Why we LOVE fresh fruit juice in our house + our journey with a YEAST sensitivity!

Why we decided to buy a juicer!

Our little man, Grayson, has sensory processing disorder, speech delay, and WHOA ADHD. He’s one of the most hyperactive little guys I’ve ever known. He’s also brilliant. He started reading words when he was two and now that he’s four, he can read entire books and write just about any word you throw out at him — PLUS sentences.

He may be brilliant, but he has a whole host of developmental issues that make school {and sometimes, functioning} really challenging for him. He is getting his IEP in a few weeks and will most likely be placed under the autism “umbrella” – because it is what fits his symptoms best.

At this moment, he’s too young for ADHD medication. So, we’ve been trying ALL of the things to see if anything can help him SLOW HIS ROLL.

One of the things that we decided to try was a food sensitivity test. We got ours on Groupon – just search “Liberty Health Check”!

Grayson’s sensitivity test came back that he was sensitive to a large variety of foods. The test suggests that you pick four items to focus on and see how it goes for about 4 weeks. If no changes are noticed, then pick a different 4 items to focus on.

We took a look at his results and decided to focus on caramel, yellow, and orange food colors and yeast. The reason we chose yeast out of all of the other results was based on the fact that there were so many alcohol and cider based results on there. I’m not a doctor or a professional in this area AT ALL. However, my very non-professional mom brain decided that all of the alcohols and cider based juices were based on a yeast process. So, yeast might be a big trigger for him.

Taking yeast out of this guy’s diet was NOT EASY. Holy moly. WOW. Yeast is in everything. As I researched, I learned that there are two types of yeast sensitivities. The first, is the actual YEAST put into food. The second is how the body produces yeast. Since the second is much MUCH more intensive as far as elimination is concerned… we decided to start with the first type of yeast allergy.

We have eliminated all of the OBVIOUS yeast sources from Grayson’s life:

Anything with leavening/yeast in the ingredients (bread, baked goods, pretzels, traditional chicken nuggets, traditional pizza, etc.)
- Yeast is EVERYWHERE. We have to check ALL ingredient labels prior to allowing Grayson to eat something!
Condiments {Basically, anything with a vinegar base}
Processed Fruit Juices
{I’ll add to this list as I think of the more less obvious things that we’ve eliminated due to yeast as I think of them}

Okay so PROCESSED FRUIT JUICES were super hard for Grayson to give up. He cried and cried for the majority of a week because he JUST WANTED APPLE JUICE.

We ended up deciding to try using a juicer about three weeks in to the diet. The truth is, he doesn’t NEED fruit juices in his life. He survived for almost 3 weeks just fine without it. However, almost ALL of the things he really loves in life has been eliminated from his diet. I wanted SOMETHING yummy to be able to treat him with when he does something awesome or just because.

The Aobosi Juicer

After researching on Amazon, I found this juicer. It had the best reviews and was on super sale. I ordered it and couldn’t WAIT to give it a try. Grayson helped me put the apples in the juicer during the first use and he kept saying “WHOA! SO COOL! IS APPLE JUICE!”

He absolutely LOVES it. He asks for his apple juice almost daily – even though it’s more of a treat than a normal refreshment. He sticks to water unless it’s time for an apple juice treat.

The juice on the left is APPLE juice and the juice on the right is GRAPE juice!!

Those charming glass bottles can be found here on Amazon!

We’ve made apple juice (with honey crisp apples), grape juice, pineapple orange juice, and a strawberry/raspberry/grape juice that was absolutely divine. My question, now that I’ve made fresh juice, is WHY do other juices need to be sweetened? The juices that come out of the fresh juicer are SO super sweet and crisp and delicious – I can’t imagine adding sugar to them!

I hope to sneak some veggies into some juice soon for him!