My Stomach Is Killing Me!

[jenngolightly 52]

What could be the culprit in Skittles that I just got sick from?

I've been gluten-free since 9/2007. It wasn't hard to do that because I had classic gi symptoms. My major symptoms went away, but I've had lingering issues and miss a lot of work because I thought I was continuing to get cc'd. I blamed it on my celiac-free husband who lovingly cooks dinner on occassion, or on our trips to restaurants who try to make me gluten-free meals. I cursed them and struggled through days of gi distress and foggy-headedness. I am bummed about having no vacation time saved up so I'm stuck working year-round without time to take my kids anywhere.

Last weekend I ate an ungodly amount of dairy. I felt like crap and was extrodinarily tired on Monday and Tuesday. I forced myself to stay at work, only to fall into bed when I got home. I decided on Tuesday that it must be casien that is giving me the lingering problems and decided to do an elimination diet. Yesterday I ate no dairy. Today no dairy.

I had to donate some $$ to a fund today, so I went to the coffee cart to make change for a $20. I had to buy something - I don't drink coffee, so I bought a bag of Skittles. Lucky me! gluten-free and CF!

Just ate them and I'm in agony! My stomach is cramping and bloated. Luckily I wore my gluten-bloating-slacks today so I don't have to unbutton my pants. lol.

Ingredients: Sugar, corn syrup, hydrogenated palm kernel oil, apple juice from concentrate, less than 2% citric acid, dextrin, modified corn starch, natural and artificial flavors, coloring (includes yellow 6 lake, yellow 5 lake, blue 2 lake, yellow 5, red 40, yellow 6, blue 1 lake, blue 1), ascorbic acid (vitamin 3).

I'm trying to figure out why I'm still getting sick. Can skittles be cc'd with gluten or casien, or could I be intolerant to something else?

Jenn

[AndrewNYC 4]

Ingredients: Sugar, corn syrup, hydrogenated palm kernel oil, apple juice from concentrate, less than 2% citric acid, dextrin, modified corn starch, natural and artificial flavors, coloring (includes yellow 6 lake, yellow 5 lake, blue 2 lake, yellow 5, red 40, yellow 6, blue 1 lake, blue 1), ascorbic acid (vitamin 3).

Whether they contain gluten or not, this ingredient list is laughable. If you have chronic stomach problems of any kind, you should try to avoid food like this.

[mysecretcurse 2]

Ingredients: Sugar, corn syrup, hydrogenated palm kernel oil, apple juice from concentrate, less than 2% citric acid, dextrin, modified corn starch, natural and artificial flavors, coloring (includes yellow 6 lake, yellow 5 lake, blue 2 lake, yellow 5, red 40, yellow 6, blue 1 lake, blue 1), ascorbic acid (vitamin 3).

Whether they contain gluten or not, this ingredient list is laughable. If you have chronic stomach problems of any kind, you should try to avoid food like this.

Thank you for saying what I was going to say... I don't mean to be mean but this post made me laugh also. Anyone who gives a rats a** about their body wouldn't put something like that into their stomach. Maybe you just don't know how bad all that crap is for you so I apologize for being hard on you, just trying to wake you up hun... you just ate a bag of toxic waste and now are wondering why your stomach hurts? There are many forms of poison in this world other than gluten or dairy...

[jenngolightly 52]

Thank you for saying what I was going to say... I don't mean to be mean but this post made me laugh also. Anyone who gives a rats a** about their body wouldn't put something like that into their stomach. Maybe you just don't know how bad all that crap is for you so I apologize for being hard on you, just trying to wake you up hun... you just ate a bag of toxic waste and now are wondering why your stomach hurts? There are many forms of poison in this world other than gluten or dairy...

Wasn't expecting to make people laugh.

