Language: Allergies as Self-Abuse (WAS: Grains and arthritis ... why Pritikin failed)

[Guest guest]

Hi Caron,

 

I suggest dropping the word " allergy " (and all its forms) from your

vocabulary. Use of this term reflects medical-model thinking at its

almost-worst. Your body is responding with all the energy and other

resources at its disposal, trying to clean house. If you keep putting in the

same foreign matter, your body merely keeps repeating its attempts to wall

off and remove the stuff. That is not an allergy, it is chronic self-abuse.

 

Sorry to put it so strongly, but that's how it appears to me ... living in a

new set of paradigms about health, Nature, etc.

 

Best,

Elchanan

_____

 

rawfood [rawfood ] On Behalf Of

Caron

Friday, June 08, 2007 4:07 PM

rawfood

Re: [Raw Food] Re: Grains and arthritis ... why Pritikin failed

(WAS: How long could you live on ...? (WAS: Deodorant)

 

 

I know at least 3 people allergic to rice ;o) My brother, a friend of mine,

and her baby girl. People are allergic to anything and everything these

days, even fruit. (I suspect a lot of it is to do with other foods they eat,

and/or chemicals in their environment, which tax their system and cause it

to take it out on the good stuff)

 

I stopped eating rice a while back when I had a tummy bug, and haven't

really missed it. Just trying to wean my boy off it too - he gets

constipated on white rice, and goes about with a basketball belly for a few

days afterwards.

 

Caron

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

-

Elchanan

>I suggest dropping the word " allergy " (and all its forms) from your

vocabulary. Use of this term reflects medical-model thinking at its

almost-worst. Your body is responding with all the energy and other

resources at its disposal, trying to clean house. If you keep putting in the

same foreign matter, your body merely keeps repeating its attempts to wall

off and remove the stuff. That is not an allergy, it is chronic self-abuse.

 

Hi Elchanan,

That's a fair enough point, and I agree with you to an extent. The type of

allergies I'm talking about though (my brother with rice and bananas, my boy

with wheat, etc) are violent reactions to individual exposures to things

that aren't usually in their diet. For example, if my brother eats something

with rice in it, he gets sick; if I eat something with wheat in it, my

breastfed baby gets sick (if he eats it straight, he vomits instantly). It's

true that my brother has other things in his diet that are making him sick

(not that he sees it, but I'll tackle my own health before pointing

fingers!), but these violent reactions come after he eats or is exposed to

things he's tested allergic to.

 

There is something I've noticed about my son though, that I've been asking

doctors about since he was very young, with no satisfactory answer, that

you've explained to me - why he has or had mucousy poops at times. It tends

to happen after I eat something (no clue exactly what, or it could just be

my whole intake in general, healthy though I thought it was) that he reacts

to. A few things are starting to make a whole lot of sense.

 

Caron

[Guest guest]

Hi Caron,

 

All humans respond adversely to rice and to wheat ... it's only a matter of

degree. The only true banana " allergy " of which I am aware occurs when a

parent tries to introduce solid foods ... in this case, bananas ... way too

early. This means before the child's body is ready to process them. We wean

way to early in our society, a cause of many sensitivities and " allergies " .

Still, I'm willing to bet, albeit from a distance, there is more going on

than you are seeing. But email is a rather crippled resource for

communicating about such things.

 

E

 

 

_____

 

rawfood [rawfood ] On Behalf Of

Caron

Monday, June 11, 2007 1:22 AM

rawfood

Re: [Raw Food] Language: " Allergies " as Self-Abuse (WAS: Grains and

arthritis ... why Pritikin failed)

 

 

Elchanan

>I suggest dropping the word " allergy " (and all its forms) from your

vocabulary. Use of this term reflects medical-model thinking at its

almost-worst. Your body is responding with all the energy and other

resources at its disposal, trying to clean house. If you keep putting in the

same foreign matter, your body merely keeps repeating its attempts to wall

off and remove the stuff. That is not an allergy, it is chronic self-abuse.

 

Hi Elchanan,

That's a fair enough point, and I agree with you to an extent. The type of

allergies I'm talking about though (my brother with rice and bananas, my boy

 

with wheat, etc) are violent reactions to individual exposures to things

that aren't usually in their diet. For example, if my brother eats something

 

with rice in it, he gets sick; if I eat something with wheat in it, my

breastfed baby gets sick (if he eats it straight, he vomits instantly). It's

 

true that my brother has other things in his diet that are making him sick

(not that he sees it, but I'll tackle my own health before pointing

fingers!), but these violent reactions come after he eats or is exposed to

things he's tested allergic to.

 

There is something I've noticed about my son though, that I've been asking

doctors about since he was very young, with no satisfactory answer, that

you've explained to me - why he has or had mucousy poops at times. It tends

to happen after I eat something (no clue exactly what, or it could just be

my whole intake in general, healthy though I thought it was) that he reacts

to. A few things are starting to make a whole lot of sense.

 

Caron

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

-

Elchanan

>All humans respond adversely to rice and to wheat ... it's only a matter of

degree. The only true banana " allergy " of which I am aware occurs when a

parent tries to introduce solid foods ... in this case, bananas ... way too

early. This means before the child's body is ready to process them. We wean

way to early in our society, a cause of many sensitivities and " allergies " .

Still, I'm willing to bet, albeit from a distance, there is more going on

than you are seeing. But email is a rather crippled resource for

communicating about such things.

 

Not sure when my brother was started on solids, I'm guessing around 6

months - most people assume that's essential, even though the WHO's

recommendation is " AT LEAST 6 months of age " , not " BY 6 months of age " for

starting on solids. The information pamphlets we're given at the hospital in

antenatal and paediatric appointments are sponsored or published by baby

food companies, and all recommend 4-6 months of age for starting solids,

citing texture issues, and rejection of solids as reasons for starting at

that age. The " gag " reflex is something to be trained out of an infant,

rather than taken as a sign that solids are being started too early.

 

Mum said she couldn't eat bananas when she was pregnant with him, same with

peanut butter, which he's also allergic to (using the 'mainstream'

definition of allergy). I couldn't stand the smell of bananas when I was

pregnant, but they're my boy's favourite food, so that has me confused

again. I have a feeling the aversion to bananas, and my brother's allergy,

could have something to do with the poisons used on the plants, rather than

the bananas themselves. Also the fact that a lot of bananas here are

artificially " ripened " , where the skin is yellow, but the flesh is pale,

almost white, and very firm. They smell very sharp when they're like that,

and I have a very strong aversion to it.

 

Caron