Food allergy sufferers

shifty_uk

shifty_uk

shifty_uk

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How do you find living with it?

At Christmas this year I fell pretty ill, constantly dehydrated, losing weight, never out the loo. This continued until last month, despite countless trips to the docs/hospitals, nothing was diagnosed, just medications to help slow my digestion for me to at least retain nutrients and water!

So, as a desperate attempt I began cutting things out of my diet..It seems milk is the probable culprit! Even food with the slightest amount of milk makes me badly ill the next day! :(

I've found it pretty hard to adjust but I'm doing okay. However, every so often, generally due to misleading advice, I'll have something that contains milk. Yesterday for example, we(colleagues) all went to Burger King which I thought would've been alright after a few googles. I even asked the girl if the Chicken Royale was made without dairy, she said it was fine - I'm truly paying for it today! :(

My GF is also allergic to wheat gluten, makes eating out fun!
 
A close friend of mine randomly (at age 26) developed a severe milk allergy.
A shocking amount of processed food has some form of milk or milk power in it.
Buying food in a restaurant or over the counter i.e. a KFC burger you have no idea what is in it.

Make a serious effort to stay clear of anything thay even may contain any form of milk for a few weeks and see if you feel better. I am afraid a large amount of foods will no longer be available for you to eat!
 
shifty_uk said:
I even asked the girl if the Chicken Royale was made without dairy, she said it was fine - I'm truly paying for it today!
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That is the issue with milk. You cannot take the advice of the **** who works there. If it obvious if a product contains meat or not, but with milk, who knows.

Cook yourself and steer clear of many processed drinks for a while to see if the symptoms go away. It is the only way to be sure.
 
I've been allergic to dairy since I was born. I also used to be allergic to eggs and nuts.

And seriously allergic too, had to carry around an epipen until I was 16 and a half (only 17 now)

I started growing out of them when I was 15 and now I can pretty much eat anything except raw milk on its own or whey protein (which is really irritating trying to bulk up for rugby)

I still find myself reading the ingredients labels on food though.

The most annoying thing I found having them was when I went to fast food restaurants and asked for no cheese on a burger and then when they got it wrong and I told them that I couldn't eat cheese I got told to stop being so fussy! they don't seem to understand the concept of allergies. Although I have to say its been getting better as more and more people have them.

Luckily I am growing out of them now.
 
Avoid processed foods basically... I have a wheat intolerance and have for the last 10 years so am used to it now and know generally what does and doesn't have any in. Still a a pain in the **** though.

You'll find yourself getting slightly grumpy about cheap food as well, and misadvertising.. just today, Corn Tacos, made from wheat flour.. :confused::rolleyes:

Macdonalds and I assume BK do provide a leaflet with a list of ingredients/allergen information if you ask. BK are bad for me though so I avoid them as much as possible, for example they put flour on their chips...
 
Amp34 said:
Avoid processed foods basically... I have a wheat intolerance and have for the last 10 years so am used to it now and know generally what does and doesn't have any in. Still a a pain in the **** though.

You'll find yourself getting slightly grumpy about cheap food as well, and misadvertising.. just today, Corn Tacos, made from wheat flour.. :confused::rolleyes:

Macdonalds and I assume BK do provide a leaflet with a list of ingredients/allergen information if you ask. BK are bad for me though so I avoid them as much as possible, for example they put flour on their chips...
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I tried looking for ingredients information online but they don't have any relevant guidelines or PDFs so I'll ask in store next time! It was only a Friday afternoon ''let's go to BK for a change'' in the office so not a common occurrence. :)

You're right about cheap food too, practically everything contains milk! I'm spending a lot more just on buying unprocessed, fresh food.

It's difficult but I'm getting there. Thank goodness for soy milk(although, more expensive!).

Broken Hope said:
Just out of interest, have you been tested for diabetes?
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I believe so. Been tested for everything under the sun so far. :(
 
You can buy lactose free milk, have you tried it as a test.
My mother uses it after years of soya and goats milk, not that a proper lactose free milk is available is has improved quality of foods dramatically for her.
 
Oddly I can't eat cream (no giggling at the back). Milk and cheese are fine but even the smallest amount of cream of any kind leaves me violently ill for at least 12 hours.
 
