Update on allergens

As I sit here, I just finished the latest in a series of unappetizing meals and I really need to work on that. But while picking at my breakfast, I was reading Julie and Julia and she was holding forth on blogging and secret thrill it is (it's pages 83-85 in the digital edition for anyone who cares) and I have to say I don't really think it's a secret thrill when you post things out on the Internet. Either way, I at least hope that I am more entertaining than Julie Powell because this book is a serious struggle to get through.

This is a little more of a personal update on the allergy front than any fun new recipes that I've found. I had my appointment with the allergist a few weeks ago from which has stemmed a few changes in my life. It was finally explained to me that the key to almost all of my allergies in linked to mold. It was like that one puzzle piece that finally fell into place and you see the whole picture. I have always discarded my environmental allergies as quite secondary to my food allergies. Sneezing and watery eyes are annoying, but a lot less important than the crippling abdominal pain and unbearable fatigue. I take my Allegra and carry on, carefully eating only certain things. But it centers on the mold! I had very strong reactions to the mold in my environmental scratch testing, and the foods that I am most allergic to are molds.

I am posting (and potentially reposting) this picture as a reminder. The foods are on the left and the environmentals on the right. You can't really see my left shoulder where beef, chicken, and egg are and the bottom left is the positive control to make sure I have a normal immune system. Along the right, in rows 3, 4, and some of 5, are the molds. Those aren't as positive as the shots I had in my arm after that, but some of them are. I don't have pictures of my arm after the molds though. By that point, I was out of it.

So the theory goes: really strong reaction to mold ergo I'm allergic to foods that can be contaminated by mold. Point in fact, yeast IS a mold. Yeast is one of my worst food allergies. Grains are a close second (rice is particularly bad, but this also includes malt and oats, and I would classify navy beans in here too) because they are easily contaminated by mold. Some of the fruits I'm allergic to grow mold on their skins (grapes, strawberries, apples, and oranges). The meats are because the animals are fattened on grains contaminated by mold. Voila!

Of course, some of them don't fit in. Cinnamon? Maybe there's something to do with the tree... and what about sesame? Eggs--though I can tolerate egg whites well, what about the yolk? I'll of course look up and see what I can find about it, but I found all this very interesting. Like I said, the missing puzzle piece.

In other news, with that in mind and with another thought from my allergist's PA, I am testing out what reactions I have to some of the foods. There is a way to avoid the abdominal side effects potentially (H2 blocker...prevent acid's full digestion of the food, thus exposure of the proteins and thus no IgE binding; I figured this mechanism on my own so it might not be true but it sounds good) if I can't avoid eating them. The interesting thing is that I didn't have any reaction to a fresh apple and orange. So we'll see. I ate some rice last week and that was bad enough to have me back off for a bit on the whole inducing pain on myself thing. :)