Food intolerances help please.

[Paranoidandroidmarvin]

After having my son my body was never the same. I had bladder issues which led to me using the intercysital ( sorry. Bad spelling ) diet. Which has helped that.

But over the last 18 years one by one my body is rejecting everything. I have asked for help from the doctor and got he constant reply of… well lucky u have some foods left to eat.

Timeline of foods.

1. the wheat intolerance came. Used to be able to eat a small bit but now nothing.


2. the dairy intolerance came. Again used to be able to eat a small bit. But no more. Also can no longer eat the dairy alternatives ie vegan etc


3. o was diagnosed with ibs. So that cuts out a lot of things again.


4. lots of foods I used to eat have me inflammation especially in my hips. The pain goes away once I have taken out the offending food.


5. have started waking up yet again feeling sick , stomach ache bad stomach etc. so I suspect something else my body doesn’t like.


6. symptoms of each were sickness bad stomach and stomach ache.

my food is.
breakfast - either sausage omelette or oats with almond milk. Can’t change this as there is nothing else I can have. Bladder doesn’t let me eat fruit for breakfast. Sometimes the oats set my bladder off so I can’t eat those everyday. Never found a bread gluten free that I could eat.

lunch. Lentil crisps. Grapes and banana. every lunch as there isn’t much else I can have. Can’t have soup as the only one really I can have is the veggies ones but then my ibs says no.

dinner. Either chicken with new potatoes or veggies with sausage.

i can’t do salads or sauces etc. this is what I am left with. Having so many many foods taken out over the years.

Im worried my new symptoms are to do with the egg. Which is a huge blow to me.

as I’m getting no help from my doctor. Is there anyone I can see outside without wasting my money. Anyone have any good ideas. As I am rapidly running out of foods to eat. And I don’t know who else to turn to or what else to do.

Have you actually had any testing for allergies?

Have you been tested for celiac disease or similar?

I think my starting point would be to ask for tests from my GP. My health doesn’t do allergy testing for food, so you’d need to pay privately for that if you lived near me, but I’d expect the GP surgery to point me in the right direction for someone credible.

Looking at it in a very black and white way, it looks to me as if you have a hyper restricted diet, that could potentially be causing more issues than it’s actually solving. Saying “I can’t do salads” removes huge blocks of food but are you actually intolerant of every single vegetable on the planet? There are so many variations of “salad” that seems incredible.

With dairy, is it lactose you can’t eat? Have you tried lactose free products?

What about beans/pulses etc? Lentil pasta for example?

I have lots of foods I’m intolerant to (eggs in particular) - as I have an issue with protein. I also am intolerant to tomatoes but not as badly affected as eggs, so I eat some tomatoes but not everyday and am generally careful about amounts. Allergies are obviously completely different so I’d definitely recommend you find out if it’s an allergy or an intolerance.

What about Vegan/flexi diet? Have you tried following a vegan diet for a few weeks? My brother is vegan for health reasons (as opposed to morally), and it’s helped him manage his very severe arthritis.

The other thing I’d research is the anti inflammatory diet - which basically cuts it processed food and to some extent returns to a more balanced/traditional way of eating.

Maybe a dietitian (qualified) would be a good idea for you?

Have you done a proper exclusion diet?
This was devised by Addenbrooke's Hospital so is a reliable one.

Another one to look at is the FODMAPs list which is a bit more effort, but might be worth a try.

I think Welshrarebitontoast is absolutely correct about your very restricted diet, you will make yourself ill and develop all sorts of odd symptoms by being malnourished.

Good luck with getting this sorted, it's a pain in every sense.

Trust me. I have done every exclusion diet etc. the reason behind not eating salad etc is because of my bladder. It cannot take acidic things or certain foods. So a salad for me would be lettuce and cucumber and that’s it.
truet me I have tried so many foods. So many exclusions things over the last 18 years.
my body is so broken. I have vitamin d and b 12 deficiency. I have carpel tunnel even after operations. Bad neck. Bad bladder. Bad feet.

Done the fodmap diet. Which is what I’m left with. But even then I have only half of what other people have as my bladder rejects the other half. And when I say reject it feels like living with cystitis day. Irritation. Constant weeing. Again. Been to the hospital nothing they can do.

people Don’t understand. I can’t do vegan as I would literally have nothing left to eat due to ibs and my bladder. I have taken out all the food I can for inflammation.

m this isn’t a fad. This has been over 18 years of testing restriction and pain to get to just these foods.

have been tested and not allergic.

what u see on my list of foods is what I can eat to have a normal life. If my bladder acts out to food. I’m in the loo for the next two days.

I have had conversations with a few diet people by paying privately. But when I mention my bladder every single one of them say they are not trained to help me with that situation. Living with my bladder is hell on earth. And when it happened I spent years on pain bleeding and awfulness until I found out what I could eat and then couldn’t.

m then one after the other my body wouldn’t take the wheat. Then the dairy ( even substitutes) the doctors only thing is be glad I still have food. But at this rate I’m either going to starve or live with constant sickness. Stomach problems and skin issues.

