We finally met with the dermatologist this month, who performed skin prick tests on my son to determine whether he has allergies to a number of common allergens. As it turns out, he is allergic to egg whites, dust mites, and peanuts. The good news is that he is not allergic to soy.
It is common for babies to have an allergy to egg whites, and also common for them to grow out of it by the age of two or three. According to the doctor, my son's reaction was mild, and the allergy is probably already diminishing, so we'll avoid egg whites until a skin prick test indicates that it's okay to challenge them again.
During our elimination diet we've eaten eggs regularly, and, looking back over our food diaries, my son's skin worsened most of these times. The presence of eggs in his diet has certainly clouded the results, and emphasizes that we should have done the allergy testing before commencing the diet. My hope is that eliminating eggs from his diet will cause a further improvement in his skin.
I'm annoyed about the dust mite allergy, but not terribly concerned. We will have to be more diligent about cleaning the house, and we are reconsidering replacing the carpet with wood floors rather than new carpeting. Fortunately, we were planning on replacing the carpeting anyway, so it's not a waste of good flooring.
I'm definitely more concerned about the allergy to peanuts. All the information I can find indicates that people rarely grow out of it and that any peanut allergy has the potential to be anaphylactic (translate: life threatening). This means we will never be able to be carefree about eating with our son again. Not only that, but we will probably have to give up eating peanut butter, Reece's peanut butter cups (not widely available in Australia anyway), and Thai food, due to the possibility of exposing him to peanut. I'm very frustrated at the moment, because I was given very little information from the dermatologist and will have to wait two more months before I can get more information from an allergist. A curious silver lining to this is that the incidence of peanut allergy is becoming much more common than even just a few years ago, so increased demand for peanut free food may make it easier to get it.
I thought my son's skin looked pretty good when we visited the dermatologist, but when the dermatologist chastised me for not using the cortisone I realized that the eczema irritation really was pretty extensive. He explained that if there was any irritation then the eczema could flare with no apparent reason and create confusing results during the food challenges, which of course perfectly describes what happened during the food challenges we've already completed. Therefore we are taking a different approach now, using the cortisone to eliminate all signs of the eczema (if it's even possible), use the elimination diet to keep it clear for a few days, then do the challenge.
We also met with the dietitian this week, who tried to decipher our food logs and concluded that my son is probably not sensitive to amines or soy (she had never heard of someone having problems with soy without testing positive to a soy allergy), so we have reintroduced those into our diet. He probably is sensitive to salicylates, and so we will slowly introduce salicylates into his diet after he finishes challenges for glutamate and bread preservative. Now that we know about the egg allergy, I'm tempted to redo the salicylate challenge, but that will depend on whether we can get his skin clear enough to make the signal stand out from the static more clearly than last time.
We've now been on this diet for more than two months and I'm getting tired of it. I thought we would be done with it one day, that we would be free to eat just about anything we wanted, but now I'm realizing that it was probably good practice for what lies ahead with the peanut allergy. Food that may contain peanuts is even more common than food that contains soy. Already I've found three things in our cupboard that may contain traces of peanuts, including the cereal my son has for breakfast every day, and it looks like we will be doing a lot of home cooking in the future.
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I found some more balanced information about peanut allergy (well, technically, my dad found it while I was lamenting about how alarmist all the information I found was). It says that only 1/3 of the children who test positive to peanut allergy with a skin prick test will have any symptoms, and that the vast majority of people who do have symptoms will get hives, experience abdominal pain, or start vomiting. The page states that allergies to peanuts that are severe enough to cause anaphalactic shock are extremely rare. Reading this made me feel much better, and when I consider how often I scraped peanut butter out of the jar with my finger in the first year of my son's life, I now recognize that if my son hasn't had a severe reaction by now, then he's not going to have one.
Saturday, January 13, 2007
Monday, January 1, 2007
Defeated by amines
It's been 62 days since we started our elimination diet to identify the causes of my son's eczema and I'm starting to feel defeated. We've finally completed our amine challenge and now my son's eczema is the worst it's been in nearly two months. During this period we've also faced two birthday parties, a Christmas party, Christmas dinner, and a week away with friends. All of these occasions were poignant reminders of how little "normal" food we can eat.
It took three weeks to complete the amine challenge. First we had to wait for his skin to clear from the previous challenge. Then we delayed the start of the challenge so it would not interfere with his birthday party. Next we had a false start when we found him chowing down on salicylate laden watermelon at a neighbor's Christmas party, and then we had to wait several more days for his skin to clear again before starting the challenge in earnest.
Amines result from the breakdown of proteins, and are found in chocolate, cheeses, old meat, fish, and poultry (including "fresh" meat that has been stored in cryovac packaging, meat that has been frozen for a long time, and ocean fish that is caught a long time before it reaches the market), the skin of poultry (and probably of cows, pigs, and sheep as well, but we don't usually eat these), a number of fruits and vegetables and products derived from them, and most alcohol products. For the challenge, we were required to consume bananas and chocolate in quantity for a week. We were also allowed to eat papaya, tuna, and Colby cheese. My son, who had never tasted chocolate before, was in heaven despite being restricted to very dark chocolate. The first night of the challenge we had tuna carpaccio and banana splits, and the rest of the week we indulged in toasted cheese sandwiches and chocolate chip cookies.
