FOOD FOR THOUGHT
I’ve never written a blog, but I’ve always been an avid reader. One topic I’ve always been compelled to talk about or discuss is food… that’s right, FOOD. I’m not sure about anyone else but here recently I’ve been making some big dietary changes and trying to educate myself on what goes into my body—so I thought I’d share my experiences and hopefully pass along some useful thoughts to all the wonderful people of Harness.
Lets make a long story short, I’ve never had any food allergies or problems of any sort until recently I was having the most insane stomach pain. Stomach pain turned to bloating, and not like normal girl bloated because we were all so blessed with menstrual cramps and what not, I mean distended insane looked 3 months pregnant bloated. It was honestly painful. I started to try to eliminate possible things hurting me; I initially noticed my biggest culprit was gluten. Coming from an Italian family it was devastating learning pasta and bread upset my stomach—but still an inevitable truth. After searching one end of Google to the other trying to learn about the gluten protein I finally made an appointment at the doctor. In the nicest way possible that was the most useless doctor’s appointment I’ve ever had… I left with the obvious information that I didn’t have celiac disease as I was treated like my problems were made up. Well I didn’t care, so I started trying to help myself and stopped eating everything gluten. I also started the FODMAP diet. It’s not commonly heard of but when you search Google long enough you find some pretty interesting stuff! Honestly though, it was very helpful—it’s an anti-inflammatory diet.
A couple weeks passed and I did start to feel some relief… but I knew I could still feel better. Crazy enough, I lucked out and met an amazing set of chiropractors who started helping me redirect my journey. It was amazing sitting down with them and talking about my dietary problems with doctors who understood and were well versed in the field. Here’s some insight on what they told me; Gluten is one of the most inflammatory proteins your body can eat, which is why during digestion many people find they bloat when they eat it. It’s not celiac disease or anything since celiac is an allergy. As time went with my chiropractor, we slowly started cutting out most inflammatory foods. Next on my list was dairy, which wasn’t actually as difficult as I thought it would be. I learned two big bits of information cutting out dairy: 1) Dairy, or more specifically, milk based products that are made by milk of another animal aren’t actually meant to be digested by humans… technically we struggle too, everyone does, just not everyone feels pain from it. 2) I learned that it only takes three to four days to get over craving food you haven’t eaten. Following gluten and dairy was anything soy based (yes that means soy protein isolate, which is in everything it seems like). I started making more food at home, and eating more raw foods… AKA VEGGIES. Worth doing though, I’ve learned how much I like cooking and how fun it can be.
I must admit, I’ve honestly felt a huge change by changing my dietary habits. I must also admit I do cheat some and eat a little cheese or a pastry here and there, but hey, we aren’t perfect! A girl needs a brownie and ice cream sometimes… right? HA! I hope this little blurb about my experience with food can help someone out there with a newly found dietary journey, I hope it encourages you to take control of your body and be in tuned with yourself! Good luck, god bless, keep it touch!
xoxo,
Olive
Author: Olivia Minamyer
Your Bio: A beauty advocate, a dreamer, an artist, and lover of inspirational quotes and food! Aspiring to inspire others — #ArtistOlive
Link to social media or website: https://www.instagram.com/__ojmm/
