Is my friend allergic to... food?

July 20, 2008 4:49 PM

My friend can't figure out the cause of her digestive issues, it's not celiac, not lactose intolerance, no allergy to caffeine - anyone experience something similar and can offer some suggestions? More details below.

Posted for a friend:

With the acknowledgment of YANMD, I have been dealing with stomach and digestive issues for roughly the past six months or so. For a good while I was eating nothing but an egg on back bacon (canadian/peameal bacon) on toast with coffee (1% cow's milk) each morning for breakfast and was doing fine with this - it filled me up all morning and was easy. That worked for me until about maybe two months or so in when I started feeling nauseous every morning after eating breakfast. This nausea was usually accompanied with fairly severe stomach pain/discomfort (feels like someone is squeezing my stomach into contractions) and bloating. I kept gravol in my desk at work. Although it sounds silly now, I couldn't figure out that it was the food I was eating until a few weeks later when a coworker suggested that eggs would be too heavy to have each morning - so I stopped eating that. I switched to oatmeal (with some psyllium fibre cereal, berries and almonds mixed in) instead (with coffee with 1% milk too of course). That works. When summer came along though I switched to cold cereal instead of oatmeal - muffets (whose sole ingredient is shredded wheat) instead. I have been eating the muffets with fresh berries, dried goji berries, raw almonds, cinnamon, and vanilla almond milk (accompanied by the coffee) each morning for a while now until recently it has been making me ill in the mornings again - even worse than with the eggs this time! I had to go home from work early on Friday, the pain was that bad.

Today, I tried replacing the Muffets with millet puffs. Nope. The nausea lasted all through brunch at my sister's and most of the afternoon and the pain and discomfort even longer.

This whole thing seems so random to me and I am beyond frustrated - not to mention running out of breakfast ideas. I'm keeping ginger root in my purse now because I am finding it harder to predict what sets me off. The other night it was beer and nachos, for goodness sake! I know that I am sensitive to eggs, so I try to avoid them and I know that I have always been sensitive to ice cream and hydrogenated oils so I avoid them too, but nachos? Shredded wheat? Millet? What the - ?

I've tried cutting out coffee - no difference. I know that I am sensitive to ice cream but I am not lactose intolerant - I can drink glasses of cow's milk just fine. I am not allergic to nuts - I can eat handfuls of almonds, peanuts, any nuts fine. I can also drink glasses of almond milk with little reaction (maybe a little twinge of indigestion, but I can't figure out why that would be - almond milk is supposed to be easier to digest). My mother has celiac disease, and I have tested (maybe three or four years ago) for the same but the test came back negative so it's not wheat gluten (although I have heard that it can show up later -?), as far as I can tell. I mean, I can eat most other wheat and various grains with no reaction. It's all just weird and frustrating to me.

So, according to my experience it's not lactose (except for ice cream) and it's not nuts, and according to the doctors it's not wheat gluten. Ugh.

Oh, and yep - not pregnant.

Again, I plan to see a doctor and dietitian about this soon but I was just wondering if anyone here might have any insights about this. Also, if you know of anywhere else to direct me, or have any breakfast ideas (with no eggs, cereals or milk) that would also be appreciated! Sorry about my longwindedness and excessive use of parentheses.

posted by perpetualstroll to food & drink (26 comments total)

You can develop allergies later, so testing negative for wheat gluten allergy four years ago doesn't mean much. Get retested for wheat, at least. (By the way, if you do have a wheat allergy, beer would set it off.)
posted by Nattie at 4:57 PM on July 20, 2008

IBS?
posted by gwenlister at 4:58 PM on July 20, 2008

What kind of test for gluten did you have? My friend has atypical celiac disease and she did not respond to the skin test, but DID show up as having the allergy on the blood test. From what I understand, with adults the blood test is much more accurate.
posted by Medieval Maven at 4:59 PM on July 20, 2008

A while ago, I had a similar time when no matter what I ate, I had an upset stomach. After a bit, I went to the doctor. He prescribed Prevacid. I took it for a few weeks and the problem went away. I feel much better now.

YMMV.