His skin actually looked quite good during the challenge, which was belied only by the curious red circles that appeared in his armpit on the first day. We were optimistic that we would soon be able to permanently reintroduce some foods into our diet, but three days after the end of the challenge we were faced with itchy eczema on his tummy, lower back and bum, his upper chest, the back of his neck, on his thighs, and behind his knees, with no alternative explanation to the recent amines.
The literature explains that there's little point in doing the remaining challenges (MSG/glutamate, Propionates, Sorbates, Benzoates, Antioxidants, Colors, Nitrites, and Sulphites) if you respond to both salicylates and amines because you will probably respond to everything else, which means we are now faced with an indefinite period on the elimination diet.
I now realize that I commenced this project expecting it to end after a month or so. Two months into it we still haven't even finished the first round of challenges (we still need to challenge soy, which would normally be done prior to salicylates and amines) and are likely to have to follow it for many more months before we can enjoy only a few more of the foods we ate before we started the diet without having adverse reactions.
At times like these it's tempting to say, stuff it, it's too hard. The food we eat is quite good, but the constraints of the diet are antisocial. We cannot eat out at all, and I've had to provide virtually all our food when we've gone to parties (except at one birthday party, where the host gets a gold star for making sure there was a meat, a vegetable, and an hors d'oeuvre that we could eat). When trying to plan a recent Christmas dinner with friends it became clear that it was too complicated to ask anyone to cook according to the
constraints of the diet, and it is now obvious that nothing ever satisfies the constraints of the diet just by chance.
So what's keeping me going? Quite simply, it's the prospect of eliminating my son's eczema, reducing the likelihood of him developing asthma and hay fever, and saving him from the fate of his grandfather, whose childhood was shaped by asthma attacks, endless trips to the allergist for injections, and his mother wrapping his cracked hands each night to soothe them.
It took three weeks to complete the amine challenge. First we had to wait for his skin to clear from the previous challenge. Then we delayed the start of the challenge so it would not interfere with his birthday party. Next we had a false start when we found him chowing down on salicylate laden watermelon at a neighbor's Christmas party, and then we had to wait several more days for his skin to clear again before starting the challenge in earnest.
Amines result from the breakdown of proteins, and are found in chocolate, cheeses, old meat, fish, and poultry (including "fresh" meat that has been stored in cryovac packaging, meat that has been frozen for a long time, and ocean fish that is caught a long time before it reaches the market), the skin of poultry (and probably of cows, pigs, and sheep as well, but we don't usually eat these), a number of fruits and vegetables and products derived from them, and most alcohol products. For the challenge, we were required to consume bananas and chocolate in quantity for a week. We were also allowed to eat papaya, tuna, and Colby cheese. My son, who had never tasted chocolate before, was in heaven despite being restricted to very dark chocolate. The first night of the challenge we had tuna carpaccio and banana splits, and the rest of the week we indulged in toasted cheese sandwiches and chocolate chip cookies.
His skin actually looked quite good during the challenge, which was belied only by the curious red circles that appeared in his armpit on the first day. We were optimistic that we would soon be able to permanently reintroduce some foods into our diet, but three days after the end of the challenge we were faced with itchy eczema on his tummy, lower back and bum, his upper chest, the back of his neck, on his thighs, and behind his knees, with no alternative explanation to the recent amines.
The literature explains that there's little point in doing the remaining challenges (MSG/glutamate, Propionates, Sorbates, Benzoates, Antioxidants, Colors, Nitrites, and Sulphites) if you respond to both salicylates and amines because you will probably respond to everything else, which means we are now faced with an indefinite period on the elimination diet.
I now realize that I commenced this project expecting it to end after a month or so. Two months into it we still haven't even finished the first round of challenges (we still need to challenge soy, which would normally be done prior to salicylates and amines) and are likely to have to follow it for many more months before we can enjoy only a few more of the foods we ate before we started the diet without having adverse reactions.
At times like these it's tempting to say, stuff it, it's too hard. The food we eat is quite good, but the constraints of the diet are antisocial. We cannot eat out at all, and I've had to provide virtually all our food when we've gone to parties (except at one birthday party, where the host gets a gold star for making sure there was a meat, a vegetable, and an hors d'oeuvre that we could eat). When trying to plan a recent Christmas dinner with friends it became clear that it was too complicated to ask anyone to cook according to the
constraints of the diet, and it is now obvious that nothing ever satisfies the constraints of the diet just by chance.
So what's keeping me going? Quite simply, it's the prospect of eliminating my son's eczema, reducing the likelihood of him developing asthma and hay fever, and saving him from the fate of his grandfather, whose childhood was shaped by asthma attacks, endless trips to the allergist for injections, and his mother wrapping his cracked hands each night to soothe them.
