Dietary Restrictions++

[rax]

After some experimentation, I'm 99% sure I have a sensitivity to nightshades and should mostly not be eating them. I'm still working on figuring out if I can have small amounts of them, and whether I have a broad sensitivity or a more narrow one. (Tomatoes and bell peppers are almost definitely no; eggplant and potato are less clear.) For now I'm avoiding all of them, although in another week or two I'm going to add back hot pepper and see if I can still eat spicy things. (God, I hope so.) People have offered their condolences but all I can do is laugh; every time I think about it I am so relieved about two things:

• It wasn't gluten.
• It wasn't soy.

Gluten-free and soy-free vegan are doable, but very very hard. Nightshade-free vegan is just annoying, especially as it's a sensitivity (nasty digestive effects) and not an allergy (anaphylactic shock) and so if I screw up it's not DEATH, just bleaugh. Unfortunately I think I may have crossed that dark threshhold into "Seriously, don't bother trying to bring me to a restaurant." Luckily I don't much care, as I still haven't eaten a meal at a restaurant in town since moving to Bloomington, and mostly because I've enjoyed making my own food. (If, say, Mary's were here, I would have gone a couple of times...)

So, uh, please don't slip tomatoes into my food, and this shouldn't be a problem. :) If I develop something else on top of this, then we could be in danger territory. But for now, hooray! Still tons of things I can eat.

Comments

[movingfinger]

Gosh, that's a much more manageable food allergy than gluten. I hope potatoes turn out to be (if peeled perhaps?) still OK for you. They are so useful.

(I wonder whether different strains of potatoes, in particular, will affect you differently. Hm.)

[rax]

I will definitely be testing potatoes in the future; I've never had any weird relationship with potatoes, where I've been mumbling for a year or two that maybe I should stop eating eggplant and have never liked raw tomato.

[hebinekohime]

Hmm, I should learn how to make pesto pizza one of these days. ^^

The only food-substance that I don't tolerate well is caffeine; half of a chocolate bar or half a cup of green tea will give me a wicked head rush. Interestingly, tofu chocolate pudding seems to be OK.

[rax]

Pesto pizza!!! Oh wow why did I never think of that, thank you!

Caffeine affects me more than some people, but not that much. :) I will only use coffee recreationally, though, because it tends to make me too jittery to work efficiently. I'll have coffee with lunch if my coworkers are having beer. ;)

Tofu chocolate pudding sounds delicious. I want some now. :)

[weirdquark]

Gluten-free and soy-free vegan are doable, but very very hard.

Oh man. Yeah, that cuts down on your options.

[mmsword.livejournal.com]

At that point, I think you start looking up Jainist cookbooks.

[rax.livejournal.com]

Nuts, berries, and standing outside of bakeries sniffing the air really wistfully.

[weirdquark]

This is what gluten-free flour is for. (Two of the people we've met down here have celiac disease, and one of them is working on getting really good at deserts (and other things.))

Apparently it's much easier to get gluten-free baked goods in Europe.

[fjm.livejournal.com]

And quite a lot of them are vegan because lactose intolerance is common among celiacs.

If you ever get to the Chicago area, check out my friend's business, OMG (http://www.omgitsglutenfree.com/).

[krinndnz.livejournal.com]

It'll be interesting to see what your conducts were after the game.

[badoingdoing.livejournal.com]

All the cool and moral kids are doing genocide-less.

[plymouth.livejournal.com]

Damnit, you made me lose The Game (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Game_%28mind_game%29)!

[blondestwolf.livejournal.com]

Sriracha NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! Ugh, that sucks, I hope that at least potatoes and eggplant work out. But you are right, gluten or soy would suck even more :(

[rax.livejournal.com]

Sriracha is the first thing I am going to try to add back once I've cleared my system out a second time. I think it will be OK. But we'll see.

[plymouth.livejournal.com]

This sounds similar to my allergy in that It Does Not Kill me but It Makes Me Stronger weaker. (mostly it makes me nauseated, gassy (with farts that have a very specific nasty smell) and very very sleepy)

Fortunately I ONLY seem to have a problem with tomatoes, not peppers or eggplant or potatoes or even tomatillos (which I guess are not as closely related to tomatoes as the name implies).

