Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Fructose Free...how Am I Still Sick?

[TummyTrubble]

I am feeling so frustrated!

I'm on month 5 of fructose free.

I'm on day 45 of gluten free (I do not have celiac disease...just wondering if I'm sensitive to it) and around day 60 of dairy free.

How is it that I am still so sick that I'm having symptoms every day?!?!

Two weeks ago I accidentally got into the tiniest bit of corn syrup and as a result, got really sick. This entire week I have eaten nothing except water, chicken with salt and a tiny bit of black pepper and white rice with salt. For breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I am still having symptoms.

What am I missing?!? I don't know what else to do.

Is it possible I am having an issue with my medications or vitamins? I have tried to pick carefully but my probiotic has caramel color in it and my omeprazole has lactose monohydrate. Right now I am only taking a multivitamin (did away with the iron and calcium for now) and it has nothing suspect.

[txplowgirl]

Did you replace your cooking pans, toaster, wooden or plastic cutting boards, wooden spoons, collander? Do you share a home with other gluten eaters? Have you replaced your shampoos and conditioners? Do you have household pets that you feed gluten food to? All of these are high cross contamination issues. Then again you may have developed other food entolerances. Like are you eating more soy products. Are you eating more gluten few processed foods also just a thought. Any kind of pepper makes me sick

[GFinDC]

Also, Have you tried eliminating rice? And yes, vitamins and meds need to be checked or eliminated also. Also any drinks, like tea, or coffee etc.

Everything you consume is a possible problem. You can't assume anything is safe until you try eliminating it for a while.

[TummyTrubble]

I do share a home with a gluten eater - my husband. I haven't replaced any of our dishes, although one of them blew up in the oven yesterday, so that's the end of that one.

I don't have any wooden spoons - have been just using metal and glass cookware. I haven't used a toaster or a colander in at least 3 or 4 months. I do use the BBQ a lot but my husband's stuff goes on the right and mine on the left just to prevent any sort of cross contamination.

The dogs' food is hypoallergenic fish and sweet potato...it shouldn't have gluten in it.

I have not changed my shampoo and conditioner. Is this a possible source of gluten?

I don't eat any processed food or soy. I have a new calcium supplement with soy in it but I'm a wary of it...haven't opened the bottle yet. I have not tried eliminating rice. I'm scared to! I don't know what else to eat. I bought some Quinoa but haven't tried it yet. I'm doing the elimination diet thing right now and am trying to change something only every 3 or 4 days. I eliminated my multi-vitamin after finding inositol in it...wondering if maybe that was an issue. A few days time should show me if that is helping or not.

[T.H.]

  On 7/17/2011 at 2:17 AM, TummyTrubble said:

Two weeks ago I accidentally got into the tiniest bit of corn syrup and as a result, got really sick. This entire week I have eaten nothing except water, chicken with salt and a tiny bit of black pepper and white rice with salt. For breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I am still having symptoms.

Could it be corn?

Corn is in iodized salt to stabilize the iodine.

Corn is also used in the processing of white rice, I believe. Either during processing or polishing - I can't recall exactly, only that those who are sensitive to corn often have trouble with white rice.

If corn is fed to the chicken, the skin will often have a little of the corn protein left on the skin due to the defeathering process where whatever hasn't been fully cleaned from the bowels releases (there is usually at least a little left). Although this also applies to gluten, too.

And if corn syrup made you sick? Maybe that's it?

If you want to try and avoid corn, I'd recommend checking out a corn allergy website, like Open Original Shared Link

It is insanely hard to avoid, especially because it is used in many things where it doesn't have to be reported. Added to yeast to help make a better consistency as it's made into cakes, or sometimes cornstarch between paper plates to keep them from sticking - crazy stuff!

Hope you find out what's up with all of this soon!

If you want to come down to the super-sensitive celiacs section of the forum, while you may not be super- sensitive to gluten, we might be able to help you track some stuff down. A lot of us there have had to learn about many weird places that processing and farming can add allergens into our food that we'd never even think about. :-)

[TummyTrubble]

  On 7/20/2011 at 12:20 AM, T.H. said:

Could it be corn?

Corn is in iodized salt to stabilize the iodine.

Corn is also used in the processing of white rice, I believe. Either during processing or polishing - I can't recall exactly, only that those who are sensitive to corn often have trouble with white rice.

If corn is fed to the chicken, the skin will often have a little of the corn protein left on the skin due to the defeathering process where whatever hasn't been fully cleaned from the bowels releases (there is usually at least a little left). Although this also applies to gluten, too.

