This post is a primer on symptom logging. If you have Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS) you will likely have a list of foods that you can’t tolerate. You may have a puzzling history of reacting to certain foods in certain circumstances. But you may not have a clear idea of why. By logging your symptoms, and ideally introducing one new food or environmental trigger at a time, you can narrow down the cause of symptom flares.
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Table of Contents
Who is Betsy Leighton?
I’m a writer, blogger, and healer dedicated to helping individuals reconnect with their innate peace and wholeness by healing nervous system dysregulation. My personal experience with chronic illness called Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS) shapes my work, and my content offers tools to empower those with chronic illness to improve their well-being and take charge of their health.
I created the Sacred Self-Healing Method and am a trained and certified Safe and Sound Protocol provider, an author, blogger, and A Course in Miracles Teacher. I hold a Master of Divinity in Spiritual Counseling and am a trained spiritual mentor, with certificates in sound healing, aromatherapy, nutrition, and Sacred Deathcare. I offer a self-study certificate program in the Sacred Self-Healing Method, provide spiritual counseling and coaching, courses, and supported subscriptions for the Safe and Sound Protocol.
What is MCAS?
Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS) is a chronic condition that affects all organ systems. It can cause severe, disabling symptoms every day, including potentially fatal anaphylaxis.
The common triggers for MCAS are infections, toxic exposures including mold exposure and EMFs, trauma, concussions, and stress.
MCAS often occurs with other chronic conditions like Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS) and Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS). Managing MCAS is challenging because many healthcare providers are unaware of it, and diagnostic tests can be unreliable. Treatments include antihistamines and mast cell stabilizers in the form of medications and supplements, along with avoiding triggers. Check out this post on managing MCAS.
Benefits of symptom logging
One of the best ways to start figuring out your food triggers is to keep a symptom and food diary. Start with a list of your most bothersome symptoms and track them against what you ate. It can sound daunting, but here is a simple example:
| Symptoms | 6/5/22 | 6/6/22 | 6/7/22 |
| Bloating | X | X | |
| Joint pain | X | ||
| Migraine | X | X | |
| Tachycardia | X | ||
| New or suspect foods | Cottage cheese | Salad dressing | Avocado |
The bucket theory
The bucket theory simplifies understanding symptom reactions with MCAS. Imagine your body as an empty bucket you don’t want to overflow. Reactions to various stimuli fill the histamine bucket at different rates, forming the total histamine level (how full your bucket is). More histamine means more symptoms. By managing triggers, reducing exposures, and taking medications and supplements, you can control your bucket’s level.
Know your typical symptom progression
Understanding your symptom progression during a flare is key to developing your rescue plan. This post discusses how to recognize symptom progression so you can be prepared to address them.
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Symptom logging tolerated foods
At the same time, keep a list of foods that you can tolerate, your “maybe” foods, and those that you are pretty sure you can’t tolerate.
| Tolerated | Maybe | Not tolerated |
| Cassava flour | Avocado | Vinegar |
What to eliminate
Typically, it is helpful to begin by eliminating all foods high in histamine first (see the list of POSSIBLE FOOD TRIGGERS and the list of GENERALLY TOLERATED FOODS below). Then you can gradually add individual foods back into your diet one at a time, while you keep track of the symptoms you experience when you eat just that food.
It is helpful to leave room on your symptom chart to add new symptoms or ones you forgot to add. If you try something and don’t react to it (like with the Avocado in the example above), you can put it into the “Maybe” category, pending further trials. After trying a possible trigger food, you want to wait a few days before trying it again. Then, after a few times of not reacting to the possible trigger food, you can move it to the “Tolerated” category.
