For the past (about) 6 months i have been living with a very uncomfortable abdominal belly bloating. i physically am very thin, but my belly literally looks like i am pregnant.
i have not changed much of anything in my diet. i dont use salt, chew gum, drink soda, or eat many grains. i am in no pain whatsoever. i just have this huge belly. i eat the same foods that i have been eating for years without any problems in the past, but i was wondering if i have developed a food allergy.
the few culprits i can possibly attribute this to are Wheat/Rye, Fresh Peanut Butter, and Cottage Cheese. i take Dicyclomine for IBS and Domperidone for GP; but having had both of these “disorders” for a very long time without complications, i cannot for the life of me figure out the cause of this weird distention.
i am seeing my GI in 2 weeks, and hopefully he will be able to help me out. However, i was just wondering if anyone on FUD has had this, and if this is one or the only symptom they deal with. i would rather hear it from you guys than futz around on the internet self-diagnosing myself. (PS: i am post menapausal, so i am NOT pregnant .)
I’m so sorry to hear you have those symptoms. It sounds really unpleasant! I hope you’re able to find the cause soon.
Technically, an “allergy” is an immune-mediated reaction against food that happens when the immune system mistakenly attacks food proteins. Of course, most people in the general public use the term much more liberally to refer to any type of adverse reaction triggered by food, even though most of those are not food allergies.
I’ve been dealing with food allergies for my entire life. I have three types of food allergies: anaphylaxis, eosinophilic esophagitis, and oral allergy syndrome. But whenever medical professionals ask me about food allergies, they really only care about anaphylaxis.
I also have irritable bowel syndrome, and this can be triggered by foods, although in my case I haven’t been able to find any patterns. I’m not a medical professional, but to me, bloating definitely sounds like it could be a symptom of irritable bowel syndrome or gastroparesis far more than an allergic reaction.
Thanks for all the great info.when i talked with my GI, he suggested that I increase my meds for both the IBS and the GP, but so far no luck. hopefully, when i see him, he will have a plan and possible solution.
this evening for dinner, however, i opted for skipping the Rye bread and just ate very healthy veggies (that are NOT bloating to my system). i would have prefered to have the bread bc i swam hard today and wanted the good carbs, but since dinner i am feeling better than i did last night. we’ll see what happens.
It does sound like more of a GI issue than allergies and from my own experience, IBS can certainly be triggered by food. Just throwing this out there, though - celiac disease is a common autoimmune disorder alongside type 1 and one of the symptoms can be severe bloating. It’s probably not that, but since my sister didn’t really notice many symptoms prior to her diagnosis, thought I’d mention it.
So I don’t believe I have any true food allergies, but I seem to have a number of food sensitivities. My system (GI and inflammatory/pain symptoms) is much happier when I’m gluten-free (though thankfully I don’t think it’s celiac level, so don’t have to worry about contamination and/or the occasional small cheat). That seems to be true for a lot of people. It might be worth trying to go gf for a period of time (several weeks at least) to see how that treats you. If you do that, there are a lot of great products these days that make it pretty easy especially at home. For example, Canyon Bread makes awesome gf bread (in freezer section at Whole Foods and other places) and has multigrain options; it’s just more expensive than wheat/rye-based breads. There are also lots of very good gf pastas/noodles available these days—my partner is also gf, and she’s Italian and makes amazing lasagna otherwise from scratch that you would have no idea is gf if no one told you.
I also find that high histamine foods cause my system problems including GI symptoms. The worst offenders for me for these are some nuts (especially walnuts, but peanuts can be an issue; almonds seem to be the safest) and fermented/pickled/cured foods including most vinegars (apple cider and plain vinegar are more ok) and pretty much all beer and wine (hard alcohol isn’t great but slightly more tolerable in v small amounts). That may or may not be relevant for you, but I’m pointing it out to say that people can be reactive to any number of foods and sometimes for not super obvious reasons and to foods that otherwise are considered very healthy. You really can’t know without doing an elimination diet.
i eat freshly home made PB ALL the time. every day. i am an addict the way some are ice cream obsessed or if they are alcoholic (and btw, i dont drink ANY alcohol; not beer, not wine, not hard liquor, and i dont smoke cigarettes or take any mind altering drugs ).
i hid my stash of PB, so i wont be eating that for AT LEAST a week. last night i skipped eating my Rye bread, but suffered from terrible lows throughout the night; i really need some carbs post swims. (i should have just used a TB.) and, i hid my Rye in my freezer.
i felt more comfortable throughout the night and this morning when i woke up, but my belly still is drastically distended. i showed my husband this morning, and he asked me if i thought i could be pregnant; we laughed bc i am 10+ yrs post menapause . ive got no eggs left, for certain. but seriously, we actually discussed my buying a pregnancy test!!!
since i already have IBS and GP and take meds for both (and since i have NEVER EVER been this bloated), thats why i considered this to be due to food. thus, creating this thread.
i am eager to see if the diet changes help, but i do have an appt with my GI in 2 weeks. hopefully all will be dx and repaired.
Yep, an elimination diet is by far the best way to work out if a food is bothering you. Sensitivities and intolerances are super common these days. I know many people who are gluten-free, dairy-free, and so on even though they aren’t allergic. They just feel a ton better not eating those things, for whatever reason.
Yeah, and I would say if you’re really trying to suss out if certain foods are bothering you, you probably would want to eliminate for at least 3-4 weeks. It sucks, but it can take a while for your body to acclimate to changes, and then if you are feeling better, you want introduce eliminated foods (if there are more than one) back in one at a time to test whether you can tolerate that, and give that a couple of weeks at least too.
Interestingly, apparently a lot of people with gluten intolerances (not celiac) do fine with gluten abroad (in Europe, say), suggesting that there are aspects to how wheat is processed in the US that make it much less digestible/tolerable for many. Up until relatively recently, there were also lots of fermentation processes involved in wheat/flour processing and bread making that change the final product, so it may be that humans are generally ok with eating old school gluten, but many cannot tolerate it with some modern agricultural and processing approaches.
i have discussed what i am going through with my endo; he believes that this is an issue for my GI doctor, and that it most likely has something to do with my Gastroparesis. (and perhaps my IBS)
he doesn’t think it is thyroid related bc my levels are perfect (and have been so for a long time.)
we also discussed night sweats (did i ever mention having this problem before). i am post menopausal for over 10 years, yet i began having the sweats again this past year. when i showed my husband my bulging tummy, the first thing he asked me was if i could be pregnant. i was feeling so overwhelmed with this tummy of mine that i actually went on the internet to find out if that could be a possibility. . of course we women all know the answer to that. no menstruation, no eggs, no pregancy (even still, though, my husband wanted me to get one of those at-home pregnancy tests !! HAHAHA LOL.)
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. of course we women all know the answer to that. no menstruation, no eggs, no pregancy