“Why don’t you toughen up?” Do food sensitive people feel more or less pain? Children encouraged to toughen up often have siblings who do, in fact, feel less pain. The idea that the amount of pain food sensitive people feel is different, that is more or less than others, took years of my work to develop.What first showed clearly was that pain perception did not relate to the amount of physical change, was the distress in children with reflux. When the oesophagus was viewed by paediatricians it … [Read more...]
Cinnamon: can coumarin cause toxic reactions?
A thoughtful subscriber asked this question. We all want to know exactly what is causing reactions like knowing that the lactose in milk can cause bloating. Unfortunately where food sensitivity is concerned there are many unknown unknowns. You can see how complicated it is by reading my presentation on this very topic, "Known Unknowns" for Ockham's Razor available here. I certainly have met many people who were putting a teaspoonful of cinnamon on their breakfast and who had quite severe IBS … [Read more...]
Allergy hypochondriacs
I have a great deal of sympathy for those described as "allergy hypochondriacs". Whilst it is probably accurate that only 1-2% suffer from "true allergy" as described by the presentation to the College of Dermatologists, this ignores the many other people who suffer genuine symptoms to foods or food components. Because these reactions are more complicated and not detected by allergy tests they are often dismissed as hypochondriasis. This flies in the face of research and clinical practice done … [Read more...]
Do short comments or books work for you? Have both!
Do you like websites that provide short interesting comments occasionally? That can be fun. Here is one on bread which many food sensitive people suspect. When thinking about bread we can think about the starch, protein and fibre aspects separately. Some who report bread as a problem report that they think they do not have symptoms with water crackers or toast. Tolerance is reported to be better if starch is well cooked, whether it is as crusty bread, toast, or dry biscuits. Protein is often … [Read more...]
Give the Christmas gift that helps with food sensitivity
Buy a book that helps your friends understand your diet, or put one under the Christmas tree for relations so they can support you. They may even see how my books may help them too! Are You Food Sensitive? can provide this. You could have a copy of Fussy Baby or two in your gift box for new mothers who have an “unsettled baby”. Helping them think through what may be upsetting their baby may be the best gift you ever gave them! Tolerating Troublesome Food is good for anyone who wants to … [Read more...]
Is yeast connected to IBS and bleeding gums?
Hi Joan, My wife has a long (10 year plus) history of irritable bowel type symptoms, inflamed and bleeding gums (that have receded significantly in places). But long story short, she has just had a food sensitivity blood test (through a company called nutripath) that has shown high sensitivity to yeast and low sensitivity to cocoa, sugar and wheat. She is also waiting results of a stool test. I am wondering whether yeast sensitivity is something you have worked with? Or if you have any advice … [Read more...]
Coffee, nausea and vertigo
Lately coffee has been making me very sick too. After just a sip I get nauseaus and then if I drink a few sips more I get a bad case of vertigo. Needless to say I avoid it now that I've discovered the source of my vertigo attacks. Have you ever heard of this? I have lots of food intolerances (wheat, oats, rye, barley, malt, yeast, soy) that usually cause me to have extreme fatigue, congestion, sore throat and overall sick feeling. Dear Andrea, Nausea and bad vertigo with coffee is very … [Read more...]