HINTS AND TIPS

HINTS & TIPS
Its virtually impossible to devise a recipe book to suit all allergy sufferers. We are all individuals and so our needs will vary from person to person. I've tried to include as many foods as possible in this four day rotation diet to allow for peoples likes and dislikes, allergies and other practical considerations, such as seasonal availability, expense etc.

There are other things to bear in mind as well. If you already have a history of allergy problems and eat only a limited number of foods, you may find yourself eating the same foods so regularly that you develop even more allergy problems and your diet becomes even more restricted.

This is particularly true if you're a vegetarian, and even more so if you are a vegan. By varying your diet as much as possible, you are obtaining a wider spectrum of nutrients, boosting your immune system and minimising the risk of developing new allergies. At the same time allowing the body to lose some of its sensitivity to the foods which currently upset you.

Some allergies may never be lost - fixed allergies, (eg nuts,) some people have a few of these and they tend to be the foods which upset you the most severely, and you may have to avoid these completely. Many people have a serious problem with wheat and other cereals. If this applies to you, then you may find it best to avoid all the grains in the grass family, ( and possibly raw cane sugar, which is another member,) to allow your immune system to lose some of its sensitivity.

Don't be too disheartened if you feel worse for the first few days of this diet. If you get headache or just general aches and pains and feel out of sorts You are probably hooked on a few foods and suffering withdrawal symptoms and it may be at least a week before you begin to feel the benefits.

All the fruits and vegetables, herbs and spices, for each day are grouped into food families. Buckwheat for instance, belongs to the same food family as rhubarb.
There is now a delicious buckwheat pasta which you may find useful, but check the label to be sure all the ingredients suit you.

Soya beans belong to the legume family, so do peanuts, and if you react to one member of a food family you may possibly get a cross reaction to other members and have to avoid those as well. Don't be afraid to adapt my recipes to suit your own individual needs. Many recipes contain nuts for instance, but for the most part, they are optional extras, and should be left out if you react to them.

If possible only eat each member of a particular food family once every four days. Different members of the same food family, such as apples and pears, should strictly speaking be eaten on the same day. One of the exceptions I have made to this has been the grass family. All the members containing gluten are on day one and the others, millet, maize, rice and wild rice are on day three. This is because otherwise you would be left with a day with no complex carbohydrates to fill you up and give you enough calories for the day.

If you react to foods from a particular family such as potatoes, then you may have to fill up on vegetables from another alternate day. As I said at the beginning of the book, you may find it easier to have a separate cupboard, or shelf, with perhaps colour coded stickers, of staple foods for each day so that it is less confusing. A four tier vegetable rack, also colour coded for each day, will be useful as well. This diet may seem daunting at first, but with a little patience and organisation the results are well worth the effort involved in setting it up.
If you have trouble finding some of the more obscure fruits and vegetables, such as yams, breadfruit, plantains and sweet potatoes, a trip to your nearest innercity market with a large Asian and West Indian population should pay dividends. The stallholders Ive met have been really helpful in offering hint and tips on how to cook unusual foods.

Ive included hens, ducks and quails eggs for added variety, but please make sure that the hens eggs are free range. As I said earlier additives are often included to battery hens diets to improve the colour of the yolk. Some people react to all types of eggs so be very careful.

I recently invested in a juice extractor, which is very useful. Many of the fruits and vegetables of the day, on the rotation diet can be juiced and well diluted with double or more of the amount, of either sparkling mineral water or filtered tap water. The left over pulp can either be used up in soups and stews or puddings and cakes, as the case may be. However, I should point out that juices should be regarded as an occasional treat rather than a regular part of your daily diet. This is because without the fibre (which is left behind in the pulp) the juices are absorbed far too quickly into your blood stream thereby making it more likely that you will become sensitised, whereas the whole fruit releases its sugars much more slowly.

The vitamins and minerals in raw fruits and vegetables are vital to our good health and give a wonderful boost to our immune systems, especially in the winter months. Freshly juiced fruits and vegetables need to be consumed as soon after juicing as possible, as they quickly discolour, due to the enzymes coming into contact with oxygen.

The fruit and vegetable juices that we buy in supermarkets are usually heat treated to preserve them but unfortunately, this has the effect of destroying the enzymes that we need to help our body's metabolism to function properly. Enzymes are protein molecules which are able to cause specific chemical reactions to take place and are manufactured by every living organism for this purpose. Only very small amounts of each enzyme are needed to catalyse chemical reactions in living cells. Some enzymes can cause sugars to turn into fats, proteins etc. Living organisms contain many different kinds of enzymes, each with their own particular function.

