The Plan

Ok, so before we go any further, I have promised and promised to show you The Plan. It's becoming almost like the Epping Rail Link. I bet you don't think I'm ever going to deliver. Well here it is: The Plan.

The point of the diet is to establish which foods you are allergic to or intolerant of. The structure of the diet is this: To detox the body for a period by eating only known hypoallergenic foods, then challenge the body with foods that are known allergens for many people until all major foods have been tested. The detox weeks allow the body to recover from masked food allergies (those which don't usually give immediate reactions, either because they are slow acting, or because they are so frequently eaten). Being free from these ongoing reactions means you become more sensitive to food allergens when they are reintroduced. The challenge can run for as long or as little as you need, but the aim is to test a wide range of probably allergens.

In our case, the detox part of the diet consisted of 1 week of eating only lamb, sweet potato, beans, sprouts, apples, pears, sea salt and maple syrup. Then in the second week we introduced 3 other low allergen foods in succession, every second day - brown rice, avocado, and banana.

Today we start the challenge part of the diet, and we have just semi-finalised our list of challenge foods and the order of introduction. On advice we have left wheat and milk until a way into the diet to allow further detox time from these foods. The timing of introduction has been a little affected by logistics. I am going on a camp in 3 weeks in Northern Victoria for a subject I am tutoring at uni. There will be limited cooking facilities and while everyone else will be catered for, I will have to cook for myself. I therefore wanted to test wheat and yeast beforehand so I can make some bread to take up there with me for easy lunches. So, without further ado, the challenge list is:

1. Eggs

2. garlic

3. soy

4. chicken

5. broccoli

6. oats

7. milk

8. wheat

9. yeast

10. beef

11. mushrooms

12. oranges

13. red wine

14. tomatoes

15. sugar

16. lentils

17. capsicum

18. corn

19. shop-bought bread

20. gluten-free pasta (Ellie), pasta (D)

21. potato

22. licorice (Ellie), chocolate (D)

23. onion

Some questions you're probably wondering about: Where's the white wine? We're gonna cheat a bit and introduce it on an off day - this wednesday at Wednesday Night Dinner. In a small quantity, of course. Why is garlic practically first? Because we love it and it's a great flavouring agent to open up the range of meal scenarios (eg you can start making stocks and soups once you have garlic). Why are eggs actually first? Because we have chickens (and they lay eggs, duh)! Why is onion last? Because I hate it anyway, but I think I should probably test it. Why is gluten free pasta on the list for Ellie? Because I am intolerant to durum wheat, which is used for pasta. I eat gluten free pasta as an alternative, and as I frequently east pasta it is important to know I can still eat it. Ditto for the licorice/chocolate. Will the list change? Yeah, probably things will be shuffled about as we decide we can no longer live without X, but Y is less important.

So, now that you've seen "the plan", I'm gonna go and show "the plan" to someone else...