So what do you do with all this stuff that you wrote down in your food journal? Here is the fun part - getting to your aha moment!
The first step is to read and reflect on what you have written down. If you see a trend over the days and weeks that when you eat dairy, your tummy feels queasy, you have major gas, or whatever - think to yourself - maybe I should crowd dairy out of my diet.
Next, it is important to trial different things - take one food out of your diet for a couple of weeks and then try it again. Do you get the same results as you did before? If so, you may be intolerant to it. If not, yeah! Keep eating it and try a different food and see what happens.
Take note - if you have taken a food or foods out of your diet, be sure to add one food back in at a time AND be sure to only try adding in a food every 3-4 days. You need to let your body have time to respond. That response won't necessarily happen overnight. In my case, it happened in 6-8 hours. I knew by then that my body does not like dairy or gluten. Talk about a long night of not so fun stuff. Ugh!
This is not the fastest way to determine how food effects you, but it is the truest test you can do. Be patient and the answers will come. It is a step towards creating a healthier, happier you.
If you want to take a test and have a sense of what may be ailing you and perhaps find a starting point of what foods to try removing form your diet, I would recommend you get an allergy test done. Beware though, there are a lot of false positives that come up. Skin tests can just be an irritation to your skin - not that you are really allergic to it.
You could also have a serum test done. This type of test can give you a sense of how severe the intolerance or allergy is. These are helpful guides too especially if you do the IgG and IgE testing. Not everyone agrees that these tests are accurate.
Allergy tests can be done through an allergist or a naturopathic doctor (ND), both who will help you decipher the results. Just be careful on who you talk to and remember to listen to you. Don't make the mistake I did and believe that the allergist has all of the answers. The ND will probably not be covered by insurance. The MD may be. If you prefer to do it on your own, there are also kits that you can purchase. The test on your own, is on your own. Both through the ND and on your own, the test can be around $300 a test.
The most accurate way is to listen to your body and write it down. Hell, I can't remember what I had for breakfast yesterday let alone how I felt 30 min, an hour or 6 hours after. I need to write things down. Take your time and trust your gut - literally. Listening to your body is the best start to a new you.
This is just information and in no way intended to be medical advice. Any testing or decisions a person makes to improve his or her health is a decision made by that person and not by me. This information is just to help educate people and not intended as medical opinion or prescription.
Next, it is important to trial different things - take one food out of your diet for a couple of weeks and then try it again. Do you get the same results as you did before? If so, you may be intolerant to it. If not, yeah! Keep eating it and try a different food and see what happens.
Take note - if you have taken a food or foods out of your diet, be sure to add one food back in at a time AND be sure to only try adding in a food every 3-4 days. You need to let your body have time to respond. That response won't necessarily happen overnight. In my case, it happened in 6-8 hours. I knew by then that my body does not like dairy or gluten. Talk about a long night of not so fun stuff. Ugh!
This is not the fastest way to determine how food effects you, but it is the truest test you can do. Be patient and the answers will come. It is a step towards creating a healthier, happier you.
If you want to take a test and have a sense of what may be ailing you and perhaps find a starting point of what foods to try removing form your diet, I would recommend you get an allergy test done. Beware though, there are a lot of false positives that come up. Skin tests can just be an irritation to your skin - not that you are really allergic to it.
You could also have a serum test done. This type of test can give you a sense of how severe the intolerance or allergy is. These are helpful guides too especially if you do the IgG and IgE testing. Not everyone agrees that these tests are accurate.
Allergy tests can be done through an allergist or a naturopathic doctor (ND), both who will help you decipher the results. Just be careful on who you talk to and remember to listen to you. Don't make the mistake I did and believe that the allergist has all of the answers. The ND will probably not be covered by insurance. The MD may be. If you prefer to do it on your own, there are also kits that you can purchase. The test on your own, is on your own. Both through the ND and on your own, the test can be around $300 a test.
The most accurate way is to listen to your body and write it down. Hell, I can't remember what I had for breakfast yesterday let alone how I felt 30 min, an hour or 6 hours after. I need to write things down. Take your time and trust your gut - literally. Listening to your body is the best start to a new you.
This is just information and in no way intended to be medical advice. Any testing or decisions a person makes to improve his or her health is a decision made by that person and not by me. This information is just to help educate people and not intended as medical opinion or prescription.
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