My last post was about re-introducing foods back into your diet. I want to emphasize in this post the importance of taking it slow when you’re coming off a fasting diet.
Begin only with exotic foods which you don’t normally eat; do not be tempted to grab for that coffee or cake! The last thing you want to happen is to get a reaction when beginning to re-introduce foods – it will mean you cannot carry on adding foods until the symptoms settle down once again.
Instead, for the first few days, you want to build up a minimum range of ‘safe’ foods that you can fall back on. Papaya, rabbit, artichoke and dogfish are the kind of thing to aim for – do the best you can with what is available according to your resources.
The other important point is that you cannot afford the luxury of bringing in one new food a day: you need to go faster than this. When avoided even for as little as two weeks, a cyclical food allergy can die down and you may miss the proof of allergy you are looking for. It is possible to test two or even three foods a day when coming off a fast. Pay particular attention to the pulse rate before and alter each test meal and keep notes. It is important to grasp that some symptom, even if not very striking, usually occurs within the first 60 minutes when coming off a fast. You need to be alert to this, or you will miss items and fail to improve without understanding why.
If the worst happens and you are ill by the end of the day and can’t say why, condemn all that day’s new foods.
The build up of foods is cumulative: that is, you start with Food A. If it is OK then the next meal is Food A + Food B, then A + B + C and so on.
An example table of foods tests might be:
days 1- 4 | no food |
day 5 |
breakfast – poached salmon |
day 6 |
breakfast – baked pheasant, quail or partridge + day 5 |
day 7 |
breakfast -lamb chop (plus any of the above) + days 5,6
lunch – baked potato (do not eat the skin) + days 5,6 dinner – banana + days 5,6 etc… |
Grape not allowed on day 5 if you used a grape-day step-down
All safe foods are kept up after an allergic reaction. Therefore, if Food F causes a reaction, while you are waiting for it to clear up, you can go on eating foods A-E, until symptoms clear.
Within a few days, you should have plenty to eat, albeit monotonous. From then on, you can proceed as for those on elimination diets if you wish.
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