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Weight Gain - Limited Diet

unknown

I was recently diagnosed with Eosinophilic Esophigitis at age 35 after probably a lifetime of being misdiagnosed with either acid reflux, GERD, and anxiety disorder. I am 5'5" and weigh about 114 which fluctuates between 110-115. Due to years of not knowing what was wrong with me, I had a really difficult time gaining/keeping weight on. I used to get really sick after eating, sometimes not being able to eat for a full day afterwards.

Now that I've been on a limited diet that has been helping to prevent me from getting sick, I'm still having trouble putting weight on. Ideally, I would like to be at least 120. I've been tracking calories, and making sure I have the correct nutrition, but it's been tough even getting a full 2000 calorie daily diet. I can't have soy, dairy, eggs, wheat, peanuts, or fish. Soy, dairy and wheat affect me the worst though, so every once in a while I'll still have fish or eggs with no issues.

Has anyone had this kind of issue? I guess I'm looking for any kind of advice as this is all very new to me. I spend a lot of time reading labels now, and it seems like there is soy in everything out there. Very frustrating.

unknown

Check out the AIP diet (autoimmune protocol). The best groups are on facebook, such as "AIP Support." There are also blogs. Even if you don't do the diet itself you might like it as a recipe and nutrition information source. In AIP, everything you can't eat is disallowed, except for the seafood. There are also lots of people doing AIP that want to gain weight.

In addition to that, I really recommend seeing a good ND or similar natural health practitioner. Do you have hypochlorhydria?

unknown

I will look into that too. I had to look up hypochlorhydria up, I think I have the opposite of that. I'm on two separate medications currently, one for too much stomach acid and another is a steroid/cortisone that I take as a precaution to the allergies. When I found out I had EoE, my esophagus was pretty scared and I've already had to go in twice to have the scar tissue removed. I don't have the type of allergic reactions to most foods like I thought I would. It's delayed a little and is almost like food poisoning, except my throat feels like I have something stuck in it. Avocados and some seafood makes me break out in hives though.

I think GERD is something different because if I could eat the food I'm allergic to to fatten up a little, I would. But unfortunately, it causes me a lot of pain, and I usually end up vomiting anyway. I've been sort of successfully avoiding the foods that give me reactions, and managed to gain back what I lost after my second surgery just by eating a lot of coconut milk ice cream but I don't want to keep relying on only that.