Guys I've been wanting to talk about this issue for a while now. As some of you may know I'm on a bit of restricted diet. I am unable to eat gluten, dairy and soy.

It all came about back in 2005 on my Outward Bound course I picked up giardia, a parasite in untreated water, thought my water was safe with iodine, it wasn't, got severe dysentery, really f-ed up my gastrointestinal tract.

It wasn't until a few years later that I got serious and did some research and tried a gluten free diet. Made such a huge difference. Then last year I had testing done found out no dairy. I tried soy products and that made me worse so since cut out that as well.

Since then I've improved and seem to be doing better. I've wondered if any of you gentlemen have food allergies, intolerance's you need to avoid. Anyone you know need to avoid certain foods?

I've had to cook most of my food and that gets old really fast but I'm eating so many more vegetables than before, maybe a blessing in disguise. Just trying to enjoy the foods I can eat, less processed junk food. Just lean meats, fruits, veggies, gluten free grains, occasionally I splurge and have a treat that is acceptable for me to eat.

This is a great time to be alive because so many companies cater to several food allergies and intolerences, taste like the real things, mmmmm.

Charlie.

Charlie,

I found your letter most interesting. I too have struggled with food allergies and irritants.

I have written up my problem most recently at this link:

http://www.malesurvivor.org/board/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=287988#Post287988

There are a lot of guys who have had digestive problems after abuse. You will find some of them associated with the above link. CSA (child sexual abuse) really seems to have long-term effects on the digestive system.

I went through a course something like you did, examinining different foods to see if they were allergens. I went up some rabbit trails in doing so. For a while I was afraid I was allergic to yeast, but it proved not to be so. Also, I was concerned about the wheat gluten problem at first, but it turned out to be a negative for me. So it took a number of years to really eliminate the suspected allergens from my diet.

Early in my recovery journey, my family doctor referred me to a G.I. specialist whom he said was one of the most intelligent specialists in the state. I was enthusiastically expecting him to help solve my problems. But when I described my anticipated food allerties and how antihistamines helped a lot, he merely replied that the antihistamines would slow down the GI tract and its irritability. Thus he said that use of antihistamines would not help in identifying food allergens. He said that if I was in discomfort extreme enough they could use some rather antiquated (my word not his) diagnostic tools to trace the passage of foods through my gut to see if they were true allergens or irritants. So he really didn't help very much.

What he did do was recommend to me the use of psyllium powder. It is simply the ground-up husk of the psyllium bean (pronounced like the word silly-um). He told me to take it in relatively large doses, like a third of a cup of the powder at a time. The method is easy but important. You have a large glass of water, a spoon, and the psyllium powder all ready. Then you quickly dump the powder in the water; stir it furiously, and swallow it quickly. Take a deep breath before you start to swallow it (try not to inhale the psyllium dust). Psyllium is not at all toxic. In small amounts it can cure constipation. But in large amounts like I just described, it acts as a stabilizing agent to the churning of the digestive system. It really works. I took psyllium powder like that for years. I found that taking one dose of this in the morning would seem to stabilize the digestive tract for hours. It controlled the diarrhea that we often suffer from.

At first I didn't know where to buy psyllium powder. It is really quite common in grocery stores and drug stores as Metamucil but it is pretty expensive to buy that way and it contains a lot of sugar. I found a health food store in town which carried the substance in larger containers and it was much, much cheaper to buy it that way, and it didn't contain sugar. It is just called psyllium powder. Some health-food stores call it colon cleanser, but I think that is misleading.

The good news is that my digestive problems are slowly getting better. I have had a ton of counseling including EMDR and it is helping a lot.

Allen

pufferfish

My little sister and her boyfriend are on a gluten-free diet, and since he got on it he has lost about 25 lbs too. I don't know if you have this particular chain of grocery stores where you are at, but they have a large gluten-free section, a huge organic foods selection, a large selection of various health food and supplements, fresh fruit and vegetables, and a large meat department where everything is all natural. Sprout's Market has recently opened several stores in Colorado, including one withing 4 miles of where I live.

http://sprouts.com/home.php

Here is another local health food grocery chain here in Colorado:

http://www.vitamincottage.com/

Whole Foods is nationwide and they recently bought-out the Wild Oats chain too.

http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/

If you are ever in the Los Angeles-area try this grocery chain:

http://www.bristolfarms.com/home.html

Both King and Safeway grocery stores here in the Denver-area also have large health food and organic departments too. I have had my own issues with certain foods, and nowadays I take Protonix daily for acid reflux issues. Before taking Protonix I used to get heavy heartburn from any tomato-based red pasta sauce and from foods fried in certain cooking oils too.

Obviously, you are not alone with your issues with food or food-additive allergies either.

Mark