I tried vitamins. So many different types but my bladder didn’t like any of them. And there are only so many days I can spend stuck in the bathroom.

If you have been tested and you're not allergic, then the foods wouldn’t be causing you any issues.
I think you’ve got yourself into a bit of a mess over the years by excluding so many things from your diet and over eating others. For example, grapes can be very irritating to your bowel if you eat too many of them - they're full of sugar, water and fibre but not much else of any nutritional value.
My suggestion is to push for an appointment with a dietitian, then follow their diet suggestions rigorously in order to reset your digestive system.

Your issues with your bladder may not be linked to the foods you do or don't eat. Are you underweight?

As an example. Found a gluten free bread I hadn’t tried before. Was fine for a few days.
then the bladder kicked in with pressure, content weeing , irritating feelings. Then my stomach started. Bad stomach, gas and face broke out. So that’s a nope then.

@Soontobe60 they are very much linked this has all been Done by the hospital and done with restricted diets etc. cannot drink anything other than water. They have said it Interstitial cystitis and not much anyone can do.I have followed that diet for years.
I am not underweight. Was a healthy weight then peri menopause kicked in and am now struggling.

@Soontobe60 the doctor has said they are an intolerance

Have you been tested for coeliac disease? If you have coeliacs then the oats could be causing many of your problems.

Have you tried probiotics? Eating grapes every day will not be great for your gut as it's a lot of sugar, if your problems are caused by gut flora then the grapes could be contributing.

Have you thought about reintroducing small amounts of dairy using the dairy ladder, to expand your diet?

Do you drink tea/coffee? Cutting those out completely might help your bladder.

Hot penguin that’s interesting about the grapes. I have always been able to eat them when my food intake has been okay. But maybe now I can’t. Will have a look into that. Trouble is that then takes them out of the equation and my bladder has rejected most fruit already so bananas and grapes were the ones I was left with. Unless I wanted to live in the bathroom for my bladder.

Maybe putting them in every few days would help

What treatment have you been given for your bladder pain? Has anyone suggested antihistamines?

The guidance is to increase complex carbs and fresh leafy vegetables but avoid acidic citrus, high Vit C, chocolate, soft drinks, alcohol, spicy foods and artificial sweeteners.

Also bananas are potassium rich, which should be avoided, so as was mentioned earlier about the grapes being high sugar.

Could you swop a banana for an apple, and/or pear? So you’d only be eating one every third day?

Eighteen years of your safe list shrinking, and now you're eyeing the eggs too — I really feel this one. I'm on a very restricted, mostly-liquid diet myself (different underlying cause, but the same "what on earth is left" spiral), so let me answer your actual question first: how to get proper help beyond the GP.

• The person you want is a registered Dietitian, not a "nutritionist" — "dietitian" is a legally protected title and they're HCPC-registered, whereas anyone can call themselves a nutritionist. For private or remote appointments, the British Dietetic Association keeps a freelance directory (freelancedietitians.org) you can filter by specialism (IBS, gut, allergy); a lot of them consult over video now, which helps if getting out is hard.

• To get it on the NHS, the words that unlock a referral aren't "IBS" — they're that you're unintentionally restricting your diet and at risk of nutritional inadequacy / unplanned weight change. Framed that way it's a gastroenterology-plus-dietetics referral, not "have you tried peppermint tea". And since this all started with the interstitial cystitis, it's worth asking whether your urology/IC team can refer too — they'll understand the bladder side that a general GP might not.

I'd be cautious about spending money on: private "food intolerance" blood tests (the IgG ones) and hair/Vega testing. They aren't validated, the BDA advises against them, and — this is the real harm — they nearly always hand you a longer avoid-list, which is the exact opposite of what you need right now.

Two practical things to bare in mind

• Don't drop the eggs on suspicion alone. They're one of your few proteins, and when you're this restricted, cutting another whole food is a big deal. Keep a simple diary first — food, time, symptom, time — for a couple of weeks. Days-delayed reactions (which yours sound like) are notoriously easy to pin on the wrong thing.

• A good dietitian's job here isn't to police what's left — it's to help you add foods back. After years of restriction the list often shrinks partly from a genuinely twitchy gut and partly from very understandable fear, and careful structured reintroduction (tiny amounts, one thing at a time) really does widen it for a lot of people. That reframe — widening, not just surviving — was what shifted things for me.

Two other things: with no dairy for years, do ask for your calcium, vitamin D, B12, iron and ferritin to be checked — long restriction can cause deficiencies , and that alone can make everything feel worse. And on the IC side specifically, the standard bladder approach is elimination then phased reintroduction (a surprising number of "trigger" foods come back in small amounts); some people find calcium-glycerophosphate (sold as Prelief) takes the edge off acidic foods — worth an experiment, not something I'd build a budget around.