Lately I have been dreaming about onion rings...

 ... and I've realised that my body may have been misleading me.

For years I thought I was intolerant to many different fruits and vegetables, but now I'm wondering if that is actually the case?

A few years ago, maybe three or four, I started to have terrible digestion problems; bloating, cramps, flatulence, constipation, diarrhoea, and sometimes stomach pains so intense they would send me to bed, where I would curl up into the smallest ball possible and have to try and sleep (sleep was the only thing that used to help). It got so bad that I turned to Google and discovered IBS (irritable bowel syndrome) which seemed to list everything I suffered from. Knowing that my doctors rarely take me seriously, I decided to do an elimination test to see if I could find the “trigger” foods myself. I started to keep a food diary where I wrote down, without fail, every single thing that I ate or drank (although I didn't weigh food, that's just too much hassle lol). Not only did I write down what I ate, I also wrote down how it made me feel, and also how it effected my toilet habits. By doing this, over many months (and much pain) I found numerous triggers... the whole allium family (onions, garlic, shallots, leeks, chives and all granules, dried forms, salts and extracts containing them), peppers, sweetcorn, mushrooms, beetroot, swede, broccoli, cabbage, grapes, bananas, all squashes and pumpkin, spinach, courgettes, cauliflower, white flour products (bread, cakes, pasta, cous cous, etc), green peas, green beans... in short any veg that wasn't potatoes, sweet potatoes or carrots would give me trouble. Fruit was better, as long as I stayed away from grapes and bananas. Bakery products had to be brown, wholemeal, wholewheat, etc.

As you can imagine I wasn't a happy bunny, although my digestion was happier when I cut all of them out of my diet. The up side was I lost about four stone because I just couldn't eat most junk food, ready meals, pre-packaged foods or takeaways.

Oh, as well as the fruit and veg intolerances I also discovered that lactose caused me nasty trouble, so that meant most milk, cheese, yoghurt, cream , ice cream and anything else dairy was off limits (until I found a brand called Lactofree that I was ok with).  Plus I had trouble with chicken eggs... although I was ok with duck eggs (apart from the high price and even higher cholesterol content!)

Fast forward to about June 2015...

June 15th 2015 I decided to be a vegetarian... I forget now what prompted that decision... I may have written the reasons down in an old diary somewhere, but anyway.  People thought I was mad as I had so many bad reactions to so much veg, how could I possibly be a vegetarian? I admit I wondered myself, but I was determined to try.

After suffering bad headaches and sinus problems I discovered that dairy can cause that sort of thing. I decided to do a two week dairy elimination test to see if that was the cause of my pain. After about a week my sinuses felt a lot better and my headaches had decreased to almost nothing. Then, ten days into the two week test my sister had her birthday. Her fiancé got her a cake that was egg free but that contained cream... I took some lactase capsules (they used to help me digest the lactose so I didn't have a really bad time on the rare occasions I wanted something I shouldn't really have had lol). Within an hour of eating the cake my nose was blocked and I had a headache. It showed me that dairy and I were no longer friends and I decided to cut it out of my life completely... for good!
At about the same time I had been reading more and more about veganism, and all it entailed, and after a rocky start became a vegan on 15th July 2015.

As you can imagine those around me were worried as there were just so many foods I couldn't eat... what the hell does a vegan with so many intolerances to vegetables actually eat?! Luckily I didn't starve to death as I'm fine with wholewheat bread products, rice, wholewheat pasta and had grown used to making my own food from scratch.

I'm also one of those people that is always dumb enough to try things I know I probably shouldn't... and yes, I'm often surprised when I get bad reactions hahaha. However, in this case it proved to be a good thing as I was able to gradually reintroduce a lot of foods back into my diet... mushrooms, sweetcorn, broccoli, spinach, green beans, courgettes, and cabbage (including Brussels sprouts). I also discovered kale and avocados didn't hate me.

