Allergies
The season is starting again. An article from Tagesschau reminded me of what happened to my hay fever. And, as expected, I don’t recognise my situation in it - except in two words that probably mean something different to the authors than they do to me: “healthy diet”.
But first, as always on this site: no promises of a cure, just personal experience.
Grass pollen is everywhere
From personal experience I know a lot of medication for allergies, specifically hay fever. There were months when I couldn’t leave the house without eye drops, nasal spray and antihistamine pills, and had serious problems indoors too.
Those times came to an abrupt end after I radically changed my diet.
My motivation at the time was: “Want! To try! Metabolic state in which the body burns fat rather than glucose for fuel. Characterised by a measurable level of ketone bodies in the blood. → more!” - so I was only targeting macronutrients: Extremely low One of the three macronutrients — typically sugars, starches, or (indigestible) fibre. → more, high One of the three macronutrients, usable as both fuel and building material. Often distinguished as polyunsaturated, monounsaturated, and saturated fats (fatty acids). → more intake (including Fatty acids with no reactive molecular component — normally solid at room temperature. Typically animal fats. → more). That fairly quickly evolved into an emphasis on the overall nutrient content of my food: I had never eaten a huge amount of ultra-processed things, but since the change in September 2012 that share has gone to essentially zero. Very few carbohydrates and a lot of fat (with very few Fatty acids with multiple double bonds in the molecule — chemically more reactive than saturated fatty acids. Typically (but not exclusively) plant oils. Omega-3 and omega-6 fall into this category. → more) remained ever since.
Could it be something other than the diet? Possibly - though I’m not aware of anything else that changed anywhere near as radically at the same time. But what exactly was it? Chronic inflammation? Gluten or other grain anti-nutrients? Other ingredients I was implicitly avoiding? Fat metabolism?
Honestly: I don’t care. To find out whether it’s (still) X, I’d have to try X again - and the result would either be “no, that wasn’t it” (bad luck) or “yes, X was it” (and then I’d be back suffering from all those unpleasant symptoms). Finding the single cause isn’t worth that price to me.
“Doesn’t that restrict you?” / “Don’t you miss anything?”
I know: there are an enormous number of things out there that taste tempting.
But the mere prospect of that potentially meaning I’d be back suffering from red eyes, blocked nose, a scratchy throat, and generally being strongly affected by pollen makes it easy to stick with my change: what are “a few moments of two-minute taste” against months of being free of hay fever symptoms? My choice is long-term quality of life, not “tasty right now”.
Besides, I really don’t find my diet unenjoyable: Everything is better with butter…
