Whole 30 and new allergies

mcmurdah123
mcmurdah123 Posts: 17 Member
in Food and Nutrition
A little backstory: I am gluten intolerant and suspected I might be lactose intolerant but never really cared as I would just get a little gassy. I also could not see myself giving up my chocolate Haagan Das or chocolate in general. I am also severely allergic to pine nuts and have gotten a little bit of the old itchy eyes when eating cashews. I have never had a problem with peanuts.

So I started Whole 30 this month on March 1. I could tell the Haagan Das was getting a bit out of control when I looked down and the pints were three high. Also my cravings for Burgerville with their g-free bun and fries were calling like a sailor to a siren. Anyways. I started whole 30 and hated it. I already have a restricted diet (not as restricted as some, thank god) so I was bitter about it. On day 12 I cheated and had some halo ice cream. Then on day 13 I had halo again and was off that day. Thought nothing of it. On day 14, I went home from work because I felt horrible and proceeded to sleep for 6 additional hours. Not only that, but I have been having itchy eyes when eating almonds (a previous love of mine).

It’s day 15 and I feel a ton better after my sleep session. I actually feel great and had been prior to D-day 12.... but I was wondering if anyone else has had these intense changes to their body when doing Whole 30? I was not expecting the ice cream to do that (maybe it was the sugar?) nor the new “allergy” to almonds. I feel like 12 days didn’t seem like that much time to lose tolerance of something.

Replies

  • mcmurdah123
    mcmurdah123 Posts: 17 Member
    Thanks tiny dancer! I completely understand that and have started over. However, that’s not my question or what I am addressing in my post.
  • shaumom
    shaumom Posts: 1,003 Member
    What I have seen that might apply is that I know people who, unbeknownst to them, had low level allergies to a food they ate regularly. Then they went OFF that food for a while, and when they tried to eat it again, they started having a more noticeable and/or more serious reaction than they used to.

    Sometimes, they stopped eating the food, sometimes, they stopped eating foods that were contaminated with that food.

    I have not yet seen a doctor give a good reason for this, though - the common one given is that 'you were likely always reacting some and just notice now that you are better.' but that doesn't seem reasonable to me, given that many people, like yourself, mention symptoms that would have been pretty noticeable if they had been having them previously, you know?

    So no idea why this could happen, just saying that I have met a number of people who mention something similar - usually it was at least a week or two before this started to happen.

    Another possibility I have seen happen - if you went off of wheat, rye, and barley - aka gluten - and you happen to be an undiagnosed celiac (at least 1/3 of celiacs do not have any noticeable, outward symptoms to eating gluten, so it IS possible to have it and not know). In this case (and this happened to me), what seems to be happening is that when one goes gluten free, the body starts to heal. Previous to the healing, the body systems didn't have enough nutrients to do their jobs, and that includes the immune system.

    So when the body suddenly starts to heal up, the immune system starts to work like it is supposed to. And sometimes, that means that low level allergies, which you didn't react to before (because no resources to do so) suddenly start causing big problems.

    I've spoken to a few other celiacs who experienced something similar. Me, about 1-2 weeks into being gluten free, I started having big time allergic reactions to things that had previously been fine, I thought. Reaaaaaly crummy.
  • sofchak
    sofchak Posts: 862 Member
    I eat Primal (basically Paleo + dairy). I’ve noticed that I now react to brown rice when I’ve never had an issue previously - like some serious reactions including hives, ear pain, and trouble swallowing.

    My new allergy came about suddenly with no warning with a baked good that I’ve eaten several times before (though not regularly - maybe 1-2x a month). Since then, I’ve experienced similar reactions in other products with brown rice so it’s not an isolated incident.

    I went to an allergist to discuss my concern and the allergist basically said that over time people gain new or reduce/eliminate old allergies. He had no real concrete explanation for why I now have an allergy to brown rice that never existed before, including my overall lifestyle and eating preferences.
  • L1zardQueen
    L1zardQueen Posts: 8,753 Member
    mcmurdah123 wrote: »
    Thanks tiny dancer! I completely understand that and have started over. However, that’s not my question or what I am addressing in my post.

    Are you looking for additional allergies you may have? I’m sorry, I guess I’m not understanding your OP.
  • spdaphne
    spdaphne Posts: 262 Member
    edited March 2018
    I'm doing the elimination diet which I hadn't done in 5-6 years. I didn't have, at least that I could tell then, a reaction to adding food back in.

    This time around, I'm having reactions mostly to corn (need to test again), pork and maybe eggs. Still need to test other foods like nuts, beef, etc.

    Anyway, while I felt fine in general before the diet, after removing the common food sensitivities back in, my body now feels when it has a hard time processing a food.

    I think food sensitivies and intolerances get easy masked, but during these kinds of diets can magnify them. Sometimes our bodies just get to a point where it can't process certain foods well anymore and we start to have reactions.

    You might want to test both almonds and the ice cream separately. Try almonds for 1 day but not change anything else in your diet. If you have a reaction, then it's almonds. Same for the ice cream. But wait till your body gets back to normal before testing again.