The one group that always made me really sad were the alliums as they are in so much food, the basis for so many amazing dishes, and also hard to avoid in vegan “junk food” and sauces (be they cooking sauces, pasta sauces, even stuff like ketchup). The sheer amount of onion powder, garlic powder, onion salt, garlic extract, onion granules, chives, and any combination of the above is astounding... I never knew just how much food contained one or many of them. It was a total shopping nightmare. Either products contained them, or were reformulated without any warning once I had already started using them (like Asda did once with some bbq sauce, lucky for me I'm a habitual paranoid label checker lol).

Fast forward again to about a month ago...

I have bouts of “bravery” regarding food. If my digestion has been doing ok I feel courageous enough to try foods that I normally avoid (that must be the masochist in me). I wanted to see if my intolerance to alliums was still bad, so got some Linda McCartney vegan sausage rolls that contain onion powder (I think) but no garlic so I thought it would let me know if onions still hated me (some people are affected by one, either or both... I was effected by both). I ate two sausage rolls and waited for the problems. None came. No pain, no bloating... nothing. I was pleasantly surprised. One more food to add to the plate. Then it got me thinking... if I could have onion powder, could I have garlic? (Not that I like garlic much, I just had to know). I found a Chinese BBQ sauce that had garlic but no onions and tried it. It wasn't very nice taste wise (although there was some slight discomfort). Then I thought, if onion powder was ok, maybe try something like dried chives. I used some as a garnish on some soup and again, no reaction!

Fast forward to today and so far I have had, onion powder, onion granules, onion extract, garlic powder, garlic extract, dried chives... and a large bowl of home-made leek and potato soup... with no comeback at all! I've had spicy burgers with onions, garlic and peppers... no comeback. I had some green peas the other day... with no comeback! To say I'm stunned is an understatement. I've been avoiding all these foods for years because of problems and now I don't have the problems (at least I don't think I do anyway... my next “try” is actual onion, I've bought onion rings and also red onions as well).

So what could have happened to suddenly make my stomach not hate most of the foods it used to (bananas still constipate me, but I was never much of a fan of theirs anyway lol).

It made me think... why now? What have I changed that could have such a drastic impact on my digestive system? And then one day it hit me... could it be because I'm vegan? Could the meat I ate for years have actually been the trigger for my problems and not the veg? I always had trouble digesting pork, it never liked me much. Steak often made me constipated. Any fish used to repeat on me so much I would want to vomit just to get the taste of it out of my mouth! Lamb would bloat me, and to a lesser extent so would chicken and turkey (although I never realised it). It made me wonder if I had been blaming the veg I would have with the meat for the trouble whereas I should have been blaming the meat! It just seems weird that I can now eat a lot of the things that gave me the worst reactions with no reactions at all... surely if something was so hard on the digestion that it would send you to bed that would never fully go away, regardless of how long between exposures.

Could nearly 16 months without meat have helped my digestive system to heal itself enough so that the “evil veg” doesn't cause any problems? Could the meat have been causing irritation and then the veg merely exacerbating a reaction already there?

Could I actually have been intolerant to meat the whole time and just never knew it?

Honestly I don't have a definite answer to any of those questions. All I can say is that I know how I feel, and that is fine. Maybe a little flatulence (who never has that?) but farts don't give me pain.

I guess that even if I hadn't become vegan for moral and ethical reasons, my body was screaming out for me to become one for health reasons. I just never knew it until now.

I'm going to take it slowly, I don't want to get my hopes fully up only to have them crushed by pain (which has happened many times before, when I've tried things in the past by jumping in head first instead of gently testing the waters with a toe at a time).

It has made me wonder if I should share my experiences with an allium intolerance group I'm in at Facebook? Obviously those with an allergy wouldn't benefit from reading it, allergies can be medically tested for whereas intolerances cannot, it is simply trial and error on the part of the intolerant person that discovers the triggers. But if meat could be behind my problems, couldn't it also be the same for others that might not even realise it?

