Intolerant.. need to go the PALEO way

Here's a very good site. Free advice. Real food. No gimmicks, no powders, no pills, etc. www.dietdoctor.com

Good luck.

I am very similar issues to you. This site has vegan paleo recipes that i found useful: http://www.vegiehead.com/vegan-paleo-recipes.html

Hey guys!

So I recently had allergy testing done, and I'm intolerant to pretty much everything. Sugar, Gluten, Dairy and my allergist says its just better to stay away from wheat as well. I'm the kind of person, that if on top of everything I find out one more thing isn't going my way, I shut down. My mind goes blank and I'm so lost I don't know where to pick myself back up from. So this is exactly what I'm going through. I have PCOS and insulin resistance as well. So I'm asking for help. I've been asked to go purely Paleo which is a HARD thing to do coming from a south-asian background but I need the support. If there's anything that you guys have made recipe wise, health choices, food that you've liked, posts on here; I would appreciate a link or something to guide me to it!

Thank you for your support!!

Just curious how an allergist came up with this determination. An allergist tests for allergies which are much different from an intolerance.

Yeah, sucrose intolerance in particular can be a big deal but it's not something an allergy test would pick up on. I'd get a second opinion, if for no other reason, to be sure you haven't been misdiagnosed.

That being said, women with PCOS may respond very well to a paleo diet. This website has some great recipes (though not all are paleo, so you have to check). Everything she makes is to die for! http://blog.stuffimakemyhusband.com/search?q=paleo

do you have an intolerance to these foods or a bona fide food allergy?

they are completely different things and need to be managed differently.

There is a Facebook group called "Paleo/Primal on Facebook" and they swap stories, challenges, and recipes.

You'll feel much better once you get those things out of your body that drag you down. Good wishes!

You might have more luck and less pain if you slowly change over to paleo, not go cold turkey. When I went gluten-free, it was weeks before I stopped feeling faint all the time (gluten-full foods are full of sugars; when your body all of a sudden isn't full of them, it goes into slight shock before it gets used to not being bogged down with all that poison), and then I did the same when I tried to go paleo and then had grape juice at a Passover seder (oh, the shaking from the sugar!). So I first went gluten-free, then dairy-free, then soy protein-free. After awhile, my digestive system had calmed down enough that I can now eat small amounts of dairy (thanks, lactase pills!) and un-processed soy, like edamame. I'll never drink soymilk or eat processed meat substitutes again, though.

Make sure you do a lot of reading first (most basic rule of thumb: if a nutrition or diet book doesn't have a bibliography, don't read it) and learn words for hidden gluten, etc; learn the difference between gluten and wheat (your doctor doesn't know much if s/he said you have to go gluten-free and then said "wheat as well," because gluten is IN wheat - gluten free always means wheat free; wheat free does not always mean gluten free); learn about how different nutrients interact, etc. Also, try not to replace everything in your diet with gluten-free versions. As other commenters mentioned, they are way higher in calories and tend to be even harder to find whole-grain, fortified, etc. Save those for treats and instead modify your overall diet to include more eggs and greens as bases for meals (basically nothing can't go in an omelet, fritatta, or salad and be tasty).

And yes, like others have mentioned, make sure you know the difference between an intolerance and an allergy. Allergies are histamine responses to allergens; you might need an epi-pen, and you need to avoid even trace amounts to avoid dangerous reactions that could be life-threatening. Gluten problems are NOT allergies (but you have to say so at restaurants, because people think "gluten intolerance" is the same as "lactose intolerance") but auto-immune issues and don't cause immediate, life-threatening reactions. Instead, eating gluten when you can't process it contributes to the slow poisoning of your body and, after digestion starts, will give you gas, stomach aches, diarrhea, etc. Lactose intolerance is not life-threatening and doesn't mean you are required to avoid all dairy (though, since dairy is NOT an essential nutrient, you can if you want to). It means you can only digest certain amounts of lactose because your body doesn't produce sufficient amounts of the lactase enzyme. To deal with that, you can a) avoid all dairy, b) only eat dairy with low or no lactose, c) try dairy that contains lots of probiotics, so it's kind of pre-digested for you, or d) take a lactase pill with your dairy. Very different things, allergies, gluten intolerance, and lactose intolerance. There's not really such a thing as "sugar intolerance," but if you just react strongly to sugars, you might want to look into the FODMAP diet. Following those guidelines helps IBS often.