    If I indeed have an issue with corn (joint and muscle aches, lower back inflammation, fatigue, sleepiness), I'm ok living without it. Feeling like crap for 4 days after isn't worth it for me. Being Mexican, I cry inside about possibly not eating tortillas, corn chips, tamales, etc
  • htimpaired
    htimpaired Posts: 1,404 Member
    I just completed a whole 30 and the only change I had other than weight loss was diarrhea. CONSTANTLY. Still trying to get that under control.
    Thanks Whole30!
  • mcmurdah123
    mcmurdah123 Posts: 17 Member
    Tiny_Dancer_in_Pink wrote: »
    mcmurdah123 wrote: »
    Thanks tiny dancer! I completely understand that and have started over. However, that’s not my question or what I am addressing in my post.

    Are you looking for additional allergies you may have? I’m sorry, I guess I’m not understanding your OP.

    I was really just wondering if people had any of the same experiences with Whole 30. I have been looking at the Whole30 forum as well but thought this would be a good place to check as well :smile:
  • Cheesy567
    Cheesy567 Posts: 1,186 Member
    I had a similar experience with the AIP. I think that when your body is getting less exposure to inflammatory foods, it decreases the innate anti-inflammatory pathways too. (That is purely my hypothesis, I have no research to back it up) They’re less needed, I’d guess. When I reintroduced foods on the AIP, I was *very* sensitive to foods that I had never noticed a reaction to before.

    Almonds is a big one for me, I’m more sensitive to almonds than I am to gluten. Before following an anti-inflammatory diet, I never noticed my reaction to them. They make my joints inflame, cause widespread muscle aches, flushing, etc. Before the AIP I had these symptoms daily, but never would have been able to tie them to one food.
  • Cheesy567
    Cheesy567 Posts: 1,186 Member
    Keep in mind, the point of the whole 30 is to find out what foods have a negative impact for you. Looks like it’s working for you!
  • hopiemama33
    hopiemama33 Posts: 52 Member
    I have food allergies to several types of fruits and nuts, and I actually add more to the list of no-nos as I get older. I just have increased sensitivity. I have a friend who actually developed potentially fatal anaphylactic reactions to nuts as she went through her fifties. It may be that you are getting increased sensitivity as you age as well as it is easier to notice them because of the Whole 30 plan.
  • porcelanmermaid
    porcelanmermaid Posts: 60 Member
    I'm doing whole30 now
    The only negative side effect I have noticed so far is my face had an acne break out on day 3 and is still recovering (currently day 9)
    I am still looking in to how to reintroduce foods when 30 days is up. A large amount of my family is celiac or gluten intolerant so it will not surprise me if it turns out I actually am not supposed to eat gluten. My current allergies are most foods with pits (olives avocados peaches cherries etc) and lately I've been dreaming of avocados which give me a pretty severe reaction so maybe I'm growing out of my allergy which would be nice. I will gladly trade bread for guacamole
  • juliehhallberg
    juliehhallberg Posts: 21 Member
    Definitely - I’m heading into round 3 of Whole 30 next week. Between my first and second rounds I started having, er... serious reactions to dairy. I’ve been eating dairy my whole life with “no issues”. I really do think that, as someone else mentioned here, the body begins to heal for the first time, and when these things are reintroduced they can cause stronger reactions. I also had to give up soda (regular AND diet), a previous love of mine that now causes headaches and fibromyalgia flare ups. It’s a bummer, but I feel so much better when avoiding those things, and the point of Whole 30 is to discover them.
  • scredico
    scredico Posts: 2 Member
    I did whole 30 and I did feel differently about the taste of things after, but didn’t discover allergies although I have inflammation I wish would have improved after doing this. Also I had some cheat days and still felt the benefits of the diet. Its hard to be perfect and doing your best is sometimes all you need :)
  • evileen99
    evileen99 Posts: 1,564 Member
    sofchak wrote: »

    My new allergy came about suddenly with no warning with a baked good that I’ve eaten several times before (though not regularly - maybe 1-2x a month). Since then, I’ve experienced similar reactions in other products with brown rice so it’s not an isolated incident.

    I went to an allergist to discuss my concern and the allergist basically said that over time people gain new or reduce/eliminate old allergies. He had no real concrete explanation for why I now have an allergy to brown rice that never existed before, including my overall lifestyle and eating preferences.

    This. You can develop a new allergy at any time. And if you're allergic to one tree nut, it's very likely you'll develop allergies to other tree nuts.
  • TisBonnie
    TisBonnie Posts: 48 Member
    This is the explanation that I’ve heard:

    “There’s a lot of confusion about bad reactions around foods that you seemed fine with previously. Take gluten for example… maybe you ate bread daily and didn’t experience a reaction directly after eating bread.. you were just generally fatigued all of the time. Then you cut it out for 60 days, try to add it back in and have a horrible reaction… what happened? Previously, your immune system was so up-regulated to gluten that you didn’t even experience intense reactions because you were always having systemic inflammation. Now that you’ve calmed the inflammation on a daily basis, the reactions are far more noticeable.”

    https://unboundwellness.com/successfully-reintroduce-foods-gut-healing-protocol/

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