Testing Boundaries and Avocado on Toast

Sometimes, for someone with allergies, living on the wild side is trying something as benign as avocado.

For almost a decade I have not eaten a single avocado. I live primarily on a diet called "low food chemical", which means anything high in natural food chemicals, aka avocado, is no good. My symptoms to foods vary from rashes, swelling and stomach aches, to the more typical anaphylactic reactions. This makes trying new things often not worth the pain, discomfort and risk to my life.

As I've gotten stronger and have stopped having daily flair ups (fuzzy thinking, swelling, rashes, itchy skin, bloating and severe stomach pain) I have been able to be a little adventurous and start testing those boundaries.

Every body is different, and while food chemical lists provide a guideline for what food I should or shouldn't eat, it is by no way definitive. It's not an exact science - which is why allergy suffers often have to try elimination diets, because what works on paper doesn't necessarily work for our individual bodies.

So all this to say, today was a good day! I bought an organic avocado with my fruit and veg order this week. Left it out on the bench all week to sweetly stare at me. This morning I got up, did some yoga, poured myself a coffee and made avocado on toast. I sat on the back steps in the sun, eating my toast and throwing the ball for the doggo.

I'm a little itchy, but no swelling. Will see how I feel over the next day or so, but maybe, just maybe, avocado is back on the 'sometimes' menu!