My temporary lactose intolerance appears to have gone, for now.

I often get bouts of lactose intolerance, when my system is all awry the first thing I become very sensitive to is milk (and it can last from a few weeks to months). The only way to check if I still have it is to drink milk... and if I am still sensitive to it the outcome is far from pleasant! I had a glass of milk three hours ago and I've had no bloating, nausea, stomach pain so far, and usually the first two hours are when I will get something that lets me know if I shouldn't be ingesting something.

I noticed that I've been able to eat cheese lately without any problems, and now it looks as if milk is ok for me too (although I'm taking it slowly and not flooding my system with dairy, just in case it flares up again in protest hahaha).

Now I know I can have wheat, eggs and hopefully dairy my diet should improve (as trying to find things to eat that didn't upset me used to get so demoralising that I used to lose all interest in cooking!)

I'm not brave enough to try the onions yet... they used to cause me dreadful pain and send me to bed, and I'm not bothered about onions, garlic or mushrooms any way! I hate the smell of garlic, and did even when I could eat it! Nasty stuff.

I feel so very tired today...

... guess that is one of the consequences of eating that cheese on that pizza last night!  (When my food intolerances flare up I get very tired and feel like sleeping for days afterwards).

I don't understand what is wrong with me when I think that there is nothing wrong with me so I can eat the things that I know full well I should avoid like the plague! Is it a form of denial... "sure I can eat that... it was weeks ago that it made me feel like shit, what harm can it do?!"

Yeah, plenty, MORON!

It was another beautiful day today...

... and I've been too ill to care much!

I still have the residual pain lingering in my head from the migraine I started to get at 2am this morning (!) and now I have the most amazing pain in my stomach (no doubt caused from eating those cake bites containing the milk last night! Yes, I am an IDIOT!!) I can see me having to pay a visit to the doctor's if this kind of thing keeps happening... sometimes I get more scared than I like to admit.

My new netbook is working out really well... I am using it to write this now. The smaller size wasn't hard to get used to, and now it's not even noticeable (most of the keys are the same size as a regular keyboard, it's just the keys around the outside, like the F keys above the numbers and the up and down arrow keys that are smaller).

For playing the games at Facebook (like Farmville and Ravenwood Fair) it's an amazing difference... my big laptop hates them with a fiery passion and more often than not my flashplayer crashes and I end up not bothering playing the games... this little netbook handles the games like a dream and it makes playing them fun again, and not the chore that they had become! Plus it doesn't overheat like the big lappie (which needs a fan blowing cold air on it when it gets really hot or it turns itself off!)

The only downside I can see is that there is no cd/dvd drive, so I can't get software on it for things like my cameras and printers... but apart from that, I'll settle for the nicer experience and ease of use LOL!

Add another intolerance to the list!!

I knew it would happen and it did... dairy now makes me feel sick!

Is there no end to the growing list of things that I am not able to stomach anymore? So far it reads like this:

Onions (and all members of the onion family including shallots, chives, spring onions/scallions)
Garlic (as it's an allium, like onions)
Eggs
Mushrooms
White flour (in bread, cakes, pies, etc)
Dairy products (milk, cream, butter, ice cream(!), yoghurt, etc).
Also some vegetables leave me feeling like crap, like broccoli, pumpkin and too many brussels sprouts.

Finding foods without any of these in is becoming a nightmare (especially the top three as they cause me real agonising pain)... especially ready meals for those times when you can't be bothered to cook from scratch! I was seriously thinking of becoming a vegetarian again until the intolerances reared their ugly (and painful) heads, but most of the vegetarian products out there, like Quorn, all contain onions or onion powder so I can't eat them... that leaves me with plain tofu, which is nice but needs work to make a meal and soya protein (same as the tofu). By not being able to eat the eggs and dairy I would be a forced vegan if I stopped eating meat... and whereas I can eat fish and chips without a problem (as long as I don't eat the batter around the fish) a vege-burger would have me in agony about two hours later because they all contain onion and/or garlic!

