Well, this post has been more than a month in the making. It is time to share with our readers the big changes we’ve undertaken since our visit in London.

Let’s give some back story: We had known for a while that we wanted to have Dave tested for a gluten (wheat) allergy, or Celiac’s disease, while we were in London. Dave’s dad was diagnosed about five years ago with this condition, and we knew that it’s genetic. We also knew that Dave’s stomach would be generally more unsettled when we ate pasta rather than rice for dinner. So basically, there were some indicators that pointed us in the direction of needing to have him tested.

It was not so easy to be tested in London because we are not UK citizens and thus couldn’t be treated through any of the normal National Healthcare Services clinics. But in our searching on the internet, we found a small, private clinic that would test not only for gluten, but 150 different substances! And it cost only 10 pounds more than JUST the gluten test, so we decided to go for it.

We won’t go into all the details, but basically the results of the food allergy tests were quite disappointing. Dave tested positive for not only the gluten allergy, which we expected, but for a cow’s milk allergy… which we were NOT expecting. That means butter, cheese, ice cream, chocolate… anything with milk, was put off limits. Yikes! He also came up intolerant to all manner of other foods, but as we talked with the lady at the clinic, she agreed with us that some of these “intolerances” were simply because Dave’s system is not working properly. One of the real telling moments was when she asked how many times he’d taken antibiotics in the past three years. Well, since we’d recently been bike touring in Central and South America, and picked up our normal quota of local parasites, we’d both taken quite a few rounds of antibiotics while we were there. So while the clinic recommended no more milk or wheat products, they also recommended we both start a regular dosage of probiotics.

The first of our regimen changes: taking a daily probiotic. When you take an antibiotic, it not only kills off the bad bacteria, but also the good. These capsules contain “friendly” spores… which we badly needed to replenish the flora in our digestive systems.

So here we are, writing this update more than a month after the allergy testing. For the last 5 weeks, Dave has been completely gluten and cow’s milk dairy free! We wanted to share this because it has become such an important and new part of our life. Before, we were super low-maintenance eaters. If someone asked us if we had food preferences, we could confidently say no, we’ll eat almost anything! But no more… now we have to warn people before we come that Dave has some food problems, and not to worry with trying to feed us.

We wanted to share with you some of the changes we’ve made. It’s not just been a change in the actual foods, although that’s been a part of it. It’s really been a change in the way we think. We decided that we don’t want to just cut out the things that Dave is intolerant to… we want to try to eat foods that are altogether better for us, instead of just always opting for the cheapest option. We are focusing on eating more whole foods–things that were designed to be foods, and with less processing and fewer chemicals.

Sure, we always liked eggs… but now we’re eating them more frequently for breakfast! And lots of them. It takes longer in the morning, but we’ve decided that the time investment is worth it.

We’ve also started looking in the more “pricey” sections in the local supermarket for things like this:

What’s nice about these particular food intolerances is that a lot of people have them… so there actually is a special section in a lot of grocery stores for “wheat free, gluten free, dairy free…” etc.

Also, our new approach to eating has helped us add more variety to our diet. We’re trying new things, like sheep’s cheese and goat milk. We’re finding that at least here in Europe, these “specialty” items aren’t that hard to come by. It’s kind of fun expanding our horizons!

Luckily enough, there’s even a picture of the goat! How easy is that? We found we actually quite like goat’s milk, and it’s supposed to be easier for humans to digest anyway.

Altogether, although the food “allergies” was not a great diagnosis, we believe that God is going to use it for our good. We have certainly gotten more serious about taking care of our bodies. And even though this presents some challenges while cycle touring, we believe that we can make it work! Yes, it absolutely IS more expensive… but we have to ask ourselves–do we believe God will provide for us? Yes! Do we think He will do that only if we’re being as cheap as possible? No! So we must trust Him! And ultimately, we believe that the problem isn’t the foods, but Dave’s digestive system. It needs to be restored to better health so that it can properly process food and his body can absorb the nutrients it needs. So we’re taking steps in that direction, and altogether in the direction of a healthier lifestyle!

While we are trying to make better food choices, we’re slightly entertained by some of the labeling for the “special needs” diets. Since when was “rice” a “tasty alternative to milk chocolate?” Really? I think that might be a stretch.