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.

Me, DD and DH don't eat kiwi fruit, it makes our mouth burn. So we are strictly a kiwi free household.

DH once got violently ill after eating mussels in Belgium, I had the same meal and was absolutely fine. We are still not sure if its an intolerance or if it was food poisoning. Since DH isn't too keen on them anyway he is just avoiding them.

I don't eat meat through choice and as far as I know I can eat most things without issue. I do struggle with raw peanuts and peanut butter. I can eat roasted salted nuts and peanuts in chocolate bars but often when I eat peanut butter or raw peanuts I get very severe stomach pain which has happened going back decades which is a shame as I love peanuts and peanut butter. I am guessing its an issue with the skin on peanuts more than the peanut itself but I am not sure. I just avoid them now and buy the rather more expensive almond butter.

I wanted to say me than i remembered that I occasionally can't easily deal with modern wheat. 🙄
But I don't think it's actual intolerance. I am fine with sourough, rye etc, just not plain white bread. So I will always claim it's the bread type, not me

I have a cast iron stomach and can eat anything. However, I did once have an extensive intolerance check done for medical reasons and apparently I am intolerant to 'frankincense'.

Frankincense? I don't even know where you'd get it. Except, obviously, on the shelf next to the myrrh. I don't think I've ever encountered any.

Raw cabbage and broccoli make my throat feel itchy but no one has ever believed me about that. I can eat them cooked without any problems. And since my mid 40s onions give me, and anyone in my vicinity, hell for 24 hours. It’s miserable because they’re in bloody everything, and even when they’re not the chef will chop up a spring onion as a garnish.

I’ve been hoping it might clear up again when menopause is done making life miserable?

The problem with modern wheat is, whichever way you look at it, 'modern' wheat is also in sourdough, organic, etc.

I once few a few rounds of toast from the co op, just a plain toastie white loaf and suffered churning pain for hours afterwards.
This never happened when I ate Jasons loaves, crosta and mollica products or regular sourdough.

Maybe it is the added ingredients, the processing rather than the wheat? (it was for me, anyway). The basic stuff is loaded with odd things.

can’t add to your roster of people without allergies. Just wanted to let you know that my allergy support group is full of people who are allergic to various fruits and vegetables, including myself. It’s not all wheat, dairy, and nuts.

I was convinced I had a wheat intolerance, but it turned out I was suffering from a life threatening case of anorexia and I was sectioned and nearly died. True story.

I don’t know if I’m intolerant but bread really puffs me up and makes my skin itch, assumed it was just what carbs do.

I have not read the whole thread, but most adult humans are lactose intolerant - the tolerance is the unusual condition. It is normal to lose the enzymes for digesting lactose before adulthood, there are just a few populations where a mutation has prevented that enzyme being deactivated, northern europeans being one

Dairy is obvious, no one should eat it, least of all babies.

Onions should have a warning label 😂

Raw cabbage and broccoli though? When would someone eat them raw? Think they would give anyone an itchy throat

Does this happen with carrots, fruits, lentils and beans too? I think I would be very sad to have to avoid all carbs.

And cheese, I would curl up and die if I couldn't eat cheese. I would gaslight myself into believing it was good for me

I am lactose intolerant and have been since I was about 18 (often starts late teens as we’re not supposed to make lactose into adulthood - it’s a mutation in humans that most can make lactase into adulthood unlike most mammals)
However, it’s not very serious and as long as I don’t have like a full glass of milk or cereal and milk etc, I’m fine, so a little in food is fine as is most cheese/ yoghurt and even occasional cappuccino.
Very different to my friend who is coeliac who is very very ill even if she has a tiny bit of gluten.
In other words there is a very big variation in what somebody means by saying they are intolerant to a food.
worst consequence for me is that I’m just a bit farty and mild stomach ache (colic like). Other people can be very ill.

You just reminded me that when I was younger, I always had the runs after necking an M&S Belgian choc milkshake. Same happened when I ate a sloppy cheese baguette, that type of cheese mixed with mayo and stuff. This was in the late 90's/early 2000's.

I never thought that could be lactose at the time, just avoided it afterwards.

I am ok with cheese and milk now, but I never drink full cups of the stuff. There is much less lactose in hard cheese thank the heavens!

Coeliac disease (which is neither an allergy nor an intolerance: it’s a severe autoimmune condition) is vastly under diagnosed.
Only 1/3 of people with Coeliac disease are actually diagnosed and the average length of time to diagnosis is 13 years.
Many sufferers are diagnosed incorrectly with irritable bowel syndrome; and many people with anaemia due to malabsorption from Coeliac disease are not correctly diagnosed.
www.coeliac.org.uk/information-and-support/coeliac-disease/about-coeliac-disease/

The symptoms look awful, it sounds like a difficult thing to deal with.
I would possibly suspect it if I had low iron, weight loss, but maybe that isn't always present?

Auto immune issues are terrifying since so many symptoms imitate other issues.

I mentioned the testing in Italy earlier in the thread, have you heard about that? I think a large section of the population tested positive due to more rigorous testing.

Plenty of raw cabbage around in different types of salads.
I also sometimes munch on leaves just for snack

I couldn’t give up cheese either!
No I’m good with all the “lesser” carbs as I call them, just not bread, pasta, potato etc. I still eat them sometimes but always get hot itchy skin (no rash) and bloat.

Oh yeah of course, I always forget those dark bits aren’t lettuce. I couldn’t imagine eating raw broccoli though

raw broc sounds unpleasant to me.
I love homemade coleslaw though with radish and chives for added pazzaz!

I have a mild lactose intolerance and get a really upset stomach if I eat cream but can tolerate smaller amounts of other dairy , it’s apparently the high fat content and lactose that make cream more likely to cause a reaction, also get bloated if eat too much wheat but can eat small amounts of bread

Not an allergy but I have horrendous IBS which has definitely got worse over the years - I get vomiting as well as the more obvious symptoms, and once I’ve had a bad flare up I’ll have D&V at least once or twice a week for months until it eventually settles down again. Whilst I can, and occasionally do, get D&V for other reasons I always know when it’s the IBS the particular pain I get is different.

Triggers have totally changed since I turned about 45. Used to be red meat and mushrooms were the worst. Now I can’t have anything oily, and I also can’t eat chickpeas, lentils, most pulses and definitely not broccoli - all of which I ate no problem for most of my life (ate a mostly veggie diet) but now are guaranteed to make me really ill for days - not just a bit of stomach ache/ bloating but as in constant D&V, crying it’s so painful. Starting to think it’s sulphur sensitivity maybe.

I just looked up symptom lists for different intolerances and the symptoms are all the same. So if you ate bread and felt unwell, it could be the wheat, or the yeast, same with many, many other triggers. You would have to do a pretty serious elimination diet to find out, unless your reactions were immediate and obvious.

I also looked at symptoms of auto immune diseases and for those not diagnosed, they are very similar to food intolerances.

I have no idea how anyone navigates this stuff, but I can feel how easy it might be to wind up afraid and paranoid.

OP, from a clinician here, you need to read up on the difference between food intolerances and allergies first of all. Both completely different things and may make sense of your reading so far.

With regards to your “vegetable allergies” you also need to read up on fermentable carbohydrates and a bit of IBS!