I'm still learning. I thought this forum would teach me how to live and be happy with a gluten free/ casein free life. I don't have anyone to teach me around here, but I think I've managed pretty well on my own up until now - I've even cut out the awful soda, chocolate, and gluten-free cookies. I'm just overwhelmed with the cf part. I was having a terrible day yesterday and needed someone to help me figure out what was going wrong. I have no clue how to handle this cf stuff. I can't find much on the Internet.

It sounds like this may not be the place for me? Maybe someone can point me to a forum that can help me with that. (And I truly do care about myself. That's why I'm here)

[chasbari 70]

I do think you belong here. Maybe the first answers were a little bit harsh. I was kind of thinking along those same line too but... I can sympathize with you. Here you are with few options and its hard to throw away money without at least getting something to eat. Hey, before I went gluten-free as a result of this lovely disease I ate all kinds of things I would never touch any more with a ten foot pole. Doesn't mean I don't miss them though. Keep reading other posts here. I learned so much by hanging around here. I laughed, I cried, I cried some more and still have a lot to learn. Even tougher to get others around me to truly understand what I am going through. Sounds like you are a fighter toughing it out at work on bad days and good days alike. Hopefully, as you learn more and more and heal you will be able to start accumulating some vacation days in the future. Read up on the specific carbohydrate diet here on the board as well as some other stuff. Keep reading, keep learning, keep asking questions.. we have all made mistakes. You have helped me because I might have, out of the same desperation, grabbed for some Skittles if I were in an airport or someplace where I couldn't find any fruit or something to snack on. I am still far from being comfortable with traveling away from my food comfort zone (the house) without a boatload of my personal stash of fruits, raw nuts, raisins and hard boiled eggs. People just have to learn to tolerate me. You will endure! I know it.

[mysecretcurse 2]

I didn't mean it to be harsh... think of it as tough love...

Really, I didn't mean to come across mean, I was just trying to get you to see the reality of eating a bag of chemicals and then complaining of a stomach ache.. and connect the two. Ya know? Really, I wish you the best, thats why I post, if I didn't care, I wouldn't post. I do hope you stay....

[runningcrazy 11]

Wasn't expecting to make people laugh.

I'm still learning. I thought this forum would teach me how to live and be happy with a gluten free/ casein free life. I don't have anyone to teach me around here, but I think I've managed pretty well on my own up until now - I've even cut out the awful soda, chocolate, and gluten-free cookies. I'm just overwhelmed with the cf part. I was having a terrible day yesterday and needed someone to help me figure out what was going wrong. I have no clue how to handle this cf stuff. I can't find much on the Internet.

It sounds like this may not be the place for me? Maybe someone can point me to a forum that can help me with that. (And I truly do care about myself. That's why I'm here)

Dont leave! Im gluten and casein free as well

Anyway-ya, a little harsh. So maybe it wasnt a healthy treat, but its a treat-who said a treat is supposed to be healthy. But maybe you just did have a reaction because it was some weird ingredients mixed with a repairing stomach. For the first, i guess 4 months i couldnt really eat baked gluten free goods without feeling sick as a dog.

The reaction wasnt gluten or casein. Have you had any other issues with food dyes maybe? I know i get a major headache(which is also a gluten symptom for me) from dark food dyes like blues and reds.

Also-about casein free. I just wanted to warn you that there arw many dairy free cheeses but still have casein(what the heck?!) So be careful if you want them. But to be honest, i absolutely hate the fake cheeses on the market-enought to make me gag! But, i do make occasional homemade "cheese" sauces with nutritional yeast(available at health food stores) that are really good for nachos or rice pasta mac and "cheese", if you want the recipe just let me know.

Good luck and please dont leave, this is by far the best forum i've seen.

[lovegrov 150]

Back to the original question -- Skittles are gluten-free.

[tarnalberry 314]

As was pointed out, it could just be that your stomach was not happy to have Skittles - even if they are Gluten-free Casein-free. My stomach usually can't handle them either, certainly not more than 5 or 6 pieces. Just because something irritates your stomach doesn't mean that it has gluten (or dairy). (There's a fair amount of candy that my stomach isn't thrilled with any more.)