Allergies are a pain in the rear.

I was highly allergic to vanilla, ginger and cinnamon until Xmas when someone gave me a non spice free mince pie and long behold I could still breathe and my face wasn't swollen up.
Still deathly allergic to limes, so i drink my Corona's like a man.

I got blood tests and other malarkey done last year, seems my allergen count is 50 times more than the average joe.
 
It might not be an allergy as such but could be like me and an intolerance to the lactose. Have you had it confirmed by the doctor?
Trying to avoid milk is ridiculously difficult :( very frustrating but as a home food intolerance didn't flag up that milk was an issue and doctors can't be bothered to help, I'm going to a "natural" clinic to get it confirmed because even avoiding milk I still find I'm poorly on and off. Would be amazing if it turned out to not be milk and something random that I don't eat a lot of.

Hikari that's interesting your mum used goats milk as there is lactose in that as well :confused:

One thing that's even more frustrating with intolerances/allergies is that some people aren't very understanding and think you're just being difficult. Yes, of course, I love not being able to have things like milkshake, chocolate, certain Italian dishes (Italian is my fave.) :rolleyes:
 
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Try raw milk products (unpasteurised) I used to get quite bad stomach cramps and flatulence after eating standard pasteurised dairy products but since moving over to raw milk products I now experience none of the above.

Pasteurised butter doesn't seem to be a problem though as the lactose/casein content is negligble.

The problem with pasteurisation is it destroys the enzymes which assist in the breakingdown/digestion of lactose/casein, most notably the enzyme lactase is lost, without lactase the milk sugar becomes difficult for our digestive systems to cope with. Raw dairy has all the necessary enzymes for digestion intact.

I don't personally drink milk myself but I eat loads of raw cheese and I never get the cramps/flatulence after eating it, if for some reason I eat some standard pasteurised cheese then the old symptoms return. You can get raw cheese quite easliy, most Swiss cheese such as Gruyere or Emmental is made with unpasteurized milk as is Canadian Cheddar.

Waitrose have a good selection of raw cheeses and Tesco do a really nice raw camembert amongst others for only £2, also plenty of places online to get raw cheese.

You can get raw milk here.
http://www.hookandson.co.uk/RAW MILK/raw milk.html
 
I have a rare form of dermagraphism which means I can do this - Picture
It also means that I constantly itch all over my body but I've got used to it.
I was told it is a food allergy but the chances of finding it are none.
 
I'm allergic to nuts and fish. Luckily both are quite easy to avoid compared to milk or gluten and I've never had to use my epipen. Last time I got an allergy test I was told I'm not so allergic to a few types of nut so this summer I'm going to do a few tests and see what happens.

I used to be slightly allergic to egg whites which would be quite annoying but I grew out of it before I really had to worry.
 
shifty_uk said:
I tried looking for ingredients information online but they don't have any relevant guidelines or PDFs so I'll ask in store next time! It was only a Friday afternoon ''let's go to BK for a change'' in the office so not a common occurrence. :)

You're right about cheap food too, practically everything contains milk! I'm spending a lot more just on buying unprocessed, fresh food.

It's difficult but I'm getting there. Thank goodness for soy milk(although, more expensive!).



I believe so. Been tested for everything under the sun so far. :(
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http://www.mcdonalds.co.uk/content/ukhome/meal_builder.html for Mcdonalds and apparently visible on the undersides of the tray cover as well.

http://www.burgerking.co.uk/files/documents/NutritionalInformation_26092011.pdf

And yep, expect your food bills to go up substantially. Going out? It'll probably have to be the steak rather than the cheaper food. Buying in supermarkets? You'll suddenly realise just how much cheaper food is the more it is processed...
 
i get the itching & burning thing after eating something i shouldnt have. drives me potty :mad: i had bloodtest and it came back fine, waste of time doing that.
i changed to liquid antihistimines cos the tablets have lactose in them and seemed to both treat AND cause the symptoms to stay :rolleyes:
it seems theres milk or derivatives in just about any sauce (including ketchup) or flavouring, sometimes bread, paracetamol has it in and they do not label that its in there.
 
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