Food allergy

[tamirra]

Hi can i ask if anybody with Behcets suffer with food allergies, as my daughter has tried on a few occasions to eat a chinese take out and everytime she eats it she is sick, and has stomach cramps, could this be due to the meds and the msg that's put in the food? Thanks.

[lesleyg]

Hi Tamirra

I'm not sure about an allergy but I always feel 'sick' on anything but the plainest of food. In the past I could eat anything but now find that anything with preservatives and I suspect MSG make me unwell. I definitely can't eat capsicum or chillies.

Lesley

[tamirra]

Hi, she can eat chillies by the jar with no adverse reaction, so im thinking MSG, ive told her to try it again and ask them not to add it in and see how she goes. How you feeling? x x

[goodlife]

I think it is MSG as I suffer if I eat any Chinese other than "dry" stuff without sauce.

I can eat indian as long as it is very gentle, though I used to quite enjoy spice.

Too much dairy seems to cause me a massively upset stomach...as Lesley said I don't think I have allergies either just sensitivity to certain food stuffs.

Much love to you both xx

[Hidden]

Hi,

I can't eat Chinese takeaways or eat in all you can eat Chinese restaurants. It pretty much goes straight through me. Nice!! Indian however, which you would think would be worse, is no problem. I have to make sure they haven't got dairy in them as that upsets my tummy. MSG's must be the culprit as I can cook stir fry's at home. Saying that at home I cook everything from scratch. C x x

[lesleyg]

Hi everyone

A few days ago we took my scooter out for a test run and went to a Chinese buffet (all you can eat). I have been paying for it ever since but was putting it down to the exertion.

Without going into too much detail I can eat the food - I don't get gastric problems - it is just feeling generally unwell afterwards. My physical problems are muscular and tendons etc.

I tend to eat a cereal with milk as a favourite food - hope milk doesn't have to come off the menu!

Lesley

[behcetshurtsbeyondwords]

I had to chuckle, Lesley, because one of my favourite snacks I love is a bowl of cereal and milk-- this is probably the only food I can eat that doesn't make me feel unwell or trigger any kind of reaction. Even fresh veggies and fruit can make me feel sick.. it all just depends on how I am feeling and how much stomach/intestines are feeling at the time of eating. If I already feel sick, then whatever I eat will not go down good. But I do agree that many of the preservative junk they put in so much of our foods these days probably does cause some negative reaction for people with any active autoimmunity-- even a healthy person may experience symptoms because our bodies were not created to be able to digest these unnatural ingredients.

I have been reading a book called "The Wheat Belly" that discusses how bad wheat is for our health mainly because the wheat that we consume now days is almost one hundred percent man-made with all kind of preservatives, where as wheat from back in the day was completely natural and wholesome. It is fairly interesting and discusses how wheat itself (not just gluten) can trigger or make many illness like cancers and autoimmune inflammatory disease much worse. It also discusses how certain active chemicals in wheat products actually bind to the opiate/morphine receptors in the brain which is why it can be addicting and make us feel "good." It says that researchers did an experiment to help prove this by giving some people wheat products to eat and seeing their response-- then they gave them a drug that reverses the effects of narcotics (eg. narcan), and within minutes the people experienced similar withdrawal symptoms to a narcotic withdrawal. I always knew that bread and baked goods were a comforting food, but I never realized just how our brain reacts to them and why we crave these foods. My sister has recently started a gluten/wheat free diet, and she went into it slowly. A couple days ago she was completely off the gluten/wheat, and she ended up in bed sick for two days and when she got up, she felt extremely irritable and thought she was going mad.

[devonshiredumpling in reply to behcetshurtsbeyondwords]

Years ago, pre-BD, I read a similar book (in fact, it fell of the bookshelf last night, how strange): Lose Wheat, Lose Weight. I bought it because wheat has always 'done for me' and in particular puts on pounds of weight. It is a far more in depth book than the title would suggest and is another which goes into the history of wheat production and tells how what we eat nowadays is far from natural wheat. From memory, it recommends spelt - the ancient wheat. It is not gluten free but is highly water soluble, making it far easier to digest by the body. Here's a link to a site I found just doing a quick google, there may well be better sites out there!

histakes-spelt.com/benefits...

[lesleyg in reply to behcetshurtsbeyondwords]

I'm glad I'm not the only one - I was feeling a bit guilty regarding the cupboard full of breakfast cereals but over the past three years that is what has 'gone down well'.

Lesley

[Kayhold]

My Dr is convinced food allergies can make BD worse - in fact I go tomorrow for a skin test with an allergist.

Whatever I am allergic to, I am going to cut out for 2 weeks and see how I feel.

Unless it's dairy. I won't give up dairy. haha!