Food Restrictions- What to Be Aware of & How to Approach Them Effectively

After a seemingly never-ending stomach virus, followed by antibiotics that weakened my gut flora, I have never been so sensitive to foods that had been a part of my diet for years. It all became more obvious when I was also recently diagnosed with lactose intolerance, and without trying to sound too dramatic, it deeply shook me. I know there are worse things that could happen in life. Still, when feta is your religion (in the name of the sheep, the goat, and dairy cultures, AMEN), and you already feel like every other food turns out to be toxic or harmful to our health in some way, a further restriction feels most unfortunate.

On top of that, I try to reduce my sugar and starch intake to balance my hormones, so that I don't get hormonal breakouts and PMS anymore. All of this combined set me on the course of a partially self-imposed and partially diagnosis-mandated restricted diet, which I have failed terribly at in the past. The more I limit myself, the more I crave the forbidden fruit, and ultimately, cave in, ending in a food-crazed bacchanalia. In my pursuit of establishing a sustainable diet that I enjoy and that is good for my health, I have come up with five tricks and insights to approach food restriction effectively.

1. Look at recipes with even more restrictions

That is right, trust me on this one: If you look at recipes that exclude even more foods than your restriction, you can easily adapt them to include the foods you are fine with, making it seem like you are not restricting but rather adding ingredients. There is a reverse psychology behind it that will make you feel grateful for how much you can allow yourself to eat. For example, I am a big fan of Deliciously Ella's vegan recipes; they are easy and scrumptious. Because I am not a vegan, I will take advantage of the dairy-free alternatives only and maybe add some egg, fish, or meat. This way, I feel like I am not restricting myself since I can add foods that the recipe does not allow. In a way, I trick myself into thinking I am indulging rather than restricting. It's basically non-toxic, dietary gaslighting.

2. Find tasty alternatives that are equally as nutritious

This one might seem quite obvious, but I want to elaborate. My mom feels like she might have a non-celiac gluten sensitivity, for she seems to feel bloated and lethargic after gluten consumption. After listening to podcasts talking about how bad gluten supposedly is for us, regardless of intolerance or not, she was convinced to go gluten-free. The issue was that when she sent me to buy gluten-free bread and pasta, I was shocked to realise how unhealthy the ingredients were. Almost all gluten alternatives contain added sugar, artificial sweeteners and added starch, which turns into sugar when consumed. There is barely any fibre in them. The few healthy options I found, like buckwheat bread, were not to her taste and flakier than my last few Hinge dates. Ironically, whole-seeded rye bread or sourdough is much more nutritious, but if you truly cannot tolerate gluten, you are left with alternatives that might cause other issues, effectively defeating the point of trying to be healthier. This is one of the reasons why self-diagnosis without a deeper dive into nutritional values can backfire quickly. Luckily, we found a gluten-free bread recipe which is delicious, easy to bake, and rich in fibre without added starch or sugar. Now, my mom can stick to her gluten-free diet without compromising her health.

Brown rice noodles can work well for non-ramen pasta dishes too

3. Rethink what constitutes a diet in other cuisines

Following on from the last point, I have not found a tasty and equally nutritious alternative to yoghurt. My favourite has always been Greek Yoghurt since it contains protein and probiotics. The dairy-free alternatives, like Coconut Yoghurt, have more fat, more added starch to add thickness to the texture, and no protein, but at least some added live bacteria. If it weren't for my lactose intolerance, Greek Yoghurt would be a much better option. And while I can still have some without experiencing any unwanted side effects, it can not be part of my standard diet. After a few visits to Korean, Thai, and Vietnamese restaurants, I realised that there are plenty of cuisines that don't even include dairy. Yet, these cuisines are rich in probiotic and protein foods. I just had to rethink a yoghurt-free diet, and a lot of Southeast Asian cuisines are an inspiration. For example, I add kimchi as a side to almost every meal, which is rich in probiotics, and I eat a lot more tofu and miso paste, which are naturally high in protein. These are foods that had previously not been part of my diet, so Greek yoghurt seemed like an easy fix, but now it would seem redundant.

4. Discover meals never meant to be alternatives

   
   

Similar to the previous suggestion, finding inspiration for meals that were never meant to include any dairy has not only expanded my cooking repertoire but also eased the pressure of finding alternatives all the time. For example, most traditional chia pudding recipes are made with coconut milk. My mom prefers to cook rice and potato-based meals like curries since gluten was never a part of them anyway, so no adjustment is necessary. My suggestion is to focus on the ingredients that are naturally void of your allergen, like rice is naturally gluten-free, and then google recipes with this ingredient rather than "gluten-free recipes". This ensures you get a wider selection of tasty results since some meals that just happen to be gluten-free might not have the tags for search engines to pick up on them when someone googles "gluten-free recipes" instead.

5. Trust that your taste buds and cravings will change

The good news is that our taste buds can change based on what we consume, and it doesn't take too long, either. Since they get replaced every two weeks, they change regardless of your eating behaviour, but if you also omit a certain food from your diet, then the new taste buds might be more sensitive to the omitted food. For example, I challenged myself not to consume any processed sugar for a month, and by the end of it, I couldn't even eat a bite of cake because it seemed way too sweet for my taste. The same happened with drinking dairy in my coffee. I haven't done so for at least a month now, and not only do I think oat milk tastes better, but I actually don't like the taste of dairy as much as I used to. This makes my lactose intolerance all the more tolerable, thank God.

Enjoying less sweet desserts changed my taste buds entirely

Let me know if you have any tips and tricks to stay consistent with your food allergy/ intolerance or preference, and share them in the contribution box below!