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by Golda Poretsky, H.H.C.
www.bodylovewellness.com

I’ve been avoiding this topic for a while now, just because it’s complicated.  In fact, it’s way more complicated than Meryl Streep’s situation in the movie It’s Complicated, and probably more complicated than the television show called Denise Richards: It’s Complicated, though I haven’t seen the latter, so I can’t be sure.

The topic is: how do you handle food allergies when you’re trying to eat intuitively?

A number of you have asked me, and I’m going to try to answer it here.  Though, I must add the disclaimer that what I’m about to say may not be appropriate or right for everyone, and if you’re really struggling with this, I would recommend having a few sessions with me to try to work through it.

I also need to add the disclaimer that intuitive eating is approached with a system of guidelines that can seem deceptively simple, but it can take a while (i.e., weeks, months, or years) to really feel like you’re doing it somewhat correctly.

When you have food allergies and you’re learning to eat intuitively, your food allergy concerns often come into conflict most with the intuitive eating principle of “eat what your body wants.”   The process of getting in touch with your body’s desires in terms of food can be a tricky one, especially if you’re accustomed to being on a diet and making choices based upon your diet’s rules.  Add to that a list of food rules due to allergies, and the whole thing can seem impossible.

So let’s talk first about allergies.  With food allergies, we’re really talking about a range of symptoms — from mild discomfort to possible death.  Since this range is so broad, let’s consider some categories:

• Severe Category — Severe food allergy that can lead to anaphylactic shock or other severe symptoms or exacerbate conditions such as celiac disease.
• Moderate Category — Food allergy that leads to symptoms that can last over a period of days, such as skin rashes or digestive issues.
• Mild Category  — Food allergy that causes temporary discomfort.

Let’s first talk about severe allergies.  If you have severe, life-threatening allergies, then, much like a dieter, you’re going to have to contend with a food or foods that you must avoid no matter what.  And for those of you with these kind of allergies, it may sometimes feel like punishment, even though you know that avoiding those foods isn’t punishment but a necessary component of your good health.  So my main recommendation for these type of allergies is to keep reminding yourself that by avoiding these foods, you’re treating yourself well.  You’re taking care of yourself by not eating peanuts or dairy or whatever foods are most troubling for you.  So if you have a severe gluten allergy but a major part of you is saying, “we want a bagel from the bagel store!” you will have to keep reminding yourself of how much you love to take care of yourself and how avoiding those foods is taking care of yourself.  Also, as much as possible, shift your internal focus toward foods that are non-allergenic for you, and use intuitive eating strategies where you focus on all of the things that you can eat without any issue.  Also, make sure to keep food available for yourself that is appropriate for you.

I say all this, but from my experience, people with severe allergies often are better at avoiding foods that they’re allergic to, mainly because the negative health effects are so  black and white.  When your choices are: don’t eat this and feel okay or eat this and go to the hospital, the choice is often so ingrained that the person barely takes time to think about it.

That being said, the food allergies that I and most of my clients struggle with are generally in the moderate to mild category.  Using myself as an example, I have a mild allergy to a number of fruits, including pineapple, strawberries and cantaloupe.  If I eat these foods, I usually get a sore throat for a few hours and then it just goes away.  In terms of more moderate allergies, I have a sensitivity to wheat, which sometimes seems to not bother me at all and sometimes causes bloating and itchy skin that may stick around for days.  (Charming, right?)  Anyway, those of you with these kind of allergies can relate to the calculus that sometimes goes through my head; i.e., well, if I just have half a bagel and then I don’t eat any more wheat for a few days it’ll probably be okay and maybe one taste of pineapple won’t hurt…  You know, you kind of make deals with yourself about your food allergies.

Last week, I had a really terrible cold.  I kept getting hungry, and I would check in with myself about what I wanted to eat, and every time, the only thing that appealed to me was a bagel with cream cheese and a soymilk smoothie with blueberries and raspberries.  I would check in with myself again and again, knowing full well that I was: (a) allergic to wheat, thus making bagels a problem, (b) probably overdoing it, for me, on processed grains, (c) not too keen on eating cream cheese when I had sinus congestion and (d) thinking that a cold drink like a smoothie probably wasn’t the best thing for me either, even if blueberries and raspberries couldn’t hurt.  But, I acquiesced, eating smoothies and bagels for pretty much every meal for about 2 and half days.  Amazingly, however, I didn’t have my usual wheat related symptoms, and I got over the cold way more quickly than normal.*

*Results not typical. (To borrow from every diet testimonial ever.)  I don’t use this example to say that you should always let your intuitive sense override knowledge of your food allergies.  What I am saying is that it can be a messy, mixed up process, and that our bodies are complicated and sometimes mysterious.

Perhaps some of you with food allergies that are mild or moderate are much stronger than I am on this topic, and are able to completely avoid those foods.  And if you can, kudos to you.  But if you’re like me (and many of my clients), food allergies, especially to highly popular and/or highly delicious foods, can be a struggle.

So to show some method to my madness, here’s my 4 part plan for working with intuitive eating when you have mild or moderate (i.e., not life threatening) food allergies.

1) When you’re hungry, take a deep breath and check in with your belly.  Ask your belly what it wants.  I find that, very often, even if my mouth is saying “bagels!” my stomach is saying, “Dude, bagels mess us up.  Can we at least compromise and have some brown rice bread?”

2) If you’re not getting a clear response from your stomach, give it some non-allergenic options.  Let your stomach mull it over and digest your options.  Try to pick food from a number of different categories (like different greens, different proteins, etc.) until you hit on ones that feel right.

3) Feed yourself what your body is telling you.  Now here’s the tricky part.  I truly believe that the vast majority of the time, if you’re checking in with your stomach, it’s going to lead you toward non-allergenic foods.  If you find that this isn’t the case for you, again, this is something that I would recommend chatting about with me, so that we can come up with what would work best for you.

4) Focus on feeling good, not being perfect.  Eating well is not about eating perfectly.  Eating well is not about eating 100% organic or completely avoiding sugar or any other rule that you’ve told yourself is required of you.  Eating well is about listening to your body and nourishing your body.

Again, if you’re struggling with food allergies and intuitive eating, I recommend working with me or someone like me to get some individual assistance.  If you’d like to discuss it more here, feel free to comment below.

Golda is a certified holistic health counselor and founder of Body Love Wellness, a program designed for plus-sized women who are fed up with dieting and want support to stop obsessing about food and weight. To learn more about Golda and her work, click here.