my sister just came to visit me from may 5 - may 10 from california. in the last 18 months or so, she's begun having problems with her health, digestion and elimination that i've told her she should cut out dairy for. her doctor told her she has dairy intolerance and possibly even allergy and to cut out dairy, also. she eats a typical american diet, though she's been cutting way back on the coffee to see if caffeine could be part of the problem.
i was very excited for her to come visit and eat like we do for a week and see if she felt any better. she also complains of never being able to lose any weight on any diets. i get asked all the time if this allergy elimination diet is a good weight loss diet. it is and it isn't. on the one hand, if you eat a typical diet loaded with dairy and corn sugars, of course you are going to lose significant weight by cutting them out completely.
but if you're only doing it to lose weight, i don't know how hard it would be to stick to it. it took knowing it was hurting my baby to stick to it, for me. in my sister's case, i hope she sees firsthand now how it's been hurting her to help her stick to it! when we first had to convert to this diet, hubby and i also lost significant weight. i'm still nursing 2 and i tend not to lose weight when breastfeeding multiples, so i didn't expect to lose much, if any. i lost almost 40 lbs over 5 months. hubby lost about 30.
unfortunately, it was hard to get the children to gain weight as they should on this diet. so i've found all the best fats i can for our particular family's menu. i've had to seek out the meals that kids will really eat and thrive and grow well on. and like any other way of eating, if you eat enough calories, no matter where they come from, you can gain weight. so as we've been on this diet longer, our bodies have learned which things to eat more of to maintain weight.
i know a lot of other nursing moms on this diet (most women tend to lose weight while nursing, not hold onto it, like i do) who have real problems maintaining appropriate weight for their height and the demands of nursing. most people on this diet tend to lose too much weight.
this includes my allergy baby until i found the good fats and recipes he'd eat enough of to start gaining again. i would have to say the menus we follow are still pretty fat and carb - oriented, but of course it's a MUCH healthier source of fat and not the cholesterol-clogging, heart attack-contributing variety like dairy. so i was very curious to see if my sister lost any weight for the week she was here on this diet, now that i've got it modified to baby-gaining and me and hubby no- longer- losing levels.
not only did she lose 5 lbs while eating constantly (she was wild over the chocolate chip oat cookies and we went through 4 dozen while she was here) during her 5 days here, but she also reported that her elimination symptoms of urgency, pressure and irritation cleared up completely. of course, this is a person who has been told dairy is hurting her system, so relief from her symptoms was expected, but i was curious to see if the average person still loses weight on this diet and was pleased to see that not only do they, but i've obviously got it just right if my children are still able to gain well and hubby and i are maintaining our own primary weight losses on it, too.
i can't wait for other people to come stay with us so i can continue testing how this diet affects someone eating a typical diet and then suddenly having all the allergens removed - if we had gone somewhere and done this when my oldest 3 were small, i wonder if i would have realized much earlier that their ear infections, sinus infections, eczema and irritability were all diet-related...
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