Update June 2010 on How This Blog Became Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free and Mostly Vegan – I had originally named this series the Detox Diet Diaries, but my experience with these changes in my diet, while incredibly positive, has made me decide I really do not like the concept of a detox diet. It is ironic in that the diet my naturopath put me on was incredibly helpful, and a year later, it has become clear I have non-Celiac gluten intolerance, as well as a strong dairy intolerance. I continue to avoid all dairy and gluten, as well as other problematic foods such as corn, but have grown to really dislike the concept of “detox” – the term promotes the concept of a quick fix, which is just nonsensical. I firmly believe that the vast improvements in my health are based on the long-term changes I made, and want my posts on the experience to convey this. *****************************************************************
Background: The Detox Diet Diaries recounts my story of doing a detox diet for health reasons and to isolate food allergies which may have been a contributing factor to some of my health problems. This diet involves real food. I am not on the Master Cleanse, or Gwyneth Paltrow’s latest cleanse, or Oprah’s cleanse, nor are my posts on my diet a way to support their actions. As I explained in my background post, I am doing this under the care of a naturopathic doctor.
I spent a lot of Week 11 preparing for my trip to upstate New York. I prepared a couple of batches of hummus to freeze so that that it would stay nice and cool for the 7 hour drive. I made a checklist of everything I would need. Other than that, I found Week 11 stressful in terms of anticipating traveling somewhere that would not have a Whole Foods.
I will fill you in more in my Week 12 post, but in the meantime wanted to answer reader questions:
I had not seen that, thank you for the link.
Do you have plans to reintroduce some of the “forbidden” foods into your diet over time? Is there an end date to the detox diet?
I have reintroduced some foods in my diet, but the bulk of the reintroducing and allergy testing will not be until later this year, mainly because of some other health issues I am working on {where adding back in some of the eliminated foods could be problematic}. The schedule is to “end” the detox diet and start food reintroduction sometime in early December. Realistically, though, I will be continuing some aspects of this diet forever, pending the food allergy test results, but also because I do have so much more energy eating like this. I would like more freedom and flexibility in terms of eating out, but my at-home cooking will not change much even after the detox diet ends.
Are you still feeling better on the detox diet?
Physically, yes, very much {and thank you for asking!}. It is fascinating to me how I have zero afternoon slumps. And generally, I do feel much better.
How do you eat the frozen berries? Just thawed out or do you mix them into things?
Mainly in smoothies or mixed into oatmeal. Sometimes, I will make berries into a sauce by thawing them out in a pan and cooking them for a couple of minutes before adding a smidge of agave. I usually do that when I want to top my oatmeal but do not want cold berries.
Is red rice something that is accessible for you?
I need to check on that. Thank you for the suggestion!
Do you food combine?
Food combining refers to not combining certain types of food together. For the first four weeks on the detox diet, I really did not pay attention to food combining. I did not really buy it to be honest. The naturopath had not emphasized it much in our first visit, and I had enough trouble making sure I was eating on the right schedule and eating the correct foods. Food combining was an added layer of complexity I could not deal with, especially since the research I did showed that there were different ways of food combining. After a couple of more visits with the naturopath, and seeing how quickly I was improving on the detox diet, I decided to give it a try, mainly because she did not emphasize the granularity of food combining but more of a broad “dont eat animal protein with starches, and try to eat vegetables with every meal” – so I do follow food combining most of the time in terms of eating fish and meat with vegetables and not brown rice or sweet potatoes or quinoa. That said, I do eat fruits with vegetables, which food combining will tell you not to do. So I guess the answer is I sort of food combine, but not strictly. Out of 20-21 meals a week, I food combine correctly about 15 of them, with another 4-5 involving fruits as part of the meal (think mango salsa with spinach tacos or kale berry smoothies), and 1-2 breaking food combining completely, namely where I eat some carbs with a fish vegetable meal.
Disclaimer: I am just a regular person posting about my experience doing a detox diet for health reasons and, ultimately, to isolate food allergies that may be the underlying cause of said health problems. I am not a medical professional or nutritionist. Please do not use information from these posts to do your own detox diet. Rather, seek advice from a doctor, naturopath or nutritionist to determine what the correct course of action for your health is.
General Disclosures &
Disclaimers
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Uh yeah your detox diet is WAY more detox-y than that other blog!
P.S. freezing hummus is a great idea for long road trips! did it thaw just fine?
It thawed out really well.
I really appreciate your sharing all of this information with all of us. It's fascinating and helpful!