I’ve recently been feeling achy and lethargic like when I had mono as a teen. And then a handful of days ago I broke out all over my face. I haven’t had any breakouts since going vegan except for hormonal reasons. And even then, they breakouts have been very mild. I’ve also been coughing quite a bit and my asthma has been acting up. This leads me to believe that some dairy has made it’s way into my diet somehow. But while I’m fairly certain that dairy is the culprit behind the resurgence in my asthma, I think something more sinister is responsible for the lethargy, aches, itching, etc.

My brother recently learned that he has a dairy and wheat intolerance. He probably has the same sugar problem that my mother (and probably I) have. But none of this will change what he eats. My brother is the type of person who refuses to be bullied by his body. He’ll eat what he wants and show his body who is boss. But this got me wondering if maybe I have a wheat/gluten intolerance. Many food allergies go relatively unnoticed, only surfacing when we get too much of the foods our bodies can’t tolerate. And in eliminating dairy and meat from my diet I have been substituting a lot with soy and wheat products. So if I have a latent allergy, now would be the time for it to surface.

For those of us without health insurance, finding out what your food allergies might be is difficult. But if you have inexplicable migraines, lethargy, aches and pains and are lucky enough to have health insurance you should ask your doctor to do a blood test for allergens. The scratch test they do it good for severe allergies, but probably won’t catch mild allergies that still cause you distress. If your Insurance provider will cover it, I recommend it.

If you don’t have health insurance then the most common way to prove a food allergy is through an elimination diet. But I’m far too lazy for that. So I guess at this point I am just gonna hope and what passes for “pray” that I’m not allergic to wheat. I can handle a soy allergy. It would be a bitch since so many things contain soy, but I can find new beverage and “cheese” alternatives that aren’t soy based. But I’m going to have a hard to finding un-meats that are gluten free. And there is the bread and pasta problem. Wheat is in everything. It’s actually a wonder that more people aren’t gluten-intolerant, considering how much is in out regular diets. Although maybe more people are. We have a lot of unexplained symptoms and poor health in our society which I am am pretty certain can be traced back to what we ingest.

Hopefully when I get back home from housesitting and have more control over my diet I’ll be able to sort this out. Because I was just starting to get the hang of this Vegan thing. I don’t need a food allergy to make life difficult.