The UK’s Tummy Troubles

Published on Tuesday, January 23, 2007, by Christy Harrison / Edit Post

Almost half of UK residents have some form of food intolerance, the Independent reports. According to a just-published study by the nonprofit Allergy UK, such intolerances—non-life-threatening reactions to foods (most commonly certain components of milk and wheat)—are the root of many seemingly minor ailments like exhaustion, migraines, colds, and flus. The group is PO’d that the government hasn’t helped sufferers bypass long waiting lists for medical specialists, claiming that this inaction drives patients to seek out quacky alternative medicine. As the head of Allergy UK tells the paper:

People can get weird and wacky diets which are very damaging to their health. They start off with one problem and this is compounded by bad dietary advice.

The group urges traditional doctors to bone up on their understanding of food intolerance so that people don’t have to go the “wacky” route.

UK doctors counter that while they’ve seen a recent spike in patients claiming to have food intolerances, most of the reports were “in the mind.” Some blame this rash of self-diagnosis ailment on a handful of recently diagnosed British celebrities, including Rachel Weisz and Victoria Beckham.

But to hear the account of anyone who’s actually been diagnosed with a food intolerance, doctors’ skepticism is a major problem. Has anyone here gone through it? What was it like to have to give up a whole class of potentially yummy foods?

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  • I've suffered from major depression for most of my life and had a terrible time finding the right combination of therapies/medication to treat the disease. Back during the summer of 1999 (I was 16 and a half), I was recovering from my first truly debilitating long-term bout with depression and while seeking out treatments, my psychiatrist at the time encouraged me to take allergy tests, because...+READ

    I've suffered from major depression for most of my life and had a terrible time finding the right combination of therapies/medication to treat the disease. Back during the summer of 1999 (I was 16 and a half), I was recovering from my first truly debilitating long-term bout with depression and while seeking out treatments, my psychiatrist at the time encouraged me to take allergy tests, because certain studies have linked dietary intolerances with certain medical and even biochemical conditions. The test came back saying that I was allergic to wheat, gluten, egg whites, egg yolks, bakers yeast, brewers yeast, lactose, milk enzyme and white potatoes. I've been lactose intolerant (and actually had problems with the actual milk enzyme) since birth, so that wasn't a surprise - but everything else was a total shock. At this point in my life, I wasn't above trying anything - so I went on this ridiculously limited diet (after having a 24-hour Pig-Out I titled "Wheat Fest '99," where I indulged in cookies, breads, sweets, pastas and other foods I wouldn't eat for another six months). I should point out that I only weighed about 98 lbs when I started the diet (I was 5'4 at the time) - and within two weeks, I had dropped so much weight, white potatoes were re-added (the allergy test said I had a "low" intolerance to them, whereas I had a "high" intolerance to everything else) just so I could expand my choices (I also screwed the lactose/milk restrictions, because I've been managing that my whole life, and I couldn't give up carbs AND cheese). I can honestly say that was the worst six months of my life, at least food wise. This was in the days before Atkins-Mania, where ordering a hamburger without a bun in a restaurant got you dirty looks rather than a special item on the menu, and only two Whole Foods existed in Metro Atlanta. Quite possibly the worst thing I have ever put in my mouth was some horrible product (sold at Whole Foods) advertised as "Wheat Free/Gluten Free/Egg Free/Yeast Free Waffles." They looked like Eggos, they tasted like sawdust. I couldn't even cover them with syrup because it uses gluten as a thickener (and powdered sugar just isn't the same). Corn pasta flat out sucks -- rice pasta isn't much better. I'm a picky eater anyway (always have been), and the whole thing was just downright torturous. After six months, I didn't really have any noticeable differences in my mental health (which had improved, but that was probably completely unrelated to the whole diet thing), but I had lost nearly 20 lbs (I was eating, I was taking supplements out the wazoo, but if you eliminate almost any available carbohydrate from someone's diet, you are going to lose weight.) and looked pretty awful. It took me nearly 3 years to gain the weight back (my natural weight hovers between 95 and 100 lbs - but when you consider that I weighed 81 lbs 3 months after I started that diet (and I maintained that weight), that's 15 - 20 percent of my body weight, that's major) and another six or seven months to reintroduce my body to eating the foods I had eliminated (eggs were the hardest).

    I can say this - I'm sure not all food intolerances are bs -- celiac disease is very real, legitimate lactose intolerance is very real, other more common food allergies are very real -- but barring that, I think a lot of people are basing their diagnosis on blood tests that have major flaws (even to this day) and on studies from medical journals that have proven to be suspect at best. My deepest empathy is with anyone who has a legitimate food intolerance - I've been there, and it is horrible. The idea that it has become almost a fad is kind of sick - especially since the people taking part in that fad probably have no real idea what actual restriction will really mean to their diet. But hey, if you want to lose a lot of weight, really, really fast - just try the diet I spent six months on -- it's not fun, but it might do the trick.-COLLAPSE