Eating with Allergies: Why calories don't work
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clh15MFP
Posts: 3 Member
Hello. I have been allergic to certain acids, which are some contained in food since my 20's. I'm not allergic to 'food', but to underlying acids. For example, I am allergic to citric acid, which is used in shampoos, fizzy waters, etc. I'm a long-time label reader. My dietician recommended this cite, and I am coming here everyday, however I never meet the calorie count. I have swollen feet and ankles for about a year, but after 2 weeks back on my allergy diet, all swelling gone. Looking forward to hearing from others.
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Replies
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What is it that you are trying to use this site for? To help keep track of the foods that trigger your allergies? Are you trying to lose weight, gain weight, or maintain your weight?
I'm not sure why you say in your thread title that "calories don't work". They don't work for what?10 -
Thank you for your questions. When one has extreme allergies, they affect body swelling, which causes pain, which reduces activity, and weight gain results. If I east one piece of tomato (citric acid) I can gain 5 pounds. I had medical testing done to figure this out, and the result was: calories don't count. It is what I eat. I think everyone who is wanting to lose weight should have medical allergy testing done. I use this site, recommended by my dietician, mainly for the food diary, which I have never used before. It is making a difference: I celebrate 20 pounds disappeared today. Have you been tested?1
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Most food "allergies" are psychosomatic. And, no one ever gained 5 pounds from eating a tomato. You might have temporarily retained a few pounds of water.6
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wilson10102018 wrote: »Most food "allergies" are psychosomatic.
I dont agree with that at all.
Food allergies can cause various real physical symptoms from relatively mild ones like hives, migraines, diahhroea - to anaphylaxis.
However I dont see how that means 'calories dont work' or that anyone struggling to lose weight should be tested for allergies.
if you have an allergy to anything or any other medical reason to avoid anything - then of course do so.
If you have medical symptoms that neccesitate allergy testing - sure, do it.
But for most people - no, not required. One doesnt get randomly tested for things for no reason.
In other news, I havent been tested for lactose intolerance, coeliac disease, or gout either ( random trio of conditions affected by food)
and calories in calories out applies to everyone - allergies, medical conditions, or not.
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Thank you for your questions. When one has extreme allergies, they affect body swelling, which causes pain, which reduces activity, and weight gain results. If I east one piece of tomato (citric acid) I can gain 5 pounds. I had medical testing done to figure this out, and the result was: calories don't count. It is what I eat. I think everyone who is wanting to lose weight should have medical allergy testing done. I use this site, recommended by my dietician, mainly for the food diary, which I have never used before. It is making a difference: I celebrate 20 pounds disappeared today. Have you been tested?
A calorie deficit works for losing fat.
Swelling due to allergies is not fat gain, it's fluid. So, yes, you are correct that calories don't matter when it comes to controlling your allergic reactions. If you want to limit your inflammatory fluid gain, then, yes, by all means you should identify and avoid the foods that cause this reaction. But, if you want to lose fat, calories are the only way.
I would assume that a very, very small percentage of the population is overweight due to food allergies. Unless someone is having obvious swelling or other reactions, there's no reason for random allergy testing.26 -
Hives are not mild - been there done that!7
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I did say relatively mild - hives are mild relative to anaphylaxis
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Thank you for your questions. When one has extreme allergies, they affect body swelling, which causes pain, which reduces activity, and weight gain results. If I east one piece of tomato (citric acid) I can gain 5 pounds. I had medical testing done to figure this out, and the result was: calories don't count. It is what I eat. I think everyone who is wanting to lose weight should have medical allergy testing done. I use this site, recommended by my dietician, mainly for the food diary, which I have never used before. It is making a difference: I celebrate 20 pounds disappeared today. Have you been tested?
You aren't gaining five pounds of FAT when you eat a tomato. That is, your body isn't storing energy to use later. You're experiencing swelling, which is water weight gain.
What you're seeing is that your allergies complicate tracking your weight trends, since you are prone to extreme water weight fluctuations. You aren't alone in this. There are people who experiencing swelling for various reasons. This doesn't mean that calories don't count for you, it just means you're among the not small group of people who will just have some additional challenges calculating their progress.20 -
I hope you can find some insight here with the food logging which will help you manage the swelling - it sounds very uncomfortable.
Citric acid doesn't produce an immune response >> https://www.aaaai.org/ask-the-expert/citric-acid-citrus-allergy and so it wouldn't show up in a skin prick test that most allergy testing uses, so allergy testing wouldn't be useful even for people who have citric acid intolerance. (Sorry I had to look it up, my kids have serious food allergies so this was interesting to me!) Citric acid must be in so many things as you know as a label reader, it's also used as a preservative! I'd recommend looking for allergy groups on facebook and see if you can find other people with it and see how they manage it.