So what do I do? Become a vegetarian as I'd love to do and make my life ten times harder than it already is... or stay eating the meat I can eat (such as white meat, fish, chicken, turkey) and not suffer?

I already feel like a total burden as there are so many things I now cannot eat... and because I can't have them my parents feel guilty for having stuff I can't eat and so they don't eat it either!! Case in point... Mum and I were out shopping the other day and as we were both hungry we decided to go to MacDonalds - it was only as we were in the queue for the drive-thru and unable to turn around that I remembered that I couldn't eat 90% of the things on the menu. All I could have were some fries and a side salad (with balsamic dressing, plus a sweet and sour sauce). As luck would have it, I thoroughly enjoyed it and had seconds... but Mum also had the same as me as she didn't want to eat something that I couldn't have! To say I felt guilty would be an understatement!

But I guess I can do no more than I do... I've told the people around me "if you want something to eat and I can't have it, just eat it... I truly do not mind!"

Another thing that drives me crazy is when I make something for me, and I usually make far too much so that I can have some for another day, or later... and then someone that can eat what they like comes along and says something like "oh, can I have some of that, it looks great" and then helps themselves! I see it as really selfish for people that have their own food and can also grab literally anything they like and eat it without pain, to come along and see the food I have made for my own narrow dietary requirements and just tuck in!! I wouldn't mind if I offered it out, but I don't (and not because I'm a big meanie, but because the food is sometimes five times as expensive as the normal alternative... like my egg free mayo, "they" buy the cheap brand and I have to pay fives times the price for a third of the size, and then they wonder I grumble when they eat mine and still have their own for later!!!)... some people have no shame (and/or very short memories!!)

I'm going to have to put the becoming vegetarian on hold at least for now (and probably permanently if I have no other choice)... guess it is just another thing I can add to the list of "not in this lifetime."

Eat Less White Flour and Be Happier, Thinner and Live Longer « Planet Organic Blog « Planet Organic - Planet Organic

Eat Less White Flour and Be Happier, Thinner and Live Longer « Planet Organic Blog « Planet Organic - Planet Organic

Interesting article about white flour... explains why I feel like shit after I eat it now - white flour hates me, and I hate it right back!!

It's official... I HATE my digestive system...

... I can no longer eat anything containing onions (which includes leeks, shallots, spring onions and chives, and I'm also uncertain about garlic, too - they are all members of the allium family)... or too much pastry... or sausages or sausage-meat... or food that is too greasy. There are also other things that react badly with me, but I have to find them out as I go - which is not only painful, but time consuming, and it really spoils my day (and also puts a sour note on family dinners, too :( ) I just get a feeling of dread when it comes to my evening meal (breakfast is ok... no onions in cereal, lol) and lunch is ok, too (I always make my own lunch and never have anything ready-made anymore)... but evening meals are a minefield - the other day everyone else had a Chinese takeaway... and although it smelt lovely I could eat none of it... just in case there were onions in it........ARGH!!!

I am currently sat here with a stomach ache, and a dodgy bum (that I have a feeling is going to keep me up for most of the night!) I just want to have a normal digestive system... one that can process onions (and onion powder) - they are in so many things, even baked beans. There are so many things I miss desperately, sweet pickle on cheese sandwiches, worcestershire sauce to add flavour to food, even most shop bought soup contains onions and I don't always have time to make my own. **sigh** I just hate this so much!!

To add to my misery our dishwasher died yesterday, and after having one for 10 years to suddenly not have one is a total shock! I never realised just how excessive washing up can cause a backache (well, it does for me, and apart from Mum no one else seems to do any!)

Sissy also has ringworm! Ever since we found out I've felt itchy, though she is now on two doses of antibiotics (one oral, one topical) so hopefully it should be gone soon.

The one bright spot so far is that Wimbledon is on, so I have two weeks of great tv, lol!

