Is It Possible To Get Over A Food Allergy?

If you asked me that question 10 years ago, or even 3 months ago, I would have said, "No." Emphatically.

I was diagnosed with an egg allergy nearly 20 years ago. Back then the antibody levels in my blood for both egg whites and yolks were off the charts. When I stopped eating eggs, the symptoms - buzzing in my head, difficulty swallowing, bloating, cramps, diarrhea, etc. - went away. Because the severity of the allergy developed gradually, I didn't realize how rotten I felt all the time. Until I didn't anymore. Sweet relief!

Since then, I've had to be diligent in order to maintain my health. As anyone with an allergy to common foods like wheat, eggs, dairy and soy can tell you, it is a challenge to avoid these things. There are traces of them in prepared foods everywhere you look. You learn to read labels, ask a lot of questions at restaurants and rely mostly on your own cooking to stay out of harm's way. But as far as I was concerned, that was all a small price to pay for feeling good. I was absolutely fine living my egg-free life.

So it came as a big surprise to me when, about a month ago, I started craving scrambled eggs! That's just crazy, I thought. That's self-destructive! I can't eat eggs - I haven't even wanted to eat an egg in years. But the craving wouldn't go away. So one day while I was shopping, I decided to buy a half dozen eggs. I figured I'd listen to my body and give them a try.

I knew that after two or three bites of scrambled egg, I would know where things stood. There have been enough slip-ups over the years that I am very familiar with how I react when I'm exposed to eggs. I fully expected to feel an electrical sensation in my head and that my throat would start to constrict. When that happened, I was going to stop eating. Simple as that. I'd feel a little sick, but not terribly so if I ate only a couple of bites. And then I would know whether this craving was simply crazy or whether, by some miracle, I can eat eggs now.

I scrambled my egg and started to eat. One bite, two bites - no problem. I kept eating. Still everything was normal. I finished the egg. I felt fine. I waited for a delayed reaction. It never came. In fact, I felt really good. And that egg tasted great! I wanted more, but decided not to push it. I waited a couple of days and had two eggs for breakfast. Again, no problem.

In fact, I've eaten close to two dozen eggs in the past three weeks without any sign of allergy!

I have no idea how this could have happened. The only thing different in my life lately is that I have been doing T-Tapp exercises for the past three months. It seemed to me to be a stretch to think there could be any correlation, until I read this post on the Chicago Eats Allergy-Free site. All I can say is that I am grateful for whatever it is that has healed my immune system.

Related Posts:

How Celebrating Valentine's Day Can Lead to a Shingles Attack

Take the Quiz and Get the Skinny on Cholesterol

The Pleasures of the Low Tide Days at Alki

For me, the low tide days of late spring and early summer are the most special days of the season. I avoid setting appointments or making commitments for the time when the tide is way, way out so I can walk the beach. After all, there are only a few days a year when this opportunity presents itself. It is as if a curtain is pulled back from the shore and we can wade out into sun-warmed tide pools to explore a world that is usually invisible.

Exploring tide pools during a -4 foot low tide at Alki Beach in June 2009.

These extra low tides coincide with the days around new and full moons. Last Saturday, for example, there was a full moon, so big and bright it was called a Super Moon. That morning in Seattle, we had a -2.1 low tide at around 11 a.m. The lowest low for this full moon phase was on Tuesday, a -3.4 tide at 12:20 p.m. Now that the moon is waning, the tides are not so low - today it was only -1.8.

There's an incredible array of marine life on display during these very low tides. Jellyfish, barnacles, sea stars and this "sun" star, above, are just a few of them. A recent post on the West Seattle Blog has images of a frosted nudibranch and a type of anemone, which you can view here.

The first time I saw a piece of a moon snail's egg casing, like this one above, I thought it was an old gasket someone had thrown into the Sound. The smooth, dense material looks like it was manufactured somewhere. Which in fact it was, right there, by the mother snail. If I am understanding the explanation furnished on Buzz's Marine Life of Puget Sound blog, which you can read here, the snail combines eggs and sand with some sort of glue and extrudes this collar. A sand collar can contain over 300,000 eggs.

If you want to enjoy the low tide experience, the next series of super low tides will coincide with the full moon on June 4. The lowest low in Seattle, a -3.8, will be on Tuesday around noon. To view the tide tables for Seattle, click here. Beach naturalists from the Seattle Aquarium are on hand at local beaches during low tides to answer questions and teach visitors about the marine life visible during these times. Check the Aquarium website for dates, times and more information.