Dietary Restrictions++

[rax]

After some experimentation, I'm 99% sure I have a sensitivity to nightshades and should mostly not be eating them. I'm still working on figuring out if I can have small amounts of them, and whether I have a broad sensitivity or a more narrow one. (Tomatoes and bell peppers are almost definitely no; eggplant and potato are less clear.) For now I'm avoiding all of them, although in another week or two I'm going to add back hot pepper and see if I can still eat spicy things. (God, I hope so.) People have offered their condolences but all I can do is laugh; every time I think about it I am so relieved about two things:

• It wasn't gluten.
• It wasn't soy.

Gluten-free and soy-free vegan are doable, but very very hard. Nightshade-free vegan is just annoying, especially as it's a sensitivity (nasty digestive effects) and not an allergy (anaphylactic shock) and so if I screw up it's not DEATH, just bleaugh. Unfortunately I think I may have crossed that dark threshhold into "Seriously, don't bother trying to bring me to a restaurant." Luckily I don't much care, as I still haven't eaten a meal at a restaurant in town since moving to Bloomington, and mostly because I've enjoyed making my own food. (If, say, Mary's were here, I would have gone a couple of times...)

So, uh, please don't slip tomatoes into my food, and this shouldn't be a problem. :) If I develop something else on top of this, then we could be in danger territory. But for now, hooray! Still tons of things I can eat.

Comments

[q10.livejournal.com]

is there a reason you're not mentioning members of the genus Capsicum besides bell peppers? are hot peppers noticeably better?

but, yeah, at least it's not gluten.

[rax.livejournal.com]

Bell peppers are the ones I know don't work. I haven't experimented with hot peppers yet, I need to clean my system out more first.

[q10.livejournal.com]

also, once you're in the experimental phase, it might be good to keep in mind that tomatillos, groundcherries, and the like are actually classified in a different genus (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physalis) from ordinary tomatoes, in spite of the physical and culinary similarities. if tomatoes are really bad, you presumably want to approach these carefully, but it seemed worth mentioning that they might warrant separate experiments.