My Story

     My name is Sage. I'm not sure where to start, so I will start with my story! During my 8th grade year, I was put on antibiotics for acne. I know, every teenager's dream. ;) My 9th grade year, I started taking medication for acid reflux and iron supplements for anemia. The summer before my sophomore year of high school, I started having a lot of stomach pain. I had an endoscopy and we found that I had a stomach full of ulcers and scar tissue. Luckily, the medication I was taking for acid reflux was helping to heal my ulcers. Yes!
     I was feeling stomach pain constantly again though and was always sick. I always had stomach pain. It was a constant in my life. My Mom had a prompting that I was allergic to cow milk in the middle of my Junior year of high school. Random. I was the kind of person that never got sick. I had a incredible immune system. That winter, I had bronchitis, flu, stomach flu and many other problems all within a couple of months. I eliminated cow milk from my diet. I started feeling a lot better, but within half a year or so, I started feeling sick again. After passing out in class again in the middle of my Senior year of high school, I went to the doctor and he ran a blood test. I found out I was allergic to not only milk, but also wheat, eggs, peanuts and a whole bunch of plants and grasses. I proceeded to eliminate those from my diet and started to feel better. I also received an inhaler for asthma.
     Toward the end of the summer before starting my Freshman year of college, I started feeling tired all of the time. I didn't think much of it. A month or so into my school year, I started noticing a drastic change in my ability to function. Between October and December, I had a serious decline in my ability to function. I was sleeping about 15 hours a day and was constantly fatigued regardless of how much sleep I got. My grades began to slip and I noticed my mental clarity beginning to deteriorate. I couldn't think clearly. Nothing was making sense anymore. I started getting random fevers and nausea. I went in to the doctor and he found nothing wrong. He thought it was depression. I knew it wasn't, but what was it? He told me to come in again in a few months if my symptoms kept persisting, but what about right now? I didn't know what was wrong. My health was getting worse quickly. I didn't want to wait a few months. I thought I was dying. I couldn't function anymore and I didn't know why.
     One day, my boyfriend spent hours online looking for something, anything. We were both worried. After spending hours and a couple of days, he had a prompting to click on a simple link that led him to "Leaky Gut Syndrome." I thought it was a really weird name when he told me, but after he explained it, it all fit together. I soon learned that antibiotics (and various other things) can cause your intestinal wall to become permeable and allows big chunks of food to escape into your blood stream. Your body then creates antibodies against the foods that you eat and treats the foods as toxins when you eat them. This causes food allergies. It wears down on your immune system, and since your body is so concentrated on ridding your body of the foods, it concentrates less on getting rid of other problems with your body. This explained all of the other problems I was having. I also learned that your body will keep becoming allergic to the foods that you eat unless you do something to heal your intestinal tract, but there was no known cure for Leaky Gut. What was I to do? My doctor said that the only way to hopefully stop it would be through eating and supplements. I needed to restore everything I had lost and heal my intestinal wall.
     I have started taking supplements and have gone on an even stricter diet. Currently, I eat nuts (except peanuts), meats (except pork), fruits (except bananas), vegetables (except corn and potatoes that aren't sweet potatoes), honey, olive/coconut oil and seasonings. I have eliminated all grains (gluten included), sugars, processed foods, etc. from my diet. I drink almond or coconut milk and occasionally goat milk and goat cheese. I generally eat organic foods even though they are slightly pricier. I am creating a blog to help people with food problems. I want to help people not feel hopeless like I did. I have over three years of experience with different diets and many great resources. My Grandma and Mom are both amazing cooks and I have received a lot of help from them. I cook all of my own food and hope to help you too! I will do my best to put my food ideas on here but please contact me if you'd like more ideas. I'm happy to help! As I said, I have a lot of experience with different diets although I am not sure how long it will take me before I will be able to put everything on here; but, I am willing to do what I can so you can also have a good experience. :)