Who? What? Why?

Hello and welcome to my Restaurant Selections blog!  My name is Sara, and I want to share the plethora of general information about what it's like for me to eat, particularly what it's like to eat out.  I hope you enjoy your time here.

Here is why:

SHORT VERSION:
I'm allergic to soy, tomatoes, tuna, and chocolate.  I was still vegetarian when I first narrowed down that list.  Today I still eat a cornucopia of vegetarian and vegan foods.  I've discovered that with a little footwork, I can still eat out without incident.  People along the way sometimes ask, "What do you eat?" This blog is my answer to that query.

LONG VERSION & BACKGROUND:
I have been through an interesting series of dietary changes throughout my life.  I was blessed to be raised in San Francisco, where my mother was able to access a nationally renowned specialist (in diets? …in allergies?  I'm not actually sure what the specialty was) at UCSF.  Without that access, my mother truly did not know what to feed me or how as I apparently had quite the difficulties with what these days seem like fairly standard allergens.  In the 70's, it seemed like I was allergic to *everything* - but, as I remember it, the list was actually

milk & milk products (apparently we didn't think to say "dairy" at the time)
citrus fruit
chocolate
artificial colors and flavors
preservatives

The UCSF Specialist taught my mother how to put me on a very basic diet whenever I had digestive Issues - but that was when I was so young that I really don't remember any of it.  I now know the basics of the BRAT diet, an excellent reference for when your tummy is out of whack (and you have diarrhea) but you still need to eat.  BRAT stands for Bananas, Rice, Applesauce, and Toast.  I returned to that as an adult when I was having difficulty, and found it very affective.  My point here is that this is not just for kids.  Adults might be more able to handle "adult" food but sometimes a return to simpler fare on the dinner plate is a kind thing to do for oneself.

My mother also learned to introduce new foods to me gently, slowly - and then wait 24 or more hours to observe and note any possible reactions.  Besides the rearranging of my intestines, some foods caused me to break out in eczema rashes.  I remember having a scaly breakout on both hands that often included open wounds (cuts, but not caused by anything having cut me) on my knuckles.  This was neither pretty nor comfortable, and it was terribly embarrassing when other kids saw it.  That part of my body seemed to settle down and stop breaking out in that manner in my early twenties.  Thus, something changed so that I "grew out" of it.

Fast forward to 2007.  I had an emergency appendectomy that year, and was afraid to eat for much of the week that I was in the hospital because, frankly, I'd sensed that problems were caused by something I was eating…but I had no idea what.  It actually took me another couple of months, visits to a dermatologist for the rashes I got (he only wanted to treat the symptoms but not actually seek out the cause), and a few conversations with friends before having a chat with one friend in particular that went something like this.

Me:  I just don't know what is causing my break-outs or the digestive problems I have. 

Them: Really? Have you tried an Elimination Diet?

Me: Yes!  

(An Elimination Diet is when you take one or more items out of your diet for two weeks or more to make sure it isn't in your system.  Then you select ONE of the trial ingredients, and have ONE serving of it (or less is ok too), ONCE - and wait 24 hours to see if you have any reactions.)

Them: You know there are five things on the list to try removing from your diet, right?

At this point a funny thing happened.  The friend and I both said our five things - two of which I wasn't really eating much of anyway… and two of the things on her list were different from two of the things on mine.  Whoa!  I told her I'd begin over again right away.

My original list was

Wheat
Dairy
Eggs
Chocolate
Oranges

(By the way, chocolate is the one allergy that has stuck with me all my life.  It's also my most mild allergy: the *only* thing that happens is an easily managed rash.  Rarely, but every once in a while, that is totally worth it.)

The conversation with my friend inspired me to add soy and corn to the list.  Within the first week, I also discovered that I break out whenever I eat tomatoes.  Goodie.  By the end of the test, I'd discovered that  SOY was the culprit, and suddenly twenty or more years of reactions (that I just never connected before) came to light.  Oh, and tuna.

The best way to conduct an Elimination Diet is to cook all your own foods.  If you need to socialize at a restaurant and you're in the middle of said diet, order a plain salad with no dressing - and eat a little something before you go, then a little something after you leave.  It's not ideal but it works.

Once I discovered that soy is my edible arch nemesis, I went about avoiding it like the plague that it is for me… at home.  After a few tribulations, I learned to be more careful in restaurants by asking if there are any soy ingredients in the dishes I was considering.  Little by little I found ways and means to eat out.  The last thing I learned is the first thing I want to pass on via this blog: I began asking what kind of oil a restaurant cooks with - and used the answers to decide whether or not to eat there.