Are there any of us left without a food intolerance of some sort?

[ViolaCello]

I have been reading about food and nutrition online recently and noticed a good amount of people with intolerance issues, most often dairy and wheat. No one ever seems to develop vegetable allergies, yet if I eat a big plate of certain cooked veggies I will definitely be on the toilet within 24 hours. The poison for me is in the dose, I guess.
I have never, to my knowledge had reactions after eating wheat or dairy of any sort.
But from what I have encountered online, most of my own health niggles are presumed to be wheat allergies. If other people get them , they say it was wheat. From my nasal drip, to my trapped gas, to feeling off in general. I wonder why we don't see so many people presuming it to be potatoes, salad or seeds?

However, since reading that stuff I am now side-eyeing bloody wheat. I did 3 weeks without it and felt no different. It seems everything is presumed to be caused by foods. What if a good deal of stuff we might suffer is in the outer environment, like stuff we can't change? That's a more scary thought tbh.

I remember reading about longevity and everyone focused solely on food, but what if it is community, good sleep, creativity, or lack of pollution instead?

On another note, I have recently had a rash on my ankles and when I foolishly consulted Dr Google I found a huge amount of 'evidence' claiming this was because of wheat or dairy? (surprise surprise!) My rash wasn't raised or itchy so perhaps not, but I did notice that wheat is taking a good deal of blame for many things nowadays, especially if the symptoms are vague.

My rash could easily have been from a lot of walking in heat, or my new body lotion, or something like a virus...
I know there are some very 'tribal' attitudes towards foods these days, and people seem to want you to be in their club, almost like a religion, but it still strikes me as perplexing... and confusing!

Just want to add here that this is not a criticism, I am intrigued by it, and also wonder why there's so much of it now. People with confirmed issues have my full respect, it must be a pretty stressful thing to navigate.

And since our animals are fed grains, etc, it comes back to us.
By this metric, nothing is 'clean' or safe, unless it's from your own garden..and even then you have the run off...

Those words are becoming pernicious now..

Better to just mindfully get on with living the best we can, i think!

I’ve only recently discovered I’m dairy intolerant. I can have small amounts of milk in tea and coffee, but cheese makes me look like I’m 6 months pregnant. I only found this out when DS had CMPA and I had to quit dairy to breastfeed him. I was amazed by how flat my stomach was. I presumed until then I was just a bit of a bloater.

I don't have any allergies or food intolerances and nor does my DS. We rarely eat UPFs or Chorleywood bread though.
2 members of DHs family have self diagnosed intolerance - one to dairy the other to dairy and eggs (although the latter does eat things with them in when it suits!)

No issues in this house - we eat anything, as do most of our friends.

i bloat less when less stressed and more active.

None of us in my family of 4 have any allergy or intolerance, to anything. I guess we’re lucky.

No food intolerances or allergies for me, none for my children.

Well I wouldn't call it an intolerance but I have a weak LES (lower esophageal sphincter) which seems to be genetic so I get acid reflux a lot if I don't watch my diet. Lots of people probably just pop a tums or gaviscon but I'm very aware of how much unchecked reflux can raise your cancer risk and I prefer to adapt my idea than take PPIs for life so I avoid tomatoes, onions, garlic, mint, chocolate, citrus, caffeine, fizzy drinks and booze as much as possible. Admittedly I fail a bit on last two on the weekend but noone is perfect. Most people probably get acid reflux weekly and don't worry about it but I've had an endoscopy and spoken to a gastroenterologist and prefer to follow his advice. Would you call this an intolerance to certain foods? I guess it is but I wouldn't classify myself as fussy I just need to take care of my body!

Adapt my idea? I mean my diet!

The only food I am intolerant to is crab, if I eat it i get stomach cramps within minutes, have to run to the loo, then I am fine. Dd is lactose intolerant, everyone else in the family can eat just about anything.

I would love to know how people locate their intolerances unless the effects are instant, constant and obvious.

I was bloated for a while this morning. Had a lie in.
Had only had a spoonful of peanut butter, then a cup of tea.
It would be foolish to think either of those were suspects.

I consume those items a lot and have no bloat generally, so...it must have been my lie in.

To find a culprit could take months of stress and elimination.
I also reckon, and please forgive me for this, most people just believe what they see online and placebo is a strong contender. It's like joining a new church, for some.

This is for people without a serious issue of course.

I have an intolerance to dairy. I don’t use the word allergy precisely because it isn’t an anaphylactic reaction ie life threatening, but it does cause immediate itching, face flushing and eczema. It isn’t a fad, I miss cheese very, very much ( the plant alternatives are not great) and I am thankful to the fashion for plant ‘milks’ that allow me to have a reasonable cup of tea ie not black.

It didn’t really manifest until my 40s, when I developed recurrent and intractable eczema patches out of the blue - a friend suggested dairy, which I scoffed at at first, but then did a 2 week strict exclusion diet and voila, my skin cleared. I say didn’t really manifest itself until my 40s but a lifetime of sinus problems also resolved at the same time so I think it had always been there: maybe it was heightened by the fun hormonal shenanigans of perimenopause.

Be grateful you don’t have to swerve your way around menus and recipes.

