INTOLERANCES

I just wanted to post this picture, not so lovely, 4 days after the wedding dress excitement…  I ate a lot of salicylates and amines on the weekend and the red face started again!!!

My journey on this food intolerance thing is not over. I know how I can be really good, on a strict elimination diet, but now I have to slowly introduce foods back into my diet. On the weekend I had a high salicylate and amine diet, and that rash, my tiredness and irritability was the result.

Now I have to work out exactly which foods/ substance are doing it and see how much of these substances I can reintroduce before I hit my threshold where symptoms develop.

ABOUT FOOD INTOLERANCE (my layman’s understanding, correct me if I’m wrong!)

Some people have lactose intolerance and this is now widely accepted. They just can’t tolerate the lactose in milk. They get digestive issues of varying degrees if they drink normal milk but ok on lactose free milk.

Some people have milk protein alergy so they can’t tolerate lactose free milk either. I think I’m one of these.

One little girl at our kindy has anaphalactic nut, egg, milk and allergies! If she touches these she could die! She has to carry an epi pen around which when injected will bring her back to life if she reacts.

So food allergies/intolerance range from mild symptoms to death!

 

What I have come to learn now is that people can also develop intolerances to other substances in foods. Substances I didn’t even know existed. Two of these are salicylates and amines.

Salicylates (or sals for short) are simply asprin like chemicals in foods. The chemical was found in the bark of the willow tree and it was extracted to make asprin in a pill form, a drug used widely. This chemical does not only exist in the willow tree though, chemical from this family group is also found in many fruit and vegetables. And for regular people it is no issue, just like milk is no issue for someone without lactose intolerance. But for those with an intolerance it can produce symptoms like rashes, headaches, irritability and other things. Some foods  are high in salicylates (eg. Strawberry, tomato products, herbs and spices, wine), and some are low (eg. Pear, potato, beans). 

Amines occur in foods when certain proteins break down in the food, eg. histamine is an amine. These are natural substances which again some people can develop an intolerance to. As meat and fruits age their amine levels increase. Some fruit and vege are high in amines (eg banana, tomato products, wine) and some low (pear, strawberry, potato).

With an allergy a person'a body reacts to the alergic substance.

With a food intolerance a person can usually deal with some amount of that substance but once they eat a certain amount of it (eg. Amine or sal) then they hit their threshold where symptoms start to develop.

At the moment I can’t tolerate milk. If I have any, even a bit, I get a rash. And I get tire and irritable.

At the moment if I am on a strict low amine and salycilate diet I am symptom free, on weekends that I have not been strict and eaten quite a bit of food higher in sals and amines I have been getting a rash, tired and very irritable also getting headaches with certain things like powdered tea (in some chai tea and iced teas). What I have to work out now is do I react to both amines and sals, or just amines or just sals. Once I’ve worked that out I can slowly increase the amount of amine or sals I eat until I see where my threshold is. I suspect I may be able to deal with moderate amounts but if I for example eat spag bol with lots of tomato and tomato paste in it as well as herbs, then strawberries for dessert, then more fruit the next day, I’ll may react (they are all high in salicylates). But if I just eat 3 strawberries one day, the spag bol with tomato and no tomato paste a couple of days later then maybe I’d be fine because I’ve spaced the salicylates out. But I need to go through the process to work it all out for me.  

Does that make sense?!?!?

It’s certainly all new to me but the proof is in the pudding and I feel great!!! I am taking multivitamins too as well as calcium until I work it all out. I have a dietician appointment on the 30 Nov. The dietician and the doctor I’m seeing have had a few people who have had these intolerances in our little Goondiwindi.  I think it is something that is underdiagnosed. I never thought I’d be one anyway!!

With certain types of intolerances it can also be the case that it can change over time and you can eat more of those things again then. I hope I’m one of these !! We’ll see!!!!