Partial mystery solved
Sep. 24th, 2004 04:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kitchen_kinkAs of yesterday, I'd been in the elimination phase of the diet for 2 weeks and 2 days. The nutritionist said to start challenging things when my symptoms reached a plateau, and since the initial breakthrough around the end of the first week, I hadn't seen any significant improvement, and started to understand my ups and downs within a new baseline, if that makes sense. In other words, rather than sometimes feeling okay and sometimes feeling awful, I mostly felt great, with the occasional tired spell or whathaveyou, for several days.
So yesterday, I decided to try the first challenge.
So I seem to be allergic to citrus. The ED allows you to have moderate amounts of lemon or lime in order to flavor your food; I'm not sure why. I get the sense that most of the problems people have with citrus are from citrus fruits with lots of inherent sugar, like oranges and grapefruits and such. The challenge instructions suggest that I should have a normal-sized serving of the food with my breakfast, mid-morning snack, and lunch.
So I had three medium-sized glasses of OJ, always with food, spread out over several hours.
From the first sip of OJ, it felt wrong. My throat sort of felt like it was closing to it. My tongue swelled a little bit; not dramatically, but so I could notice it. A few minutes after finishing that glass, I had sharp, shooting stomach pains, and went straight to the bathroom.
Throughout the day I had bouts of mild nausea, a little bit of reflux, and a sense of being "full." Today, more than 24 hours later, I still have a stomachache, though a mild one, and my digestive system in general is not all that happy with me.
Go fig!
So, it's a nice solution to part of the mystery. I started with citrus because I didn't think I was sensitive to it at all! I figured I'd challenge the things I didn't think it was first, so that any residual effects wouldn't leak over into the next challenge. So much for that!
I wish this were the only solution, but I'm sure it won't be - namely because I don't generally consume all that much citrus. Oranges and such are too much of a pain to eat, and I mostly don't drink juice since it's concentrated sugar and a waste of calories. But I've always found my lips get all irritated and I sometimes break out if I drink too much orange juice. No more screwdrivers for me!
I wonder if I now need to avoid foods with citric acid in them. The hummus I've been eating, which contains it, doesn't seem to have any ill effects. Still, might be worthwhile to ask.
So yesterday, I decided to try the first challenge.
So I seem to be allergic to citrus. The ED allows you to have moderate amounts of lemon or lime in order to flavor your food; I'm not sure why. I get the sense that most of the problems people have with citrus are from citrus fruits with lots of inherent sugar, like oranges and grapefruits and such. The challenge instructions suggest that I should have a normal-sized serving of the food with my breakfast, mid-morning snack, and lunch.
So I had three medium-sized glasses of OJ, always with food, spread out over several hours.
From the first sip of OJ, it felt wrong. My throat sort of felt like it was closing to it. My tongue swelled a little bit; not dramatically, but so I could notice it. A few minutes after finishing that glass, I had sharp, shooting stomach pains, and went straight to the bathroom.
Throughout the day I had bouts of mild nausea, a little bit of reflux, and a sense of being "full." Today, more than 24 hours later, I still have a stomachache, though a mild one, and my digestive system in general is not all that happy with me.
Go fig!
So, it's a nice solution to part of the mystery. I started with citrus because I didn't think I was sensitive to it at all! I figured I'd challenge the things I didn't think it was first, so that any residual effects wouldn't leak over into the next challenge. So much for that!
I wish this were the only solution, but I'm sure it won't be - namely because I don't generally consume all that much citrus. Oranges and such are too much of a pain to eat, and I mostly don't drink juice since it's concentrated sugar and a waste of calories. But I've always found my lips get all irritated and I sometimes break out if I drink too much orange juice. No more screwdrivers for me!
I wonder if I now need to avoid foods with citric acid in them. The hummus I've been eating, which contains it, doesn't seem to have any ill effects. Still, might be worthwhile to ask.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2004-09-24 02:12 pm (UTC)Both you and
no subject
Date: 2004-09-24 02:40 pm (UTC)And,
Oddly...they thought citrus was going to be one of the things I was sensitive to. And no one thought corn would be a problem.
no subject
Date: 2004-09-24 02:45 pm (UTC)I can tell you what I did in an email, though, without too much trouble. Then if you have questions, just ask me or
no subject
Date: 2004-09-24 02:47 pm (UTC)Maybe this'll be the solution. If it is, frankly, I'll be very pleased. If I can have dairy and wheat and yeast and soy I'll be friggin' thrilled.
Perhaps from here on in I'll eliminate all citrus and citric acid. Though I have a pot of hummus with it in it waiting for me at home...damn.
no subject
Date: 2004-09-24 02:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-09-27 07:08 pm (UTC)Anyway, best of luck finding out what's making you sick.
P.S. I'm the school girl from Manray.