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
Salicylates challenge more than expected
After 31 days of a strict elimination diet, we've finally entered the discovery phase. Our first challenge, salicylates, was harder than I thought it would be. For the previous 31 days I had looked forward to indulging in strawberries, mangoes, cherries, pumpkin, and apples, and once again enjoying the flavor provided by curry and cinnamon. I thought my son would too; he was absolutely fixated on pictures of strawberries. But the food didn't taste as good as I expected, and I was surprised to discover that I didn't feel very well either.
We embarked on this diet to discover the cause of my son's eczema, which has been present since he was a month old. It could be anything he has contact with, including the pervasive dust mite, but since food proteins and chemicals can be passed through breast milk, and are one of the few things we have much control over, we decided to do an exhaustive test of foods to determine if any of them were the cause. Many food allergies can be diagnosed through skin prick tests or blood tests, but foods can also cause irritation without triggering an allergic reaction, and these sensitivities to food can only be determined by altering your diet. To find a food sensitivity or allergy, you first eliminate all likely causes of irritation from your diet for a period of time. This is the elimination phase of the diet. The next stage is to challenge your body with possible irritants. This is the discovery phase of the diet. For some irritants, the reaction may be reduced by avoiding exposure to the irritant for a while, so there is a period of developing tolerance following the completion of the discovery phase, and then you should follow a maintenance diet that minimizes consumption of foods that cause a reaction for you.
It is worth noting, since many people I've spoken with about this whole process do not seem to understand this at first, that you are not meant to stay on the highly restricted elimination diet indefinitely. Nor is it the theory of the diet developers that salicylates are inherently bad for everyone. Once you have determined which classes of food do not cause a reaction for you through the challenge phase then those foods can be reintroduced into your diet.
The first challenge
Our first challenge was salicylates. You may be asking yourself "What are salicylates?" It's a fair question; it's not an everyday word. Salicylates are a class of chemicals that occur naturally in fruits, vegetables, and nuts and are thought to function as natural pesticides. According to the research of the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital Allergy Unit, a surprising number of people respond to salicylates, meaning that they will have some sort of reaction if they eat a large quantity. Responses to salicylates vary dramatically, but can include migraines, rashes, irritability, restlessness, gastrointestinal problems, and asthma. Salicylates occur in almost all fruits, many vegetables, and virtually anything derived from them, including artificial and natural flavors, most types of alcoholic drinks, and aspirin.
What was the salicylate challenge?
The challenge required eating six serves of salicylate laden foods a day for a week (or until we reacted, which ever happened first). My own participation in the elimination diet was mandated by the fact that I was still breastfeeding my son, and anything I ate could be passed to him through the breast milk, so I anticipated participating in the challenge as long as my son did. The foods we were required to eat comprised:
Though we continued to stuff ourselves with red and orange fruits, both my son and I lost our appetite for the challenge foods pretty quickly. On day one, I had a mild stomach ache most of the day, and by the afternoon I didn't feel like doing much of anything. By day three, I was longing for cabbage, and my son wouldn't eat anything containing salicylates after lunch. Over six days of the challenge (I didn't last all seven) I had a stomach ache of some sort nearly the entire time. I was also irritable, emotional, and unmotivated.
Clearly I was responding to the salicylates, however, since my motivation for doing the diet was not to assess the cause of my own moods but to determine the cause of my son's skin problems, it took me five days before I finally clued in to the correlation between my mood and my diet. Even then, I couldn't stand the thought of missing out on two more days of red and orange fruits and persisted eating them for almost another day before I realized that I was not only torturing myself, but increasing the likelihood of suffering withdrawal symptoms, and stopped the challenge.
It has taken six days for my son's skin to get back to what it was before the challenge and it is now clear that he also reacted to salicylates.
What next?
After the challenge we went back on to the elimination diet. The first three days following a challenge are considered part of the challenge, as it is possible for reactions to be delayed, and also required to ensure there are no residual effects from the salicylates before the next challenge. My mood improved almost immediately but both of us continued to show signs of reactions to salicylates over that period. Since his skin has only just returned to its pre-challenge condition, we will wait a few more days before we go onto the next challenge, which for us will be amines. Tune in next week for the results.
We embarked on this diet to discover the cause of my son's eczema, which has been present since he was a month old. It could be anything he has contact with, including the pervasive dust mite, but since food proteins and chemicals can be passed through breast milk, and are one of the few things we have much control over, we decided to do an exhaustive test of foods to determine if any of them were the cause. Many food allergies can be diagnosed through skin prick tests or blood tests, but foods can also cause irritation without triggering an allergic reaction, and these sensitivities to food can only be determined by altering your diet. To find a food sensitivity or allergy, you first eliminate all likely causes of irritation from your diet for a period of time. This is the elimination phase of the diet. The next stage is to challenge your body with possible irritants. This is the discovery phase of the diet. For some irritants, the reaction may be reduced by avoiding exposure to the irritant for a while, so there is a period of developing tolerance following the completion of the discovery phase, and then you should follow a maintenance diet that minimizes consumption of foods that cause a reaction for you.
