Allergies are becoming increasingly common. For adults constant allergies can make life miserable. Parents caring for children with severe allergies live in constant fear. In practically all cases allergies interrupt the quality of life. By understanding diet, lifestyle and gut function a natural holistic approach will make an enormous difference with a liberating outcome. Sharon Selby and her client Lisa discuss how with structure and minimal fuss the changes that can literally change lives.
Allergies are becoming increasingly common. For adults constant allergies can make life miserable. Parents caring for children with severe allergies live in constant fear. In practically all cases allergies interrupt the quality of life. By understanding diet, lifestyle and gut function a natural holistic approach will make an enormous difference with a liberating outcome. Sharon Selby and her client Lisa discuss how with structure and minimal fuss the changes that can literally change lives.
This morning, I'll be talking to Sharon Selby and her client, Lisa, about allergies. Allergies are a predominant issue in the Australian healthcare environment. We have in Australia, one of the highest allergy rates in the world. And it's increasing rapidly along with the rate of anaphylaxis. When we talk about food allergies, it impacts about one in 10 kids, and about one in 20 name Sharon water. But I'm really interested to know Sharon, how you got involved in this area from the beginning.
Sharon Selby:Yeah, yes, definitely wasn't part of my career plan at school. It all came about by accident. Actually, I moved to Australia 11 years ago, with no real health, no health issues that I knew of. And I was a new mum. And we traveled overseas to move to Australia, my son was seven weeks old. And very quickly afterwards, I developed really chronic hay fever and asthma. So I went to my I was relying on some of the biscuits and things like that, and increase the amount of fruit and vegetables in my diet. So I had a goal of like five fruit and veg, and no dairy or gluten and take out the packets. And it seemed quite extreme. But after two weeks, I felt pretty good. And I started getting all this energy. And so I carried on and the headaches stopped straightaway. And then after level of confidence to treat him with diet. And I really worked on his diet. And that's where I became really passionate about cooking. And as a busy mom working, I'd already started developing my business, I really specialized and focused on how can I cook really gorgeous whole food meals, but quickly, efficiently, cost effectively and with as little time as possible. And that I think, is a
Daniel Baden:That's really interesting. I looked at your website earlier, and you have a quote on there, which I really like eating allergy free isn't the same as eating healthy. Clearly your journey has evolved over time. Because when you started off with yourself, you took all the junk out of your diet. And so you're eating healthy. But how did you transition into allergy free, which is, as you
Sharon Selby:Yeah, so this is I'm really glad you raised that. Because when I was going through this whole healing journey with Cooper and my son, I joined many Facebook groups, groups to support mums going through this situation because I felt very alone, I didn't think anyone was dealing with the kind of issues that I was dealing with. And then it was in these groups that I saw. So many moms
Daniel Baden:Do you find that the information, the recipes and the knowledge that you provide? is in conflict with the information that you that patients or clients get from other health professionals or hospitals or are you kind of tracking the same way?
Sharon Selby:It's actually quite different. So medically, I think we're told that we can't reverse allergies, or you know, wait and see hopefully things will get better. I think what they do well is they help the patients survive. So they the challenges necessary if you're dealing with anaphylaxis, I guess I think it's very limited and so my message is the body is not supposed to be reacting to
Daniel Baden:Yeah. And then I guess you're also negotiating with schools and what foods you can take to schools and what food other kids going to school and going over to kids for sleepovers or plays or whatever, all becomes a bit stressful as well.
Sharon Selby:Very, so some we didn't go to birthday parties in the first year with Cooper, it just wasn't worth the stress.
Daniel Baden:Okay, yes, I get it. Do you work with kids only? Or are you seeing out also also?
Sharon Selby:Well, everything that I share applies to everybody. But because I had a child with multiple food allergies, that became an area I became extremely passionate about. And I knew as mothers how stressful this was. And I can give the advice of you know, this is what we can do with the diet. But that in itself can be rather stressful. So where I really help is providing the recipes, the
Daniel Baden:an interesting tangent. We're talking about kids and adults, but you. Thank you both. Yes, yeah. But
Sharon Selby:everything that I share is absolutely relevant to men, women, grandparents is just about eating real food. I think we've paid the price for convenience with our health. And our children. children's generation are really expressing that, that issue quite a lot now.
