Self Inventory 99How often do you eat the suspect food?
Now we come to look at your own diet. What exactly are you eating?
The key question in this is how often do you eat the food, not how
much. Start by making a list of foods you eat every single day. You’ll be
surprised how repetitive our daily foods are. Most people will admit to tea
or coffee, or both, every day. But does that include milk? Sugar?
What about bread? Another common daily food. Breakfast corn
cereal maybe. That would mean milk too and probably sugar (most cereals
have the sugar already added. Corn flakes, for example, are about two-thirds
sugar by weight. Potato is another food to watch out for; it occurs as fries,
mashed potatoes, crusts and chips.
Then go on to make a list of frequently eaten foods. For the
purposes of this inventory that means twice a week or more. It takes food
about four days to clear from the bowel, so if you eat a substance twice
weekly it is permanently inside you and could be making you ill without you
knowing.
Ignore seasonal variations or foods that you are only temporarily
eating more of unless this coincides with a period of increased symptoms.
You have developed quite a list of possible suspects. You probably
understand by now that your troubles may be coming from a hidden allergy
food which is already on this list. Notice how certain food ingredients come
up repetitively. Wheat, for instance, appears in bread, cakes, cookies, muffins,
pastry, pizza, pasta and other places. Appendix B contains a list of frequent
food contacts that you can review. You’ll probably be amazed how often
some of these turn up but it will be apparent that the chief danger comes
from manufactured foods, where you cannot be sure what is included in the
can or package, without reading the list of ingredients. Whole food eating
has many advantages, one of which is being able to see and identify what
you are putting in your mouth!
Two more lists
Now, to complete this inventory make two more lists. These are personal
to you. First, a list of foods you know disagree with you. Do not include
things you may have been told are bad for you (for example, you may have
heard that chocolate is bad for migraines); include only those which you
have found out by actual experience make you ill when you eat them. Secondly,
a list of foods you crave or would binge on if you let yourself. If that