It is worth noting, since many people I've spoken with about this whole process do not seem to understand this at first, that you are not meant to stay on the highly restricted elimination diet indefinitely. Nor is it the theory of the diet developers that salicylates are inherently bad for everyone. Once you have determined which classes of food do not cause a reaction for you through the challenge phase then those foods can be reintroduced into your diet.
The first challenge
Our first challenge was salicylates. You may be asking yourself "What are salicylates?" It's a fair question; it's not an everyday word. Salicylates are a class of chemicals that occur naturally in fruits, vegetables, and nuts and are thought to function as natural pesticides. According to the research of the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital Allergy Unit, a surprising number of people respond to salicylates, meaning that they will have some sort of reaction if they eat a large quantity. Responses to salicylates vary dramatically, but can include migraines, rashes, irritability, restlessness, gastrointestinal problems, and asthma. Salicylates occur in almost all fruits, many vegetables, and virtually anything derived from them, including artificial and natural flavors, most types of alcoholic drinks, and aspirin.
What was the salicylate challenge?
The challenge required eating six serves of salicylate laden foods a day for a week (or until we reacted, which ever happened first). My own participation in the elimination diet was mandated by the fact that I was still breastfeeding my son, and anything I ate could be passed to him through the breast milk, so I anticipated participating in the challenge as long as my son did. The foods we were required to eat comprised:
- mangoes
- Granny Smith apples
- cherries
- nectarines
- peaches
- apricots
- watermelon
- cantaloupe
- strawberries
- pumpkin
- sweet potato
- asparagus
- bell pepper
- carrots
- cucumber
- zucchini
- honey
- cinnamon
- curry powder
- tea
Though we continued to stuff ourselves with red and orange fruits, both my son and I lost our appetite for the challenge foods pretty quickly. On day one, I had a mild stomach ache most of the day, and by the afternoon I didn't feel like doing much of anything. By day three, I was longing for cabbage, and my son wouldn't eat anything containing salicylates after lunch. Over six days of the challenge (I didn't last all seven) I had a stomach ache of some sort nearly the entire time. I was also irritable, emotional, and unmotivated.
Clearly I was responding to the salicylates, however, since my motivation for doing the diet was not to assess the cause of my own moods but to determine the cause of my son's skin problems, it took me five days before I finally clued in to the correlation between my mood and my diet. Even then, I couldn't stand the thought of missing out on two more days of red and orange fruits and persisted eating them for almost another day before I realized that I was not only torturing myself, but increasing the likelihood of suffering withdrawal symptoms, and stopped the challenge.
It has taken six days for my son's skin to get back to what it was before the challenge and it is now clear that he also reacted to salicylates.
What next?
After the challenge we went back on to the elimination diet. The first three days following a challenge are considered part of the challenge, as it is possible for reactions to be delayed, and also required to ensure there are no residual effects from the salicylates before the next challenge. My mood improved almost immediately but both of us continued to show signs of reactions to salicylates over that period. Since his skin has only just returned to its pre-challenge condition, we will wait a few more days before we go onto the next challenge, which for us will be amines. Tune in next week for the results.
Friday, December 1, 2006
Elimination Diet: The Dietician's Judgement
A few nights ago I had a dream that I was eating miniature jelly beans. The following night I dreamt that I was eating steak bathed in ketchup. In both dreams, my immediate response was Why am I eating this? It will ruin the diet.
I've never had this response to a diet before, but then this diet is different. After 30 days, I can identify every item of food that my son and I have consumed. For the past 23 days I can count on my thumbs every item of food my son or I ate that we weren't allowed. And on day 30 a dietitian reviewed our progress.
The visit to the dietitian was the source of some trepidation. The severity of my son's eczema has reduced dramatically, so we've obviously done something right. We could be ready to start the challenge phase of the diet, which would mean indulging in fruits, vegetables, and spices. But the eczema is not gone, so maybe we've done something wrong. We could be about to face two of the hardest weeks yet, with no wheat or cow's milk. As the appointment with the dietitian approached and the severity of my son's eczema bounced around I got more and more concerned. It's no wonder I was dreaming about things going awry.
I met with the dietitian yesterday. She greeted me with a smile and asked how things were going. Then she examined the food log. I sat for a few minutes listening to nothing but the occassional sound of a page turning. She broke the silence by saying You're ready to start the challenges. Ready to start the challenges? I was ready to jump out of my seat. I wanted to do a little victory dance. Actually, I wanted to do a big victory dance.
Tomorrow I'll be having strawberries on my breakfast, watermelon at my picnic, taziki for my afternoon tea, and carrots and capsicum in my stir fry. I'll make lentil curry and pumpkin soup. I'll eat apricots, and cherries, and bake apple pie. And I'll do it all in the name of science.
I'm so happy about this new food freedom that I need to remind myself of the sour note: if one of us reacts to salicylates then we'll have to stop eating all these wonderful foods, and when the discovery part of the diet ends we still won't be able to eat them. But I'm not about to let that ruin my fantasizing now.
I still won't be allowed to eat miniature jelly beans or ketchup on my steak, but who'd want to when there are so many wonderful things to eat instead?
