0-5 With Food Allergies

After my post about not relating to any other group, this morning I took the plunge and posted my first comment on the ThinWithin community board. Another member previously posted about her diagnoses of 3 food allergies and her fear that she couldn't follow TW principles with food restrictions. So I described my experience with diagnoses of 7 food allergies. I'm sooo glad I learned the ThinWithin approach (eat only when hungry, stop when satisfied, any foods that feel good in my body) BEFORE my CD and food allergy diagnoses. I met so many celiacs who went crazy with unnecessary restrictions of 'safe' foods, which they overeate. They didn't know how to eat only when hungry and stop when satisfied. So they wanted to restrict the foods they overate, lest they gain weight with frequent bingeing.

I have to admit that I have unnecessarily restricted 'safe' foods a few times during the past few years after binge/purge episodes. Rather than using TW's observe and correct principle to understand what I really needed when I binged, I blamed the food, rather than the feelings which preceded the binge. However, my recent experience with a hangover, then nausea, then throwing up, then chronic reflux during the next 3 days certainly taught me a much needed lesson. When I begin to feel any discomfort when I'm eating, because I went past satisfaction (just enough) onto 'full', I just STOP. I now fear and can experience reflux if I go beyond satisfaction to 'full'. I guess that's a blessing in disguise. For years (before I had adequate stomach acid) I just threw up when I was so full that the food was refluxing. With adequate stomach acid the reflux burns so badly that I don't want to throw up. I drink cool water to dilute the acid and keep it where it belongs (in my stomach). That reflux possibility highly motivates me to stop BEFORE full.

I also have another mechanical impediment to eating before I feel hungry or snacking between meals. I'm now wearing an Invisiline retainer (like braces) to correct crooked lower teeth and a crooked smile. Whenever I eat, I need to removed the retainer, eat, brush my teeth, floss, brush the retainer and put it back on my teeth. That sounds simple, but takes at least 5 minutes. If I eat with the retainer on my teeth, I have a real mess to clean. Food gunk gets stuck on and under the retainer, which is more difficult to brush than my own teeth.

Maybe after years of struggling and praying for guidance to eat 0-5, God finally gave me powerful motivation to follow those guidelines. When I first joined TW I adamantly ate 0-5. (0 = unmistakably hungry; 5 = just enough, not hungry, but not uncomfortably full.) However, when I left TW and learned about food allergies and those restrictions, I got 'sloppy' with my eating. Possibly I was not eating enough, because I experienced so much gut pain. Maybe I was initially VERY careful with so many restrictions so that I could avoid pain. Whatever the reason, I didn't gain weight, but I started eating when I wasn't hungry occasionally and eating past satisfaction into 'full' more and more often. Many people eat 0-5 to avoid weight gain. As my weight stayed constant, I more often ignored 'full' and experienced more discomfort. My recent experience with reflux reminded me that overeating can cause reflux just as much as certain lower esophageal valve relaxer foods. I guess I needed a dramatic, painful experience to reteach me 0-5 eating.

Many TW members overlook the TW material about 'discernment' when they eat. They run with the 'freedom to eat anything' principle, but often ignore how their bodies react to certain foods. 1 Corinthians 6:12 reminds us: "Everything is permissable for me, but not everything is beneficial. Everything is permissible for me, but I will not be mastered by anything." We need to observe which foods are beneficial for our own bodies, not by following the latest health trend (which changes monthly), but by monitoring how our bodies feel immediately after eating and 4-5 hours later. Food allergy blood tests (like the ELISA test) are helpful, to confirm our observations about a food which seems to cause bad reactions.

I had so much gut pain before my CD and food allergy tests that I didn't know where to start. Also I had been misdiagnosed with 'IBS' (which is not a disease, but a 'catch all' billing label for gut symptoms for which doctors can't find a cause) and 'lactose intolerance' for over 10 years. So I unknowingly continued to eat foods that caused problems, like wheat bran recommended by the IBS diet and dairy for adequate calcium, which my CD damaged gut couldn't absorb anyway.

When my Enterolab diagnosis finally confirmed my suspicions about gluten and dairy, I thought all my pain would disappear. Little did I suspect that I would continue to endure daily gut pain for the next 4+ years while I was tested for other food allergies, bacterial imbalances (and treated for 2 different bad bacteria), parasites (and was treated for cryptosporidia) and candida (of which I had low levels, but was treated anyway). I eventually learned that hypochloridia (low stomach acid) caused other digestive problems. However, before learning about and treating low stomach acid, I felt bloated (not necessarily satisfied or full, but bloated and crampy) after eating almost any amount of anything. So I kinda gave up on 0-5 eating. I still tried to eat when I felt hungry, but more often than not ignored '5' or satisfied. Fortunately diagnoses and treatment have now resolved most of my gastrointestinal pain. I only feel pain when I overeat, which is probably a good thing. That makes me not want to eat again for awhile, during which time my stomach can digest the excess, before I load more into an overly full stomach.

I seem to be rambling here ... My point is that I (or anybody for that matter) can follow a hunger/satisfaction (or 0-5) eating style even with medical food restrictions. I suspect BELIEVING that those restrictions are necessary to prevent pain or physical damage keeps me faithfully abstaining from allergen foods. However, having plenty of other 'safe' foods available, makes me less likely to want to binge on the foods I can safely eat. So I researched all my safe foods and many appealing recipes for preparing those foods, when I was first diagnosed. Now I feel even freer, because I can trust that I won't binge on any 'safe' food while obeying 0-5 eating guidelines. 0-5 sets boundaries on when and how much I eat, but gives me more freedom (within my 'safe' foods) over WHAT I can eat.