Diet- Allergy or Food intolerance

[Froggirl]

I have food intolerances and have to follow a special diet or else get itchy skin, headaches etc.

When i first got Rosacea and looked at all the info on these forums a lot of people talk about avoiding wheat, yeast, and diary, but i haven't seem anything before about intolerances. The leading researcher in this area is the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital Allergy Unit (in Sydney, Australia) and i have put the link below in case this will help anyone. They do say that a lot of people mistake food intolerances for wheat, diary and yeast allergies so if you have symptoms of these you might want to check the below too just in case.

http://www.cs.nsw.gov.au/rpa/Allergy/default.htm

[Twickle Purple]

Thanks for the link Froggirl! I have both food allergies and food intolerances. Personally, seeing how they both give me grief, I think it's symantics! But I do understand that different processes are involved.

One of the things that I noticed in the last few years is how much attention skin maladies are given everywhere except North America. Where beauty is the money maker and the focus..

Dermnet (http://www.dermnetnz.org/) is a terrific source of info too.

Twickle Purple

[Froggirl]

That's unlucky to have both. Must be hard to find stuff to eat.
I'm on the strict elimination diet 'the friendly food diet' and am very sick of pears cabbage, rice bubbles and toast. At least with intolerances there are no major consequeneces if i splurge, i just feel like i have an hangover the next day. It's funny though that i don't spurge on junk food now but on the multitude of vegies and fruit that i can't eat. lol.

Thanks for the link I love that dermnet website, I think I have read every page on there...until then i never knew how many different things could go wrong with our skin...makes me almost grateful to have rosacea.

[no more red cheeks!]

For several years now I have thought I am lactose intolerant. In fact, I am intolerant to processed dairy foods (this includes skim milk, which is very highly processed). In the last couple of weeks I have been drinking raw milk, at least a glass a day, and have no trouble at all.

[Froggirl]

I have read posts here about people saying avoiding histamine foods stopped their flushing while for others it doesn't help. I've been reading up and apparently it's not just about what you eat, adverse reactions due to histamine can occur as a result of:

excess dietry histamine
ingestion of foods which trigger histamine release from mast cells
increased sensativity of individual
deficiency of metabolizing enzyme
ingestion of natural or added food chemicals which can inhibit the metabolozing enzyme
alcohol consumption
drugs
intestional fermentation

It's also not just histamine but the other amines as well. More info about this is at:

http://users.bigpond.net.au/allergydietitian/fi/histamine.html

Something in food is causing my headaches and palpatations, because following the low chemical diet fixes them...would be brilliant if it also fixed my flushing!

Interestingly it seems that taking a little bit of bicarb soda in water can reduce reactions to food chemicals, so i am going to try this next time i flush and see what happens.

[redhotoz]

Interestingly it seems that taking a little bit of bicarb soda in water can reduce reactions to food chemicals, so i am going to try this next time i flush and see what happens.

Hi Froggirl

That is very interesting indeed! Since I have been on Bee's diet, I have noticed that I can eat all of my old trigger foods without problem. I wonder if that has something to do with the bicarb I take? I try to drink 6 lemon drinks a day (juice from 1/2 a lemon, 1/4 teaspoon of sea salt, topped up with water) but 3 of these drinks I also include 1/4 teaspoon of bicarb and 1/4 teaspoon of ascorbic acid - these two together make sodium ascorbate or vitamin C - a very cheap version. So maybe that is why I can now happily eat things like tomatoes, onions and black pepper, to name a few. Mmm!

Food for thought indeed! Please do let us know how it goes for you as I would be very interested to know the outcome.

Jen

[Froggirl]

That's really interesting that you've notice that with bicarb.
I haven't tried it yet, everytime i go to the supermarket i forget to buy it.

The bicarb is meant to work by triggering stomach emptying. Apparently some food chemicals, partcularly salicylates slow the stomach processes, meaning that much more of the chemical are absorbed.

I don't know if this is right or not but the friendly food book does say that most candia diets work because they are also very low chemical diets. They think the issue is the food chemicals rather than yeast, but it doesn't really matter as long as it works.

I have an appointment with an allergy/intolerance specialist in Nov. So hopefully they will be able to help me pinpoint the problem, i'll let you know how it goes. In the meantime i really need to get hold of some bicarb and try it because being a vegetarian and following the friendly food elimination diet (which excludes most fruit and veggies) is very very hard. How I long for some strawberries and mango!

[Twickle Purple]

Does one take the bi-carb before or after eating?

I've been taking it the last few nights about an hour after, instead of zantac and it really helped. Today, I had the bright idea of taking it before my morning shake. Thinking it would neutralize whatever it is it neutralizes and I wouldn't flush (I always flush after eating, anything). My shake is rice protein powder, Udos Oil, metamucil/psyllium and a mix of berries, I mix it up and drink it with my supplements. So I had one alka seltzer with 8 oz water than my shake. Within 2 minutes I was doubled over in pain. My whole middle all around front and back was experiencing intense pain, then it hit my head. I've never felt anything like it. I'd put it at a 9 out of 10. My husband was alarmed because I 'swallow' pain (I get quiet) but this time I was not! He helped me to bed and put instant ice packs on the top, front and back of my head (it was all over), my stomach pain was really intense but no nausea. He did some reflexology on my foot, more to distract me I think. Within 10 minutes it was all passed, all of it. No residual discomfort, no flush.

I think the bi-carb caused it. Any ideas?

[Froggirl]

Hi TP

Nice to see you posting again :)

No ideas at all! Doesn't sound very nice though.

Only possiblity i can think of is that it reacts with something else you took at the same time...

On the below website they suggest trying it after food has upset you or before a meal that will be loaded with chemicals.

http://www.fedupwithfoodadditives.info/index.htm#buttons

I've tried it a couple times and so far it's helping my stomach pains.

[Twickle Purple]

Hi Froggirl,

I missed you all too much to stay away :D I was getting good results taking it after eating when my tummy was upset -- I get an upset tummy and flush every time I eat. So I thought I'd try to bypass the discomfort and take it before. This didn't work well for me though. I'll try it with another meal, not breakfast to see how I do (but not on a work day, just in case).

[redhotoz]

Ah hah! LOL I've just been thinking about this.

Since I started working outside of the home, I haven't had time in the morning to drink my lemon drink with bicarb etc. I have found that I get quite giddy when I quickly down my breakfast (raw egg drink) and now I am wondering if that is because I haven't drunk the bicarb in the lemon drink first? I don't know, I'm just thinking out loud here. LOL

I'll test the theory tomorrow morning and report back. I usually drink the lemon juice/sea salt/bicarb/ascorbic acid/water drink on an empty stomach, like one would have a cuppa in the morning.

Mmm! Interesting. I so love that slowly we may be able to piece this whole Rosacea puzzle together!

Jen