120 Diet Wise
traces of pollen in the atmosphere make hay fever sufferers so wretched in
summer.
We are trying to clear all traces of these particular foods from your body.
Only when you are totally free of a substance will you know if it has been
upsetting you. When your bowel is clear of it, then it can no longer be a
masked allergy; you will react on eating the food again, even if you never
noticed it before. So you have two chances to catch the culprit: firstly, if you
feel better for not eating it, that is a good clue; and secondly, if it makes you
ill again after re-introducing it, that is as near to proof as you can get.
How we carry out these specific food tests is covered in the next
chapter. In the meantime, just don’t cheat – OK?
Breakfast – eat hearty
Breakfast seems to cause the most trouble. Take away corn flakes, tea and
toast, and the average individual hasn’t much of a clue how to start the day!
Many people turn their noses up at the suggestion of fish, meat or fruit
for breakfast. Some even look at me as if I had made an obscene remark.
But look – if a food is healthy at six p.m. it is healthy at eight a.m. We don’t
usually eat haddock and fries for breakfast, but on this diet there is no
reason why you should not (fish not battered, fries cooked only in sunflower
or coconut oil).
Perhaps we have certain prejudices to which we would rather not
admit. I once heard a man criticize a rather stuck-up middle-aged lady as
belonging to the ‘fur coat and kippers for breakfast set,’ as if going without
Corn Flakes or Rice Crispies were some dreadful upper-class affectation. I
didn’t tell him that for years I had been putting patients on fish breakfasts
to solve the problem of low blood-sugar attacks! Herring is great; so are
flounders, dabs or haddock! Fish roe tastes delicious, when in season, lightly
fried with a little spicy pepper. Be a little adventurous: let your imagination
run loose.
There is a very sound reason for eating a hearty breakfast, which I
have just hinted at. If you eat carbohydrate, it tends to digest and dissipate
quickly. This can lead to temporarily high blood sugar, which is over-
corrected by the body, causing it to go too low. The victim recognizes this
as tiredness and hunger and so is very soon eating again. Cereal and sweet
things for breakfast (bread is a cereal food: wheat) set up this trap with a
vengeance.
The best foods to protect you from hunger pangs are fat and
protein; thus for your first meal of the day liver, kidneys, chops, fish and