GUT REACTIONS, The Beginning

Allergies have developed me and molded me into the person I am today.  They have impacted me throughout my life in ways I am only just beginning to understand.

In my childhood, I lived with allergic misery, endured painful tests, took my prescription anti-allergy symptom medicines, and lived in a medically induced mental fog for many years.  My allergies never went away nor really improved.

Today, I am learning how food allergies--largely ignored to date--have negatively impacted me lifelong and I have begun learning how to avoid foods I am allergic too (NOT EASY) and learning to reach for alternatives (ALSO NOT EASY).

When I tally my allergies and other health conditions (and family health susceptibilities) that I try to improve for myself, but also for the other people in my life, I find that I am always searching and researching for healthier methods of preparing the foods we eat.  I try to find affordable organic foods when I can, low glycemic foods and methods to cook that encourage lower glycemic responses by our digestive systems, but also supplementation that aids and abets healthy lives.  So I will always try new recipes--once--the original recipe method (mostly) and only after an audition, will I begin tweaking and tweaking to improve and  make the product healthier for those with diabetics, high cholesterol, allergies, diverticulitis, IBS, etc.  To do this, I keep a notebook with the original recipe and I write any modifications on it as well as peoples' critiques.

This quest for health, not misery, has been both long and short.  Long in the sense that I have always had health issues and impairments; short in that I have only in the last three or four years begun relying on my own initiative--research and study--to find wellness answers for my problems that my physicians have tried to fix but failed to help as much as I would have liked.  I have absolutely no knowledge of the monetary costs involved from childhood thru Grandmotherhood, but I'd sure like to have had that money as disposable income.

This blog is for you and for me as a information and advice exchange for allergy sufferers and their families and friends as well as a forum to discuss midlife issues in general.  Here's to good health, good food, and many happy middle years!

Kitten