Withdrawls

Inevitably, you will probably not feel very good the first week on the JK diet. If you are allergic or sensitive to any of the foods (which is highly likely since most of the foods are the most common allergic foods), you may experience withdrawls. If you are experiencing headaches from caffeine withdrawl or various symptoms from sugar withdrawl, you may be helped by an increase in vitamin C intake. When I am experiencing headaches from dairy consumption (I am allergic)- I often take vitamin C and it works wonders. It tends to dull the headache and speed up the withdrawl process. Also, be sure to drink lots of water.

Some of the symptoms that would be normal to experience are: headaches, irritability, increased stuffiness, fatigue, joint aches, anxiety, digestive upset and of course uncontrollable food cravings. Don't worry- you are not dying! Your body is just cleaning out all the toxins that have accumulated over time. Your body is saying- finally a break from sugar and caffeine, etc.! Now I can clean house. But all those toxins have to travel all through your body before they can leave. That is why water is important- just like you need water to rinse the dirt off your car, you need water to wash out all the toxins. Otherwise, they just sit there and continue to make you feel bad and have cravings!

I first read about Vitamin C's ability to help with withdrawl symptoms in Dr. James Braly's book, Dr. Braly's Food Allergy and Nutrition Revolution. He writes:

"Why does Vitamin C do the trick? One reason may be that food allergy sufferers have a tendency to be hyperacidic, and acidity deactiviates Vitamin C. Very large quantities of C are needed to make up for this tendency to deactivate it. Yet another explaination for Vitamin C's antiwithdrawl effect is its ability to stimulate the production of anti-inflammatory prostaglandins, thereby suppressing the production of proinflammatory prostagalndins. Vitamin C is also a powerful detoxifier of the system. High ammounts of Vitamin C may produce mid diarrhea, which leads to cleaning of the gastrointestinal tract." (If you would like to read more about this therapy, you can read about it in Dr. Braly's book or in Dr. Balch's book, listed on the books page- but I don't feel I should outline it here).

Remember, withdrawls are only temporary if you are experiencing them. However, the length of time you experience them depends on lots of things. You may be tempted to cheat, to drink a cup of coffee or eat a cookie. That may stop the withdrawl process temporarily, but it will just start all over again the next day. Hang on if you can- but if can't, don't be hard on yourself. Look at it as a learning experience- notice how you feel, etc. Then just get back on track and start over.

When I first found out I was allergic to dairy, eggs and wheat- I couldn't beleive it. It took me along time to learn how to eat without these things in my diet. In the meantime, I had a lot of slip ups. I hope to share what I have learned to make that process a little easier for each of you!

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