Can you tolerate any processed or convenience foods?

[bad1080]

Udon though isnt a problem with me besides gluten in a very general way not making me feel so hot.

soba are made mostly from buckwheat, might be an alternative for you

 

[southwestforests]

I like the Walmart rotisserie chickens because they're one of the few pre-cooked products I can enjoy (few ingredients)

Those are something I like to get from time to time. Are a nice change from my personal standard of boneless, skinless, chicken thighs baked in the oven.

 

[Artemisia]

I still try to eat healthy because I don't want to add diabetes or high cholesterol to my list of diseases. So I try to comfort myself that even if I have ME, I don't have to have a preventable illness too.

Even the preventable illnesses aren't really preventable for everyone. Despite a pristine whole foods diet with no junk/fast/fried food, no seed oil, elimination or reduction of all toxic agents, I'm nevertheless pre-diabetic, high blood pressure and cholesterol and mildly obese.

 

[Artemisia]

I don't know how they do it but I guess not all of us have severe food sensitivities.

I suspect a lot of ppl have unknown reactions to food and supplements. It has taken me years or decades to pinpoint certain reactions. It's almost impossible to isolate when there are so many variables.

 

[wabi-sabi]

Even the preventable illnesses aren't really preventable for everyone.

I've found this very helpful for preventing weight gain while bed ridden or house bound-

 

[wabi-sabi]

And here is another explanation...
https://nourishedbyscience.com/how-to-lose-weight/

 

[Wishful]

soba are made from buckwheat,

Some brands contain buckwheat, but also contain wheat flour.

 

[Mary]

I suspect a lot of ppl have unknown reactions to food and supplements. It has taken me years or decades to pinpoint certain reactions. It's almost impossible to isolate when there are so many variables.

It took me many years to identify the cause of my periodic sporadic severe insomnia where I would be wide awake until after 3:00 a.m. - my body would feel revved up - and I finally happened to notice once that it happened after I'd eaten at a Thai restaurant and I found myself wondering about MSG - and then read about MSG and began to watch what I ate at dinner (I rarely ate out). And that was it.

I started reading labels of all foods - and discovered that almost everything on this list gave me insomnia, if I ate it at dinner: https://www.truthinlabeling.org/hiddensources.html

Even magnesium citrate gave me insomnia! And I used to buy rotisserie chickens until insomnia hit - and reading the ingredients found they used "natural flavors" in preparing it.

So my dinners are very plain - I can't eat frozen dinners. I can eat whatever I want at breakfast or lunch but I generally just don't buy processed foods. Once in awhile I get lucky and find something I can eat with dinner. I love Mexican food and found a brand of refried bean that just has beans, jalapenos, lard and salt - whew! I would never have the energy to make refried beans so this was a real find for me.

And I have a very good salsa recipe that uses whole canned tomatoes. It was a hunt to find canned tomatoes without citric acid. I'm fine with natural citric acid from lemons etc. But almost all commercial citric acid which is added to almost all processed foods is grown from a certain species of mold. Many people react to this, I'm sure without even knowing what happened. It causes insomnia for me. Italy makes canned tomatoes without citric acid - why can't U.S. producers do the same thing? Anyways, I did find one U.S. manufacturer - Red Gold - which produces canned tomatoes using "naturally derived" citric acid. I contacted them to find out what that meant and got a very nice response - it's food-derived, not from mold, and I do well with this product. I was so glad to find this! The little things I'm very grateful for

 

[southwestforests]

But almost all commercial citric acid which is added to almost all processed foods is grown from a certain species of mold. Many people react to this,

Ohhh, did not know that. And mold and I often do not mix well.

 

[wabi-sabi]

is grown from a certain species of mold.

Is there data on mold contamination? Don't they clean that all off before putting it in the can?

 

[bad1080]

Is there data on mold contamination? Don't they clean that all off before putting it in the can?

i guess as per usual there are legal limits for this kinda stuff, just like there are limits for how much pus can be in milk. some can deal with those limits while others can not.

 

[southwestforests]

While loafing around on the library's wifi after writers group, went looking and just found this,
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6097542/

Toxicol Rep
. 2018 Aug 9;5:808–812. doi: 10.1016/j.toxrep.2018.08.002

Potential role of the common food additive manufactured citric acid in eliciting significant inflammatory reactions contributing to serious disease states: A series of four case reports​

Iliana E Sweis1,⁎, Bryan C Cressey1



PMCID: PMC6097542 PMID: 30128297

Highlights​

• •
  Citric acid as a food additive is not natural citric acid; it is manufactured through fermentation using Aspergillus niger.
• •
  Aspergillus niger is a potent allergen.
• •
  Food additive manufactured citric acid may be causing allergic inflammatory cascades.
• •
  Manufactured citric acid may be contributing to the inflammation seen in asthma, juvenile idiopathic arthritis, autistic spectrum disorder, and fibromyalgia.
• •
  The safety of manufactured citric acid has never been studied since it was granted GRAS status.

