Venting about a food allergy

[PoorMusician]

Technically it's a food intolerance. I get sick when I eat it (no danger of dying, thank goodness) but it's a painful sick that is just completely incapacitating. Except for peppermint tea, I can't do anything to help it because modern drugs use corn starch as a filler.

 

I can't eat out because hidden corn is everywhere. Friends insist on cooking me something "safe", but it almost never is. It's just plain alienating to sit there and watch everyone else eat. Or to spend the next two days sick because a hostess didn't take it seriously. My MIL has someone deathly allergic to corn in her family and will tell me about all the special food she cooks for her, but when I'm invited, it's a whole table I shouldn't eat. Heck, I don't even take Holy Communion anymore because the breads all use corn starches.

 

But our whole society revolves around food. We've even been turned down as foster parents because we're so different from the norm. (Can't have our own kids - indirectly because of this intolerance). This has affected every single aspect of my life.

 

I've been living like this for 2 years and I don't usually rant or rave about it, but tonight I'm horribly sick for the 3rd time this week and just feeling fed up. We accommodate, with grace, vegetarians, gluten intolerance, dairy allergies, nut allergies and grapefruit diets. Why do I get treated like some yuppie dieter or scientific anomaly?

 

Just needed to get that out. Thanks!

[sassenach]

[Daylily]

I understand!!! I think corn would be worse though because as you said, it's in nearly everything i n one form or another. DD2, DS and I have an intolerance to onions and all alliums, and peanut butter. At least we can recognize if there's garlic or onions in something. DS has many more allergies and intolerances besides. DH gets very sick when he eats hazelnuts or commercially dried coconut.

 

I never want to go to any social function because there is nothing I can eat. People say just bring something you can eat. OK, I'd rather stay home and have a full meal than to go somewhere and only have one or two things to eat. We are vegan as well but most of our friends are too so that usually isn't a problem. There are a couple of ladies at church that are so kind to make us a small amount of many things they bring to potlucks and social functions without garlic and onions. I appreciate that so much!

 

It's weird that you MIL does that! I know some of DH's relatives doubted my lactose intolerance and would "test" me with dairy in things. They saw me sick enough to believe me. It didn't take much either, even whey in a flour tortilla would do it.

 

What are your symptoms? Mine are stomach/belly pain, loose stools, insomnia, and then for about 3 days it feels like my entire digestive tract from the stomach down is irritated. It's sore and burns.

 

I wish I had advice for you but I just wanted you to know that I understand!

[Annarchy]

((((((PoorMusician))))))

 

Vent away, sometimes it is needed.

 

[Jeepers]

Vent as much as you need to!

 

I've often wondered how so many of you cope with allergies to wheat, corn and other grains when it seems to be in everything. I have allergies but none to food...that I'm aware of. It has to be frustrating, time consuming, expensive and most of all painful. I'm really sorry.

[Amishway Homesteaders]

Mine is chocolate! (Want to trade for a bit?) Can’t even have a chocolate sprinkle on ice cream as it will get me! And we are talking passing out and if it is big enough piece of chocolate I stop breathing as it shuts down muscle control! Nice right?

 

And yes like yours it is in everything and sometimes it is not even listed as in some food.

 

Same thing when we go over to visit friends, we have to tell them over and over – NO Michael can’t have that piece of chocolate cake! No not even half a slice!

And if you are at a birthday party and they have one of those half and half chocolate and vanilla sheet cakes I have to have the first slice of white BEFORE they cut the dark side as even a bit on the knife is not seen can get me. Sometimes they are like – I checked there is no chocolate on the knife, then Lori finds a bit of it on the plate.

We like to eat out at buffets but I have to be very careful at the dessert area as there is chocolate everywhere from people (kids) dropping it all over the food.

Ask Lori how many times I have surprised her by going out to buy her chocolate donuts and forget while putting on a plate to bring her and lick my finger!!!!! Can we say BOOM! On floor , to have her come flying down the stairs to see what happened and finds me on the floor thinking I had another heart attack!

 

Lori is my watch dog as she checks everything when we are out!

