UKC

ive got a few definite intolerances, aside from avoiding them completely for the rest of my life ive read a few online articles of ways to overcome them by gradually re introducing them.
Anybody had any success with such methods or other?

In reply to Pesda potato:

Short answer no, longer answer "it depends on what the intolerance is" - for instance you'd have a job doing it with coeliac as it's an autoimmune condition.

In reply to Pesda potato:

Enzyme supplements could be worth investigating, apparently can resolve gluten intolerance for some folk.

In reply to MaxWilliam:

Any idea which enzymes or do you recall where you heard that?

In reply to Pesda potato:

Sorry I don't know the details, was told by an ex-colleague she solved multiple food intolerance (inc gluten) through researching these supplements.

In reply to Pesda potato:

I had a bad reaction to alcohol at one point in my life, 2 pints of weak larger and I'd be really ill.

This lasted for about 2 years, I managed to drink my way through it.

In reply to Pesda potato:

Although it's almost as fashionable to have it as it is to deride it, I have a gluten intolerance. For 13 years I'd wake every morning with shocking abdominal cramping, aka IBS, and have to kneel on the floor beside the bed until it became tolerable enough to carry on with the day. I just thought that "it was something I'd have to live with", as the consultant put it.

Then I read that evangelical anti-wheat tract, and thought I'd give giving up wheat a go. Well, hello, the symptoms went away in a few days, in two months I lost a stone and a half, no more bloating, cramping, exhaustion, and generally feel fantastic.

To address your question about reintroducing a food product, the other day I thought I'd have a little bit of my son's veggie sausage (containing wheat) he'd left on his plate, just to see if I could tolerate it. Cue severe cramping, like I'd not had for over a year. So, no, won't be trying that again....

In reply to felt:

I was about to ask if you'd had the gut biopsy to test for coeliac disease, but as you have to expose yourself to gluten for a while before the test, one wonders why anyone who's already found removing gluten from their diet to be beneficial would then re-expose him or herself to it, just for a diagnosis.

In reply to Pesda potato:


My wife has developed some fairly major food intolerances over the past few years and has definitely found digestive enzymes to help. I'll find out which ones she uses and let you know. FWIW, she's noticed that being as active as possible really helps the condition.

In reply to Tall Clare:

Yes, no, I haven't had that. As you say, what's the point? I do miss pizza, baguette and sour dough bread, but that's about it. Luckily I didn't have the craving that Dr Davis says affects is it 40 per cent of those withdrawing from it. In fact I didn't even have to think about it, just stopped like that. For a while I became a crashing bore, a phase I'm not entirely out of, but I'd like to think I'm getting a bit better.... Don't think it's coelacanth, mind. Would I not be dead?

in reply to Felt:

That's coeliac, not what the iPad autocorrect gave

In reply to felt:


Nah - or rather, not necessarily.

In reply to Tall Clare


That's reassuring. I always thought the smell in the living room was just the milk in the carpet

In reply to Pesda potato:

aye well if it were just wheat i wouldnt mind, i can avoid that, but its also soya protein, milk protein, and possibly potato :s makes eating out or at friends house bloody awkward.
Ill try bromelain + papain, theyre quite inexpensive

In reply to Pesda potato:
No. But I've developed one. Before I was 20 I could eat raw onion in a salad. Now it's guaranteed diarrohea within an hour. Cooked onions no probs. What's that all about?

In reply to Dave the Rave:

FODMAPs?

In reply to felt:


Que?

In reply to Pesda potato:

Yes I have overcome an intolerance to the wife's cooking.

However the dog is suffering from obesity and diabetes..

In reply to felt:
That's just avoiding loads of foods

In reply to Pesda potato:

Onions figure high in the list

In reply to felt:


Prehistoric fish is bound to give you a tummy ache at the very least!

Anyway, I don't think so, from what a close relative tells me eating gluten as a coeliac is likely to cause all sorts of nasty long term issues such as osteoporosis etc. but they won't necessarily manifest themselves immediately, nor at small (accidental) amounts; although no doubt some symptoms will.

