Forbidden Fruit

I've mentioned my food allergies before. Sometimes people ask why don't you cheat on your diet. Well, because I will suffer, that's why. But the week before last I took a chance and had just a little bit of fruit in some soy yogurt, figuring maybe the processing and enzymes would have made the fruit safer. It didn't.

My gums swelled and got very sore. This was 11 days ago and they still have not recovered completely. Last week I went to Frank's dentist (he had to go anyway so I went with him). Dr. Zale said my teeth were fine but my gums looked angry. He recommended salt water rinses. That was a week ago and there's been a definite improvement. Only the back left gums are inflamed and sore now. But even that is enough to make chewing and biting painful, so I've been eating soft foods. And I'm getting tired of them. My diet was already limited, and now I'm feeling hungry.

Why did I even buy that yogurt? Well, there are three stores in Harrisonburg that carry soy yogurt, none that carry goat yogurt, and nothing closer. (Harrisonburg is an hour from home.) When we were there two weeks ago, I went to Kate's Natural Foods and Kroger and neither one had any flavors that I can eat safely. We didn't have time to go to Sue's Nutrition before they closed so I decided to try some raspberry yogurt. Never again.

Funny thing, I don't tolerate soy except in yogurt. I use it as a salad dressing because vinegar does not agree with me.

My gums have reacted this way to fruit before and the awful thing is that when they swell a lot, particles of food get stuck between the gum and teeth. Last time I wound up having the dentist fix this and maybe I'll have to do it again. I hope not.