 

HEY! This was FUN venting!........thanks

[Twilight]

I was extremely allergic to soy. I have no idea it my poisoning by chemicals had anything to do with it but...

 

To get the chemicals out of my system I had to do a liver cleanse 3 of them as a matter of fact back to back.

After I got through with the cleanses, I was no longer allergic to poison ivy, could tolerate some soy-(such as

was in foods I missed seeing in the ingredients)- it is also in everything, including soft drinks (No I do not drink them) cheese, etc.)

But I still stay away from soy and will not eat it willing.

Just touch animal feed products with soy will eat my hands , I will have huge sores that ooze.

Sigh I have heard that is common for those that work in feed mills... and people willing put it in their body.

I believe England only allows it to be used in mechanical areas..

[The WE2's]

Mrs. S...the perfect place for ventings...of any kind! The only foods Philbe steers clear of are crustaceans ... absolutely don't eat them...I call them the cockroaches of the sea! But that's a preference. But... I also can't mess with raw sourdough starter, the yeast literally "attacks" me. I can eat sourdough breads but I just can't mess with the raw dough. Tried that once when I got some "friendship bread" that nearly took me out! I broke out in hives from head to toe...literally. Had to get emergency treatment to keep throat from swelling shut. My skin actually looked like it was "bubbling" (like yeast does) and I had antihistimine salves that I nearly bathed in along with the medication. Also have a niece that has severe Celiac and it took years for them to find recipes they could cook with. When we have family dinners we all try to fix foods that she can eat and she & her mom make a "game" of fixing the foods and not eating any them...except for "her" foods. We all try to eat a tiny sampling of her cookery to show our support. One of her favorite snacks when she was a toddler was frozen corn niblets. She'd come to mom's and say "granma...got any cold corn?" Mom also learned to make peanut butter cookies without using flour.

[PoorMusician]

Thanks for letting me vent and then giving hugs.

Daylily, That's pretty similar to my symptom list. I'll add haywire metabolism. I gain weight like crazy for the next few days. We're not vegan, but we're pretty close since so much meat is corn fed. Mind if I ask how you handle the B12 deficiency issue? That's really the only thing stopping me from living vegan.

 

Amishway, chocolate! It's good to hear someone else recognize that the ingredients listings on products are not very helpful in many cases. It just boggles my mind that food makers aren't required to know what's in their product. I'll call a company and ask about the origins of specific ingredients and they won't know.

 

Mostly I just get tired of people asking me "What do you eat?", "How do you live without ____?". I eat "real foods": meaning flavorful, healthy, delicious foods. I spent about 15 years of my life sick. I literally didn't know life could be better. This diagnosis was such a wonderful thing for me that the isolation frustrates me.

[CrabGrassAcres]

Daughter cannot eat anything with gluten, corn, soy or fat as she is unable to digest those things. She cannot have meat, dairy or eggs from animals fed gluten, corn, or soy. I raise all our meat, dairy and eggs and bake/cook everything from scratch. I do buy fruits and veggies, but only in single ingredient cans or packages. Amazing what they will slip into a can or package and you have to be so diligent. I also have to use a cream separator on the goat milk to remove the fat for her.

 

I have to cook her food separate from mine since some of the things in her diet, I cannot have because of kidney problems and some of the things I must have, make her ill.

Edited February 22, 2013 by CrabGrassAcres

[TheCG]

*huggles PM*

 

I'm completely gluten-free, but do much better on a diet with practically no grains (other than a bit of white rice), ESPECIALLY whole corn, and very little sugar. There are very few places I still go out to eat. Luckily, I don't have to worry too much about minimal amounts of stuff like corn starch.

 

We used to host a game night with a bunch of my husband's friends. Used to. We quit, as it was getting too expensive to feed everybody and I flat out do not allow gluten in my kitchen, so it was definitely well-known. One of our friends insisted that she could organize one as a potluck. A grand total of 3 people brought stuff, and only one of those people made sure it was something I could eat...and that one person wasn't even the one who organized it. We pretty much realized that most of those people are mooches, not friends.