I've never had this response to a diet before, but then this diet is different. After 30 days, I can identify every item of food that my son and I have consumed. For the past 23 days I can count on my thumbs every item of food my son or I ate that we weren't allowed. And on day 30 a dietitian reviewed our progress.
The visit to the dietitian was the source of some trepidation. The severity of my son's eczema has reduced dramatically, so we've obviously done something right. We could be ready to start the challenge phase of the diet, which would mean indulging in fruits, vegetables, and spices. But the eczema is not gone, so maybe we've done something wrong. We could be about to face two of the hardest weeks yet, with no wheat or cow's milk. As the appointment with the dietitian approached and the severity of my son's eczema bounced around I got more and more concerned. It's no wonder I was dreaming about things going awry.
I met with the dietitian yesterday. She greeted me with a smile and asked how things were going. Then she examined the food log. I sat for a few minutes listening to nothing but the occassional sound of a page turning. She broke the silence by saying You're ready to start the challenges. Ready to start the challenges? I was ready to jump out of my seat. I wanted to do a little victory dance. Actually, I wanted to do a big victory dance.
Tomorrow I'll be having strawberries on my breakfast, watermelon at my picnic, taziki for my afternoon tea, and carrots and capsicum in my stir fry. I'll make lentil curry and pumpkin soup. I'll eat apricots, and cherries, and bake apple pie. And I'll do it all in the name of science.
I'm so happy about this new food freedom that I need to remind myself of the sour note: if one of us reacts to salicylates then we'll have to stop eating all these wonderful foods, and when the discovery part of the diet ends we still won't be able to eat them. But I'm not about to let that ruin my fantasizing now.
I still won't be allowed to eat miniature jelly beans or ketchup on my steak, but who'd want to when there are so many wonderful things to eat instead?
Elimination Diet: Weeks 3 and 4
The In-law Challenge
Weeks three and four of our elimination diet were marked by the arrival of my in-laws. Prior to starting the diet I was so concerned about our ability to eat together harmoniously that I almost delayed the start of the diet until they left. I was dreading having to listen to snide remarks. I was afraid that I would have to prepare all of the food, rather than rely on mother-in-law to do some of the cooking, lest she undermine the diet by including forbidden ingredients. And I was concerned that they would not be supportive of the diet, let alone eat it. I underestimated my in-laws.
Perhaps it was not entirely fair to pin all these concerns on my in-laws. After all, being helpful seems to be in their genes. Many people have been curious about the diet, and very few people have made deprecatory remarks about the diet, but most people I explain the diet to can't shake the thought How could fruits and vegetables possibly cause a malady? and they only start to express an earnest interest in the diet when I reveal that my son's skin has definitively improved since starting the elimination diet. Of course, I didn't have the luxury of this information when I spoke to my father just before D-day, who was very subtle but obviously doubtful.
In contrast, I was pleasantly surprised by my in-law's support; my mother-in-law baked cookies and scones, was an excellent sous-chef, and even took up the challenge of making two meals. I did not hear one negative or unsupportive remark from either in-law during their two week visit. They happily consumed our failsafe food, and even marveled at how many ways you could prepare a leek. They graciously ate their forbidden foods (they arrived with a fruit cake, lemon butter, and pineapple poppers, and couldn't resist purchasing grapefruits for breakfast) out of site of the rest of the family. In the two weeks they were here, there was not one diet mistake that could be attributed to their presence, and I am still eating my mother-in-law's cookies. When they left, I was sad to see them go.
Weeks three and four of our elimination diet were marked by the arrival of my in-laws. Prior to starting the diet I was so concerned about our ability to eat together harmoniously that I almost delayed the start of the diet until they left. I was dreading having to listen to snide remarks. I was afraid that I would have to prepare all of the food, rather than rely on mother-in-law to do some of the cooking, lest she undermine the diet by including forbidden ingredients. And I was concerned that they would not be supportive of the diet, let alone eat it. I underestimated my in-laws.
Perhaps it was not entirely fair to pin all these concerns on my in-laws. After all, being helpful seems to be in their genes. Many people have been curious about the diet, and very few people have made deprecatory remarks about the diet, but most people I explain the diet to can't shake the thought How could fruits and vegetables possibly cause a malady? and they only start to express an earnest interest in the diet when I reveal that my son's skin has definitively improved since starting the elimination diet. Of course, I didn't have the luxury of this information when I spoke to my father just before D-day, who was very subtle but obviously doubtful.
In contrast, I was pleasantly surprised by my in-law's support; my mother-in-law baked cookies and scones, was an excellent sous-chef, and even took up the challenge of making two meals. I did not hear one negative or unsupportive remark from either in-law during their two week visit. They happily consumed our failsafe food, and even marveled at how many ways you could prepare a leek. They graciously ate their forbidden foods (they arrived with a fruit cake, lemon butter, and pineapple poppers, and couldn't resist purchasing grapefruits for breakfast) out of site of the rest of the family. In the two weeks they were here, there was not one diet mistake that could be attributed to their presence, and I am still eating my mother-in-law's cookies. When they left, I was sad to see them go.
