonna). Chili, peppers, tomatoes and
eggplant are in the same family; so is tobacco!
You felt no different
When correctly chosen for the elimination diet, about seven out of ten cases
improve, one feels worse and the other two feel no change whatsoever. The
first point to check, if you are in the latter category, is, do you qualify?
The self-inventory in Chapter 10 is designed to establish this. Perhaps you
should look over the points again. The more positive answers you give to
the table of symptoms, the more certain it is that we are dealing with an
allergy or intolerance. It may not be food: chemicals sensitivity and inhaled
allergens can have an equally devastating effect.
Stress too can prevent recovery from health problems. If your life
is off balance and not giving you what you want: that’s stress. There is
abundant evidence that stress underlies almost all negative health conditions.
Maybe you need to make significant changes which bring you closer to
what you want. At the very least move out of the need zone. If you can’t
immediately get all you desire for a happy life, you can surely relax and stop
giving yourself a hard time about what you’re missing. Consider a change
of job, a change of relationship or even just a change of attitude, to bring
you closer to contentment.
In the meantime, finish the review given below...