Good luck.
posted by Argyle at 5:00 PM on July 20, 2008

Definitely see a gastroenterologist
I have Chron's and what I have for breakfast almost everyday is a smoothie with 2 banana's 5 or six frozen strawberries and a bit of juice (pineapple, apple, lemon, whatever). Works for me.
posted by miles at 5:13 PM on July 20, 2008

FWIW, I'm told by a co-worker who has Celiacs that the "poop test" is the new standard for diagnosing it. The older tests had a higher rate of false negatives.
posted by dws at 5:31 PM on July 20, 2008

Have your gall bladder checked.
posted by konolia at 5:32 PM on July 20, 2008

are you sure it was the eggs and not the toast that was making you ill? it very could be celiac. and yes, it can develop later in life.

definitely go see a doctor, and quickly. hopefully it is just something dietary, but best to rule out anything worse as soon as possible.
posted by thinkingwoman at 5:41 PM on July 20, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

For me, same symptoms, it was a duodenal ulcer. A variety of Rx'd drugs helped greatly - but required patience - and now I'm totally better for all foods, all the time.
posted by VioletU at 5:48 PM on July 20, 2008

What everyone else has said...plus, you might check out the possibility of an Eosiniphilic disorder. My daughter has this disorder which effectively makes her allergic to nearly all food. www.apfed.org has more info; feel free to contact me privately if you wish.
posted by mattholomew at 6:23 PM on July 20, 2008

Oh, I wanted to add that sometimes ice-cream you wouldn't think has wheat in it, does. My friend has a horrible wheat allergy and a couple times this has happened to her; she'll eat something that sounds fine, like vanilla chocolate swirl, have an allergy attack, read the label, and see that, for some reason, there was wheat in it. If I had to guess, sometimes ice-cream makers will do his for texture. I think it's a stupid decision, but there you go. That might explain why you're sensitive to ice-cream but not a glass of milk. And like someone else above mentioned, it might have been the toast rather than the eggs that set you off.

You can develop an allergy merely by eating a lot of something, and it can gradually get worse as your body gets more sensitive to it. So that may be what happened here. But either way, I think you're probably going to have to see a specialist to get tested for some stuff. There's really a lot of things that can cause digestive problems and nausea, and some of them are neurological even. Not trying to freak you out, but all the same you should see a specialist just in case, and just saying it's going to be difficult for laypeople to narrow it down to a short list since the possibilities are many.
posted by Nattie at 6:45 PM on July 20, 2008

Does it for sure go away if you don't eat? What if you have foods that you normally eat for dinner that don't set you off? It could be a) the morning or b) any food in the morning. Nausea's complex.
posted by a robot made out of meat at 6:58 PM on July 20, 2008

Do you take a multivitamin? Certain brands cause certain people intense short-lived nausea.
posted by zhivota at 7:13 PM on July 20, 2008

This might be an odd suggestion, but maybe your friend is literally getting sick of eating the same thing every morning?
posted by smalls at 7:58 PM on July 20, 2008

IIRC, you can have gluten sensitivity or allergy without having Celiac Disease. And it's in so many things that you wouldn't think would have it, so many fillers and additives like msg or glutamate or glutamic acid, or more obvious whole grains that aren't wheat but also have glutens or the carrier proteins or whatever. If the switch from oatmeal (no gluten in the grain IIRC, but can often be exposed to gluten during processing) and psillium fibre cereal to wheat cereal set it off, that could be a clue. I've never seen psillium fibre cereal, but if it's like other cereals, it probably had wheat or rye or some other grain in there with it. If that's the case, that shoots my theory.

Also, how has your (friend's) anxiety level been lately? Prolonged high anxiety can make the bowels do bad things. This one sounds more food related but it's worth noting.
posted by Askr at 8:23 PM on July 20, 2008

I was in such horrible pain when I was 19 and could not figure it out. As in, I drink a glass of water, and I am having the kind of intense heartburn where you end up with blisters in your mouth after a couple of days. I ended up confined to my bed. Drinking a whole bottle of pepto only turned my mouth, teeth and everything else black (gross). After extensive tests, they could not find an ulcer, it wasn't Crohn's, it wasn't acid reflux... they told me it was IBS (basically your digestive tract is raw from one end of the other) and the doctor told me it was probably triggered by stress, hereditary, or a combination of both. I had never had any trouble whatsoever before this time period and have had no respite since then without being on medication.

I've been taking Tagamet daily since then and I still have stomach problems (most markedly when I drink alcohol, fruit juice, or eat anything too fatty or with oats in it, especially in the afternoon). No idea why. But there is a list of foods that IBS sufferers are told to avoid--caffeine, alcohol, anything carbonated, anything with too much fat in it at once, tomatoes, chocolate, etc.

