What food allergans bother you? And question about dairy and whey amino supps

[CAcfs]

Hello all.

I am assuming many people on this site have done elimination diets. What things did you all find that bothered you, that you decided to avoid? I'm wondering what the most common ones are.

For me, I'm thinking dairy will be one, for sure. Possibly also gluten. Possibly bananas.

What is interesting, is that long ago I did one of those tests through an alternative-type lab, and the one that came back highest was corn. Anyone else found corn to be a problem, in your elimination diet? I am kind of doubtful of those results (I have heard that testing can be sort of bogus, just showing what you ate that day, and best bet to find out is elimination and tracking symptoms).

So I'm hoping corn will be okay, and hoping soy will be okay (since it's in many things, including protein supplements).

One other question.....my amino acid capsules from Now brand have Whey Protein Isolate in them. My understanding is that the casein is removed from that, but not perfectly, so some still react to it. Then there's the fact that some are not sensitive to casein, but perhaps something else about dairy/cow's milk. My question is, what have you all found? My guess is I'll be able to handle my whey isolate supplements, but not milk or cheese. Is that the general trend among many of us? I am guessing based on how I've noticed I feel, but maybe once I eliminate the whey isolate, I'll feel even better, who knows.

Thanks!

 

[Valentijn]

I'm finishing up an elimination diet. It took me a couple months, and I still need to test salicylates, but it's likely I'll have a reaction since my reaction didn't go away til I cut out olive oil after going to very safe elimination diet foods.

1) Dairy - typical lactose intolerance with short-term excess mucus and a little stomach pain.
2) Gluten - makes my stomach itch when I eat any of it, and bloat for a day or two.
3) Amines - egg whites triggered a strong reaction with transitory itching and swelling lasting a couple days, and a bit of throat constriction. Milder reaction with bananas, and even milder reaction with dark chocolate.
4) Free glutamate (MSG, fermented foods, etc) - very bad reactions starting 22 years ago. I might be reacting to lower doses (such as is naturally present in cheeses, soy sauce, etc) than in the past.
5) Fructose - makes me fart up a storm!

No noticable reaction: corn, gluten-free grains, egg yolks, high-amine meats.

With a lot of these substances, there's an amount that can be tolerated before symptoms are triggered, since it's not a true allergy. In the case of amines, I think too much histamine might be an issue, but histamine-releasing food and drugs are a definite problem for me.

So I'm absolutely avoiding free glutamate, egg whites, and gluten. I might eat a banana once a month if one falls in my lap, and I'm keeping the cocoa consumption very low. No fruit or dairy before social engagements

 

[maddietod]

The most common food allergies are gluten, dairy, eggs, corn, soy, peanuts, tree nuts, fish, and shellfish. I'm sorry to say that corn is a very common problem. There are of course lots of other things that individuals can't tolerate - one of my sisters can't eat chicken. And like Valentjin, I have trouble with cocoa.

I'm so sensitive, and so confused about what the problems are, that I pretty much only eat protein (no soy, dairy, or egg though) and non-starchy vegetables. After a few weeks of this, I'm going to test eggs. I already tested soy, and got bloat. After eggs I'll test some ancient grains, like quinoa and amaranth, and then I might try one of the beans. Gluten and dairy are out forever.

If you decide to do this, it might be easier to find a "diet" that is already very simple, like maybe Paleo without the honey, to figure out how to eat at the beginning. I like building UP from a simple plan, rather than looking at how I used to eat and crossing off most of the list.

 

[Athene]

I've been doing elimination diets for 28 years and had several allergy testing panels. You can call me Mrs. Funny Diet!

Madietodd has given you all the most important advice already. I think starting with a paelo diet minus honey would be a good starting point.

If you cannot face that, an alternative starting point would be to eliminate gluten and dairy, which we all eat every day unless specifically avoiding them. That means if you are allergic to either of them you cannot see the wood for the trees. Then plan a diet that means you never eat the same thing more than once in 3 days, ideally 4. If you do that then you should be able to see a pattern emerge if certain foods are provoking problems.

The food allergy tests are terribly unreliable largely because one tomato does not have the same batch of proteins as another. You can be allergic to tomatoes from a farm in southern England where they get exposed to a lot of one type of traffic exhaust pollution and produce elevated levels of defence proteins, but not allergic to the tomato from central USA which they mash and purify to produce the food allergy testing fluids. For example! Also an allergic reaction to eggs is often to what the chicken was fed on, so people can be allergic to battery eggs but not natural ones from their friend's farm. etc etc ad infinitum.

The single most important thing I want to tell you about cutting out foods is that it is easy to give yourself malnutrition. I did that. This happens when you realise lots of things give you pain that you just cannot tolerate and you cut out loads of food and are a self-disciplined enough person not to have lapses. You don't lose weight and it is invisible, till you realise you have symptoms of a gross nutritional deficiency, most of which you think are CFS symptoms so you take no notice. So when you do cut out foods, you have to become a nutrition obsessed person like me, who reads nutrition books, takes courses and takes supplements seriously.