Abstract​

Citric acid naturally exists in fruits and vegetables. However, it is not the naturally occurring citric acid, but the manufactured citric acid (MCA) that is used extensively as a food and beverage additive. Approximately 99% of the world’s production of MCA is carried out using the fungus Aspergillus niger since 1919. Aspergilus niger is a known allergen. The FDA placed MCA under the category of GRAS without any research to substantiate this claim. In 2016, 2.3 million tons of MCA were produced, predominantly in China, and approximately 70% is used as a food or beverage additive. There have been no scientific studies performed to evaluate the safety of MCA when ingested in substantial amounts and with chronic exposure. We present four case reports of patients with a history of significant and repetitive inflammatory reactions including respiratory symptoms, joint pain, irritable bowel symptoms, muscular pain and enervation following ingestion of foods, beverages or vitamins containing MCA. We believe that ingestion of the MCA may lead to a harmful inflammatory cascade which manifests differently in different individuals based on their genetic predisposition and susceptibility, and that the use of MCA as an additive in consumable products warrants further studies to document its safety.

Bold done by me.

1. Introduction
Citric acid is a weak organic mono-constituent substance with the molecular formula C6H8O7 and REACH designated IUPAC name 2-hydroxypropane1,2,3-tricarboxylic acid (Fig. 1). Citric acid is listed as an ingredient in a significant percentage of prepared foods, beverages, and medications. The average consumer is under the impression that the added citric acid listed in the ingredients of prepared foods, beverages and vitamins is derived from natural sources such as lemons and limes. However, the ingredient list is quite misleading since the added citric acid is not procured through natural sources. More accurate terminology would list this substance as manufactured citric acid.

 

[Zebra]

@Mary and @southwestforests

I. Am. Speechless.

And, I thank you for this information!

I don't often eat foods with known preservatives, but I have (all these years) assumed that "citric acid" was naturally derived from citrus.

I don't know if I should feel dumb or deceived.

I suppose most "normies" who eat the Standard American Diet don't need to worry about this being harmful to them, but, for everyone's sake, I wish food labels in the United States were more transparent.

Wow

 

[Mary]

Is there data on mold contamination? Don't they clean that all off before putting it in the can?

It's not mold "contamination" - it's citric acid that has been derived from or grown from mold - I don't know exactly how it's done. See what @southwestforests wrote above.

 

[Mary]

i guess as per usual there are legal limits for this kinda stuff, just like there are limits for how much pus can be in milk. some can deal with those limits while others can not.

I wouldn't assume this at all - but who knows!

 

[Mary]

I'm at a family getaway (in bed of course, crashed after traveling yesterday) and drinking a can of LaCroix LimonCello "naturally essenced" - it tastes good. I never drink sodas and this doesn't have added sugar. BUT I am sure the "naturally essenced" means nothing - it probably stands for "natural flavors" which is a widely known euphemism for MSG. So I would never drink this at night. It's irritating because I'm sure this is marketed as being far superior to regular sodas.

 

[Dysfunkion]

I suspect a lot of ppl have unknown reactions to food and supplements. It has taken me years or decades to pinpoint certain reactions. It's almost impossible to isolate when there are so many variables.

That too, I mean that could be the case with me and I don't even realize it because the changes in how I'd feel would be so long range that unless I analyzed everything I consumed for over a couple years I wouldn't know or I still may not because the reactions could possibly even somewhat be different depending on WHAT I'm doing at the time in my life too. In fact this issue is what makes chronic multi system health problems so bad in the first place, there is no way past a certain point to entirely tell what is doing what. No ordinary person is waking up with a notepad and writing down for example "6:42 - got out of bed and walked downstairs, 6:55 - began eating breakfast - (2) pancakes, (1) egg, (1) cup of skim milk" or has any need to, it would be absurd.

While loafing around on the library's wifi after writers group, went looking and just found this,
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6097542/




Bold done by me.

I too have pretty weird reactions to citric acid in general that depends on how much I consumed and probably conditions around that with what I was eating that had it and with it. I can't imagine man made citric acid is good for anyone and for anyone with conditions like us under the ME bubble it can't be better.

I'm at a family getaway (in bed of course, crashed after traveling yesterday) and drinking a can of LaCroix LimonCello "naturally essenced" - it tastes good. I never drink sodas and this doesn't have added sugar. BUT I am sure the "naturally essenced" means nothing - it probably stands for "natural flavors" which is a widely known euphemism for MSG. So I would never drink this at night. It's irritating because I'm sure this is marketed as being far superior to regular sodas.

