162 Diet Wise
Self control
If you began eating ‘forbidden foods’ once again because of cravings and
your symptoms returned, then I think you know what to do. All you need is
will-power – or common sense, whichever you are shortest on!
I have been astonished over the years by how quickly some patients
would lapse. For many I think it was a state of denial: he or she simply did
not want to accept that their favorite foods made them seriously ill. One
consultant physician in my home city – who did well to swallow his pride
and come to me – I found reacted badly to apples. He ate several each day
and this is what caused the majority of his symptoms. We laughed over the
irony of the saying “An apple a day keeps the doctor away”; not in his case!
There were one or two lesser reactions as I recall. He went away very happy
to be rid of his problems.
I was surprised when only a few weeks later he rang me and said
his symptoms had come back. I asked him the question I ask every single
patient in this situation: “Have you stayed off the allergy food completely?”
He admitted he was back to eating apples, one or two a day. It was hard not
to be derisive but I did my best to control my disposition and gently pointed
out that this was why the symptoms had returned. My colleague hemmed
and hawed and really just could not bring himself to admit that might be the
reason his symptoms had returned.
I finally got his understanding that he must stay off apples for a
year or more and then have only one every few days, never more. Only then,
providing his symptoms did not return.
If this description fits your situation, you need to get a grip and
realize that you are being punished by Nature for being so foolish. She is
kind enough to give you symptoms as a clear message that you should NOT
eat the food. You will ignore this sign at your peril.
New allergies
However, if you have been conscientious and carefully continued an eating
program which was successful at first but now seems to be leading inexorably
back to illness, you must look for a reason.
It happens, so don’t feel negative about yourself or the diet.
The likelihood is that you are developing new intolerance reactions
to those foods which were safe at first. To understand how this can happen
you will recall that earlier I pointed out that the frequent consumption of a
food increases its adverse potential.