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
Elimination Diet: Week 2
We have now completed week two of our elimination diet. You can read about week one in my previous post on the topic.
In the past week our diet has seemed almost normal. I go to the market, buy lots of good meat, chicken, eggs, and a little fish, plus a lot of pears, leeks, cabbage, green beans, and a few other vegetables. Now that I know what we need, and have the larder stocked, the market shopping is actually easier than it was before the diet. I've also found that following recipes is very easy when you already have all the ingredients, so I've been able to try lots of new foods without the hassle I usually associate with it. And the food, for the most part, has been really good. I'll be sad to relinquish the cookbooks to the library when they're due.
I must admit that I am starting to get a little tired of cabbage and green beans. We have one or the other every night. And my son must miss strawberries; when we read "I Am A Bunny" and "The Very Hungry Catapillar", we can no longer get past the pages with the strawberries on them. He keeps flipping back to them and calling out "straaaaw-be". Nevertheless, my husband continues to be amazed by the meals I am coming up with and is now quite content to be on the diet (especially when he gets to eat anything he wants when he's at work).
On a more positive note, I've been losing weight, despite eating absurd quantities of food, especially goodies like carob fudge, cookies, meringues, and homemade granola bars (now that I know what goes into them I'll never again consider them a healthful snack).
We had two major social challenges of the past week, both of which went very well. The first was a hike followed by a BBQ. I packed rice crackers and green beans to keep my son happy on the hike, and we brought all of our own food to the BBQ, including marinated chicken breasts, pear and bean salad (very tasty), a noodle and cabbage salad that replicated the one provided by the host, and a potato torte to share with everyone (there were two other beautiful desserts, so it's a wonder anyone found space for this one). My husband pigged out, eating some of everything we brought and also tasting everything cooked by the hosts! My son was really good about eating only what we offered him, even skipping the flavored rice crackers that had been left well within his reach before dinner. Only once did he notice the corn sitting on the table (one of his favorite foods) and beg, but fortunately we were able to distract him. Unlike our outing last week, there were actually two things I could eat: steak and potatoes, however the chicken and salad were so nice that I declined.
Our second challenge was last night, when we hosted a dinner for overseas friends. I did a poor job of selecting menu items and found myself juggling four pots at the stove right before dinner. But nothing was burnt or undercooked and everyone enjoyed the meal (lamb noisettes with pear glaze, steamed green beans, steamed red and green cabbage with a creamy leek sauce, and brown rice) and dessert (poached pears with sabayon). Next time I'm cooking a roast.
However, the biggest challenge of the week was Melbourne Cup Day, which closed the market Tuesday, when I would usually do the fresh food shopping. Since the market is only open Tuesday and Thursday through Saturday, I dropped into the local butcher, where I don't normally shop because the selection and convenience aren't as good as the market. I nearly bought three porterhouse steaks, until I noticed the butcher pulling out a big cryovaced piece of meat. When I asked how old the meat was, he said about a week and a half, then paused and said maybe two weeks. It was clear that he wasn't really sure. Amines continue to form as meat ages, regardless of how the meat is packaged or if it is frozen, so eating fresh meat is critical to sticking to the diet. We ate vegetarian for three days.
My son's skin no longer seems to be improving and I'm concerned that we will need to eliminate wheat and dairy. I feel like we should start immediately, but I'm procrastinating until I've had a chance to experiment with the recipes and build up an inventory of wheat and dairy free staples. Of course, I'm also hoping that the current flare is just the withdrawal symptoms taking their time to subside. I think I could happily continue this diet for quite some time the way it is, but to eliminate wheat and dairy would require major changes. Of course, that's how I initially felt about cutting out fruit.
In the past week our diet has seemed almost normal. I go to the market, buy lots of good meat, chicken, eggs, and a little fish, plus a lot of pears, leeks, cabbage, green beans, and a few other vegetables. Now that I know what we need, and have the larder stocked, the market shopping is actually easier than it was before the diet. I've also found that following recipes is very easy when you already have all the ingredients, so I've been able to try lots of new foods without the hassle I usually associate with it. And the food, for the most part, has been really good. I'll be sad to relinquish the cookbooks to the library when they're due.
I must admit that I am starting to get a little tired of cabbage and green beans. We have one or the other every night. And my son must miss strawberries; when we read "I Am A Bunny" and "The Very Hungry Catapillar", we can no longer get past the pages with the strawberries on them. He keeps flipping back to them and calling out "straaaaw-be". Nevertheless, my husband continues to be amazed by the meals I am coming up with and is now quite content to be on the diet (especially when he gets to eat anything he wants when he's at work).
On a more positive note, I've been losing weight, despite eating absurd quantities of food, especially goodies like carob fudge, cookies, meringues, and homemade granola bars (now that I know what goes into them I'll never again consider them a healthful snack).
