Food Intolerance and Dieting

Diets designed for weight loss don't work, even if they market themselves as lifestyle changes. The only diet that ever worked for me was being on food stamps and not being able to buy enough food to keep my body healthy. When I had to go the hospital because my body wasn't able to deal with a simple bacterial infection, which was working its way into my blood, I realized that not being able to feed myself could actually kill me even though I still had an ample belly.

Now, I am struggling with the fact that I am on a forced diet because I have a digestive intolerance for corn. It took a couple of years to work out that it wasn't gluten, dairy, eggs, nuts, or something else causing my problems. The issue is most definitely corn. When I let myself believe that it's all in my head and allow myself a treat of something I used to love that has corn in it, I pay a heavy price for that indulgence: migraine, muscle aches, painful lack of energy, stomach bloats and feels like a rock, sticky coating in my mouth, diarreah, and a few other minor unpleasantries.

Eating out is no longer something I can do because almost all breads, sauces, and processed meat contain some amount of high fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, corn powder, corn starch, or other combination of corn ingredients. I never enjoyed junk food more than a few times each year, but I miss being able to grab a Twinkie from the convenience store or a handful of a pretzels at a party without having to think about whether or not there might be corn in what I was about to eat.

I have worked hard to find indulgences so that I don't get desperate for a treat and make myself sick with something I can't eat anymore. Green & Black's chocolate bars are my favorite. They are so rich and flavorful that I'm satisfied by three squares. I actually like prunes and buy the individually wrapped ones because it adds to that "decadent treat" feeling. I searched long and hard for corn-free gingersnaps, shortbread, and digestives to enjoy with my tea. Digestives are a traditional English tea biscuit made with a bit of extra baking soda, which was thought to aid digestion. I like the ones I get because they have a dark chocolate coating and a lovely flavor. Fortunately, we have enough local demand to have English, Swedish, and Scottish biscuits in the local shops.

There is corn in so much of the food produced in the United States, that I struggle to get enough variety in my diet. Nutrition issues aside, I feel like I'm eating so many of the same things all of the time because there's so little "safe" food for me. Keeping my eyes open for new things means always trying to read ingredients that are usually listed in tiny print. If something has more than 10 ingredient, give or take a few, I don't even bother because products with long ingredient lists invariably contain obvious corn ingredients as well as more subtle corn-derived ingredients like dextrin, maltodextrose, and glycerides.

After several months of eating little more than fresh produce, a whole grain bread I have to freeze and toast because it has no preservatives, and peanut butter made from nothing more than "peanuts and less than %2 salt", I have not lost any weight. I suppose that's because I still eat when I'm hungry, stop when I'm full, and satisfy my food cravings because they let me know when I haven't been eating enough greens, enough fats, enough proteins, or enough whatever has been lacking from my meals. I am so busy making sure that I have all of the nutrients I need to stay healthy that I have no energy left for trying to arbitrarily restrict my diet to force my body into a shape that isn't natural for it.

Besides, I've already been forced by my food intolerance to give up all of the foods and drinks that are traditionally blamed for making people fat. It really isn't difficult for me to see fat as a genetic variation rather than a personal failure or a lack of moral character.