Had my hair cut... again.

Only this time to about an inch long all over... I'm just sick of it being black and since I lost my job I'm not going to be able to afford hair dye anymore, plus I really want to see my natural hair colour again (after a year of dying it) so it was "bye-bye long hair". I also noticed just how thin my hair was getting to, sort of limp and stringy, and my hair has never been like that until I started colouring it! So, all in all it seemed for the best to just lop it off and start again. I do miss it in some ways,but not in others. At the moment it's still black, so it will need another cut in about a month, but after that I should be back to where I started from... I wonder how much of my hair is white now, I'm quite excited about finding out (yes, I know, I am totally weird and sad, LOL!)

Had no onions or mushrooms for five clear days and I've had no bad reactions at all... I'm going to have to try both of them soon and see if it was really them, but I'm actually quite scared of the pain returning so I keep putting it off. I'm using the logic that if I've not eaten them, but have eaten everything else and I feel fine that they must be the culprits... the only problem being that I usually have both mushrooms and onions together in food (such as spag bol and rissotto) so one could be being blamed for the problems caused by the other! I just have enough pain at the moment without having internal stomach pain on top of the rest! My back is aching, my ankles and feet, likewise and I now have a dull ache on the right side of my jawline that has been bugging me for about three days now and is not showing any signs of going a-bloody-way!!

I have had to stop drinking the coffee that I recently started drinking again... I keep having vivid dreams... not that the dreams are nasty, far from it as most of them contain Ville Valo from HIM (and they are also far from innocent, too!!) Then there was the dream where for some reason I was dressed as a chicken, I upset a little boy for refusing to let him sit on my nose (I assume beak) and when I asked to use the toilet in the huge pub I seemed to be in, I was lead all over the place - down endless corridors and passages until I came to a sort of huge balcony with no barrier (to stop people from falling over the edge, but an internal balcony, like the galleries you find in stately homes). On the other side of it I could see a body amongst some bookcases, and I was being beckoned over there and I refused to go as I just knew that if I did that I would be blamed for the murder, so I refused to budge... and then I woke up!! Totally surreal, though not frightening... my dreams are not scary, just weird!

I feel dreadful

Something I ate last night did not agree with me in any way... I can't think what it could be, though! I've eaten nothing that I haven't had before (with no problems)... the only thing I ate that is not on my "normal" diet (more of a treat when we can afford it) was three huge organic Portobello mushrooms filled with cheese - and I made them myself (not shop bought filled mushrooms)... I just don't understand how I feel exactly how I would feel had I eaten onions, only I have not had any onions! The last time I felt this bad was last Tuesday when I had a shop-made pasta sauce (that contained onions).

I'm just so confused about my stupid stomach now... is it onions? Is it mushrooms? Is it wheat? Is it yeast? Is it lactose? Who the hell knows? Because I sure as hell don't **sigh** I seem to have reacted against all of them in the past!!

I'm also so tired and listless that it's even a huge effort to type this! Maybe the antihistamine I took earlier is the reason... knowing my luck lately I'm in the tiny percent that suffer from bad reactions (non-drowsy, my arse!)... nothing would surprise me anymore, lol! Out of my entire family, I'm the one that is allergic to the 20th century "wonder drug", Penicillin, so there you go... I always have been the awkward one.

It's a beautiful day here and apart from watering some of my potted plants in the garden I came straight back indoors, I couldn't stay out there. It was so bright and I could see so many jobs that needed doing that I turned my back in hope that the "garden elves" will help me out (little buggers never have in the past, but I live in hope, hehe).

I hate this lethargy that I seem to have all the time lately, really stops me from doing so many things that I used to do... I was planning to go to the woods today, get back to nature and take some photos, but I just can't seem to muster the energy to do it **sigh** They are only a ten minute drive away, too, and somewhere, deep in my psyche, I can feel them calling to me and I can't ignore it for much longer as the feeling is getting stronger by the day! I really should take advantage of my current unemployment to get out there and heed the call I keep getting... hopefully tomorrow will be better (at least my stomach problems should be gone by then, anyway).

