The Diet

I follow the guidelines that are wonderfully organized on the Whole Approach food lists. The lists are broken down into three categories: OK, Limit and Avoid. These lists really alleviated alot of confusion about what to eat for me. There is alot of conflicting information out there, but I feel that the Whole Approach food lists are well researched. The lists let you customize your own eating program based on what you can tolerate and what is more available in your area.

Food Tolerance is divided in four stages: Stage One, Two, Three and Maintenance. You determine your stage by filling out a questionnaire about certain symptoms you experience at the present time. It’s best to fill out this questionnaire if you suspect you are dealing with CRC, not sure if what you are dealing with is actually CRC, and before you began to make major dietary changes.

There will NOT be any recipes that have:
yeast
sugar (including honey, maple syrup, fruit juice or concentrate, cane juice, brown rice syrup)
vinegar
wheat
dairy (except for ghee)
alcohol
mushrooms
certain kinds of nuts: peanuts, cashews, pistachios, pecans, walnuts
artificial sweeteners

If you want to know more about why these foods are not used, visit the Whole Approach Forums.

I favor making smaller quantities (particularly for baked goods)for a few reasons. This is a new way of cooking for me and alot of other people. Sometimes things just don’t work out. It’s best to know that with a smaller quantity than a larger one. These ingredients can be hard to find and expensive, so if you don’t like what you made, you won’t feel so bad about it when you throw it out. I do my best to make recipes that can be doubled, but you can also use those cute small baking pans to make individual pies and cakes for other people.

Smaller quantities work out better for those of us following the diet because of the limits on the food lists. You can have one or two servings of certain grains per day and if you eat a particular grain, you should follow a 4 day rotation schedule. That’s hard to do when you have a big, scrumptious cake staring at you. We tend to consume too much anyway here in the U.S., and your just not likely to do that if you don’t have that much to deal with in the first place.