No beef, buffalo, duck, eggs or dairy?!? :( :( :( SAD CAVEGIRL. page

[KimInGA]

So despite going to a primal diet over a year ago, I've had continuing issues with insomnia, general fatigue, headaches and bloating. I finally decided to get the ALCAT test done because I just can't figure out what else it could be besides food intolerances. And despite hearing ahead of time that it's often the foods you love most that show up as "Severe" or "Moderate", I'm still really sad to see the results! I have to give up beef, buffalo, duck, eggs and dairy?!?

Has anyone else had the ALCAT test done? Were you religious about avoiding the items that showed up under Severe and Moderate? What results did you see? I know that it sometimes shoes false positives, but I'd really rather see that than a false negative. I figure that once I come to a baseline, I can start adding foods back in one at a time and evaluate how I feel. Right now I'm just trying to figure out what I can eat for protein that will give me enough Omega 3 (without loading me up on Omega 6). Pork, chicken, turkey, lamb, a variety of fish, crab and scallop are all safe. Should I just load up on lots of seafood with a healthy dose of lamb in there?

Severe - Avoid At All Costs
- Meat:
- Vegetables: Acorn Squash, Bok Choy, Parsnip, White Potato
- Fruits: Blackberry
- Spices: Black Pepper, Cayenne Pepper, Chili Pepper, Clove, Sage, Thyme
- Beans: Black Beans, Black Eyed Peas, Navy Bean
- Nuts: Brazil Nut
- Other: Safflower, Agave

Moderate - Avoid For At Least 3-6 Months
- Meat: Beef, Buffalo, Duck, Egg Yolk
- Vegetables: Jalapeno, Green Bean
- Fruits: Banana, Strawberry, Tomato
- Spices: Rosemary
- Beans:
- Nuts:
- Other: Canola Oil, Quinoa, Dairy (Casein)

Mild - Eat Once Every 4 Days At Most
- Meat: Cod, Egg White, Mussel, Shrimp, Salmon, Snapper, Trout, Tuna, Venison
- Vegetables: Artichoke, Avocado, Butternut Squash, Eggplant, Leaf Lettuce, Romaine Lettuce, Sweet Potato
- Fruit: Blueberry, Lemon, Mango, Nectarine
- Spices: Ginger, Paprika, Parsley, Peppermint
- Beans: Chickpea, Kidney Bean, Lima Bean
- Nuts: Pistachio, Walnut
- Other: Corn, Gluten, Tapioca

[Zach]

What has your diet been like since starting primal? How did you feel before starting and how did you eat then?

Just from a bit of reading, it sounds like ALCAT tests are pretty unreliable and i highly doubt you are severely allergic to that much stuff. There is probably a different root cause.

[ChocoTaco369]

What? I don't understand. It seems that the results of the test is that you can't eat anything?

I don't know what an ALCAT test is at all, so I'm not going to pretend I know anything about it . What I can't understand is how anyone can have intolerances to seemingly every food you would have had to eat to have survived tens of thousands of years ago. I can understand intolerances to seeds and grains and legumes - they weren't widely consumed - but sensitivities to meat seems wild to me.

[Finnegans Wake]

Wasn't familiar with the test, so to Wiki I went:

The test is not supported by research and is not considered to be a reliable medical diagnostic tool; since it has not been appropriately validated it is not a suitable guide for therapeutic decisions.[1][2][3][4][5][6] In a position statement, the Australasian Society of Clinical Immunology and Allergy classified the ALCAT with other forms of cytotoxic tests as inappropriate tests, saying of them

"These results have been shown to not be reproducible, give different results when duplicate samples are analysed blindly, don't correlate with those from conventional testing, and 'diagnose' food hypersensitivity in subjects with conditions where food allergy is not considered to play a pathogenic role."[7]

[KimInGA]

What has your diet been like since starting primal? How did you feel before starting and how did you eat then?

Just from a bit of reading, it sounds like ALCAT tests are pretty unreliable and i highly doubt you are severely allergic to that much stuff. There is probably a different root cause.