Give yourself time. I find being CF harder than gluten-free, myself, since I love cheese and yogurt. (And yes, I eat all kinds of alternative yogurt. It's not the same as greek cow milk yogurt. /swoon ) But find what works for YOU to eat. For me, I really do best if I stick to primarily whole foods. Doesn't mean I have to always do a lot of cooking - banana or apple and peanut butter makes a great, filling snack! But it takes time to figure out what works for you and what you like. Experiment, and give yourself time to figure these things out.

[Mskedi 2]

I hope you stay. This forum has helped me immensely, and those first posts were perhaps unusually and unnecessarily harsh.

I don't react from Skittles, and they are gluten-free, but there are people who have had so much damage that they have to be very, very kind to their guts for quite a while before they can branch out to things as processed as candy. It looks like you may be one of them. Maybe you can look into the elimination diets that people on here talk so much about (and there's one... SCD? that some people swear by). Maybe if you do that for a while, you'll be able to avoid having so many sick days and get to take a much-needed vacation.

[RollingAlong 15]

I agree, I've read quite a lot here in the last 18 months and the usual tone of posts is generally very friendly and supportive.

My spouse had a lot of trouble during the first week of CF. He felt terrible, mentally and physically and he didn't eat that much. You are almost through that first week - hang in there!!

I eat Gluten-free Casein-free (not celiac) and when I tried a small bag of skittles at Halloween, I had ezcema the next day. I hardly ever eat stuff with ingredients I can't pronounce. I don't usually eat even the processed gluten-free stuff. I do better on a Paleo type diet.

[mysecretcurse 2]

Have you read the thread about the specific carbohydrate diet? Might be of some help for you... its in this forum.

[OptimisticMom42 9]

My kids buy skittles for me because they can't think of anything else I can have. No gluten,dairy or soy eekkk I'll have to think of something else they can get for me when they are trying to suck up.

[sandsurfgirl 194]

I didn't mean it to be harsh... think of it as tough love...

Really, I didn't mean to come across mean, I was just trying to get you to see the reality of eating a bag of chemicals and then complaining of a stomach ache.. and connect the two. Ya know? Really, I wish you the best, thats why I post, if I didn't care, I wouldn't post. I do hope you stay....

I'm glad you apologized because your post was not tough love. There was nothing loving about it. It was mean and totally rude and unnecessary. Tough love is only appropriate when it's somebody you know and LOVE and usually when people call something tough love it's just an excuse for rude behavior. We are all suffering here and we come here for support. Who doesn't eat candy once in awhile for crying out loud? My God we lose SO much when we are diagnosed with this awful disease. Sometimes you just need to eat a pack of Skittles and feel normal.

I have been so pleased with the kindness on this board and the way it's highly moderated because people on here are so fragile emotionally at times when they are newly diagnosed or just plain sick. That sort of "love" has no place on here.

[Korwyn 81]

What could be the culprit in Skittles that I just got sick from?

I've been gluten-free since 9/2007. It wasn't hard to do that because I had classic gi symptoms. My major symptoms went away, but I've had lingering issues and miss a lot of work because I thought I was continuing to get cc'd. I blamed it on my celiac-free husband who lovingly cooks dinner on occassion, or on our trips to restaurants who try to make me gluten-free meals. I cursed them and struggled through days of gi distress and foggy-headedness. I am bummed about having no vacation time saved up so I'm stuck working year-round without time to take my kids anywhere.

Last weekend I ate an ungodly amount of dairy. I felt like crap and was extrodinarily tired on Monday and Tuesday. I forced myself to stay at work, only to fall into bed when I got home. I decided on Tuesday that it must be casien that is giving me the lingering problems and decided to do an elimination diet. Yesterday I ate no dairy. Today no dairy.

I had to donate some $$ to a fund today, so I went to the coffee cart to make change for a $20. I had to buy something - I don't drink coffee, so I bought a bag of Skittles. Lucky me! gluten-free and CF!

