This article is based on my personal experience. Symptoms and individual constitutions vary, so what worked for me may not work for everyone. This is not a substitute for medical diagnosis or treatment. Please read it as one person’s experience.

Today, I’d like to share the diet that I feel has made a significant difference in easing my symptoms of allergies, pustulosis palmaris et plantaris (PPP), and multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS)!

Since developing PPP in 2011, I’ve gradually reviewed different aspects of my lifestyle, including what I wear, what I eat, and my living environment. I’ve been doing this for about 15 years.

At one point, my symptoms made even everyday activities difficult. Now, they’re much more manageable, and they rarely interfere with my daily life.

I believe that improving my condition required an overall approach to my lifestyle and mindset. Of all the changes I made, I feel that rethinking my diet was particularly important.

How Changing My Diet Improved My Well-Being

At the clinic specializing in multiple chemical sensitivity that I attended from 2019 onward, I also received advice on improving my diet alongside making changes to my living environment.

The basic approach to managing MCS, as it was explained to me, involved two things: minimizing exposure to substances that trigger symptoms and supporting the body’s processes for eliminating unwanted substances.

Nutrients mentioned in this context included vitamins such as vitamin C, minerals such as magnesium, and compounds such as glutathione and glutamic acid.

These nutrients are found in foods such as vegetables, seafood, and seaweed.

I was advised that getting a good balance of these nutrients could be helpful in easing or preventing symptoms.

There is also a review paper by researchers Miwako Nyui and Mikio Miyata titled The Role of Diet in Relieving Symptoms in Patients with Multiple Chemical Sensitivity. It discusses the relationship between MCS and nutrition, as well as dietary changes.

The paper does not establish that its findings apply to everyone. However, it highlights how reviewing our diets may be an important part of taking care of our health, not only for people with MCS but more generally.

The Way of Eating I Eventually Found

There are countless different diets and approaches to eating out there.

And it makes sense when you think about it.

The foods that suit us can vary depending on our individual constitution, sex, age, where we live, lifestyle, and many other factors.

Finding the right approach among so many options can be quite a challenge.

I, too, have been testing things one by one and paying attention to how my body responds.

And before I knew it, 15 years had passed.

The way of eating I eventually arrived at was surprisingly simple!

Make rice and other grains the staples of my diet. I feel that what we choose as our staple food shapes a large part of our overall diet!
Eat traditional Japanese-style meals centered on seasonal vegetables and fish. I choose pesticide-free vegetables whenever possible and tend to favor smaller fish.
Use traditional, minimally processed seasonings. These include natural sea salt and traditionally brewed soy sauce and miso.
Include fermented foods. Examples include natto, pickles, and traditionally brewed seasonings.
Minimize processed foods. In my experience, simply cutting back on certain foods can sometimes make a difference relatively quickly!
Enjoy food with gratitude for the life it provides. This is the most important principle for me!

Looking at this list, you could say it’s a return to the traditional Japanese way of eating.

But modern life is full of tempting foods!

I still crave bread, sweets, noodles and the kinds of foods I’ve enjoyed since childhood.

So I’ve tried all sorts of ways to give myself a break without putting too much strain on my body.

I’ve also made plenty of mistakes along the way. (And I still do! 😂)

Eventually, I realized something important: it takes practice.

It’s just like playing a sport, learning a language, or mastering a musical instrument.

You can’t expect to be good at something from the very beginning.

It took me quite a while to figure that out.

Little by little, I’ve practiced listening to my body and choosing foods that suit me.

I still make mistakes from time to time, but I’ve come a long way compared with when I first started reviewing my diet. ✨

What Changed After I Changed My Diet

First of all, I started feeling better physically!

I rarely catch colds, and as long as I don’t push myself too hard, I hardly ever become unwell.

My body has naturally settled into a leaner, lighter-feeling shape.

My skin has also improved, and I receive compliments on it more often.

I also feel that I have less gray hair than before.

My periods have become easier, too.

And cooking has become much easier!

When you choose good-quality ingredients, they have plenty of flavor on their own, so simple cooking methods such as simmering, steaming, and boiling are often all you need.

Natural sea salt, traditionally brewed soy sauce, and miso are enough to make a dish delicious.

Seasonal ingredients also change throughout the year, so the changing seasons naturally bring variety to my meals. I rarely need to spend time coming up with recipes.

I simply enjoy the foods that are in season, prepared in simple ways.

I even enjoy shopping for groceries, choosing ingredients while appreciating the changing seasons and the qualities of the foods themselves.

It’s also a good way to practice engaging all five senses. 😊

One of my favorite cooking tools is a clay pot called WEALCERAM. Unfortunately, it seems to have been discontinued.

I feel that it takes the flavor of my cooking up a notch.

Clay pots are said to emit far-infrared radiation, which gently heats the ingredients and helps bring out their natural flavors.

Another thing I love is the gentle warmth I feel around my stomach while cooking with the pot. ♡

Now, let me show you what I actually eat in a typical day!