Potatoes are evil. I get uncomfortable gastric symptoms from them and feel like my brain is switching off. It's not pleasant. I will eat them but I've learnt that a baked potato when out with my mates will leave me with no energy to join a conversation - literally stuck in a bubble with the world going on around me.
There's always a calculation of is it worth it or not when spuds are on offer. I love a cheesy, buttery mashed potato however or triple cooked chips.

If you get the issues from a big plate of vegetables OP then why do you think it's wheat causing it? Many veg are high FODMAP, I can't eat onion, garlic, leek (sadly I love all alliums!) and that's not at all unusual with IBS. They cause all the same symptoms as you are suffering from. I don't find it hard to navigate, if i don't eat alliums then I don't have issues - ate onions in a meal at a restaurant and had to literally run back to my room because the meal was all coming straight back out of me.

Maybe check out the FODMAP research.

Oxalates can contribute to the formation of kidney stones as can excessive dairy. The key really is just to eat everything in moderation.

I developed an egg intolerance in my late 20s, linked I think to gallbladder removal...I seem to have outgrown it again now in my mid 40s, and I don't have any other intolerance or allergies, nor do my dc.

I will say it’s such a minefield now, people are coming off eg dairy or gluten without proper advice. My son has gluten issues and we were told if he came off it without needing to he’d have other issues in the future. There’s an increase bone issues because of dairy without supplementing etc.

Saying that I hate being older now (45) as out of nowhere bread and weetabix can turn everything dodgy but after scopes and scans I’ve no signs of anything tangible soo ok have to feel my way along!

It's possible that one intolerance can cause temporary gut damage/inflammation and set up a chain of intolerance to other foods. Get in to of that one thing and you're worried. It may even be possible to reintroduce that thing again.

My husband had low b12 and also lots of heartburn for which he reluctantly and only very occasionally took the ppi that he had been prescribed. We/he worked very hard to INCREASE his stomach acid and he no longer gets the avoid reflux/heartburn. We hope that this improvement in his digestion means that he is now able to assimilate b12 from any meat that he eats and that his nutritional status is better. We haven't tested it out though and he still supplements b12 and folate daily.

That's a very long hand way of saying improve the digestion, heal any gut inflammation and maybe these intolerances clear up.

I had zero intolerances until menopause. Suddenly developed a dairy intolerance (NHS diagnosed, there's no way I'd have given up cheese for the sake of being special) plus a couple of actual allergies and a fistful of low-grade intolerances. It pisses me off; food's for enjoying in all its glorious variety, not for avoiding!

I've got no problem with GMO crops. I'm more concerned about the shit they're treated with to make them strong & productive. Modifications aim to make the plants better, so they don't need as much treatment.

I suppose you are lucky if you can find what bothers you?

I had a lot of stress last year. I also suffered many bouts of IBS.
During that time I always tried to find out if a certain food caused it. I could not locate any pattern whatsoever.

Now, interestingly, I booked two long holidays to get some stress free time.
During those travels, which came to 3 months in total, I ate whatever I wanted and never had one single IBS attack.

I wondered if it was stress all along, which is often overlooked and possibly conflates the issues we can have.

I am slim, fit, and eat healthy food, everything in moderation, but I am human and still suffer issues now and again. I envy people who can clear all of their life problems by cutting out a food group!

I've got no problem with GMO crops. I'm more concerned about the shit they're treated with to make them strong & productive. Modifications aim to make the plants better, so they don't need as much treatment.

I wonder about this too because surely they treat veg as well as wheat? Why aren't people giving up veg too? I am no scientist so if I am missing something obvious please don't chew my legs off!

My DD has coeliac disease. It was really hard to get her diagnosed. The GPs we spoke to were clueless and refused to test her properly. I had to use all my confident-middle-class-pushy-parent skills to get her a proper diagnosis. This is not uncommon and for people who don't feel confident challenging the GP or doing their own research this very serious medical condition goes undiagnosed.

I think food allergies and intolerance should be taken more seriously and properly diagnosed.

I was diagnosed with IBS in my 40s. It did improve to an extent when I moved to a different place of work, but it's come back with a vengeance since I was widowed.

Avoiding gluten and lactose only helps to an extent. I did pay for a coeliac test at my local pharmacy, but that came back negative. Therefore I'm assuming that gluten only contributes to my IBS.

You’ve fallen for that urban myth about ancient grains.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9322029/
modern bread wheat actually contains less protein / gluten than ancient grains!

Wheat has been modified so it’s not the same as people were eating 50 years ago, it’s much higher in gluten
no, the opposite is true.

I read, somewhere, that there are likely more coeliacs than we are aware of. That Italy (I think it was) did more thorough testing, and a good part of the population tested positive. That's quite interesting, I think.
On the downside, it could also result more people focusing on gluten as the sole irritant, whilst ignoring other potential causes.

On the whole though, since you mention the middle class, perhaps we are more likely to peruse the literature, take more interest, instigate our own research. Not so much due to economic factors but where we place our attention and beliefs/values. The Daily Mail, for instance, makes fun of MC food preferences frequently, etc, and often pokes a stick at 'perceived' intolerances too.

But there's a middle ground - obsessive worrying about foods-as-a-cure or foods-as-unclean carries a great deal of weight online. It is difficult to sort the wheat from the, er, chaff..