It all started last October when I attempted my first Whole30. I was unfortunately unsuccessful overall but I did learn some very valuable lessons along the way that led me to check out my gut.

To begin, I have had terrible heartburn since somewhere around Junior year of college. I am like millions of Americans who suffer, but I have also been on heart burn medicine for way over the suggested two week period. Since I am only 26 and the medicine can cause osteoporosis and other deficiencies, I am working on living a heartburn free life! So I started the crazy diet journey and landed with the Whole30. Again, I was unsuccessful in actually eliminating all that the Whole30 requires from your diet. But I learned that being Dairy Free was a really good thing for my stomach and overall heartburn. Once I broke the habits of my new healthy routine and I added dairy back into my diet, I started to feel crummy again.

Enter- the Robinhood Integrative Health and the allergy test. Since I realized my stomach was reacting to dairy in some way, I went ahead and scheduled a food-allergy panel. Boy was I thrilled when I received my results. I was allergic (and at a significant amount) to well over half of the 120-some allergens tested. The most glaring allergens were dairy proteins- well duh, hadn’t I already figured that out- and gluten. I was most surprised by chicken and turkey, which of course I have struggled to eliminate from my diet- that is too strict. But I have been working hard to eliminate all dairy and gluten. We (the doctor and mostly me) hope to add gluten back into my diet once my gut settles and is more thrilled with the food I eat.

So I can now join the millions of food-allergy people out there. I hope my desires to eat more healthy for my body, can lead to some delicious recipe ideas for you and your family!

Happy GF & DF cookin’!