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This weekend, i was at a wedding and ended up eating a few bites of potatoes au gratin (not sure what kind of cheese it was made with) and a few bites of salad which had a VERY light coating of vinaigrette. Anyway, this is the first time in almost 6 months that i've ever technically "cheated" on the diet. I'm still somewhere between List 1/2 - but haven't added cheese back in yet. Anyway, nothing happened (yay!). BUT, this lead me to think about the diet itself and I have a question...
I know that we are supposed to stay away from alcohol, sugar, yeast, mushrooms (and other fungus producing foods), fruit, and too many carbs because even if we don't have a "reaction" in the short term, too much of these things will cause a cumulative negative effect over time (i.e. will ultimately knock our bodies out of balance). but, what about all the other foods? are we just not supposed to eat them because our bodies might be sensitive to them right now or do other foods on our lists contribute to long-term imbalance?
i'm not asking this because i am planning to rum amok and start diverging from the specified diet (i absolutely won't), but when i didn't react to those things i ate, i couldn't help but wonder why i am restricting myself so harshly if i am not sensitive to some of the foods on the later lists. like for example, i don't like most of the vegetables on list 2, but i do like tomatoes which are on list 3. if i were to eat tomatoes now and not react, is there a big picture reason i should still stay away from them? i will definitely ask matia when we speak next, but that is not for another week or so, so figured i would throw it out there in case any of you can shed some light.
foods
Of course Matia will be able to answer all this right away when you ask her, and there is still so much I have to learn; but if I were to guess, I think tomatoes in particular are highly acidic and although we may not have a direct reaction to them, I'm thinking that with the inflammation in our bodies and the imbalance, acidity is something that would work against the balancing act that is the tough goal Matia is helping us achieve.Matia said something to me about how my diet is 'streamlined' right now, I'm thinking so that my body can focus its energies on rebalancing and helping my immune system. So, that's why so many foods are eliminated except the most gentlest foods that don't have too many factors that would interfere with the healing process.
Food
Yes, what Camille says make perfect sense. I think Matia also says in her dissertation that the diet gives the right environment in the body for the herbs and probiotics to work.
hmmm...
totally interesting. i very rarely think about the acidity/alkaline level of the foods i eat. i always think in terms of sugar, sugar, sugar and not how any other characteristics of the foods we eat can impact our balance. definitely sounds plausible. i will let you know if i hear anything else from her when we speak. no matter how much i try to learn about all this, there are always more questions, so very helpful to hear opinions - especially since it often seems that other people have asked matia the questions i forget/don't have time to ask during my appointments! thanks ladies.