Daniel Baden:Oh, absolutely. So you describe yourself as a allergy health coach. And I do pick up on the word coach, because that indicates to me that you're,, walking a journey hand in hand with your client or but do you prefer client or patient? I'm sorry?
Sharon Selby:Actually i don't mind.....friends
Daniel Baden:With Friends presume the way you work because of the terminology you describe yourself as is that you're working in a very close relationship with your client. And I guess that's kind of different to the medical model. What's the benefit of that?
Sharon Selby:I think there's a gap here to support parents and families. So you've got the practitioners that can give the brilliant direction, they can do the testing, they can provide the supplements or you know, the medication. But then you've got what's happening at home. So I'm a real believer that you can get the direction from the expert. But we're at home 99% of the time, so but
Daniel Baden:Because it is a whole family has to be involved in the whole process. Well, said thank you. I just wanted to build a bit of context around what you do so we can understand Lisa's story a little bit more. Lisa, welcome.
Lisa:Thank you.
Daniel Baden:What's your son or daughter's name?
Lisa:o my daughter's Olivia. She's 19 now and we basically just had his just anaphylactic like reaction to nuts. It's we discovered at the age of 18 months,
Daniel Baden:and then how did you discover that what The early symptoms I mean anaphylaxis is obvious because it's a very serious condition. That's right. Were there any warning signs that led up to the first anaphylactic reaction?
Lisa:Besides, actually, I suppose, eczema, which is a sign, which is always linked with allergies, she really had, she always had eczema as a young child, but other than that, there was nothing. And I've always avoided giving her any kind of not because of the fact that she was more concerned about the choking aspect that that point ever gave her lungs at an early age, in hindsight now, I don't
Daniel Baden:You have avoided nuts because you're concerned about allergies. And I guess there are many theories around that these days. And there was even an article that came out one of the medical journals yesterday that talked about the importance of early exposure. Do you feel or do you have any knowledge around whether early exposure would have made a difference? Or not allergies common in
Lisa:No, no one has any allergies that I'm aware of my sister in law has a shellfish allergy. But other than that, there's no no allergies. So yes, I've I do believe that perhaps having exposed exposed in the beer to nuts earlier could have assisted. But anyway, that's hindsight. It's great.
Daniel Baden:I thought is wonderful. You know, it's really interesting, because in some countries like Israel, for example, they give infants teething rusks, which are made out of peanuts. And the rate of allergy is just non existent just about peanuts and nuts. Once you have the first anaphylactic episode, how old was she? That she was true.
Lisa:We were at a party, and she was just sitting on my husband's lap, and she was, he was eating peanut. And then he kissed her. And she then and then he, he gave her a little peanut to eat. And as soon as he kissed her face to the swelling, and it didn't dawn on me, and then I actually realized, oh, my gosh, she's having an anaphylactic attack. So I called an ambulance. And we took her to
Daniel Baden:Scary. Yeah. And into the deep water straightaway.
Lisa:Yeah, it was very scary. Yeah, just not not being able to assist in not knowing I think it was no knowledge of what was happening. That was what was so scary. What was
Daniel Baden:the journey from then on? Did you end up on the cycle of seeing many specialists in hospitals and that sort of thing? Or did you go more the holistic naturopathic sort of way.
Lisa:So straight off, we had an appointment with a doctor in his clinic, who's the head of pediatric allergy G at the Children's Hospital here in Adelaide. And he was wonderful. And he's sort of we did tests on Olivia and she came up as an anaphylactic to all nuts. And so he just said, Look, just avoid knots. And would it be a can and, and as Sharon was talking about birthday parties, it's easy
Daniel Baden:Did she have another anaphylactic reaction.
