Seasonal Allergies and The Hallelujah Diet

Ahh, the smell of freshly mowed grass, the trees in full bloom; all nature is awake and going full bore. But so is your nose. And your itchy, burning eyes. And the sneezing, the congestion…could someone please take me back to winter? If this describes you, then you know more (by experience) about allergic rhinitis than you ever cared to. You know that putting up with what seems like a non-stop head cold is miserable. What you may not know, however, is that there are scores of testimonies on the Hallelujah Acres website of people whose allergies disappeared after they adopted The Hallelujah Diet. Sometimes it was the main part of their story, but more often their allergies disappeared while they were dealing with other health challenges. I can’t prove to you that it works 100 percent of the time, but it works and it works well quite often. So, how does it work? It’s a combination of increased cellular energy (including higher glutathione levels), unloading of a heavy toxin burden, and better barrier function of the gut. The science of allergies says that when you are exposed to pollen, dust mites, mold, animal dander, or other allergic triggers, then mast cells — especially concentrated in the sinuses and respiratory tract — degranulate, producing histamine and other inflammatory chemicals which cause all of the usual symptoms mentioned above. As a short-term response to eliminate a foreign invader like a virus or bacteria, this could be a good thing. But when ordinary exposures cause chronic rhinitis, the inflammation is no longer appropriate. Allergies in the body can be viewed like muddy water going through a coffee filter. As long as the flow rate going into the filter isn’t too fast and the filter doesn’t get plugged, then everything is OK. But if you pour too fast it’s a big mess. Or if the filter gets plugged with gunk, then the liquid won’t go through. Everything gets stopped up and you can’t put any more muddy water in until you clean the filter. It takes some extra energy to clean the filter and the filter may need some periodic removal of gunk because the mud just won’t go through. Like the mud in this example, your body is subjected to many chemicals from outside the body, especially indoor air, the water we drink and bathe in, the food we eat, and the environment we live and work in. In addition, your body produces a considerable amount of metabolic waste from the inside, just to keep you alive. Your body has to deal with all of these assaults while producing a clean stream of cellular energy to propel you through life. Your skin, liver, kidneys, and lungs are the coffee filter for your body. They have to strain out, detoxify, and eliminate these toxins. They are very busy. If they get plugged up and can’t get rid of the waste fast enough, your body begins to back up like a bad sewer. Just like the messy filter plugged with mud, your body gets plugged with metabolic and environmental toxins — which leads to physical problems. To avoid the problem, slow down the toxic input. As much as possible, make sure you have clean air, pure water to drink, and organic foods to eat. You probably can’t get this all right all of the time, so you also need to implement a second strategy: Clean out the filter. How do you clean out your liver, kidneys, lungs, and skin? It isn’t as simple as just using a colon cleanse product. A real cleaning requires more cellular energy. Glutathione - At the center of the junction between oxidative stress, inflammation, and detoxification stands glutathione. When you adopt The Hallelujah Diet, your body produces more glutathione. Glutathione is a great antioxidant and a principal detoxifying agent that is made inside your cells. Raw foods like BarleyMax, vegetable juice, green smoothies, and raw entrees boost your body’s stores of glutathione. Not only do they provide some of the precursors of glutathione, they provide a whole host of antioxidants that take the oxidative stress load off of glutathione so it can be used for detoxification rather than for snuffing out free radicals. Cellular Energy - When you eat raw foods you provide your cells with vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, phytochemicals, and vital energy. Your living cells thrive on living food! The abundant amounts of antioxidants in living food protects your cells’ power generators (mitochondria) from being damaged and destroyed by free radicals. You can literally feel the action of free radicals — have you noticed a low energy state when you have an allergy attack? Providing your body with cellular energy means your body’s filters can do more work. Devitalized foods will also zap your cellular energy rather than augmenting it. If your liver is already fattened by high fructose corn syrup, your colon is plugged with white flour and animal protein, and your kidneys are overrun by table salt, caffeine, and ammonia (from the animal protein), your cells have no reserve energy to deal with pollen, dust mites, mold, and animal dander. Clean Fuel – Adopting The Hallelujah Diet instantly puts a much higher quality of fuel in your “tank.” In terms of the muddy filter analogy, it’s like running tap water through your filter rather than murky pond water. It’s easier to filter because there is less gunk. In contrast, when you eat animal products, you get the residue left over from the animal’s internal filters because, like you, livestock are bio-accumulators of environmental toxins. The small amounts of pesticides in the grains they eat don’t all get eliminated but get stored in the animal’s fat, just like it does in yours. And when you think of all the grain livestock eat, there’s a lot of pesticide build-up in their fat. Improving Your Intestinal Barrier - When you adopt The Hallelujah Diet you also directly improve the gut barrier. Many people who have allergies have a leaky gut. This means that undigested proteins and food particles pass through the intestinal wall and into the bloodstream. Your white blood cells scream, “Invader!” and go on the attack to eliminate the foreigner. This is the classic food allergy scenario, though it can take three days before symptoms show up, making it hard to see the connections between foods and symptoms. And just how does leaky gut affect your allergic rhinitis? You have to look at the whole system as the filter, not just the respiratory tract. If the filter is getting filled with food allergies, it doesn’t have the cellular energy to deal with the pollen at the same time. The flow rate is too fast for your filter, especially if you are not eating a diet that promotes high cellular energy. You can improve a leaky gut by eliminating added sugars (which contribute to leaky gut), eating salads and raw fruits, and eating whole grains and legumes. Sugar feeds candida, which contributes to a leaky gut, too. The soluble fiber from fruits and vegetables feed the beneficial bacteria lining your small intestine and colon, which produce the short-chain fatty acids propionate and butyrate, which are the main fuels of the cells lining the colon. They stay healthy this way; but if they lack energy, inflammation and sickness are not too far away. The insoluble fibers help propel the food along, making intestinal peristalsis effective so the digested remains of your food don’t stay in your system and putrefy. By improving the gut barrier you eliminate the flow of possible allergens into the bloodstream and lessen the burden on your immune system and your elimination organs. You aren't doomed to suffer through your summer allergies. In a very short time of following The Hallelujah Diet, you will likely find than can enjoy your summer with a lot more freedom.