For SCIENCE!

For the last decade I've been avoiding specific foods due to various reactions.

• Soy: Shortness of breath, swelling, mental haze, fatigue
• Egg: Lethargy
• Dairy: Gastrointestinal distress, this pretty much makes me awful to be around

Let me step back in time first to something that was seemly unrelated. 

Over the years I've experienced "muscle weakness". Whenever I had exerted a significant amount of energy in a task, stood for too long, danced for an evening, missed a meal, or just was tired at the end of the day. My legs wouldn't hold me up. I would stumble and sometimes just fall over. The first time I experienced this was after I crushed my radius in 2013. 

I was attending a dance weekend, and during a dance I found that couldn't support myself. I collapsed. The person I was dancing with thought I was doing a move. After I explained that I actually needed help getting off the floor to sit, I was able to rest.

This would continue periodically through the years. I saw many doctors and got a plethora of tests. Muscular neurological test, blood test, genetic testing, and more! There was no identifiable disease, disorder, or anything they could find. The doctors weren't sure why I was falling over. 

To mitigate my falling risk, I carried around a collapsable cane. I couldn't explain what was happening or point to a diagnosis, so I kept it quiet. I would wait until no one was looking and hobble back home. Once I had rest, I was able to walk again.

We had a suspicion that this was related to my episodes of reactive hypoglycemia. Reactive hypoglycemia for me, was a loss of vision, migraine, and retreating to a dark room and sleep to recover for the rest of the day. I also found it hard to walk or generally function in this state. While it was unclear if there was a link, I wanted to try something.

In 2020 Elle introduced me to the keto diet. She had adopted it as a last resort for her unexplained migraines. We didn't know why it helped her, or if it would help me. But I was willing to try.

With that, I cut out sugar and carbohydrates. 

Once I got into ketosis, I found that my reactive hypoglycemia was under control! All that to say, while I was in ketosis I had more stability and strength! I didn't know how it helped, but I was very happy that it did.

Then about three years ago, I moved to Colorado and found "soy & corn free eggs". A magical concept of not feeding chickens soy but letting them anything else. I didn't find myself reacting to the eggs ... I could add something back to my diet! A mind-bending experience.

Last month I went to a new allergy specialist to see if they could do some type of soy exposure, like they do for peanut allergies, so when ingested I didn't have to fear for my life. 

They started with a skin test. All negative, no reaction to any of my list ... strange. Not a big surprise as I've never had more than grass and cats show up for those anyway. 

Next was a blood test for soy. Negative as well. There was nothing they could treat, and their official diagnosis "you are not allergic to soy; your body just might not like it".

I was frustrated, upset, curious, and driven. If they say I'm not allergic to soy, fuck it let's do some science!

To kick off this experiment we started with chocolate. This Extreme Dark Chocolate is only 88%, I prefer 100%, so the only extreme part for me was the "contains: soy lecithin" on the label. It was enough to make me feel fuzzy in the past. Elle and I figured a good start was a single square a day. When I tried it, I felt a small buildup of mucus and my nerves were going crazy. But nothing significant happened.

Once I made it through the whole bar, with no effect. We progressed to eggs, which were pasture raised ... not soy free. If I learned anything about chickens, there is a 100% chance they are getting soy (and corn) as a supplementary feed. I agreed to let Elle mix in the regular eggs with the soy-free without letting me know. This was to remove some of the mental stress and allow more science. 

A week or so passed with no noticeable difference in my energy or mood. Pretty big news! So, where do we go from here?

I decided to go hard, so to speak. I got a package of edamame and ate a single edamame bean. I imagine it sounds rather trivial. As you can see by the spread, I was prepared for the worst. I figured, if I'm going to jump in, let's go to the source and reduce any noise that might come from other additives.

One bean was successful! No significant reaction. Which is to say I could breathe and nothing was swollen. I was extremely stressed, so some mild tingling and anxiety. Not what I was expecting at all. Quite a pleasant surprise.

The next day I had two beans! I slept for an hour after eating ... this was not exactly notable as I had not got much sleep the night before. To verify, I had two more beans when I woke up and went on a walk with Elle. No problems came up and if anything, I felt good after the walk!

So, how would I raise the stakes from there?

The end game in my mind was soy sauce. I stopped at a local grocery that had a sushi section and grabbed one of the artisanal soy sauce packets. I mixed it into a meal that was safe. The only thing that could fuck with me would be the soy sauce. 

There was no reaction! I don't enjoy the flavor, I don't feel I was missing out. I did however very much enjoy the lack of feeling! My glands didn't swell, my face didn't tingle, my balance wasn't thrown off. I survived. 

I very much don't understand what has happened with my body. This experiment will be on-going. Perhaps I can put my soy-fears behind me and strive forward into a restaurant and just order something without crippling anxiety.