Also I don' t think allergies would frequently be a barrier to losing weight, though it might make it more tricky to find foods across all the food groups though. What janejellyroll has said is spot on.
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Wilson, I gave you a hug but there are babies and children born with food allergies. Deadly food allergies.
Our mileage will always vary.2 -
Diatonic12 wrote: »Wilson, I gave you a hug but there are babies and children born with food allergies. Deadly food allergies.
Our mileage will always vary.
Thanks so much. I agree with you completely. In fact, the reason for my comment was that my allergist told me that there is a very, very small number of people who are "mildly" allergic to anything. You are or you aren't for the most part. Most everyone's bee sting and poison ivy looks about the same. People with peanut allergies risk death and don't get "hives" or a stuffy nose. They fall down on the ground and the life squad takes them away. But, people attribute all manner of irritations and dislikes to "allergies." I'm allergic to alcohol. When I drink it I get stupid and have a headache the next day.1 -
wilson10102018 wrote: »
...my allergist told me that there is a very, very small number of people who are "mildly" allergic to anything. You are or you aren't for the most part. Most everyone's bee sting and poison ivy looks about the same. People with peanut allergies risk death and don't get "hives" or a stuffy nose. They fall down on the ground and the life squad takes them away..Diatonic12 wrote: »Wilson, I gave you a hug but there are babies and children born with food allergies. Deadly food allergies.
Our mileage will always vary.
I ignored your first post, but I can assure you that people with peanut allergies can both risk death and get hives. (They can also have anaphylaxis and not die. And they can also throw up violently and roll around on teh floor in agony too) My two kids carry epipens so I feel like I can comment here.8 -
wilson10102018 wrote: »
...my allergist told me that there is a very, very small number of people who are "mildly" allergic to anything. You are or you aren't for the most part. Most everyone's bee sting and poison ivy looks about the same. People with peanut allergies risk death and don't get "hives" or a stuffy nose. They fall down on the ground and the life squad takes them away..Diatonic12 wrote: »Wilson, I gave you a hug but there are babies and children born with food allergies. Deadly food allergies.
Our mileage will always vary.
I ignored your first post, but I can assure you that people with peanut allergies can both risk death and get hives. (They can also have anaphylaxis and not die. And they can also throw up violently and roll around on teh floor in agony too) My two kids carry epipens so I feel like I can comment here.
You support my point exactly. Peanut allergy is serious, obvious and dangerous. There may be persons with mild symptoms. I have never heard of them but as I said above, they may exist, just a very small number. And, I am sorry for your burden. You are well qualified to speak to this.1 -
People have relatively mild symptoms, like hives to many foods.
Peanuts are not a common cause of hives but other things like tomatoes and oranges are.
Dismissing peoples allergic reactions because they are not anaphylactic seems an absurd stance to me.7 -
paperpudding wrote: »People have relatively mild symptoms, like hives to many foods.
Peanuts are not a common cause of hives but other things like tomatoes and oranges are.
Dismissing peoples allergic reactions because they are not anaphylactic seems an absurd stance to me.
My mom will get hives on her hands when they come into contact with shrimp (no details on what happens if she eats them because she doesn't eat them, but I imagine it wouldn't be good).
Allergies can be real, even if they aren't life-threatening. This is the kind of mindset that has people sneaking ingredients into people's food because they're determined to prove that allergies aren't "real" or are just a mental thing.6 -
^^I'm allergic to chicory root, ate some fiber one bars (loaded with chicory root) ended up with hives down one entire side of my body and face. Took weeks and weeks for them to go away. Buyer beware, they're putting chicory root in everything these days as a source of fiber. Born with allergies to penicillin, sulfa drugs, corn syrup. The hospital was giving me corn syrup in my bottle for colic and I almost croaked before I made it out of there.5
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wilson10102018 wrote: »Most food "allergies" are psychosomatic.
My epi pen begs to differ.14 -
silverpl2525 wrote: »wilson10102018 wrote: »Most food "allergies" are psychosomatic.
My epi pen begs to differ.
Do you know what the word "most" means?0 -
wilson10102018 wrote: »silverpl2525 wrote: »wilson10102018 wrote: »Most food "allergies" are psychosomatic.
My epi pen begs to differ.
Do you know what the word "most" means?
I think you might want to clarify. If you meant "most people who claim to have allergies are filthy liars who do it for the attention" you shouldn't have said "most allergies are psychosomatic." And I still wouldn't support your "most" in this case, even though I know quite a few attention hounds who claim allergies when it suits them.5 -
I know what the word most means - and I think the claim that most food allergies are pychosomatic is absurd and ridiculous.11
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