Coffee, apples and cheese

[orangeblossom]

Most of my life I was the sort of person who could eat anything and not have any reactions of any sort.

I have always been reluctant to give up any sorts of food but I have given up two of the above and restricted the other.

I am amazed, although I know I shouldn't be, how some food can have such a bad affect on you.

I have suffered occasionally in earlier years with cystitus but it has got really bad in recent years till I cut out coffee....I like it, but I hate cystitus more and it is a relief not to have it.

I realised a couple of years back that eating apples seemed to give me IBS and cut them out. I sort of drifted back into eating them a bit, as I like them, but as silly as it sounds I never connected the awful need to visit the loo most of the day and having to make sure if I was out, there were toilets on route with eating apples.

I woke up to fact and after giving them up what a complete change of my life. No more worry about going out and being `caught short`.

The cheese thing is to do with coughing at night. There again, a food I love but I know it can cause over production of muccus and since cutting it down a big improvement there.

I would urge everyone to take a look at their diet in case something quiet omminus is making them unwell.

[CarolineN]

How wonderful that you have been listening to your body Orangeblossom! This is typical of the results people get from avoiding those foods to which they have become intolerant.

'Intolerance' is a different reaction from 'allergy' - allergy (IgE reaction) can be almost instant and can be life-threatening, as in tree nut, seafood or peanut reactions. Intolerance (IgG reaction) can be all over the place and often not show up for 6-76 hours later. One can become intolerant to almost any food - often those that one eats most of - like wheat/gluten, dairy, eggs, oranges, or even like me garlic and bananas! The reaction caused may be anywhere in the body, from the gut to the brain and anywhere in between, including the muscles.

Avoiding carefully a food you think you may be intolerant to for a couple of weeks, noting any change/reduction in symptoms, and then having a glut of it on one day and noting any reactions over the next 3 days is a good way of finding out your particular problem. You can also try testing your change in pulse rate while at rest after eating the suspected food. You need to test just one food at a time - people sometimes have multiple intolerances.

The good news about intolerances is that if you avoid these foods scrupulously for a period of 6 months or so, the body can 'forget' to react to them, especially if you have done some work on healing your gut - but that's another story! - see Elizabeth Lipski's 'Digestive Wellness' for this info.

[ShelbyKins010]

I've had a similar experience. When I was younger, I ate eggs all the time. When I was around 13 or 14, I started getting massive stomach aches from eating scrambled, fried, over easy, any type of egg. I now can't eat them at all without waking up in the middle of the night for 2 hours with the world's worst stomach ache. And it's only with this food!!!