Hi guys,

 Yes it's been a while, I know, my bad. Today, as a special treat, I have more of a personal topic for you on nutrition. Yes I know, there are a million conflicting and contradicting articles on nutrition, and there are 3 opinions for each topic. The subject I want to discuss today is clean eating.

"Eating Clean" refers to a diet of all natural, preservative free foods. This diet is supposed to bring optimum health and longevity. Here's where we get personal.

 About a year ago on my wedding day I found myself covered (for the millionth time) in some sort of hive/rash. After 6 ER trips, countless Dr. visits and 2 allergy specialist I had to show for myself a mountain of lotions and prescrition potions and a whole lot of steriods. Yet, on the most important day of a young woman's life I ended up with yet another bout of 'Dermatitis' also known as 'Some sort of skin rash probably caused by an allergy'. That was the day I lost faith in the western medical system and set out to discover the origins of my ailment, so of course I hit google.

My search lead me to the World Health Organizations website, a listing under Milk Allergy. Since there was a time I was considered intolerant I decided this was as good of place as any to start. I cut out ALL dairy (which was incredibly hard, did you know chips have dairy in them?! I didn't). The WHO said to do so for 2 weeks and see if symptoms continued. After two days I woke up to the most awake self I had been... well, ever. It felt like someone had lifted a veil off of me, I knew I had my answer, bye bye cheese hello clear skin!

This worked for about 2 months, I had the best 2 months of my life, no hives, burning or itching to be seen and more energy than I (or my husband) knew what to do with! Then it hit me, my mouth started swelling after eating again. This had happened many times before with no explanation. I assumed it was the dairy but there was none in my food. So I began reading labels, countless labels for everything that passed my lips. It was one day when I hadn't yet eaten I decided I wanted a Pepsi (yes I hear you tsking me.... trainers have pop too, it's a fact of life). After having ONLY a pepsi my face broke out, so again I hit google and discovered some fascinating facts about Phosphate. Goodbye Phosphate! Again I had roughly two months of good skin to show for this also incredibly hard change. (Almost ALL supermarket meat contains Sodium Phosphate as a preservative, so do MANY canned and boxed goods).

So, I had effectively cut Phosphates and Dairy out of my life, and all was well until my back started breaking into rashes after I showered. So I investigated my shampoo, Google you are a good friend to me. I found some VERY fascinating facts about sulpha's (suplates, sulphites). They have been shown to exacerbate allergic reactions... Hmm... Au Revoir Sulpha's.

 Now I felt fantastic, and suddenly I had no allergies. I could cuddle my cats without benedryl, clean the house without a reaction and best of all, I could suddenly be around dogs. I have enjoyed the past 8 or so months relativly hive free, occassionally I test myself with some pizza or a little milk chocolate, and often preservatives sneak their way into my soaps or food and I suffer for it. But now I have a puppy, and a home I can clean myself, I no longer suffer everytime I have a shower, and I don't dread summer knowing that my legs will be revealed by shorts. For the first time in my life, I can live my life! As a bonus being forced on an Eating Clean diet has made me lose 10lbs of stubborn fat, and the energy to become a runner.

 Am I saying you should do this too? No, but I am saying that maybe there's a reason we're the only animals to drink another animals milk. Perhaps mother nature had something in mind when carrots were grown without sulphites... And perhaps, just perhaps, all of the chemicals we pour into our bodies are responsible for the ever rising amount of allergies people have. I could be wrong, but I could be right too. Maybe Tosca Reno* has something there.

 -Michelle

*Tosca Reno is the Author of "The Eat Clean Diet Book"