Allergies:

Every year of my life I've suffered with some sinus/allergy issues.  They've been most prominent from around November-April every year.  Due to this, over the past 3-4 years my family doctor has been telling me to go see an ENT or Allergist.  This year, I finally listened.  After some brief Q & A they quickly determined that I should be tested for mold/dust allergies.  I asked about diet and environmental changes, but they wanted to wait until all testing was complete before making any recommendations.  After weeks of waiting, last week the allergist pricked my skin with lots of different molds, dust mites, cockroaches and candida (a natural yeast in the human body).

As it so happens, I have some allergies (no surprise there).  An average dust-mite allergy and an average mold allergy were the two first culprits.  But the Candida pricks just kept coming.  Turns out, I have a pretty severe intolerance to candida.  In fact, the allergist told me she had never seen a case as "extreme" as mine.  And apparently, anytime I eat "moldy" foods, it severely exacerbates the problem.  I knew a diet change was in order, but I didn't expect it to be to this extreme.

Foods I can't (or shouldn't) eat include:

• Cheese of all kinds (Farmer's Cheese and Amish Butter Cheese are the only acceptable cheeses.)
• Chocolate - all of it
• Peanuts and Pistachios
• Citrus Juices (Orange juice, lemonade, etc.)
• All soft drinks, regular or diet (coke, pepsi, root-beer...all of it -- gone!)
• Anything fermented (beer, wine, soy sauce, a1 sauce, worchestershire sauce, etc.)
• Anything with refined sugars (all sugar should be all natural / organic.)
• Anything with aspertame (splenda, sweet n low, etc.)
• And all yeasty breads/pastas/etc.  Whole grain or whole wheat everything...and even that should be in lower amounts than before.

Apparently, I have a huge amount of Candida in my system (which in and of itself causes problems), but when I eat anything on this list above it essentially ferments and causes digestion issues, as well as overall sluggishness...and sinus/allergy issues, too. 

Today, I'm five days into my new eating routine.  I've quickly discovered that I must have been "sluggish" before...as I'm feeling really good!  I DO have some severe cravings for sugary snacks and breads right now, but it'll go away in good time.  And while I realize that I'm very early on in this process, it's good to finally have answers and get on the right track.

Of all the items listed above, what would be the most difficult for you to give up?

PS: If you know of any chicken/beef marinades that don't contain any of these items in them, feel free to pass the recipe along!