What I Eat in a Typical Day

Breakfast — 7:00 a.m.

Multigrain rice (rice mixed with Japanese barnyard millet, Job’s tears, barley, millet, foxtail millet, and amaranth)
Miso soup (I simply pour hot water into a bowl containing traditionally fermented miso, nori seaweed, and bonito flakes)
Natto, seasoned only with traditionally brewed soy sauce

Lunch — 12:30 p.m.

Multigrain rice (the same grain mixture as breakfast)
Dried sardines, seasoned with traditionally brewed soy sauce and sesame paste
Raw vegetable salad (parsley and carrots)

Dinner — 6:00 p.m.

Multigrain rice (the same grain mixture as breakfast)
Vegetable soup (onion, komatsuna greens, pumpkin, and sea salt)
Simmered hijiki seaweed (hijiki, lotus root, tiny dried sardines, chili pepper, and traditionally brewed soy sauce)
Shirasu (tiny fish, with no added salt)
Organic black sesame seeds, ground
Umeboshi (Japanese pickled plums made with only plums, red shiso, and natural salt)

That’s everything!

I choose pesticide-free vegetables whenever possible.

I rarely snack between meals.

I cook enough rice for the whole day in my rice cooker. I eat it freshly cooked at breakfast, then let the remaining rice cool naturally before eating it at lunch and dinner.

I later learned that rice cooled naturally may contain more resistant starch, which is thought to have benefits for gut health.

Resistant starch is a type of starch that resists digestion in the small intestine and can be fermented by gut bacteria. It has some properties similar to dietary fiber and may help support a healthy gut environment.

It may also help support regular bowel movements and could play a role in managing appetite and blood sugar responses.

Come to think of it, since adopting this way of eating, my body has naturally become leaner, and constipation is no longer an issue for me.

In the past, people didn’t have rice cookers with keep-warm functions, so they would have eaten rice that had cooled naturally. Perhaps they were unknowingly following eating habits that supported their gut health.

And when you consider that they also ate fermented foods such as soy sauce, miso, and pickles, their gut bacteria must have been delighted!

Traditional habits and the wisdom of previous generations really do have a lot to teach us.

People often ask me whether cooled rice tastes good, but I actually love it. The more I chew, the sweeter it tastes.

Freshly cooked rice has its own delicious flavor, and cooled rice has a different kind of deliciousness.

At home, I leave the rice in the rice cooker’s inner pot throughout the day after cooking it in the morning. I’ve never had an upset stomach from eating it this way.

However, leaving cooked rice at room temperature for extended periods can allow harmful bacteria to grow, particularly in hot weather. If you’re concerned, it’s safer to reheat it thoroughly before eating.

I also find that cooled rice can feel a little harder to digest, so I recommend chewing it thoroughly.

Eating slowly and chewing well can help you recognize when you’re full and may help prevent overeating.

How Much I Eat and What I Drink

As for the balance between my three meals, I tend to eat a light breakfast, a substantial lunch, and a light dinner.

According to Ayurveda, digestive capacity is considered to be strongest around midday, so it may make sense within that tradition to eat more substantial foods, including animal protein, at lunch.

From my own experience, I sleep better when I keep dinner light.

If my stomach feels heavy when I go to bed, I tend to sleep less soundly and wake up feeling less refreshed.

When I was working at a company, I used to bring a lunch box and an extra rice ball to work. I would eat the rice ball in the late afternoon.

Then, after getting home, I’d have something light, such as vegetable miso soup or tofu.

Eating even a small amount of carbohydrate earlier in the evening helped me avoid going to bed with a heavy stomach.

It also made me less likely to give in to the temptation to snack when I got hungry in the late afternoon! 😂

Another thing I pay attention to is how much I drink.

I drink one cup of black tea in the morning and sip water in small amounts throughout the day.

I used to wake up every night to go to the bathroom.

At the time, an acupuncturist I was seeing asked me what I usually drank. When I said dokudami tea, made from the plant Houttuynia cordata, he suggested that I try stopping it.

As soon as I stopped drinking it, I stopped waking up at night to use the bathroom.

Dokudami tea is often said to have diuretic and detoxifying properties, but my experience made me realize that it’s worth paying attention to how much we drink and how often.

Even now, I continue to adjust what I eat and drink while paying attention to how my body responds.

I’ve come to feel that a healthy way of eating isn’t something we perfect overnight. It’s something we build through daily experimentation.

All we can do is keep practicing!

Our bodies are built from the food we eat, and even though we may feel like the same person day after day, the cells in our bodies are continually being renewed.

I’ve come to strongly believe that the way we eat can change our bodies.

Today, I’ve shared the foods I eat and the dietary habits that I feel have helped ease my symptoms of allergies, PPP, and multiple chemical sensitivity.

I hope my experience gives you a little inspiration as you think about your own eating habits!

Thank you so much for reading. 😊

If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to use the form below. 🍀