 

[Boule de feu]

Eggs, soy, MSG, aspartame.

IBS when eating. Especially with chicken, meat, sugar, pastries, onions, cabbage and many others.

 

[CAcfs]

Thanks for the replies, very tired so won't post much of a reply! sorry

Wondering about spices....did you guys just not flavor any of the foods you ate on these simple diets? I would love to be able to use onion and/or garlic powder, and chile powder (no additives, from health food store). Are those bad? I'm thinking yes. I am assuming salt is okay.

I already know oregano bothers me greatly, because I get bloated. But I can't imagine not having garlic powder or chile powder/paprika.......I use those to make everything taste better.

 

[Athene]

You have to regard each seasoning as a potential allergen and trial each one, like you trial all other foods.
Except, as you say, salt, which is a mineral and nutrient and therefore fine!

 

[Valentijn]

A lot of spices are high is salicylates, so you should probably avoid them when on the irritant-free part of the diet. Then you could try introducing salicylates first to eliminate them as a potential problem.

I had a few very boring weeks with just salt, potassium, and sunflower oil on my meat and rice

 

[SickOfSickness]

I would like to do one, and started a couple times, but ran into problems. I think I have sensitivities to white rice and/or chicken. They are usually safe foods so I was trying to eat mostly those during the elimination diet. I have many allergies and sensitivities and I have not figured them out well. So far I think I'm bad with peanuts, soy protein (which is in so many foods), dairy (but I am usually ok if it's cooked/baked), salicylates which are in a lot of fruit, sugar, maybe other nuts, some or many legumes (beans, peas, lentils), some or most seafood, maybe tomatoes, maybe cherries, maybe strawberries, artificial sweeteners, maybe gluten, maybe corn, maybe citrus but not bad enough to avoid it. Then I have to be wary of most of the migraine causing foods which is a long list. I get OAS to pineapple, strawberries, and other fruit especially less ripened.

 

[Valentijn]

I would like to do one, and started a couple times, but ran into problems. I think I have sensitivities to white rice and/or chicken.

That is pretty unusual ... were you eating any seasonings with them, or cooking the chicken in oil or butter, etc?

 

[markmc20001]

Syntheitc food coloring. Corn syrup, hydrogenated oils, preservatives, nitrates/nitrites, MSG, autolized yeast extract, Milk products, malted barley extract, some of those phony sweetners, tomatoes(natural msg I think),

 

[Athene]

Chicken can have a lot of junk injected into it, which is actually nothing to do with chicken. Eg. they can legally add up to 30 percent pork into chicken to bulk it up, without putting that on the label.
You should always do food trials with organic meat. Usually the doctors tell you to start with lamb, which is the best tolerated meat.
Hope that helps.

 

[triffid113]

I'm sensitive to wheat and coffee. The wheat showed up on an allergy test - can't remember what kind of Ig it was. However no one told me it would cause mental depression and joint pain so I had to discover this allergy on my own. Coffee used to cause migraines for me - it raises homocysteine (neurotoxin) and raises blood pressure, which is my problem with it.

However I do not avoid any healthy food. (Ok, I am very sensitive and avoid all chemicals and I can smell a wonky fat like a blood hound and won't eat it, etc). But I followed a celiac diet for 2 years and it wound up causing me severe hypoglycemia problems -- I would just walk from one building to the next for a meeting at work and get low blood sugar, complete with sweating, shaking, and feeling like I might faint. This happens from insufficient carbohydrates. So I decided that low blood sugar was worse than painful joints as low blood sugar slowly destroys your organs. While avoiding wheat I had gone from a bit sensitive to it to VERY sensitive to it. Still, I knew I had to bite the bullet so I started eating it again. It raised my blood sugar high and I took supplements to lower blood sugar for a short while until I stabilized. Then I started supplementing zinc because I read that zinc works against colds by "filling in the crevices in the nose so cold germs can't get in." So I reasoeds that the gut is skin just like the nose and that the pores in the gut were TOO BIG allowing UNDIGESTED WHEAT in which was the cause of my mental depression and joint pain from wheat. Supplementing zinc did the trick for me and I no longer have a problem with wheat. However stress (not mental stress, but missing sleep type stress) and insufficient zinc bring the problem right back so it is just one of those things I have to watch for.

I don't avoid coffee either but I now restrict to 1-2 c/day. I cannot tolerate coffee w/o DHEA. 2 c coffee raise cortisol 33% and there is a DHEA:cortisol ratio (10:1 is ideal) below which you cannot tolerate stress. Thus the more DHEA u have the more caffeine you can tolerate.

If you have low stomach acid you should be taking something to kill pathogens (like Olive Leaf Extract, which is what I take) because HCL not onlu digests your food -- it's function is also to kill pathogens. It's possible some of your food sensitivities are due to pathogens.

Trif