And if corn syrup made you sick? Maybe that's it?

If you want to try and avoid corn, I'd recommend checking out a corn allergy website, like Open Original Shared Link

It is insanely hard to avoid, especially because it is used in many things where it doesn't have to be reported. Added to yeast to help make a better consistency as it's made into cakes, or sometimes cornstarch between paper plates to keep them from sticking - crazy stuff!

Hope you find out what's up with all of this soon!

If you want to come down to the super-sensitive celiacs section of the forum, while you may not be super- sensitive to gluten, we might be able to help you track some stuff down. A lot of us there have had to learn about many weird places that processing and farming can add allergens into our food that we'd never even think about. :-)

Thank you so much! What a lot of great information.

We used non-iodized salt in our house because my husband has thyroid disease and meniere's (sp?) disease.

I definitely have an issue with corn syrup...maybe all corn. My gastro. told me to avoid all corn products when he diagnosed me with fructose malabsorption. I will have to do some research about how it's used in the production of rice - thanks for that! And I didn't even think of chicken being fed corn...yikes.

The good news is after ditching my vitamin I have found some relief....here's to hoping it gets better still!

And I will look for the super-sensitive section. Thank you very much!!

[Marz]

  On 7/22/2011 at 3:49 PM, TummyTrubble said:

The good news is after ditching my vitamin I have found some relief....here's to hoping it gets better still!

And I will look for the super-sensitive section. Thank you very much!!

Hoo boy, definitely suspect your vitamins, or any digestive enzymes you might be taking. Any supplement might be suspicious. I assume you've already checked medication (especially anything you take daily) and even anything you touch - body lotions/soap/shampoo - you won't eat it obviously, but small amounts can ride from hands to fruit that you're eating, or lips. Does your family still eat gluten - inside or outside of the house, do you kiss them without getting them to brush first?

Hope you find the culprit! Rice can be replaced with potato or sweet potato for your starch requirements, there's all the pseudo grains like amaranth, quinoa, millet. Quinoa - make sure you rinse this very well before cooking, it has a natural chemical on the outside of the seed which can cause stomach upset. I can't eat it unfortunately, seems to upset my stomach regardless of how well it's rinsed.

[TummyTrubble]

  On 7/23/2011 at 4:54 PM, Marz said:

Hoo boy, definitely suspect your vitamins, or any digestive enzymes you might be taking. Any supplement might be suspicious. I assume you've already checked medication (especially anything you take daily) and even anything you touch - body lotions/soap/shampoo - you won't eat it obviously, but small amounts can ride from hands to fruit that you're eating, or lips. Does your family still eat gluten - inside or outside of the house, do you kiss them without getting them to brush first?

Hope you find the culprit! Rice can be replaced with potato or sweet potato for your starch requirements, there's all the pseudo grains like amaranth, quinoa, millet. Quinoa - make sure you rinse this very well before cooking, it has a natural chemical on the outside of the seed which can cause stomach upset. I can't eat it unfortunately, seems to upset my stomach regardless of how well it's rinsed.

Yeah, I think at this point I can safely say that the multi-vitamin I was taking was not helping. I found out that it has inositol in it, which I think I have issues with. I was mildly suspicious of my probiotic because it has caramel color in it, so I switched to one with far fewer inactive ingredients. I think this one is doing better for me.

What do I look for in soap, shampoo, etc as far as gluten is concerned? Do they actually list gluten as an ingredient or do they call it something else? Seems like companies are really good at hiding things in their ingredients lists.

My husband is still a gluten eater and no, I don't make him brush his teeth before he kisses me! Maybe I should.

I did buy some Quinoa, but I haven't quite gotten to the point of introducing it. I will be sure to rinse it well - thank you for the heads up on that!

[mushroom]

  On 7/26/2011 at 3:55 PM, TummyTrubble said:

What do I look for in soap, shampoo, etc as far as gluten is concerned? Do they actually list gluten as an ingredient or do they call it something else? Seems like companies are really good at hiding things in their ingredients lists.

Look for things like hydrolyzed wheat protein, etc. Usually the name will have wheat, soy, corn in it (if these are things you are avoiding) Be wary of hydrolyzed vegetable protein.

My husband is still a gluten eater and no, I don't make him brush his teeth before he kisses me! Maybe I should.

This is an absolute guarantee of cross-contamination.

I did buy some Quinoa, but I haven't quite gotten to the point of introducing it. I will be sure to rinse it well - thank you for the heads up on that!

I would personally hold off on the quinoa until you have stopped reacting to things. Many of us have problems with quinoa too.