I don’t like the smell of food, well the chemicals that are on the food- synthetic chemicals. This week my work had a potluck every day. I already get sick when multiple people eat lunch at work and when my neighbor’s are cooking. But when there is food out all day (even if it’s doughnuts) my body tells me in painful ways. The easiest way I can think to describe this is that it’s kind of like second hand smoke. Even though the source of the smoke is out, you can still smell it in the air, it may absorb into the walls and other surroundings. The same applies to our food (www.columbiafoodlab.com). Each state and/or county has protocols and requirements for food to pass inspections. Each state and/or county has different requirements for the amount of residual pesticides and/or herbicides. This explains why the food tastes different in different parts of the US. My body being as sensitive as it is doesn’t like what it considers to be high volumes of it in the air (migraines) and food (feels like I ate rate poison). So even though I can tell that it is food that I’m smelling (sometimes) my body reacts like it’s poison – kind of like smelling paint. Hopefully I will get to a point when my body doesn’t react this way to certain treated foods so it won’t be as awkward at social events, but it may take years.
I was so glad to get some chocolate shipped to me. It was kind of weird when 1 of my health specialist told me to eat more chocolate since I don’t care for a lot of sweets. I associate chocolate with candy bars. But he was talking about chocolate powder, like the kind you use for hot coco. I got some stone ground cacao tablets that I just love. When I was younger we would each get a piece of a chocolate cake/tablet as a treat. I love making hot chocolate with it.
I got sick! Not from food but from lip balm and other things. I have found that I have to be more extensively careful with what I use. While doing this I find myself becoming a more of a green, natural, organic person. And learning way more than I have ever wanted to know and thought I could know about chemicals –more specifically synthetic chemicals and how they affect our everyday items. I don’t see that as a bad thing because it is improving my health, and in my opinion it seems to support more local business. Something you might want to look into is that each state and/or county has their own regulations how food should be handled before being sold in stores within their jurisdiction. This jurisdiction includes decisions on how organic food is treated after it arrives that the location it will be sold in.
It has been a year since my body made it clear that it wasn’t going to deal with beans any more. When I started to piece things together (but didn’t really want to believe it) I went to CA to visit friends and test a theory. My body kinda went through a cleanse and I drastically improved- meaning about 5 symptoms were gone. I was surprised that my health could improve that quickly since it took about 2 years to get to the bad condition I was in. By the 2nd day I was so glad that I could have beans that I had a rancher’s sized burrito. Then I came back to where I live and have a job- bought some dried beans in a bag, and got horribly sick. I am so glad there are still farms out there that sell directly to us, the consumer and those that support local farms. I found Rancho Gordo’s website and am getting beans shipped directly to me. It feels like such a relief that I can eat beans now and that the beans don’t froth/bubble up when I pour water over them.
When I lost the ability to eat beans I was scared and somewhat lost because I was always able to eat beans. We always had beans when I was growing up, so when my body was rejecting them it was shocking. (When I say that I lost the ability to eat beans I mean my body wasn’t digesting them, it felt like my stomach didn’t know what to do with them. Eventually other foods followed.) So I started looking at the way I cook and prepare food. I followed a mostly raw food die. It felt like I got a little bit better and then got really bad. I discovered that I could digest Quinoa and Amaranth better, so I replaced beans in some of my meals with quinoa and amaranth. I was glad at how well this worked! I recommend that you try it some time.
Since I haven’t been able to do my vloging I decided to post on Tumblr every week. These weekly posts will contain rants along with some information that I have learned and experiences. I thought I would also include a picture of my progress. Shortly after visiting home, my body started to reject more items bought from the middle of the country. Eventually I ended up looking sick again.
I was really hoping I was psyching myself out, but I wasn’t I thought the food tasted funny but was hoping it wasn’t fully aware that it was making me sick. If the food has a strong dose of the stuff within few minutes to a few days if feels like my stomach is out to kill me. I get feverish; it feels like coral is going through my body and then the bleeding starts (colitis). (What kind of poison was I exposed to!?) I start to feel sick when everyone eats lunch at work and when in the grocery store. Sometimes I start to feel sick to my stomach before smelling the food and my lower back starts to burn.
Thankfully, after having almost everything shipped and taking homeopathic remedies for chemical toxicity the symptoms are less. But I am really afraid to go into any store that carries fresh food and plant products in the middle of the country. Hopefully I don’t get sick off of the stuff bought at the drug stores and beauty stores.
So it seems like even dry goods are being treated now (possibly because they are transported with fresh food on the way to the store and a drop in temperature). At least most of the ingredients to make pizza comes in cans. Now just to find some flour and stuff to make the dough that hopefully hasn’t been sprayed. Hooray, for Bob’s Red Mill online store!
I’m from California, born and raised. During last few years I lived in CA, I got migraines. Eventually they got so bad that I had to be on FMLA and was almost vomiting for 6hrs of the day. There was some speculation that the migraines were due to the chemicals (herbicides and pesticides) in the air. All I knew at the time was that every time I went to the beach, within 20 minutes the migraines and all the symptoms were gone. Now I know that if I visit a place that measures above 5 (based on air quality statistics posted on homefacts.com) for Sulfur Dioxide and Nitrogen Dioxide I get a migraine.
So I am currently living in the middle of the country where I have a job and can breathe the air without getting migraines. But I have recently found out that I can’t eat the food in the middle of the country. This seems to be because the USDAs in the middle of the country treat all fresh food and plants extensively- even organic products. When I first got here I remember how different the tomatoes and broccoli tasted. I’m now disappointed in myself because I should have listened to my sense of taste and smell, but I continued to eat the food even though it was very different from what I was use to.
I now have jaundice and crohn’s disease like symptoms. When I don’t eat any of the food items that have been treated, most of my symptoms go away within a month. When I do eat a food item that seems to have been treated, within 20minutes my body start to show symptoms again. If I continue to unknowingly eat the treated item, within 3 days I have all the symptoms of crohn’s disease and unquestionably yellow skin.
It seemed like I could eat locally grown food, but since most of the locally grown food is grown from plants that are freighted in and fumigated my body can’t handle the food anymore. Depending on how the dry goods and frozen items are brought into the area (such as with fresh produce and/or meat), the dry goods and frozen items get treated. So I’m now really scared to eat any food that is sold in the middle of the country, and am placing orders to have all my food shipped directly to me.
I really, really, really wish I was making this up, but I’m not and my body reminds me of this every day. I can’t tell you enough times how badly I want to home, or at least to a place where I can breathe the air without getting migraines and eat the food to actually digest it.
I’m sorry I haven’t been as active lately with vlogs and blogs, but this is why. Right now it looks like I will only have enough energy to do blogs for a while.
