I wanted to add something to this conversation about chocolate.
Here’s some back story first in case this can help someone - I got some extensive blood work done this year to identify which foods I’m reacting to (not that IgG testing, some patented testing that does a whole blood immunological reaction observations, not isolated to just white blood reactions – sorry, that’s the best I can explain it, and their website is weak on description, “isolating immune intolerant reactions in vitro” www(.)nowleap.com ).
I heard about this testing in the book Achieving Victory Over A Toxic World by Mark Schauss – who, through this blood work, was able to identify that seemingly innocuous foods such as green beans were causing major seizures in their daughter. So I tried it to help me with my head & gut issues and it’s been a godsend.
With the risk of sounding like a commercial, I do want to talk about the test a little bit. Outside of foods & spices (see the attachment) it tests for 29 chemicals from potassium nitrate to Ibuprophen and FD&C# artificial colors. I think it’s interesting that there is a genetic component to these food reactions (my son has inherited my food intolerances – and I’m suspicious that my mom has similar complications). Half the foods are on my favorites list (makes sense from the perspective of not varying my diet, I’m a creature of habit – or comfort foods I consumed while on antibiotics). Others I’ve simply hated since the day I was born and never eat them anyway. And some I can see being directly related to my mother’s traditional diet (Eastern European, Polish).
It’s still a maze to navigate because one’s reaction is relative to the dose and combination, so some items in the “non-reactive” level I DO react to. Or, for example, if I have a large serving of potatoes, the next day I have that emotional apathy and overwhelm reaction all morning. And even if I have a few bites and no emotional reaction, I get something akin to “restless leg syndrome” – it keeps me up at night, even if my mind is sleeping, my body is tossing & turning and waking me up. I always just thought I was a “bad sleeper” – I’m really proud that I made this connection (it’s taken me yearssss to isolate this reaction), I just pieced this together this week and am just over the moon about it!
I know that much of these reactions can be figured out with an elimination diet. I’ve attempted to do it to no avail (as in willpower, lifestyle complications and cooking for the family issues intertwined in a way that I was never able to follow through all the way), that’s why I turned to this blood work.
Relevant to the coffee vs. caffeine discussion above, they do test for separately for them, but my suspicion is that there could be a third issue/chemical, tannic acid, which also found in black teas (it’s the dark coloring). I haven’t been able to isolate it yet (I have ovarian/estrogen reactions to coffee that have brought me to that topic).
Anyway enough preamble, on to CHOCOLATE!
What I’ve found out for me and my son is that we get an immediate reaction specifically to the lecithin ingredient (commonly soy lecithin) – it’s not “chocolate/coco” in and of itself. He gets blindly hyper where as I get blindly nasty. By the way, I love the conversation above about how chocolate & coffee are indeed a bean, and the whole lectins and phytic acid issue is there too! I’m not trying to counter that, just add to it with my personal experience.
Through MGS discussion boards I found out that there is one chocolate bar that does not have lecithin – for what it’s worth, it’s in the English/Import (not American) version of Cadbury Dairy Milk Chocolate Bars. I’m not bringing that up to encourage people to eat it, I know that’s inappropriate.
I’m bringing it up in case people are researching other topics via the search engine and perhaps this can be of some use – I do that all the time myself and you just find such treasures in the off-topic tangential conversations. Also, some people are in transition diets and this could be of use to them – or as in my case, giving my kid an occasional Yes about candy (I talked about this in the Halloween candy thread).
I’m just happy that I’m finally able to get a handle on this detrimental part of my life. We eat Palio at home. My husband needs to be strict about it and works on staying in ketosis, whereas I do not feel that I need to be in ketosis (I’m willing to admit I could be wrong, but one step at a time right now).
For my husband, he now has no asthma, arthritis, back/neck/leg pain, and no depression, anxiety, and anger issues either now. It’s truly been a miracle in our lives! I have never had those problems with my body, and had already gotten a good handle on my migraines & gut problems (by avoiding processed foods/colors/additives and quitting vegetarianism). But I still obviously need to heal my leaky gut issues and resent any interference in my generally upbeat productive mood (I also used to struggle with depression, anxiety and exaggerated anger).
Take care.
