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Question: sudden onset of allergies when reintroducing foods?


PerpetualDiet

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I just finished my 2nd round of Whole30. My last round (over a year ago) was much worse than this - I barely held it together till day 31 then basically had a free-for-all. This time has been much easier - I did great, got myself into eating according to template 99% of the time which was awesome.

 

Reintroduction has been interesting though, and not really in a good way. I was expecting maybe some 'icky' symptoms after reintroducing some foods, like nausea, headaches, bloating, breakouts, etc.  When I tried dairy again I started getting actual allergic reactions. First I had some plain yogurt at breakfast--nothing. Then an hour later a dash of milk in my coffee--tongue felt numbish, thought that was weird. At dinner I had about 1/2 a cube of cheese--tongue and roof of mouth numb.

 

THEN finally (really, I couldn't believe I was now suddenly allergic and assumed maybe I just had to 'get over it'), I ate what amounted to a half scoop of ice-cream and had an immediate, severe allergic reaction--mouth, tongue and throat going numb, a wheezy feeling like my throat was closing, etc. Took some benadryl.

 

So I wanted to ask: why would this allergy show up now? Has anyone ever had this happen? Did it become a permanent allergy? I was fine with dairy after the previous Whole30. I basically gorged on dairy over the holidays--cheeses, egg nog, desserts and all that--but in my day-to-day life I wouldn't say I eat tons of dairy (not a big milk drinker, maybe a tiny slice of gourmet cheese eaten over a week, no yogurt, etc.)

 

What gives?!

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So, after speaking to my doctor, apparently actual allergies (vs intolerance) to dairy are rare, and it's even rarer for them to pop up in an adult. Leaving me very unsure about what's happening. I'll be getting an allergy test, though at the very least I'm going to assume I have an extreme intolerance of dairy. Oddly enough gluten seems to have worked out fine today--but I rather wish it was the reverse(!!!)

 

Sad, but there it is.  <_<

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  • 1 year later...

Hi, I realize this is a year old but (if you see this) am wondering what you ended up finding out. My experience has been almost identical to yours, down to the differences in my 2 rounds of Whole30, with the exception that my reactions to dairy have been an itchy bump/patch on my face and itchy eyes and sneezing. I'm not 100 % convinced it's the dairy and I'm going to see my doctor. I've had allergies in the past but the skin issue is totally new. I saw your post and it looked so similar that I wondered what you found out!

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Sounds like it might be the Casein in the dairy. It's one of the proteins in milk which can cause a histamine response such as you describe. Whey & Lactose intolerance generally have gut related symptoms.

Do you happen to have asthma?

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I think I am having the same issue. My plan to slowly reintroduce got derailed with a friend's birthday celebration Saturday evening. Pretty sure it's the dairy, because we had a lot of cheese based tapas, and froyo for dessert. Woke up Sunday morning with full blown allergy attack - sinus congestion, watery eyes, running nose, etc.

I had already planned to go back to compliant eating today, so I'm hoping that will help quickly kick this. Right now just trying to stay hydrated, and will definitely plan a better reintroduction later on down the road.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 4 months later...

I know this conversation started over a year ago, but I'm having similar allergic type issues that started post my whole 30 month, which has been amazing! My symptoms are swelling of my lips and around the mouth, which has happened about five times now. I cannot relate it to a specific food at all so will go see an allergist next week. Last night, though, it was the most severe, with significant swelling that did not resolve a few hours later. No respiratory symptoms, so far! 

I am a physician myself and I wonder if the restrictions on th diet make our immune system become more reactive to certain foods after it hasn't seen them for a long while? My other theory is that I'm reacting to something I've taken a lot more than usual during my month (like eggs and avocados, in my case). I guess I'll see what my allergist says...

of note, I've never had any allergy issues aside from minimal hand eczema.

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  • 7 months later...

I'll chime in on this one too as this topic is important. Throughout January 2018, I was 100% loyal to the Whole30 diet. I loved it. I was healthy, vibrant, radiant, and had great energy and great skin. The Whole 30 agrees with my constitution so I decided to stay on it for the most part except for the occasional splurge into something like chips or dairy. And wow--I have been seriously fighting an ongoing, full-blown allergic reaction with hives, occasional dizziness, nasty headaches, and intestinal/digestive issues to name some of the more dominant expressions of bodily dis-ease. At first it was a bit hard to distinguish those symptoms from the nasty flu/cold that I was hit with along with my family and a good swathe of America apparently, but when my cold/flu eased and I hadn't eaten much of anything for a number of days, then when I had eggs I erupted into the above symptoms within hours. I stopped eggs when I made the connection and thought I'd try some dairy creamer in my coffee as a test. That hit me hard! Hives, headache, running nose, itching. Same as the eggs. That's why I searched the term of this thread, and am happy to have found others experiencing the same. My theory is that the body gets so cleaned out on the Whole 30 that the re-introduction of allergens allows the body to react as it normally would if it hadn't been saturated since probably childhood with toxins. In my case, I had severe eczema from early on until puberty or so before it cleared up. No issues with eggs, dairy, etc. other than a subtle suspicion that eggs didn't sit well with me. Now, though, with I am going to clear my system of eggs and dairy, scale back to a super minimal diet, and reintroduce foods one at a time to see how I react. In the end, if this is a permanent change, I'm okay. I felt so great on the Whole 30 that it really made me aware of what a HUGE impact food has on emotions, thoughts, feelings, mental clarity, openness, happiness.... in short--everything. My body is telling me that my old way of living/eating is over even though I ate and lived what I considered to be a really healthy life. But transformation requires change. Just be prepared knowing that for some, you can never go back. 

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2 hours ago, Big John said:

My theory is that the body gets so cleaned out on the Whole 30 that the re-introduction of allergens allows the body to react as it normally would if it hadn't been saturated since probably childhood with toxins.

This.

The gut in particular sheds its protective mucosal lining when you're not consuming inflammatory foods so when they are reintroduced (or eaten in volume resulting in over-exposure) you are more inclined to notice the symptoms because the symptoms are more pronounced.

With repeated exposure to inflammatory foods the gut builds up that mucosal layer again, but really that's just a sticky plaster when you should be treating the root cause - ie. not eating foods that do your body harm.

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