A quick update whilst Sissy is away...

... she is going out to meet her brothers' new boyfriend, and will be gone for most of the day... which is nice, after having her mooning and pining for her bloke. Pingu, who wasn't here last night - one night they have not been together since she came back about a month ago and she was at the point of crying because she missed him so much! It's probably the old cynic in me that thinks that is not normal, but then I've never been in a relationship so I suppose I really can't judge what is normal or not to someone that is in one **shrugs**

I think I have found the reason for my digestive troubles... allium intolerance - more specifically onions (and members of the onion family such as leeks, shallots, spring onions, chives and garlic)! I've been keeping a food diary and I've had symptoms on three occasions, and on all of those occasions I've eaten something with onions in... a bolognese sauce, a packet of Nik Naks (which contain dried onion and garlic) and a jar of supermarket own brand pasta sauce. Within 30 minutes of eating them all I've had the familiar symptoms, bloating, cramps in the stomach, a churning feeling in my insides, nausea, flatulence and my food also starts repeating on me (which is nasty as you get to taste the food you've just eaten every time you burp :( ). My system is also effected for 24-48 hours depending on the amount I've eaten (I won't go into tmi. but it entails much time spent on the toilet... and not being sick!)... I do hope this is the real cause of my troubles, in the past I've thought it could be a whole host of different things, including lactose, wheat, meat and yeast... if it's not then I don't know what it is and I may go to the doctor and see if they can do a full food allergy test to see if that can pin-point what it actually is! Shame if it is onions as I love them, I have them raw and cooked and everything I cook contains onions of some sort... they are also in EVERYTHING, tomato sauce, spaghetti hoops, baked beans, anything with any kind of gravy... the list is immense, and also quite saddening as most of the things I love to eat are included in there somewhere :( You wouldn't believe the things that have onion powder added to them! Things like chicken in white sauce and some cup-a-soups... also the occasional junk food that we have is also off the menu now (if it is onions) as things such as Chinese and Pizza all use onions in their cooking and sauces... and I think the only things I could have with any degree of safety would be a kebab (as you just ask for no onion) and maybe a burger from a fast food chain (again, asking for no onions)... fish and chips should also be alright. Oh well... will just have to wait and see - again, LOL! Will avoid all things allium for a few days and then be very brave and eat some onions... then sit back and enjoy the feeling of people wrestling in my innards (if it is onions, of course).

I have not been paid from one of the Mum's we have here! She was supposed to come down and pay me last Thursday, but she never did... neither is she answering any of her phones, or returning my messages. I even went to her house on Saturday and spoke to her and she said that her bank card was at her friends house, and she was going there to get it and she'd give me a call in the afternoon... still waiting for that one!!! I don't know if it means that the boys are leaving, have left, whether it means she's not planning on paying me for this holiday (even though she signed a contract saying she would and the boys could have been here, it was her choice to leave them with their aunt!)... I have no idea, all I do know is that I'm getting quite pissed off at being ignored and the not knowing is making me angry. I'd love to tell her where to stick her kids, but I need the money... I wonder if Ben walking off on the last day of term has anything to do with this sudden avoidance of me, but she seemed uncaring at the time and how was I meant to know he was going to wander off - he never has in the past **shrugs** If they do leave, I still want my one month's notice and I greatly pity whoever is lumbered taking care of Ben in the future... I'd wish them all the luck in the world, if I thought it would do any good (only I know it won't!!)

Maybe I should start advertising for more kids anyway? My problem being if I get more in and they go to a different school and then the boys are not leaving, how do I get them all? LOL! Sometimes I wish being a witch meant that I did have a working flying broomstick **sigh** having to stick to normal methods of transport is very boring. expensive and time-consuming, hehe.