Yep, you read that right. No, I’m not crazy.
This has happened several times now. After eating something that my digestive tract disagreed with or my body did not like for some reason, my inner elbow on my right arm (for some reason it only happens on that side, perhaps because it’s my dominant arm) develops a red, bumpy rash.
This is my body signaling to me that I have eaten something it doesn’t like. This is basically an allergic reaction; my elbow is telling me to stop eating whatever food caused this. It doesn’t itch much, but it’s unpleasant to have there.
I have a few options as a human in this situation:
- Ignore it and hope it goes away on its own
- Refuse to acknowledge that it means anything and continue to eat whatever I ate before
- Notice it and say “Hey, what the hell is going on here?” and try to figure out what it is or what’s causing it.
I choose option 3, because I’m in tune enough with my body to know that my skin is sending me a message.
Our skin is an indicator of our overall health. Almost universally, if you notice a condition developing on your skin (rash, dryness, flaking, bumps, etc.) it’s an indication that something is wrong with your gut.
In my case, I took this photo while I was traveling. I had stupidly trusted that a Smoothie place at the airport only had fruit in their drink. This rash on my inner elbow proves that they probably spiked their smoothie with sugar or something else that my gut disagreed with.
Yes, now that I’m older, I’m wiser. And I’m also allergic to all kinds of crap in the Western Diet. I can no longer eat anything made with wheat, cow dairy, soy, or cane sugar. That rules out my being able to comfortably eat 95% of all processed (pre-packaged) foods.
I’ve been on my own gut healing journey since 2020, when I was diagnosed with rosacea on my face after spending more than 17 years having chronic candida symptoms. After testing out a dozen different probiotics and other healing methods for over a year, I finally got my gut health under control. Then I started helping other people heal themselves as well. That’s why I developed my Gut Healing Protocol.
As I get older, I continue to learn new things about my body. This aversion to anything made with cane sugar is new to me, but the good thing is that I know how to work around it. I love cooking my own meals and making my own snacks. I just need to be super diligent about reading the ingredients labels on everything I consume.
I don’t plan on ever trusting Airport Food again. And from now on, I’ll stick to making my own Smoothies.