Possible MCAS food triggers
- Unfiltered Tap Water (chlorinated, heavy metals)
- Caffeine & Alcohol (DAO inhibitors)
- Charred/ Burnt Food (especially animal meat/skin)
- Leftovers, Aged foods, Fermented foods, Pickles, Preserves, Olives
- Vinegar (especially rice vinegar)
- Soy Sauce and Soy Products
- Shellfish (Crabs, Prawns, Shrimp, Lobster, Crayfish, Squid, Calamari, Octopus, Mussels, Clams, Oysters, Scallops)
- Bananas
- Citrus Fruit
- Avocado
- Eggs
- All Legumes
- Spicy Food
- Sugar Substitutes
- Salicylates (stevia, etc)
- Oxalates, Salicylates, Lectins
- Additives (colorants, flavors, gums, Sulphites, Preservatives such as Sodium Benzoate)
- Glyco-phosphates in non-organic vegetables
- Gluten
- Nightshade Family vegetables (Tomato, Eggplant, Potatoes, Goji Berries, Peppers)
- Strawberries, Raspberries, Pineapple, Pears, Kiwi Fruit, Papaya
- Nuts (especially peanuts, walnuts, and cashews)
Exercise caution with questionable foods
But it’s best not to consider a food tolerated until you have tried it a few times under different circumstances. What you react to today, for example, when you might be experiencing extra stress, you might not respond to when your bucket is less full. So the best tactic is to take a patient, trial-and-error approach to determine which foods you can tolerate, and try them one at a time to eliminate as many other variables as you can.
Check out these circadian health tools!
I’m an affiliate with Bon Charge, a company that makes tools for circadian health, and you can receive 15% off your order with my coupon code BETSYL.
Bon Charge offers tools such as yellow– and red-tone blue-blocking glasses, red light therapy devices, PEMF mats, infrared saunas, and EMF-blocking products.
Sign up for the SSP!
I’ve found the Safe and Sound Protocol (SSP) to be the most helpful bottom-up healing strategy if your nervous system has been overloaded with toxic exposures, including mold or non-native EMFs, chronic infections, concussions, stress, or trauma. The SSP is a passive listening therapy that helps heal nervous system dysregulation. Many people with MCAS and other chronic conditions have nervous system dysregulation stemming from infections, toxic exposures, concussions, and trauma. The SSP is an easy-to-use app that lets you listen to specially filtered music for 30 minutes each day as part of a 5-hour cycle. Studies show the SSP has a profound effect on mental health and chronic conditions. Here’s a short podcast describing the Safe and Sound Protocol.
You can sign up for the SSP here!
Heal your mind!
While the SSP is a bottom-up, somatic therapy for healing the nervous system, the Sacred Self-Healing Method I offer is a top-down nervous system-healing modality that focuses on cognition, attention, perception, and emotion, using the mind’s higher functions. The SSP and the Sacred Self-Healing Method complement each other and together produce lasting results. Here’s a short podcast on my self-healing practice.
I provide one-on-one in-person and remote chronic illness and caregiver coaching, as well as Sacred Self-Healing Sessions based on the Sacred Self-Healing Method, a proven, novel co-creative healing modality detailed in my Books.
Order my books!
Here’s a short podcast highlighting my five books.
My latest book, Living In The Light: Healing with Forgiveness, Sound, and Light, is all about the tools that have been most helpful for me to heal: forgiveness, sound, through nervous system retraining using the Safe and Sound Protocol, and light, through entraining my circadian rhythm with the energy of the sun. Living In The Light is available here!
Rocks and Roots chronicles my solo backpacking journey on the Superior Hiking Trail and my efforts to overcome nervous system dysregulation, gut dysbiosis, and Mast Cell Activation Syndrome symptoms to complete the 328-mile hike successfully.
The Sacred Self-Healing Method ebook is available here and in most ebook retailers!
The Sacred Self-Healing Workbook is available for purchase here!
Betsy’s first book, Sacred Self-Healing: Finding Peace Through Forgiveness, is available here
Companion Recordings
The companion audio recordings of chants, guided meditations, and sound healing demonstrations that accompany the Sacred Self-Healing Method are available for free on my YouTube channel here
What do you think?
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Disclaimer
The preceding material does not constitute medical advice. This information is for information purposes only and is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, cure, or treatment.
