Local raw honey helps food sensitivities? News to me...

In my search to get my digestive system behaving so that I can take the leap from being on the elimination diet to actually challenging suspect foods, I wandered into The Herbal Path Pharmacy in Portsmouth, NH. It was a mixed experience. The first time I went in, the lady (I didn't get her name, which I regret) was helpful and showed me hemp hearts (give me a little more time with these and I'll blog about my thoughts), gave me a free sample, said they would help. I found her to be a little too sure about the information she was providing - I'm always skeptical when someone - with great conviction - says they know what will help b/c food allergies/intolerance/sensitivities are not an exact science. Everyone's body behaves differently and she didn't have one drop of info about my LONG history...

Anyhow, I liked the taste of hemp hearts and I did a lot of reading about their claims, so I went back to buy a container of them and to try a new probiotic. There were 2 women working that day and I felt as though they tag-teamed me a bit. When reading the label of the probiotic they recommended, I commented that it contains rice, and that I'm avoiding rice as a part of an elimination diet, so I would need to pick another one. The woman who is studying some advance degree launched into how she just went to a class lecture and that rice is the safest grain in the world. I explained that my research has shown that too, but a rice sensitivity is not unheard of...I've had great luck w/ previous elimination diets and I'm testing out less common foods. They got quiet and shrugged their shoulders in a way that made me think that they were thinking "she's nuts."

Then the other woman said, "You've got food sensitivities? You need raw local honey. That'll cure them." I explained that my research has shown that raw local honey might help with environmental allergies, but I hadn't seen any regarding food sensitivities. She said that I had nothing to lose by trying it...At this point, I was in a hurry and felt that it would go no where to explain that I've been working on restoring the balance of bacteria in my system and that honey would be sure to throw that off again, so I kept quiet. Not to mention that "cure" is a very strong word. Because I was in a hurry and I'm getting desperate to challenge, I did follow through w/ making my two purchases, though today I regret it.

I went home and researched raw local honey again, and found the same results as before - nothing ties it to helping food sensitivities. I'm not saying it doesn't - I'm saying I don't know, and I'm saying that to make this claim with such conviction doesn't make sense. ...and then not to really listen to a customer with a different opinion doesn't feel good.

The morale of the story is - be careful of folks who no doubt want to be helpful, but who don't have all the information. There are very few absolutes when it comes to discovering and adapting to food allergies, intolerance, and sensitivities. This is why we need to support & advocate for more research, and to carefully experiment and listen to our bodies. I'm going to add this pharmacy to my list of places to gently educate...