 

If I eat wheat, I end up feeling exhausted, freeze, and don't want to eat much for a few days. If I eat whole corn, it pretty much cleans out my system rather quickly. If I eat a lot of other grains and sugars (ie, gluten-free breads, cookies, etc.), my joints start hurting and my circulation goes down. I freeze when it's 75 or below when that happens, no matter how many layers I have on.

[out_of_the_ordinary]

AGGG! My post was somehow deleted after I had it all typed out.

 

 

 

 

Vent away! I'm sorry you can't have corn!

 

This celiac board has a few people that cannot have corn. They have some info and recipes http://forums.glutenfree.com/index.php Two things I learned that I wouldn't have thought of was that all plastic wrap (think saran wrap) is coated in corn oil and they couldn't buy things in paper cartons (like milk and juice). I think most paper products contain corn, but that could be something with how sensitive you are.

 

I don't have a problem with corn, but do have alot of other stuff I have to avoid, so I understand. I have celiac disease, 19 diagnosed food allergies, a few sensitivities and for the past year, I'm dealing with a sensitivity to salicylates (for me, no food dye, no spices, no naturally red foods, no fruit except pineapple and banana, slowly testing a bunch of stuff one by one).

 

Everything I eat, we cook ourselves. Gluten-free only became widely known a few years ago. Even now, people don't really understand. I get the "OMG, I could never give up______ (gluteny food here)! I couldn't live without it! How do you do that?" My reply "It's worth it to be healthy and not feel sick all the time."

 

I understand about the lack of family support. They also refused to accept celiac disease is genetic.

 

Have you looked into grass-fed beef? Even though I don't have a problem with corn, I have an easier time digesting grass-fed beef compared to corn-fed beef.

[Daylily]

Thanks for letting me vent and then giving hugs.

 

Daylily, That's pretty similar to my symptom list. I'll add haywire metabolism. I gain weight like crazy for the next few days. We're not vegan, but we're pretty close since so much meat is corn fed. Mind if I ask how you handle the B12 deficiency issue? That's really the only thing stopping me from living vegan.

 

Amishway, chocolate! It's good to hear someone else recognize that the ingredients listings on products are not very helpful in many cases. It just boggles my mind that food makers aren't required to know what's in their product. I'll call a company and ask about the origins of specific ingredients and they won't know.

 

Mostly I just get tired of people asking me "What do you eat?", "How do you live without ____?". I eat "real foods": meaning flavorful, healthy, delicious foods. I spent about 15 years of my life sick. I literally didn't know life could be better. This diagnosis was such a wonderful thing for me that the isolation frustrates me.

Oh, I forgot to mention the bloating and temporary weight gain! I get that too.

 

Also wanted to mention that my Mom just recently found out she can't eat soy. It was causing arthritis-like symptoms of joint pain and stiffness, and muscle pain, feelings of despair (isn't that strange?), insomnia. She actually thought she was going to die soon she was feeling so badly. A friend of hers was telling her about his symptoms and how they were caused by soy so she gave it up for several days, then ate some. Symptoms returned with a vengeance no so more soy for her!

 

I take the B12 sub-lingual tablets. DH has to take shots but so far my B12 has been good. We do get some in Red Star Nutritional Yeast Flakes. DH's brother has pernicious anemia and he eats meat. His sister also has to take shots and I believe his father did too. sis and Dad are/were vegetarian but not vegan.

Edited February 22, 2013 by Daylily

[PoorMusician]

almost all food plastics are now PLA which is corn based. I'm lucky that I don't have skin reactions unless it has a chance to absorb into my skin (so I make my own shampoo / conditioner / lotions, etc). But it can be a problem for me if the food sat in a hot truck or is acidic.

 

I do get grass-fed meats from a few places, but again, the packaging is usually made of corn and quite often they'll "finish" animals on corn feed for a little extra fat before slaughter. So I have trust issues with ranchers. :-)

 

The ones that really shocked me were white vinegar, powdered sugar (to keep it from clumping) and brown sugar (caramel coloring). And American beers. Import a British Ale or Irish Stout and I'm good to go, but unless it's a microbrewery I've visited, I don't drink anything american brewed.