Just ate them and I'm in agony! My stomach is cramping and bloated. Luckily I wore my gluten-bloating-slacks today so I don't have to unbutton my pants. lol.

Ingredients: Sugar, corn syrup, hydrogenated palm kernel oil, apple juice from concentrate, less than 2% citric acid, dextrin, modified corn starch, natural and artificial flavors, coloring (includes yellow 6 lake, yellow 5 lake, blue 2 lake, yellow 5, red 40, yellow 6, blue 1 lake, blue 1), ascorbic acid (vitamin 3).

I'm trying to figure out why I'm still getting sick. Can skittles be cc'd with gluten or casien, or could I be intolerant to something else?

Jenn

Hi Jenn,

I don't know how long you've been gluten-free, but after about three months gluten-free my body started pitching a fit about pretty much any refined sugar. And refined corn is the worst for me. Corn syrup in any form, corn starch, etc. I can eat raw (fresh or frozen) corn, the the more processed it is the worse I react to it. I get nauseous, gassy, and quite ill. I'm pretty much on a raw food diet (fresh or frozen fruit, veggies), meat, eggs, nuts, Quinoa (which is technically a fruit), etc. Occasionally I'll have some grains in homemade bread, muffins. The only sweeteners I can safely use are raw honey, pure maple syrup, stevia (icky!), and raw agave syrup. If the honey or agave have been processed they give me an upset stomach. We've tested this with blind tests where I don't know what is in the foods and it is pretty consistent.

[Korwyn 81]

I didn't mean it to be harsh... think of it as tough love...

Really, I didn't mean to come across mean, I was just trying to get you to see the reality of eating a bag of chemicals and then complaining of a stomach ache.. and connect the two. Ya know? Really, I wish you the best, thats why I post, if I didn't care, I wouldn't post. I do hope you stay....

I have to say (as a parent of three grown children who survived their teen years ) that I'm pretty familiar with tough love and that wasn't it. Andrew's reply was only slightly better. I found it rude and it wasn't even directed at me. I know you already got chastised by someone but I'm going to echo them and say that "tough love" implies that you are in a relational position with the person to have the right, responsibility, and wisdom to interact with them at that level, and on this forum I doubt there are more than a handful of those relationships. It is pretty hard to reach that place with another person in real life, much less a semi-anonymous discussion board with some you don't even really know.

[orchid1 0]

What could be the culprit in Skittles that I just got sick from?

I've been gluten-free since 9/2007. It wasn't hard to do that because I had classic gi symptoms. My major symptoms went away, but I've had lingering issues and miss a lot of work because I thought I was continuing to get cc'd. I blamed it on my celiac-free husband who lovingly cooks dinner on occassion, or on our trips to restaurants who try to make me gluten-free meals. I cursed them and struggled through days of gi distress and foggy-headedness. I am bummed about having no vacation time saved up so I'm stuck working year-round without time to take my kids anywhere.

Last weekend I ate an ungodly amount of dairy. I felt like crap and was extrodinarily tired on Monday and Tuesday. I forced myself to stay at work, only to fall into bed when I got home. I decided on Tuesday that it must be casien that is giving me the lingering problems and decided to do an elimination diet. Yesterday I ate no dairy. Today no dairy.

I had to donate some $$ to a fund today, so I went to the coffee cart to make change for a $20. I had to buy something - I don't drink coffee, so I bought a bag of Skittles. Lucky me! gluten-free and CF!

Just ate them and I'm in agony! My stomach is cramping and bloated. Luckily I wore my gluten-bloating-slacks today so I don't have to unbutton my pants. lol.

Ingredients: Sugar, corn syrup, hydrogenated palm kernel oil, apple juice from concentrate, less than 2% citric acid, dextrin, modified corn starch, natural and artificial flavors, coloring (includes yellow 6 lake, yellow 5 lake, blue 2 lake, yellow 5, red 40, yellow 6, blue 1 lake, blue 1), ascorbic acid (vitamin 3).