Your friend may have this. It's hard to test for and my doctor said that basically once they had ruled out ulcers, Crohn's, cancer, tears, abscesses, etc. that was the "general term" for your stomach and digestive tract being a mess. Maybe that's it.
posted by Unicorn on the cob at 8:48 PM on July 20, 2008

Um, I wonder if you have intestinal parasites? It's pretty rare now in the industrialized world, but it does happen.
posted by Class Goat at 8:49 PM on July 20, 2008

Wild guess here, and of course IANAD, but have you looked into fructose allergies?
posted by MaxK at 11:07 PM on July 20, 2008

Just chiming in to agree that you can have wheat/gluten intolerance without having Celiac's.

Last year, I was having stomach problems myself. For months I went through just about every test you can imagine, including a few different types of testing for food allergies. Doctors could not find anything, and even admitted they were stumped. (Other tests included an EGD, and HIDA scan.)

I tried cutting different foods out of my diet, and lo and behold, I feel like a whole new person when I avoid wheat/gluten. Even though officially all the tests say nothing is wrong.

This is, of course, anecdotal and YMMV. :)
posted by Zarya at 1:01 AM on July 21, 2008

If you are planning to see a doctor soon, start keeping a detailed food/symptom diary now, to take along with you. Time/food item/known ingredients/quantity for ingested food items, and time/symptom/localization/details for pains, bowel movements and other symptoms; make your entries as you eat or experience symptoms. A week or more of accurate, detailed data can be a big help in diagnosing you.
posted by paulsc at 1:15 AM on July 21, 2008

2nd'ing konolia's suggestion: my wife has exactly your symptoms and has just been to see the doc, who has scheduled her for gall bladder tests (ultrasound/blood test).
posted by 5MeoCMP at 5:12 AM on July 21, 2008

It might also be Crohn's Disease. Here's a decent enough website about Crohn's and IBS.

Don't be surprised if you need to have a colonoscopy. Do be surprised if it's not suggested.
posted by plinth at 6:55 AM on July 21, 2008

3rding check your gallbladder.
posted by Iteki at 7:09 AM on July 21, 2008

Perhaps you should try eating much simpler meals to help figure out what's causing this. "egg on back bacon (canadian/peameal bacon) on toast with coffee (1% cow's milk)" and "muffets with fresh berries, dried goji berries, raw almonds, cinnamon, and vanilla almond milk (accompanied by the coffee)" each have so many different things that could be causing you trouble, I don't know how you could ever narrow it down. Try eating plain oatmeal for a while. If that's ok, try adding berries. If that's ok, try adding nuts. You have to start with very simple meals and add ingredients back into your diet one by one to see what triggers a reaction. Keep detailed notes as you do this, as others have suggested, to help you and your doctor figure out what's going on.

On the other hand, it almost sounds like you're fine with certain meals for a couple weeks, and then they start to bother you. If that's the case, it seems more likely to be a general/systemic issue than an allergy to a specific food. Regardless, see a doctor.
posted by vytae at 7:39 AM on July 21, 2008

I have a very similar problem. In my case it was an ulcer (more than one actually). It's kept in check mostly by diet and the occasional drugs. Obviously, to the Doctor with you!
posted by elendil71 at 8:44 AM on July 21, 2008

I second the celiac poop test, which you can get from enterolab.com. It's pricey, but it was worth if for me. It diagnosed my gluten and casein intolerances after the basic doctor's test came back negative. (I decided to do the Enterolab test after several doctors told me the basic celiac test at doctors' offices is worthless because of its high rate of false negatives.) Also, it sounds like it's possible you are someone who develops food allergies if foods are okay for you to eat and then make you sick after a few months of consuming them regularly. If you can find an allergist who will do a blood test for immediate (iGe) and latent (iGg) food allergies, you can have a vial of blood drawn to test for a whole host of different foods. Children tend to have immediate allergic reactions, and adults tend to have latent ones---delayed reactions like the stomach upset you are discussing.

I blog about my experiences with getting healthy, including dealing with food allergies and celiac, here. I'm about to do a post about the process of diagnosis that I went through.
posted by sally_jp at 7:14 AM on August 4, 2008