When I hear or read the name Joseph, I think of my mother. She is the only person that ever called me Joseph and it was usually when I was in trouble. If I really screwed up, I got the full “Joseph Montague LaMuraglia, get your ass over here”. I digress. This time, reading my full given name got me excited. The first results were in for my renovation homo (sapien) project and I was eager to see if my intuition was right about what my body is sensitive to (besides Sade songs, anything by Nicholas Sparks, puppy videos and that damn Google Super Bowl commercial!)
My intuition was all wrong. I was convinced that the results would show a complicated relationship to apples, melons, and seafood primarily because they give me gas, make me puke and just taste vile – in that order. No, no, Everlywell’s blood test results showed something more cruel and ironic.
First off, I am not highly reactive to any foods. That is good news. I am also not moderately reactive to any foods. Yay! Mildy reactive, that’s another story. My results show that there are 8 foods that cause a mild reaction and still may be “sneaky symptom-causers”.
What are the trouble makers? Here is where I get sad but the more I think about it, it makes sense. Let’s start with coffee. Yup, black gold. Morning Joe. Java.
On the scale above, it doesn’t seem the result is that bad but looking back at my last health quest, I gave up coffee for almost 6 months and I felt great. I thought it was the caffeine I stayed away from but this hints that the coffee itself might have been contributing negatively to my health.
This one is ironic. I have been avoiding dairy for the past few years and making my protein shakes with, you guessed it, almond milk! Not only that, I snack on roasted almonds. This one won’t be as difficult to give up because, to be honest, I am not a huge fan of almond milk. I may miss snacking almonds but there are plenty of substitutes like cashews and peanuts. Unless….
Nuts! Technically, nuts and legumes! Cashews are the highest scoring of my results and as you can see above, they are on the edge of moderate reactivity. I love them but I don’t eat them often so that will be easy to avoid. Peanuts, on the other hand, are in everything and snack on them often. Luckily my reactivity results are super low and almost in the normal range. I will still avoid them as part of an elimination diet – more about that later- but I am thinking they are likely not that bad.
This one is the most perplexing to me. I am not surprised because eating eggs alone makes me feel sick at times but how do I avoid egg whites? Does eating baked goods made with eggs count? How on earth does one avoid eggs altogether? Luckily, Everlywell offers a one-on-one consultation with a dietitian to discuss these questions. Mine is scheduled for next week.
Another ironic item is the results of coconut sensitivity. In the past few weeks, I started to make bulletproof coffee with grass-fed butter and coconut oil to get me started in the morning. I don’t think I am having any reaction to it but now that I am giving up coffee again, it will be easy to get rid of coconut oil.
The last two are easy. I hate mustard and the only time I really consume ginger is in a ginger, carrot and apple juice that I make. I will put that on hold for a while but with the low reactivity score, I am fairly certain it isn’t holding me back.
Next steps are to start an elimination diet. I will likely hold off on this until I have my consultation. Here is how Everlywell says to do it:
You temporarily cut foods you’re reactive to from your diet, usually for one month. (Keep a close eye on ingredient lists and watch for hidden sources during this time.)
Working one food at a time, you reintroduce the food for one day. (This step is the whole point of the elimination diet. Don’t skip it!)
You stop eating that food again for a 2-4 days while watching for symptoms. (Tip: Keep a food journal to make this easy.)
If you don’t notice any symptoms, you’re probably not sensitive to that food. (You can choose to go back to eating it as usual.)
If you do notice symptoms, try eliminating that food for a longer period of time (at least 6 months) before repeating steps 2 and 3. (Depending on your symptoms at this point, you can either reintroduce the food to your diet in small amounts or repeat the elimination for another 6+ months.)
I will do another post after my consultation. I am also waiting on my gut biome results from Thryve and will post about that as well.
If you missed my post on how to do the food sensitivity test, click https://joelamuraglia.com/2020/02/07/renovation-homo-sapien-food-sensitivity-test/