Lisa:Yes, she did. She did have another anaphylactic reaction. There was a cake that had peanut in it that she wasn't aware of. And she was at a friend's house and she had a reaction. Luckily, she had an epi pen on her and it was only a five minute drive from my house. So I went and administered the epi pen called an ambulance. And yes, she was okay. We had two epi pens that day. And we spent
Daniel Baden:she became very aware herself, I guess
Unknown:very much so and unfortunately, I felt like a bit of a sergeant having to drill it into her but it was more because I I was scared when I she got to an age that I didn't have to stay at birthday parties and I wasn't expect day and so you having to pass that trust over to her which she She's wonderful, but it's just you're having to she has to be aware and advising parents and
Daniel Baden:You went to the medical specialists, the pediatric specialists who advise you not to eat nuts, and how did the story develop from there what happened next?
Lisa:So basically, we just I've always been more of a person that believed in naturopaths. And going along the natural side of medicine. And I've always been reading up about allergies. And then I came across Sharon, via Pete Evans podcast I subscribed to hidden, and she was a guest on there. And what she was talking about with her son resonated with me, and I was thinking, Oh, my gosh, just
Daniel Baden:Okay, so how old was Olivia? When you met Sharon?
Unknown:Olivia was 16
Daniel Baden:So that was back in 2020. Yeah, you had a chat with Sharon and Olivia was present, I presume, did what she had to say shock you or feel that Sharon's paradigm of what she offered made sense to you.
Lisa:It made complete sense to me, healing the gut, made complete sense to me. So we were really, I was really excited. I think Olivia was really nervous. I was really excited about heading down that direction. And I knew it was going to be difficult for Olivia just having to cut lots of food groups out. But we did it as a family as a unit.
Daniel Baden:So what did healing the gut involve?
Lisa:Well, basically cutting out suspects like, dairy, wheat, gluten, sugar, excess sugar, we still had fruits and things like that, but just just items that you know, I think, basically triggered inflammation of the gut.
Sharon Selby:The thing Daniel is meant when many people work with me, they'll say, You know what, I don't have an allergy to dairy or gluten or something. It's only to nuts or eggs. But it's having some of these foods that can be quite inflammatory on the gut. That makes us sensitive to other foods, even things like apples and bananas or salicylate foods, or histamine foods. So we'll with you,
Daniel Baden:slowly, no, it's a family effort. It's really interesting it there's definitely a knock on effect with allergies. And one will have, as you just mentioned, Sharon, trigger another because you're changing the pH of the gut environment, and you change that pH and all of a sudden the microbiome changes. And there are all sorts of reflex added ongoing effects that happen throughout
Sharon Selby:say these things are triggers but they're not the actual cause what's the cause and it generally comes down to inflammation. So when there's inflammation in the gut, we can't absorb those nutrients well, and so when I work with patients like Lisa on my course, it's what can we add in the diet so it's not the focus not only just on what are we taking out because that's very
Daniel Baden:You're completely on the money it's about making sure people feel that they have lots of options and therefore they have control themselves. And that's really important did Olivia get very engaged in the cooking and diet preparation yourself?
Lisa:Yeah, she did. She assisted and we like went shopping together and purchased items and looking you know, reading everything on the what was in things and yeah, so we were introduced to a lot and Sharon gave us an well like huge amount of recipes that were so delicious that we were making our own muesli bars and protein balls and doing celery juice and our beautiful smoothie which we still
Daniel Baden:It sounds like you had a bit of fun around this as well.
Lisa:Yeah, it was good. It was just it was just a new education, rewiring our brain almost.
Daniel Baden:Did you find that process of relearning was more or less a bonding experience for the family as well?
Lisa:Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. It was really good.
Daniel Baden:Great outcome. Compliance. Sounds like it was a breeze for the whole family, including husband.
Lisa:Yeah, yeah, he was good. Okay.
Sharon Selby:Normally, that's where I run into trouble.
Daniel Baden:Well, those of you that are listening to this just couldn't see Sharon's look of surprise
Sharon Selby:I think actually, having worked with so many people, 1000s of people now that moms are quite surprised. There's normally moms that I work with, I think there's a belief that this is going to be so hard. So a lot of mums don't try, but the ones that do are generally quite surprised how simple delicious, and actually how accommodating the kids will be if we don't apply stress and
Daniel Baden:Absolutely right kids, kids are more able to cope with them we give them credit for.
