There’s a reason for this I swear…

My boyfriend’s roommate  opened the oven and immediately the smell made my nose quiver with desire.  The twelve chocolate chip cookies were warm, soft and each almost the size of my hand—the best size.  “Do you want one?” she asked me holding the plate temptingly close to my mouth.

“No,” I forced out, stopping myself before I started fantasizing about how delicious the chocolate chunks would taste as they melted on my tongue.

It was a word that I’ve said way too many times recently.  “No.”  And not an inconsequential, flippant, nonchalant “no.”   Over the past few weeks I’ve had to say the hardest kind of “no,” no to food.  “No” to delicious homemade tabouli, birthday cake and honey-sweetened freshly brewed tea.  Trust me, this hasn’t been fun.

The story behind my temporary food-related deprivation is this:

I happen to have the one of the world’s worst digestive systems. After having childhood allergies to wheat and dairy, acupuncture finally cured me, or so I thought.  By middle school I had finally reached the point where I could eat like everyone else. Bread and cheese were no longer foreign no-nos to me, but the representation of a new world of cuisine that I could finally eat.

Unfortunately, this honeymoon period didn’t last long.  After a eight week-long high school trip to Paraguay filled with pasta, chipa (paraguayan corn rolls filled with cheese), and mate con leche, I found that my face had gotten a bit, well puffier.   I also began to get pretty annoying acne on my face and so, after some discussion with nutritionists, wholistic doctors and my mother, we figured my wheat and dairy allergy was reincarnating itself as a skin problem.  Since then, life has been a bit of a balancing act having to pick and choose whether that brownie or the late night slice of pizza would really be worth it.   I could eat a bite here and there, but I was always felt like I was doing some sort of dealing a blow to my body by saying yes to piece of bread pudding.

I’ve gotten pretty used to eating from the gluten-free section at Whole Foods and bringing my own pasta to spaghettin night, but ow, after a summer of weekend frisbee tournaments and a diet of power bars and peanut m&m’s my stomach has thrown me yet another curve ball.  After one particularly sugar-laden tournament in August, I came home to a weird rash on my inner thighs.  I saw a doctor who diagnosed it as a yeast infection, easily treated with some sort of anti-fungal cream.  I went home relieved that the problem seemed like an easy fix.  Two weeks later, the rash hadn’t improved so I went to the doctor again.  She said I must just need a second round of anti-fungal and sent me home.

When the cream still didn’t seem to be working (and because, yes, I am very much a Boulderite) I tried going the holistic manner.  In the holistic world of health, yeast infections are a sign of Candidiasis, which is  a “an overgrowth in the gastrointestinal tract of the usually benign yeast (or fungus) Candida albicans.  When an immune response is weakened by stress, diet, lack of sleep etc., candida will grow unhindered and attempt to colonize all bodily tissues.  An overgrowth in the yeast can cause a wide range of problems including rashes, digestive problems and liver and kidney problems.   The candida thrives on sugars (even from fruit), carbohydrates, yeast, preserved, processed and refined foods, molds and fermented foods.

Because Western medicine had officially failed, I decided that following a holistic treatment regimen was my next best option.  And so, for at least a month, maybe longer I am destined to a diet made up of what seems like only a handful of ingredients — vegetables, gluten-free whole grains, fish, poultry and soy.

No sugars, wheat, dairy, fruit, peanuts, mushrooms, red meat, pork, processed foods and not even alcohol to drown away my sorrows.

Its a diet that would make most people cringe. But instead of wallowing in the misery of what I can’t eat I’ve decided to take the diet restrictions and get creative with what foods I can eat. With the help of my boyfriend, Campbell, amateur chef and culinary blogger,  we have decided to make what could be a month of boring salads into an opportunity. Over the next month (and hopefully not longer…) we will share the highs and lows of cooking with such a limited larder.   Best case scenario we will come out of this experience with a whole new stash of delicious, creative, veggie-filled meals that we will actually want to cook again sometime.

Note:  Now, four months after my rash has started, I’ve become a lot more informed about my allergies and realized that what may have started out as Candida is actually just my body’s reaction to an allergy to corn wheat and dairy.  Check out this post to find out the whole story…