Enzymes perform a very important function in the stomach and intestines during digestion, helping digestive juices to break down the food we eat into its most digestible form so we are able to gain the maximum amount of nourishment from it. So in effect, the more raw fruits and vegetables we eat the better. Unfortunately, these enzymes are destroyed in foods that have been irradiated in order to extend their shelf lives.

One of my biggest fears of genetically modified food is that the enzymes may be modified as well in order to extend the shelf life, and that the way we metabolise these hybrids may cause long term health damage, particularly for allergy sufferers who have enough problems already.
Where ever possible, buy organic fruit and vegetables, or if you have a plot of land big enough and the inclination, grow your own.

Some of the vegetables on day 3 of the rotation diet are hard to come by in supermarkets but are quite easy to grow in the average sized suburban garden and will give you several months worth of vegetables for very little outlay and effort.

Orach, (Mountain Spinach), was widely cultivated in this country in Tudor times, until the introduction of true spinach, when its popularity died out. Nevertheless, the young, tender leaves make an excellent addition to salads and the older tougher leaves can be cooked like spinach. There are red, green and white varieties and they are quite ornamental to look at. The plants grow from 3 to 5ft high and seed should be sown out of doors in April. The seeds are quite hard and may need a good soaking if the weather is dry. The plants need good soil in order to thrive and may need thinning out once established to about 1 feet apart. They may need earthing up and staking as they get bigger and the leaves can be pulled off on a cut and come again basis.

Swiss Chard is not generally grown as a commercial crop because it is very bulky and wilts about 24 hours after being pulled. However, it has a very useful place in the allergy sufferers garden, because it is so versatile and convenient, once established. The smallest and most tender leaves can be used in salads, and the large green leaves can be cooked like spinach. They actually taste better and boil down less than spinach does and the thick white stems can be cooked in bundles like asparagus. The plants are biennial and will produce flower stems in the second year and these can be cooked and eaten like sprouting broccoli.

Swiss Chard is harvested by plucking off a few stems from the base of each plant and like Orach, this is done on a cut and come again basis without stripping the
plants completely of their leaves as this would kill them.
This crop is suited to any well drained soil that has been fed with organic manure. Sow from mid- March to the end of April and again in August, in drills 1 inches deep and 18 inches apart thinning out the plants as they become established. Water often during the growing season and feed with liquid organic manure occasionally. The first crop should begin to yield in late summer and continue until late October. The plants are quite hardy and will survive the winter to produce another crop in spring before going to seed in early June. The second sowing (August) should be ready for use during the following May or June.

Good King Henry is a hardy perennial which is very easy to grow. Sow the seeds either in seeds trays in the greenhouse or kitchen windowsill, or out of doors in early spring and thin out to 12 inches apart once the plants are established. In well nourished soil it produces good growth which is usually trouble free. It looks like kale in appearance but it tastes very much like asparagus when cooked and is well worth the effort of growing it.

Salsify is a little like a parsnip in appearance but the flavour is similar to that of oysters and goes well with a creamy sauce.
Sow out of doors in April or early May about 9" apart about an inch below the surface. Alternatively, you can start the seedlings off in a greenhouse, or a propagator on the kitchen windowsill. The gently transplant them when they are about 2" high. The crop should be ready from early October onwards and lifted before the ground gets waterlogged.

Scorzonera. It is very much like a parsnip in flavour but its skin is almost black and the roots tend to be longer and thinner than parsnips. It can be peeled and roasted with meat, steamed or boiled until just tender. It can be grown and harvested in the same way as salsify. Like all vegetables, they taste better from your own garden.

If you don't have a big enough garden, or your a flat-dweller, then obviously this is not a practical prospect. However, there are some things that you can easily grow on a window sill that are both cheap and highly nutritious. Sprouted seeds such as Mung beans, Alfalfa sprouts, sprouted Chick peas, Lentils and Cress are all relatively quick and easy to grow. Many health food shops now stock custom made propagators and a wide range of pulses and seeds to sprout. Some are stacked so that you can grow several varieties at once without taking up too much space on your window ledge. Children are fascinated to see them growing and are often eager to help start them off. If you follow the instructions supplied with your propagator correctly, your first crop should be ready in about five to seven days.
Use them in your choice of the recipes on the Rotation Diet.

With all fruits and vegetables it is obviously important to retain as much nutritional content as possible.

Don't overcook vegetables - steam them when ever possible, or even better eat
them raw. Buy them as fresh as possible and keep the water they were cooked in to use in soups or stews.

Store fruit and vegetables out of direct sunlight, for while this aids ripening of fruits and vegetables it also hastens decay and destroys vitamin C.
Encourage young children to eat as many raw fruits and vegetables as they like. Make crudities with savoury dips such as houmous or guacamole. Many young children shun cooked vegetables but are happy to eat them raw.
,