Here's a pretty typical day. I dropped all gluten, processed oils & sugars from my diet. Pretty much just whole foods. I was hoping that the insomnia, general fatigue, headaches and bloating would decrease with primal. The only thing that's gotten better is bloating/gas ... if I accidentally eat some gluten, my body makes sure that I know it ... for about the next 2-4 days!! And that's what the ALCAT is, it's a measure of sensitivities, not allergies. Reactions to gluten are a sensitivity, something like hives from peanuts is an allergy.

Anyway, the menu:

Breakfast - Bacon, Eggs, Latte (whole milk), sometimes 1/2 pc fruit
Lunch - Leftover meat & veggies from dinner, sometimes 1 pc fruit or a measured serving of pistachios/almonds
Snack (7 hrs between lunch & dinner - - I get nauseated from hunger without a snack) - apple w/almond butter or some cheese
Dinner - Beef, pork, salmon, duck, lamb, chicken or bison + 1-2 veggies with a healthy dose of butter (sweet potato, broccoli, carrots, green beans, squash, salad, etc.)

Don't consume much alcohol, maybe 1-2 glasses of red wine per week. I'm actually a lot more sensitive to alcohol now than I was pre-primal. And I do drink a lot of water. Oh and calorie-wise, I'm usually around 1700-1900 with 50-60% coming from fat.

[namelesswonder]

Well, if you want to find out what particular food may be an issue, that's when you do an elimination diet. You could try autoimmune paleo to start with, though I think that will be similar to how you eat now, minus nuts and dairy. You could try autoimmune and also stop eating the meats you are supposedly sensitive to. Then go from there. It's up to you to make a plan, really. Nuts and dairy are the first culprits people look towards, as they are a common allergy/sensitivity.

[Zach]

Here's a pretty typical day. I dropped all gluten, processed oils & sugars from my diet. Pretty much just whole foods. I was hoping that the insomnia, general fatigue, headaches and bloating would decrease with primal. The only thing that's gotten better is bloating/gas ... if I accidentally eat some gluten, my body makes sure that I know it ... for about the next 2-4 days!! And that's what the ALCAT is, it's a measure of sensitivities, not allergies. Reactions to gluten are a sensitivity, something like hives from peanuts is an allergy.

Anyway, the menu:

Breakfast - Bacon, Eggs, Latte (whole milk), sometimes 1/2 pc fruit
Lunch - Leftover meat & veggies from dinner, sometimes 1 pc fruit or a measured serving of pistachios/almonds
Snack (7 hrs between lunch & dinner - - I get nauseated from hunger without a snack) - apple w/almond butter or some cheese
Dinner - Beef, pork, salmon, duck, lamb, chicken or bison + 1-2 veggies with a healthy dose of butter (sweet potato, broccoli, carrots, green beans, squash, salad, etc.)

Don't consume much alcohol, maybe 1-2 glasses of red wine per week. I'm actually a lot more sensitive to alcohol now than I was pre-primal. And I do drink a lot of water. Oh and calorie-wise, I'm usually around 1700-1900 with 50-60% coming from fat.

Ok but have you felt this way your whole life or only after you started on certain diets?

[KimInGA]

Ok but have you felt this way your whole life or only after you started on certain diets?

It's been pretty much the same. The bloating/gas got noticeably better with primal, but is still around enough to be annoying about 1/3 of the time. The insomnia got MUCH worse for awhile right after I went primal, but has now subsided to where it's not too much worse than before. And by that I mean, I can follow every rule for good sleep that's out there, but I still rarely get more than 6 hours and almost always wake up already feeling tired and crappy. I was really hoping primal would help these symptoms, because they really detract from my quality of life. It just didn't though.

[KimInGA]

Well, if you want to find out what particular food may be an issue, that's when you do an elimination diet. You could try autoimmune paleo to start with, though I think that will be similar to how you eat now, minus nuts and dairy. You could try autoimmune and also stop eating the meats you are supposedly sensitive to. Then go from there. It's up to you to make a plan, really. Nuts and dairy are the first culprits people look towards, as they are a common allergy/sensitivity.

That's what I was looking to the ALCAT to help me do: make a plan. I wanted to know what to eliminate. Dairy, nuts, nightshades, high-histamine ... the list seems endless!

[Damiana]

You still have a lot of options. It sucks that the test results are so restrictive but at least you are not allergic to entire groups of foods like all tree nuts and most fishes and red meat. As far as protein oprions go, like you said, at least the very popular pork and chicken options are still open.