
- Dairy
- Corn (including corn syrup and pop corn)
- Gluten
- Soy
- Night Shade foods (potatoes, peppers, tomatoes, tobacco, and eggplant)
Often, by eliminating one or more of these foods for 8 weeks and slowly reintroducing them, you can feel the effects of the culprit immediately. Then simply keep them from your diet fare for a more carefree style of living with less flare ups.
But sometimes you may need to test other offending foods to see if they may be contributing to the pain cycle. By using Dr. Coca's Pulse test, you can go a bit deeper and try to pinpoint other sensitivities in your diet. Make sure you keep a food diary of each food tested as Fibro Fog may have you testing various foods twice!
His method was simple, check your pulse rate at precise times several times before and after digesting a single food item and look for an increase in pulse rate. This could be a long process to test all possible offending foods, but well worth it!
Get a small piece of the food that you want to check and sit at a table. Rest for a few minutes to allow your pulse rate to drop. Then check your pulse at your wrist for a full minute (time it with the second hand of a clock or watch or use the minutes on a digital clock) and count how many beats you feel. Once you have your resting pulse rate, put the piece of food on your tongue (only one type of food at a time) and keep it there for at least 30 seconds before you check your pulse rate again for a full minute with the food staying on your tongue the entire time.
If your pulse increases 4 or more beats per minute (3 if you have type O blood), the food is causing a stress response because it is an irritant to you. Don’t swallow that food!
The original pulse test in 1956 asked you to chew and swallow food. It is believed this is no longer needed.
You can repeat this test with another food once your pulse has returned to its resting rate.