How to Test for Degree of Corn (In)Tolerance?

[Ender]

All of this is new to me, so sorry for all the questions. 

It turns out that not only do I have bad reactions to gluten, but I also have a similar reaction to corn (found out when I ate a bowl of gluten-free cereal made of corn meal). The reaction is much milder though. I also might have had a reaction to orange juice, too! It had calcium lactate in it, which is corn-derived according to this list that bartful posted in another thread: Open Original Shared Link So...how do I figure out my intolerance level (mostly for baking purposes)? Alternatively, should I be testing at all right now? I've only been gluten-free for a little over a week. I've severely cut back my food choices to meat, veggies, fruit, pure McCormick spices, flax seeds, and Lactaid (all meals cooked by myself). I just added quinoa yesterday, and I think I'm doing okay so far with it.

Perhaps I'm being overly cautious about new foods after I reacted to corn, but lurking here I read up on grains and how some people have problems with them. I want to try them all slowly and make sure I can use them in my baking without incident (I'll feel a lot more normal then). If I want to test rice flour, I can just eat rice. To test for potato flour, I can eat some potatoes. But what about teff? What about testing for sorghum and Xanthan gum (both made from corn) etc. What about vanilla? I have an endangered species chocolate bar sitting in my bedroom, and I don't know if I can eat it or not because it contains vanilla. That was hard to ignore during shark week.  

Any information on these questions is appreciated. When I tried to google it, I got corn crop intolerance.  That wasn't really what I was looking for! 

ETA: Also, I tested negative for celiac. Is it okay if I post on this forum? If not, is there another board somewhere for people who are non-celiac gluten intolerant (or whatever the heck I am)?

[StephanieL]

There are no scientific tests for ANY form or level of intolerances.  A detailed food long with symptoms check when reintroduced is the only way to determine an intolerance.

 

[cyclinglady]

Of course you are welcome here!  

Like Stephanie said, keeping a food journal is your best bet in determining food intolerances. 

[Wildflower Morning]

If you're reacting to corn-derived products, then I would say you're very sensitive (I'm very sensitive, too).  I wouldn't bother to test further.  Give up all corn and corn-derived products (this can include soaps and personal care products--these you might want to test to determine your degree of tolerance).  You may also find you have problems with supplements (which are overwhelmingly corn-y) and "allergen-removed" supplements (I react to these).  After about six months, you can try slowly reintroducing small amounts of corn (you should start with white, non-GMO).  As your gut heals, you might be pleasantly surprised to find that many of your intolerances go away.  My corn problems seem to be abating.  Slowly.  :-)

 

Hope this helps!

[bartfull]

Stick to what you are doing now. The diet you're eating is very healthy. Whether you have celiac or not, this is a good way to heal and let your body settle down.

When you decide to trial corn again (six months sounds about right), start with corn starch. There is no corn protein in corn starch so it'll be the first thing you will likely get back. Another reason to try this first is, as Wildflower said, most of your supplements and meds are full of corn starch. The sooner you can get those back, the less expensive your life will be. (I had to get meds, even Tylenol, made at a compounding pharmacy.)

If you get corn starch back, the next to try would be corn oil. Again, they claim that most if not all protein is processed out of it. Maltrodextrin, same thing.

What you want to avoid is ascorbic acid and citric acid unless you are sure they are not from corn. (Most are.) Also, the new veggie based clear plastic bottles some bottled water now comes in. (Dasani comes to mind.) That plastic is made from the corn protein. It got me bad one time.

And I would definitely avoid corn meal or whole corn until after you've gotten the starch, oil, and maltodextrin back. The thing is, at least for me, if I got glutened or corned, I would lose all forms of corn again for a while. So you need to be EXTREMELY careful or you'll be back to square one.

[Ender]

Thanks for all the helpful info.  

I'm still not positive that I reacted to the calcium lactate because I could have been still reacting to the corn meal gluten-free cereal I'd had before, but I think I was over the corn meal already. Looking back on the last few months, I had a rash for over two weeks after I pulled off a band aid after a few hours (I'm assuming the adhesive was probably derived from corn) and when I had my really bad asthma attack a few weeks back, I'd been eating gluten in prep for my celiac test. I had chosen to indulged in Einstein's bagels (which have tons of corn meal on the bottom). I ate a couple everyday for several days in a row because they were tasty, had horrible breathing problems for two days straight, and ended up with an emergency doctor's appointment where I was massively worried that I might be having a heart attack.  

That's the long version of me saying that I will follow the six month suggestion.

I have a follow-up question, but I'll ask it in another thread so others can find the answer easier if they have the same question.