We had two major social challenges of the past week, both of which went very well. The first was a hike followed by a BBQ. I packed rice crackers and green beans to keep my son happy on the hike, and we brought all of our own food to the BBQ, including marinated chicken breasts, pear and bean salad (very tasty), a noodle and cabbage salad that replicated the one provided by the host, and a potato torte to share with everyone (there were two other beautiful desserts, so it's a wonder anyone found space for this one). My husband pigged out, eating some of everything we brought and also tasting everything cooked by the hosts! My son was really good about eating only what we offered him, even skipping the flavored rice crackers that had been left well within his reach before dinner. Only once did he notice the corn sitting on the table (one of his favorite foods) and beg, but fortunately we were able to distract him. Unlike our outing last week, there were actually two things I could eat: steak and potatoes, however the chicken and salad were so nice that I declined.
Our second challenge was last night, when we hosted a dinner for overseas friends. I did a poor job of selecting menu items and found myself juggling four pots at the stove right before dinner. But nothing was burnt or undercooked and everyone enjoyed the meal (lamb noisettes with pear glaze, steamed green beans, steamed red and green cabbage with a creamy leek sauce, and brown rice) and dessert (poached pears with sabayon). Next time I'm cooking a roast.
However, the biggest challenge of the week was Melbourne Cup Day, which closed the market Tuesday, when I would usually do the fresh food shopping. Since the market is only open Tuesday and Thursday through Saturday, I dropped into the local butcher, where I don't normally shop because the selection and convenience aren't as good as the market. I nearly bought three porterhouse steaks, until I noticed the butcher pulling out a big cryovaced piece of meat. When I asked how old the meat was, he said about a week and a half, then paused and said maybe two weeks. It was clear that he wasn't really sure. Amines continue to form as meat ages, regardless of how the meat is packaged or if it is frozen, so eating fresh meat is critical to sticking to the diet. We ate vegetarian for three days.
My son's skin no longer seems to be improving and I'm concerned that we will need to eliminate wheat and dairy. I feel like we should start immediately, but I'm procrastinating until I've had a chance to experiment with the recipes and build up an inventory of wheat and dairy free staples. Of course, I'm also hoping that the current flare is just the withdrawal symptoms taking their time to subside. I think I could happily continue this diet for quite some time the way it is, but to eliminate wheat and dairy would require major changes. Of course, that's how I initially felt about cutting out fruit.
Tuesday, November 7, 2006
How much is petrol worth to you?
People like to whinge about the price of gas just as much as they do about the weather. This wouldn't be true if we all used our bikes to get where we were going, but I digress. Virtually every month I read a letter in our local automobile club magazine in which the author argues that the price of gas is fixed by colluding petroleum companies and that there should be a government inquiry into the matter. Some make a pathetic effort to support their annoyance, claiming things like "On my recent trip petrol (that's what they call it here) was $1.23/L in Tamworth and when I was in Brisbane only a few days later it was $1.18/L. Clearly this is a sign of price fixing." Upon reading that line of reasoning I was incredulous; hadn't the author ever noticed that the price of gas at their local station changes daily, if not hourly!
In the most recent issue (October 2006, not on line yet) a reader had very carefully detailed the proportion of a barrel of crude oil turned into the various petroleum products we use. Since the letter is not on line, I will reprint some of the figures he provided. It turns out that only about 27% of the 159 liters of crude oil in a barrel becomes petrol. 10% becomes kerosene, 15% becomes diesel, 22% becomes lubricating oils, 16% becomes cylinder oils, and 10% becomes tar. By his calculations, you get 42 liters of petrol from a barrel of crude. He goes on to argue that the price of petrol should increase by 0.6 cents per liter for ever dollar increase in the price of a barrel of crude and that the daily changes of 5 cents per liter are evidence that the market isn't working freely and government action is required.
Now, I applaud this person's detailed research and math, but he failed to do a reality check. Could it be that the price of petrol changes more when the price of crude changes because people want it more than the other petroleum products?
How much is a liter of petrol worth to you? Are you buying it now, at $1.10-$1.15AU/liter? Were you buying it when it was $1.25/liter? Would you pay $2.00/liter? No, you say? What did you say about $1.00/liter a few years ago? How much you're willing to pay probably depends on what you are using your vehicle for; If your business relies on moving things around, for example, then you have to figure out how to pay for the more expensive fuel or close up shop. But if you're driving to work, maybe you'll find a different way to get there rather than waste valuable fuel on it. What you can see, though, is that the value of fuel is not something you determine, or the petroleum companies determine, but all the people who buy the petrol. If you think that a liter of petrol is only worth $1.00 and everyone else agrees it's worth at least $1.10, then you're just going to have to go without.
The price of petrol is volatile because it the market is so competitive. There is no other good in Australia or the US for which the price is so well advertised, so easily determined without even leaving your car. At some intersections you have the choice of two or even three different petrol stations, all of whom have their prices clearly displayed in front of the shop in writing that even my half blind grandmother can read. And even though most people would willingly part with far more money to fill up their tank, they are always looking for a deal. In an environment like this, of course the price of petrol is going to jump around.