Sharon Selby:And I do get that because mums are so challenged in these situations. So add in another challenge, like oh, let's just let's just change up the diet a little bit. I mean, that's a huge thing to do. But it's not actually. So depending on that when I work with people, it's either, like, How bad are the symptoms? How hard do we have to go? And what are you prepared to take on because
Daniel Baden:looser, let's talk about results. How long did you start to see a change? And what was that change after your dietary change at home?
Lisa:So with Olivia, she had anxiety, so it assisted her anxiety, she was constantly bloated in his stomach, and that sort of disappeared. And then the big transformation was with the allergy was also when we it was just ironic that we had like our visit to our allergist in I think it was about August 2020. And he did get skin prick test on Olivia and he said oh, he goes I think she's her
Daniel Baden:How long did that take from when you saw or installed Sharon's program until that day?
Lisa:I think it was probably about three months. Three months. is incredible. Three months.
Daniel Baden:That is a wonderful result. Wonderful outcome. I'm sure you still have a little tear in your eye when you think about it now.
Lisa:Oh, it's incredible. And actually, we did a macadamia challenge a year after that, and she can eat macadamia nut almond smell. So that's been almonds have been life changing because we use it constantly now, almond milks all we have now and
Daniel Baden:look, just be careful on the macadamias. They're quite expensive, so
Sharon Selby:amazing, isn't it a 16 year sort of avoiding of food. And it's just incredible how it's incredible how healing the body is. It's designed to thrive,
Daniel Baden:yeah, and how forgiving it can be, and how
Sharon Selby:forgiving it can be. And also how incredibly powerful our mums are. And we are feeling so disempowered. I think people patients or mums, dads, people, we feel disempowered. You know, we get advice, and then then we think there's absolutely nothing we can do. And it's it's that thought process that has led to a lot of unnecessary conditions and having to live with conditions for too
Daniel Baden:Yeah, absolutely. That's the whole point of this podcast is to try to talk to people about what the options are. Yeah. What's happened next this so three months after she was able to retirements and did things just continue to improve? Or was there a relapse at any point?
Lisa:No, she never relapse with honors that we kept we she eats or drinks almond milk, or has some form of almond in her diet at least, or every day with almond milk, but expose them at least four times a week with eating them. And I use I baked with almond meal rather than flour now. And so I've really introduced it into our diet as well. Which which helps.
Daniel Baden:And what about, like peanuts, for example?
Lisa:Yeah, peanut and cashews. She's still allergic. She still saw the allergist because she's now 18. So she saw the pediatric allergist last year for the last time. And he said all that the piano and catch you well had gone down a little bit but he said I still wouldn't recommend to eating and so she got that it you know, she doesn't want to try anything. But anyhow should slow steps. We're
Daniel Baden:Well, hopefully there's continued improvement with that as the as you continue that diet and lifestyle. Yeah, very good. That's all very impressive. And now she's just continuing on her 18 year old adolescent. Yeah,
Lisa:that's absolutely yeah, she's at university now when she's an adult going out. And yeah, and that's, I think that that was that's given me confidence because as a, as a mother of a child with an allergy having to let them go out and go to restaurants and try things and that was always a difficult thing to do. But now that I know that she's she can eat almonds and macadamias and you know,
Daniel Baden:about anxiety and bloatedness
Lisa:yet, if if she veers away from diet, it does affect her and I think that's why the way it has to do with gut health but normally with staying on a normal diet that we have, she's normally she's quite good.
Daniel Baden:Okay, all right. Well, look, you know, no doubt that die can impact everything from psychological health, mental health and physiological health. So absolutely, thank you. That is that is a really reassuring story. I'm very grateful they said that you found some time to have a chat to us. Thank you so much. And I hope people learn and hear this and learn what they can do. Sharon,
Sharon Selby:Oh, that's so nice to hear. Deliciously allergy free.com is my website I you know I'm so passionate about this work so there's free resources on there I do free cooking classes online. And then if you want to do what Lisa did, you know there's various memberships and courses as well. But yeah, get in touch because there is so much more you can do at home and you know, we say
Daniel Baden:Yeah. Wonderful. I love it. Keep up the good work. We'll speak soon, I hope.
Lisa:Thank you,
Sharon Selby:thank you.
Daniel Baden:Take care.