“The wise man should consider that health is the greatest of human blessings. Let food be your medicine.” – Hippocrates
When I was around 36, I began to have a lot of hormone-related issues, in fact, I skipped my menstrual cycle for 6 months–the doctor thought it might be a false pregnancy. Instead of giving birth after 9 months, I had gained nearly 90 lbs, and suffered from serious edema. My diet was not any different. I was still having an “Italian” moment, eating predominately pastas, salads, and beef, lamb, chicken or fish. Somehow, I had figured out that bread was probably not a good idea for me, so I didn’t eat much bread, but pasta was a popular mainstay. Not only in my diet, but it was being pushed in the health/diet industry at that time. All of the health-gurus seemed to be on a pasta agenda, which only furthered my idea that I was eating healthy. I walked about 4 times a week, yet I continued to blow up like a balloon. It wasn’t just weight gain either; I didn’t have the typical sagging, ripply cellulite fat, but I looked stuffed and puffy. My traditional doctor offered a hard-hit of progesterone, which contributed largely to my weight gain. At that time, I didn’t realize that it is basically a steroid. In addition, I was tired all the time, which didn’t work well since I had 2 children that had very active schedules. I felt like I was slipping down a slippery slope quickly, and I knew something had to be done.
My mother came to visit and she hadn’t seen me in about 7 or 8 months. When she saw how much weight I had gained, how puffy I looked, and got a glimpse of the skin rashes I was dealing with, she insisted that I find a specialist. I found an alternative doctor who was truly genius, and his influence was pivotal in opening my eyes to the things we eat. He began his medical journey as a research psychiatrist, and found himself more interested in body chemistry as related to weight gain and allergy issues, so he went back to medical school and became an allergist. After completing his training, he worked in the field for a brief time, but returned to school to study nutrition and holistic health. It’s no secret that medical school students are not required to take more than one class on nutrition. He shared with me that he felt incompetent as an allergist with little to no “real” knowledge of nutrition and the foods we eat.” So, in short, this physician was extremely well-rounded. He was qualified as an M.D., but also as a nutritionist and holistic doctor.
On my first visit with Dr. Philip Taylor, he sat me down, took out a notepad and literally interviewed me for an hour. He asked me questions about my childhood, what we ate, about my cravings, my marriage (I thought, “How odd…”), my current symptoms, and just about anything you could imagine. After an hour, he put his pen down, looked up at me and said. “You’re a mess, and you also have chronic food allergies.” I remember sitting there thinking, “Who is this guy? I mean he didn’t even examine me.” He then asked me to step into his exam room, where we would begin food allergy testing. He said, “I don’t believe in doing scratch tests for food allergies. Those work wonders if you have environmental allergies, but since food is ingested, I like to inject a little of the food under your skin to see what happens.” Oh great. I heard the word, “Inject,” and knew this was not going to be fun. I’m not a fan of needles. Nearly everything he tested me for I reacted to, and wheat and dairy were the worst. I didn’t just have a skin reaction, my arm blew up and I developed a migraine within about 20 minutes. NOT a good sign.
The entire process took about 3 months, but at the end I was told about all of the things I could no longer eat. In some respects I was relieved, but also a bit pissed off. I felt somewhat cursed. Imagine being an Italian with the food heritage I’ve had, only to find out that 90% of what I ate growing up contributed to my health issues. I couldn’t just go on a diet, avoid them for a season and then go back to eating the same foods. Dr. Taylor opened my eyes to the fact that I needed to accept a permanent lifestyle change or I would continue to have these kinds of issues if I didn’t, and they would only get worse. Change was imminent.
…Yet still…the road has not been easy.
“What is food to one man may be fierce poison to others”
– Lucretius. 95-55 B. C.
Rethinking Italian 