As we saw recently in our discussion about banana prices, there are some goods that people just won't substitute. Petrol is one of them. Vaseline is not. When was the last time you thought, Gee, Vaseline is getting very expensive, but there's nothing else I can use instead. Economists call this elasticity. Bananas and petrol (incidentally, the two items blamed for Australia's high second quarter inflation) have inelastic demand curves, meaning the price can increase a lot before people change their consumption habits. In contrast, Vaseline has an elastic demand curve. Besides, many of the products made out of petroleum, including Vaseline, are really just by-products, an opportunity to reap some financial gain from the left-overs of petrol production. Kind of like trying to sell the tops off your celery stalks. So when the price of crude increases, the change will be borne disproportionately by the purchasers of petrol, because the purchasers of Vaseline will just buy cocoa butter instead.
The volatility of petrol prices is certainly annoying, and makes planning difficult, but it's not in itself a sign of price fixing. Even so, why is a government inquiry the solution? Wouldn't we all be better off if the government used their time and energy to figure out how to promote alternatives to petrol and other petroleum products. By increasing incentives to use alternative fuels and more fuel efficient technology, the government could reduce the demand for petrol, which would cause the real price of petrol to decrease. By supporting investment in alternative energy, the government could reduce the country's dependence on unpredictable foreign suppliers, which is significant for both economic and security reasons. The government could and should provide a boost to the economy by supporting the growth of technology associated with alternative industries. And finally, these actions comprise a few of the many ways the government could be acting to reduce the country's greenhouse gas emissions.
But the price of petrol must still be too low because the government doesn't appear to be doing much at all.
In the most recent issue (October 2006, not on line yet) a reader had very carefully detailed the proportion of a barrel of crude oil turned into the various petroleum products we use. Since the letter is not on line, I will reprint some of the figures he provided. It turns out that only about 27% of the 159 liters of crude oil in a barrel becomes petrol. 10% becomes kerosene, 15% becomes diesel, 22% becomes lubricating oils, 16% becomes cylinder oils, and 10% becomes tar. By his calculations, you get 42 liters of petrol from a barrel of crude. He goes on to argue that the price of petrol should increase by 0.6 cents per liter for ever dollar increase in the price of a barrel of crude and that the daily changes of 5 cents per liter are evidence that the market isn't working freely and government action is required.
Now, I applaud this person's detailed research and math, but he failed to do a reality check. Could it be that the price of petrol changes more when the price of crude changes because people want it more than the other petroleum products?
How much is a liter of petrol worth to you? Are you buying it now, at $1.10-$1.15AU/liter? Were you buying it when it was $1.25/liter? Would you pay $2.00/liter? No, you say? What did you say about $1.00/liter a few years ago? How much you're willing to pay probably depends on what you are using your vehicle for; If your business relies on moving things around, for example, then you have to figure out how to pay for the more expensive fuel or close up shop. But if you're driving to work, maybe you'll find a different way to get there rather than waste valuable fuel on it. What you can see, though, is that the value of fuel is not something you determine, or the petroleum companies determine, but all the people who buy the petrol. If you think that a liter of petrol is only worth $1.00 and everyone else agrees it's worth at least $1.10, then you're just going to have to go without.
The price of petrol is volatile because it the market is so competitive. There is no other good in Australia or the US for which the price is so well advertised, so easily determined without even leaving your car. At some intersections you have the choice of two or even three different petrol stations, all of whom have their prices clearly displayed in front of the shop in writing that even my half blind grandmother can read. And even though most people would willingly part with far more money to fill up their tank, they are always looking for a deal. In an environment like this, of course the price of petrol is going to jump around.As we saw recently in our discussion about banana prices, there are some goods that people just won't substitute. Petrol is one of them. Vaseline is not. When was the last time you thought, Gee, Vaseline is getting very expensive, but there's nothing else I can use instead. Economists call this elasticity. Bananas and petrol (incidentally, the two items blamed for Australia's high second quarter inflation) have inelastic demand curves, meaning the price can increase a lot before people change their consumption habits. In contrast, Vaseline has an elastic demand curve. Besides, many of the products made out of petroleum, including Vaseline, are really just by-products, an opportunity to reap some financial gain from the left-overs of petrol production. Kind of like trying to sell the tops off your celery stalks. So when the price of crude increases, the change will be borne disproportionately by the purchasers of petrol, because the purchasers of Vaseline will just buy cocoa butter instead.
The volatility of petrol prices is certainly annoying, and makes planning difficult, but it's not in itself a sign of price fixing. Even so, why is a government inquiry the solution? Wouldn't we all be better off if the government used their time and energy to figure out how to promote alternatives to petrol and other petroleum products. By increasing incentives to use alternative fuels and more fuel efficient technology, the government could reduce the demand for petrol, which would cause the real price of petrol to decrease. By supporting investment in alternative energy, the government could reduce the country's dependence on unpredictable foreign suppliers, which is significant for both economic and security reasons. The government could and should provide a boost to the economy by supporting the growth of technology associated with alternative industries. And finally, these actions comprise a few of the many ways the government could be acting to reduce the country's greenhouse gas emissions.
But the price of petrol must still be too low because the government doesn't appear to be doing much at all.
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