I'm trying to figure out why I'm still getting sick. Can skittles be cc'd with gluten or casien, or could I be intolerant to something else?

Jenn

From past experience, anytime i come across a food item that has artifical flavoring listed as an ingredient, i will think gluten contamination. see http://www.celiac.com/gluten-free/index.php?showtopic=23922&pid=203923&start=&st=#entry203923

[sandsurfgirl 194]

Jenn, where are you? I hope you come back to this discussion for some good advice.

This has to be my safe haven right now. I am a wreck with all of this being new to me, and then I'm reading that many of those who have been gluten free a long time are suffering from so many other food issues and the fallout from undiagnosed celiac all these years. This board has got to be a place of kindness, helpful posts and safe safe safe for everyone.

[jenngolightly 52]

Thanks for all the replies.

I have been gluten-free for several years... but as I originally said, there's other stuff going on. I decided to go to a doc and get food allergy testing. One of my problems was that I was trying to go cf on my own, but several of my medications have lactose in them! Yikes! There's no way to do an elimination diet with casein if I take a bunch of lactose every morning. :-)

So hopefully my doc will figure out what else is going on. Not sure if the standard allergy testing tests for food dyes. Not sure what it tests at all...

Thanks again. I was overwhelmed by all your support.

[mysecretcurse 2]

I'm glad you apologized because your post was not tough love. There was nothing loving about it. It was mean and totally rude and unnecessary. Tough love is only appropriate when it's somebody you know and LOVE and usually when people call something tough love it's just an excuse for rude behavior. We are all suffering here and we come here for support. Who doesn't eat candy once in awhile for crying out loud? My God we lose SO much when we are diagnosed with this awful disease. Sometimes you just need to eat a pack of Skittles and feel normal.

I have been so pleased with the kindness on this board and the way it's highly moderated because people on here are so fragile emotionally at times when they are newly diagnosed or just plain sick. That sort of "love" has no place on here.

Holy crap some people are far too sensitive... That wasn't even being mean. Go look at the history of my posts and all the people I have offered my time to try and help here before you call me rude or mean. I wont try and help people here anymore if they don't want to be helped. No need for me to bother wasting my time if I'm going to get snapped at in response. Talk about rude...

[runningcrazy 11]

Well we've helped the original poster. I guess arguments can move to private messages now?

[silverlined 0]

I know this post is old but I'm replying anyway I just wanted to say I reacted really badly to skittles as well. While I know it's not the most healthy choice out there, I didn't really have any problems with Star Bursts and I imagine those are just as artificial. Weird.

[bellysbetter 0]

I had IBS since the age of 10 now 39 and have self-diagnosed myself as gluten and casein or dairy intolerant, my symptoms are constipation, bloating, gas, fatigue, brain fog, terrible getting off to sleep and keep waking, anxiety, depression, arthritis in lower back. When I remove these foods I am fine. But I also have a bloating and gas reaction to corn. For me, I personally believe that in years to come specialists will say oh yes celiac and gluten intolerance also includes corn. But it is early days still. The first case of diagnosed celiac was only in the 1950s wasn't it?! Back then they said it was only wheat that caused it. I don't eat gluten free bread, biscuits etc as they all contain maize starch which is corn. I don't think humans are meant to eat any grains or milk to be honest. We are omnivores so if you stick to meat, fish and veg and fruit mainly in your diet you should be fine. The caveman diet/Paleo diet sorts out all these health issues but yes it is boring to eat and like you I am trying to eat sweets still etc. But sweets are no good for you really as the people said above so if you want optimum health then you should avoid them really. It is just a bad habit and once you break out of the bad habit you don't miss it. I now eat raw chocolate. It's £3 for a tiny bar but once you taste a tiny bit you realise you have been eating rubbish for the past 38 years!