Seemingly Intolerant To Nearly All Foods

[Anth480]

Hi everyone,

     I have searched this forum many times in the past to try to help myself, and am finally posting now because of the same issues with food. I eliminated gluten about a year ago and all of my symptoms improved for about two weeks, then I began reacting to the rice and beans I'd been eating. Also, I tested negative for Celiac Disease through a blood test. Eventually I realized I had additional food intolerances to all grains, beans, nuts. Over the year after trialing many elimination diets, my food intolerances have grown to the point where I can eat strawberries, raspberries, celery, olive/ olive oil, and fish without any reaction. I am now working with a naturopathic doctor and I introduced organic chicken, and spinach with a lesser reaction, and notice slow improvement in my symptoms with this diet. I have a strong reaction to L-glutamine also. With these few foods I find it hard to reach my caloric needs for the day and I don't know if I could stay on just these until I can tolerate new foods. Has anyone here recovered from being intolerant to nearly every food while eating some of their food intolerances? Or used supplementation to do this? Thank you for your time.

[cyclinglady]

Sounds like you were gluten free when you had the celiac blood test. Did I misunderstand? You must be eating gluten for about 8 to 12 weeks prior to the test. Learn more here:

Open Original Shared Link

You might be avoiding gluten in your foods but what about hidden gluten and cross contamination? Have other GI issues been ruled out (IBD, Crohn's, etc.)?

I wish you well!

[bartfull]

When I first started I couldn't even eat lettuce. Just about everything set me off. One of the things that helped was going strictly organic for a while. Grocery store sweet potatoes set me running, organic ones did not. Blueberries took almost four years to get back - even organic ones. Corn was my worst enemy and soy was not far behind. White potatoes, most fruit, you name it, I was intolerant to it. For a long long time I lived on chicken, white rice, broccoli, cauliflower, bananas, and cheddar cheese.

 

I hope it gets better for you soon.

[Anth480]

Hi cyclinglady,

    Thank you for your reply. I was eating gluten before the test for about three weeks. Before that I had a period where I was gluten free on and off for a week or two at a time. I try to be very careful with cross contamination, and am able to tell immediately when I consume gluten in small amounts. Similarly, my reaction to food intolerances occurs very soon after I consume them, and are nearly as bad as gluten. I haven't been screened for Crohn's at all, although it runs in my family. My reactions to food intolerances are usually strong change in mood, difficulty concentrating, fatigue, edema, which I've had consisently in my face and body for about three years now. When I avoid the intolerances and gluten, I go through a phase of detoxification, and all these symptoms slowly subside. Thank you for the well wishes. 

 Bartfull, thank you for your reply. Did you experience neurological symptoms, as well as digestive when consuming your food intolerances? My reactions are primarily neurological with some noticable gastrointestinal symptoms. I hadn't noticed them until I monitored that my digestion is a little weak. 

[msh-anth]

Hi, 

 

Funilly enough my symptoms are very similar to yours. I went gluten free, felt great after a couple of weeks. then slowly developed allergies / reactions to other foods and now it seems like I'm running out of runway. 

 

Does anyone have a diet to suggest which I can follow which can reduce my diet back to the very basics so I can re-introduce new foods over time? 

 

Thanks.

[stri8ed]

Hi, 

 

Funilly enough my symptoms are very similar to yours. I went gluten free, felt great after a couple of weeks. then slowly developed allergies / reactions to other foods and now it seems like I'm running out of runway. 

 

Does anyone have a diet to suggest which I can follow which can reduce my diet back to the very basics so I can re-introduce new foods over time? 

 

Thanks.

 

Been there before. What I found is, identifying and avoiding problematic foods is not enough, as you may start developing sensitivities to the new foods. You need to get the core of the issue: A hyper-permeable (or leaky) gut allows non-fully digested food parts into the bloodstream. These food-parts are large enough to stimulate the immune system, which then may become "sensitized" to them. So as you can see, given a leaky gut, any arbitrary food may over time become problematic.

 

The solution that worked for me is implementing a Open Original Shared Link. It seems there is a certain threshold of antigens which the immune system will tolerate before sensitization occurs. So the idea behind a rotation diet, would be to keep the antigen concentrations for a given food below that threshold. Here is an image I copied out of an immunology book, which seems to relate nicely:

 

 

In my case, I was doing a 4 day rotation diet to avoid developing further sensitivities, and In spite of this, I had developed new sensitivities (primarily to high protein foods). I found what worked for me, is limiting the protein content to 15 - 20 grams, of a given food, on a 4 day rotation. This makes sense when you consider the immune system is primarily stimulated by proteins. Though I suspect for most people, this additional restriction may not be necessary.

 

In my experience, and many others, once you can identify and avoid all the foods you are sensitive to (and prevent new sensitivities), after some time (months/years) you will be able to eat those foods again, with no reaction.

[msh-anth]

@stri8ted 

 

Thanks very much for your reply. I think I might have to try a rotational diet. Its a bit overwhelming. How long did you have to do the diet for ? how are you now ? 

 

Many thanks

[stri8ed]

@stri8ted 

 

Thanks very much for your reply. I think I might have to try a rotational diet. Its a bit overwhelming. How long did you have to do the diet for ? how are you now ? 

 

Many thanks

 

It may seem overwhelming at first, but like all things, once you do it for long enough it becomes second nature. More importantly, if it works, then it is well worth the effort.

 

I did the rotation diet for a year or so. It took some time for me to get it right, as I still had to identify all the foods I already had problems with, so I could exclude them from the diet. The rotation diet actually helped me identify problematic foods. It seems by not eating the food trigger every day, the symptoms became more acute when I did consume it. Currently, I can eat any of the foods I was previously intolerant to, without experiencing a reaction. It's very possible I could have done the rotation diet for a shorter period of time, with the same results, but there is no way to know.

 

If are are overwhelmed at the prospect of maintaining such a diet, why not implement it for a few weeks as an experiment, and see it helps prevent developing intolerances to further foods.

[AnelaKini]

I'm in a similar position, although I throw up, and L-glutamine helps me, when I remember to take it (I forget when I'm feeling better, or am too lazy to search the cupboard for it). I use collagen powder in my tea, but I don't know if that would help, since it contains L-gluamine.