66 Diet Wise
Stage 3 to Stage 2; that is, from maladaptation to once again adapted. Hey
presto, the symptoms disappear!
No more hay fever!
I took this one simple technique and used it successfully over and over, in
situations where it was not easy to avoid a key allergen but dietary change
is always possible. Consider the annual bugaboo of hay fever. We all know
this is caused by reactions to pollen, tiny plant grains floating in the air.
Many patients lead miserable restricted lives throughout the best months of
the year because they cannot go outdoors without suffering severely from
runny nose and reddened, itchy eyes.
I used my ingenuity and knowledge of the GAS theory to engineer
a solution which worked for most sufferers, which was to implement a
change of diet during the peak summer months. Hay fever (from grass) is
caused by allergy to grass pollen; so I had patients stop eating grass! Most
people looked startled at the idea and protested they don’t eat grass. Women
particularly, sometimes glared at me as if I were calling them a cow. But the
truth is we all eat grasses or grains: wheat (bread, cakes, cookies, muffins,
pastry, pasta etc), corn (polenta, hominy, grits, etc.), oatmeal, rice and rye are
all foods from the grass family.
It is logical that stopping eating large quantities of grass will allow
a greater tolerance of the inhaled grass pollen grains and, sure enough, it
worked. Pretty soon my story was leaked to the media and every spring
and summer for the next decade I was called up by press and radio from
all over the world to repeat this wonderful healing trick for the benefit of
their readers and listeners. Giving up bread, pasta and such foods was a lot
less stressful than being miserable and unable to go outdoors for weeks at
a time. Many patients, even taking antihistamines, were not able to lead a
normal life, until they tried the Scott-Mumby diet solution!
Of course not all hay fever is caused by grass pollens. Tree pollen,
flowers, shrubs and even circulating mold spores can have the same effect.
But the diet trick still worked just the same. Some individuals who are
sensitive to ragweed may also react to melon and cantaloupe and would
be better to give it up for the “season.” That’s because it all comes down
to body load, and any legitimate means of reducing the body’s burden will
reduce the pressure on its defenses.
Pretty soon I came to realize that any kind of unburdening helped
and a good general low-allergy diet, such as the one described in these pages,
would bring relief for those few critical weeks. Try it yourself next season,
if you suffer from hay fever.