I avoid most flavored things like the plague unless it's something I know for 100 percent certain I'm ok with. Like for my flavored coffee I so far have no reaction to any of the hazelnut flavors so that's my go to as I don't get too much flavor in me day otherwise. Really wish they would just put down what the "natural flavors" consist of but I know you can never trust the label so it's best to treat it like poking a sleeping lion.

 

[mattie]

It's not mold "contamination" - it's citric acid that has been derived from or grown from mold - I don't know exactly how it's done. See what @southwestforests wrote above.

Aspergillus niger ferments sugar, producing citric acid.
No mold in end product. But still some people have reactions to citric acid.

 

[southwestforests]

Here, have some more content from that, with a bit of bold added by me,

We hypothesize that since MCA is a product of Aspergillus niger, there are contaminants from the production process that remain in the final product. We hypothesize that there are proteins or other by-products of the A. niger or substances from the manufacturing process which remain in MCA after its production process and these lead to an inflammatory process, and possibly unlike natural citric acid, MCA is highly inflammatory itself. We further hypothesize that when we consume foods with MCA, we are consuming the proteins or by-products of the A. niger or the highly concentrated unnatural form of citric acid, and with repeat exposure over time we are either developing elevation in pro-inflammatory cytokines such as IL-6 or building antibodies against the A. niger proteins that lead to inflammatory symptoms, or the MCA itself may contain yet unidentified substances or by- products from the production process that are inflammatory to our body.

Given the ubiquitous presence of MCA and repetitive exposure to it through ingesting common foods and beverages, we may be re-introducing small amounts of A. niger proteins or byproducts into our bodies, and repeatedly eliciting an insidious low grade immune response. With the repetitive exposure and insult, the immune system maintains a low grade inflammatory response. Over time, the chronic inflammatory state can impact various systems in the body depending on the individual’s weaker or compromised organ system. Ingestion of the MCA leads to an inflammatory cascade which manifests differently in different individuals based on their genetic predisposition, susceptibility and underling medical history, as well as the degree of stress exerted by environmental factors. We further hypothesize that these inflammatory reactions may play a causative role in allergic asthma, FM, JIA, and possibly CFS, and lead to increased inflammation in the musculoskeletal system leading to idiopathic joint and muscle inflammation/pain and inflammation in the gastro-intestinal system leading to conditions such as irritable bowel syndrome.

From a bit earlier in the text,

Despite its contribution to pathogenesis, A. niger is widely used in the food industry for the production of citric acid and gluconic acid, and many enzymes such as a-amylase, amyloglucosidase, cellulases, lactase, invertase, pectinases, and acid proteases [5]. Over the past several decades, there have been significant genetic modifications of A. niger to increase MCA production and decrease production of unwanted byproducts resulting in genetically modified mutant variants of this mold. The two main types of modification include gamma radiation-induced mutagenesis of A. niger to increase its fermentation activity and genetic modification in the laboratory to enhance the pathway to increase production of MCA and decrease in other non-MCA producing pathways [17]. Nearly all MCA begins with highly processed glucose from corn syrup derived from corn, and less so from beet sugar, cane molasses, and fruit waste [18].

Although Brazil and India produce MCA, China is the largest single participant in MCA production. China accounted for 59% of the world’s production and 74% of the world’s exports of MCA in 2015 [19]. By 2015, Asia was the largest consumer of MCA, accounting for 28% of world consumption, followed closely by North America accounting at 23% and Western Europe accounting at 22% of world consumption, while China accounted for 12% of the world consumption. Due to new biotechnological production units mostly located in China, the global supply of MCA in the last two decades rose to 2.3 million tons in 2016 becoming the single largest chemical obtained via biomass fermentation and the most widely used organic acid [20]. It is expected that China will not only remain the largest producer of MCA during 2015–2020, but that Chinese manufacturers will expand to establish manufacturing plants in other countries to secure more of the MCA global market [19]. The global citric acid market production has been growing at a rate of 3.5% during 2009–2016, and is expected to be at 2.7 million tons by 2022 [21]. According to Credence Research, the global MCA market is projected to reach USD 3.66 Billion by 2022 [22].

 

[Rufous McKinney]

I notice alot more issues with odd reactions to foods, etc...when I am extra run down or in PEM.

I had a huge MCAS reaction at 3 am after consuming some very pricy organic grass fed whey protein in some cows milk.

I notice no issue drinking the milk.

I thought I would try it again, NOT run down in PEM and see if I have the same reaction (esophagus itching like mad)