Food Frustration, Gluten?

[GSDguy08]

Hey everyone. So, I'll go ahead and explain a little about my past two years, and the problems I'm going through. Im 22, and I worked at Kroger October 2008-Oct 2010. They had a ton of mold on the a/c there, and I developed a lot of breathing problems while working there. My problems got pretty severe, and I ended up having to quit. They finally got the mold removed from the system the month that I quit. However it caused me to develop breathing problems, and new allergies. I became allergic to flowers because of the mold, and eventually I started developing a rash on my face, like eczema. At that point, foods didn't seem to cause an effect on the rash, and antibiotics made it go away. That was the month I quit when the last part happened, and I still had really bad breathing problems.......The breathing problems have gone away for the most part now. Breathing problems as in what Kroger left me with. I still can't be around a lot of flowers without the risk of my throat swelling up, and my face breaking out in a rash where my sinuses are located. Anyway a lot of my symptoms from mold exposure have gone away......and now I have new things happening. Whenever I eat a sandwhich in the morning (I usually eat a sandwhich in the morning because I don't like a lot of breakfast foods) my scalp starts to itch a lot. I've noticed when I eat pasta, crackers, cookies, etc, my scalp tends to itch, or my eczema on my face slightly flares. I'm extremely positive that red dye makes me flare up big time, and I think tomato products may as well. I had a hamburger from Mcdonalds today, and while eating it I even felt breathing restriction in my throat. Within about an hour my face broke out big time, I started seeing red "acne" on my nose, and my eczema got really red. That's not the only time I've had a reaction while eating a lot of ketchup. I even started getting what looked like acne, on my back all over. I only got ketchup on it, and they loaded it with it. The ingredients of their ketchup have coloring in it from what I read, so I assume it's red dye too. I avoid soaps with fragrance and dyes, same with shampoo, I'm going to change my detergent soon as well to something free of dyes, perfumes, etc. OH, I forgot to mention, I'm very allergic to cinnamon as well. It breaks my mouth out like crazy, and it makes me flare up big time.

So, my questions..... How much are allergy tests? I don't have insurance, and it's not offered where I work either. Also, where do you guys get food that has no gluten or wheat? Can you get gluten free bread at Wal Mart? I can't shop in Kroger because of the insane amount of flowers there, I can go into anaphylactic shock....fun I know... I'm wanting to find gluten free bread, crackers, cookies, cereal, etc....and obviously I will add in fruits and veggies to my diet as well. I want to avoid gluten, wheat, dyes, cinnamon, even dairy (dairy seems to mess with my sinuses, and I just want to avoid a could be allergy for now). Anyway, I'm really tired, it's late, so I know I left out a lot of information. Do you guys think I'm allergic to these things?

[mommida]

Small health food stores rarely have flowers. Sample some of the products and then check on-line for ordering by the case of your favorite shelf stable products. That is one of the best ways to save money on "specialty" products.

[GSDguy08]

Thanks. And it's weird, this morning I had a sandwhich with peanut butter and jelly....No itch on my eczema. The past few days I had been having ham from the store (which could have spices or coloring added I'm sure)and it itched. I did get a good juice at the store yesterday, it has a lot of different things in it, Pomegrante being one of the main ones, spelling? The juice is 100% juice, and has all of your b vitamins, vitamin c, and some others as well. I'm sure I'm not getting the proper amount of vitamins in my diet anyway. I drank a full 16 ounce glass of water, a small glass of the juice, and ate the sandwhich. I did get some gluten free things at the store yesterday too, cereal, crackers, and bread. I also got a lot of apples, stuff for salads, and I forgot to get raisins. I can eat raisins like it's candy. I love those. I'm completely cutting chocolate out of my diet because that seems to flare me up too at times.....which stinks because I love chocolate.

[GSDguy08]

As far as gluten free bread, is it cheaper to order it online by the case, in the long run? What about the other stuff? I mean the site I went on charged $15 for shipping, so I just went to Wal Mart (they don't have that many flowers in ours, so I'm okay) and asked the manager. He had shown me a gluten free section, pretty small, but it had bread, chips, pretzels, pasta stuff, cereal, and some chocolates. I avoided the chips because they had some kind of spices, and they looked similar to dorritos (my favorite chips that I can't eat anymore)

[RollingAlong]

You might check in with the "salicylate sensitivity" forum. They have similar issues and may be able to offer some advice. Open Original Shared Link

I find that my sensitivity to fragrances improves when my vitamin D levels are good; that would be a test worth paying for. You can get a home test kit and save the doc visit. Open Original Shared Link

I think that you should do a little more reseach before deciding about allergy tests. If you really think gluten is the issue, you should do those tests before changing your diet.

Dealing with Food Allergies by Joneja is a very good book. It explains how to do an elimination and challenge diet, which you would have to do anyway to confirm the test results. (allergy tests are known for lots of false positives.) This book has a chapter on benzoates. It is in chocolate and cinnamon but not in raisins. You can do the elimination and challenge and skip the tests; it would be a lot cheaper.

If you are allergic to cinnamon, I think that means you may have problems with all benzoates. Here's a website that talks about this:

Open Original Shared Link

I am not trying to talk you out of the gluten free diet; I'm just not sure that's all you're going to need to do and possibly not what you should do first. You might consider the Fail Safe diet first. Open Original Shared Link

[viviendoparajesus]

i was thinking you could try the elimination diet and keep a food diary. allergy tests have false negatives, so they are not totally reliable. they might not be your best bet since you do not have the money for them. the nice thing about a food diary is all the information you get. it can be challenging though. you did not describe your diet but my impression was it is a lot of carbohydrates, grains, processed foods, and fast food. it might help to eat more fruits, vegetables, meat/fish/nuts/beans. dairy is a problem for me and it used to make me have problems with breakfast. i think having problems eating breakfast is often tied to blood sugar issues. i think to help with this at night avoid sweets or sugary foods before bed. have protein in the evening to help stabilize blood sugar. best wishes!

[shadowicewolf]

No offense, but do you carry an epi pen on you at all times and/or a bottle of benadryl? Your little bit on the flowers got me concerned.