In reply to Tom Last:

When my husband was diagnosed as coeliac couple of years ago he was told that long-term low level exposure was more dangerous, for instance increasing the risk of bowel cancer, than the occasional blowout. Mr TC definitely knows when he's been glutened nowadays, though interestingly he managed to eat a pain au chocolat in France in the summer with no effects - he says that stress can have an impact too.

In reply to Pesda potato:

My toddler was dairy intolerant and came out in a rash about 3 days after eating any. At his one year health check we were referred to a dietician and he said the current advice was to 'Challenge' this sort of intolerance by giving a very small amount every few weeks and waiting to see if there was any reaction.

Anyway, about a month ago and after 10 months of challenging the intolerance it seems to have gone and he is on milk everyday now. What was also interesting was that the reactions to the earlier challenges were always worse if he was teething which suggests that stress levels may have a role in intolerances (something which the dietician had said might happen).

After 15 years I can now eat my wife's cooking with very little complaining.

Does this count?

In reply to Pesda potato:

If someone is cooking for you and it's pasta and you don't fancy it, just tell them you are gluten intollerant.
If you're absolutely starving and the only thing available is a massive sandwich just eat it and say "I should be ok this time"

Well that's what all the "gluten intollerant " people I know seem to do.

Bog

In reply to Tall Clare:

If you're a diagnosed coeliac you can get some gluten free pasta and bread on prescription, which might be useful if you were on a limited income as they're pretty expensive. Other than that there doesn't seem to be any advantage to making yourself feel like crap.

In reply to Pesda potato:

Ceoliac is at the very severe end of 'intolerance' and there can be very serious long term consequences that show up later in life if not properly managed.

My other half used to be fairly intolerant of both wheat and dairy (bloating, runs, nausea, generally feeling fairly awful). She almost entirely removed them from her diet for a while, and then also had a pretty serious reset in terms of the overall health/balance of her diet and also the amount of exercise she was doing. The overall effect is that she can now stomach a fair amount of wheat and modest amounts of dairy without problems. Occasionally what starts to cause issues again, and she just cuts it out again for a while, which seems to reset things a bit.

Stress is definitely a factor, and she has to watch things more carefully if she is generally under the weather. A complicating factor in my GF's story is that quite a few major sources of stress have fallen away over recent years, and this may be as much of a driver of improvement as anything else.

In reply to climbingpixie:

Good point - the pasta isn't so expensive but the bread is eyewatering (and largely grim).

In reply to Pesda potato:

I don't need food to make me intolerant.

In reply to Pesda potato:

Would the same work with food allergies?
I've got a shellfish allergy, i'm a veggie now, but would be interested to know for cross contamination when getting out.

In reply to Tall Clare:


My youngest daughter refused to re-expose herself to gluten just for the coeliac test. 10 years on she has found she can cope with small amounts of gluten - so definitely an intolerance rather than coeliac. I discovered last year that I'm intolerant to fructose, so having eaten apples and pears on a regular basis for all my life I suddenly developed an intolerance.

In reply to Pesda potato:
definitely discuss things on a tangent as its useful and interesting to all.
however its important for me at least to distinguish between advice and suggestions for food intolerances as opposed to Celiac / Coeliac disease which is specific to wheat/gluten and quite different topic.
Edit - as are allergies, I have heard of children with severe peanut allergies who have been desensetised to them through regular exposure, however a true allergy is different from an intolerance. The most severe form of allergy is anaphylaxis, whereas intolerance can cause a lot of hard to identify symptoms.


My plan thus far is to cut out all the things that came up on my intolerance list for 4 months then try re introducing one of them slowly over a period of 3 months then if there are no obvious symptoms then retake the intolerance test

In reply to Denzil:
Many coeliacs have a tolerance level as well so I wouldn't assume that conclusion (almost no gluten free food is fully gluten free, there is an acceptable level). There are even "silent coeliacs" who get no symptoms, but are increasing their risk of intestinal cancer with every sandwich. I'm glad I'm not one of those - would be very hard to keep the willpower not to eat nice stuff if it didn't cause any symptoms.