[q10.livejournal.com]

is there a reason you're not mentioning members of the genus Capsicum besides bell peppers? are hot peppers noticeably better?

but, yeah, at least it's not gluten.

[rax.livejournal.com]

Bell peppers are the ones I know don't work. I haven't experimented with hot peppers yet, I need to clean my system out more first.

[q10.livejournal.com]

also, once you're in the experimental phase, it might be good to keep in mind that tomatillos, groundcherries, and the like are actually classified in a different genus (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physalis) from ordinary tomatoes, in spite of the physical and culinary similarities. if tomatoes are really bad, you presumably want to approach these carefully, but it seemed worth mentioning that they might warrant separate experiments.

[fjm.livejournal.com]

Good to hear. And yes, while I very happily do vegan when visiting vegan friends, vegan restaurants are hopeless for me, and I can't manage more than a week at Homs without getting very hungry.

[fjm.livejournal.com]

A week at home

Sorry. iPhone likes to predict my spelling.

[rax.livejournal.com]

I've found vegan and gluten-free food in the weirdest places --- Pittsburgh! But I wouldn't want to live off of it if I could avoid it. At this point if I developed a gluten intolerance I would probably stay vegan, but I would hardly expect anyone else to do it. :)

[fjm.livejournal.com]

I know only one person who stayed vegan after diagnosis and she never travels more than a lunch away from home. However, since oats were cleared I've found it easier, and more vegan places are using tamari instead of soy sauce.

[faerieboots.livejournal.com]

Hmm. I did some research on nightshade allergies a while back, and IIRC tomatoes, potatoes, and eggplant all contain a chemical that potatoes do not. So, you may be able to process potato but not the others. (And I think eggplant has it in small quantities than pepper or tomato)

Also, as an aside, if you have a blarg reaction to nightshades you may wish to keep in mind that tobacco is a nightshade and avoid second-hand smoke accordingly. :)

[rax.livejournal.com]

In retrospect, that explains why Poker Night makes me so sick even when I don't drink. :/

[plymouth.livejournal.com]

and IIRC tomatoes, potatoes, and eggplant all contain a chemical that potatoes do not.

I know this was a brain-o so which "potatoes" is the correct one and what is the mystery veg? I wanna know!!

[anacoluthon.livejournal.com]

Oof. I am glad it's not a gluten issue, but nightshades are so tasty as well! I hope sriracha is ok, though; I'd be so sad if I couldn't eat that (or spicy things in general) any more.

[oonh.livejournal.com]

Make sure you talk to ratatosk about this. (last time I talked to him he mentioned discovering that Goji berries are apparently nightshades)

[rax.livejournal.com]

Goji berries are nightshades?? Jeez I even have to watch what's in my trail mix. :/ Thanks.

[bookofjude.livejournal.com]

Nightshades are delicious but I can only current have potatoes. I love tomatoes in all their forms but I am not allowed them! It makes me so depressed. Good luck with the food issues, and let me know if you need recipes--I have hundreds and have grown quite adept at modifying existing recipes for food intolerances.

[rax.livejournal.com]

Is there some reasonable substitute for tomato sauce in lasagna? Most things I can imagine what I'd do pretty easily, but that one... I also tend to use tomato paste in seitan and it would be neat to find something else that filled that role, but that seems a little easier.

[bookofjude.livejournal.com]

It's the one thing I've actually been unable to come up with as an alternative, but it reminds me to try experimenting again. I've heard of suggestions for purees of other foods, such as zucchini and squash, and while that gives the slight... tang, it doesn't really give the sweetness. A combination might be better, I guess.

[fjm.livejournal.com]

For the tang try lime.

[bookofjude.livejournal.com]

As mentioned, apparently a sauce made from red lentils that have been boiled in a small amount of water and then pureed and seasoned works quite well. Unfortunately the recipe called for paprika, which didn't make much sense, as that's made from bell peppers. Likewise, a lot of other "tomato" substitutes call for pureed bell peppers.

Other options for heat-inducing spices include varieties of mustard (actually a cabbage, fascinatingly enough) and cocoa, which helps to intensify heat (at least, I have found this). I love spicy food, but I unfortunately have to avoid chillis for similar reasons, as well as turmeric, cumin and coriander. :/

[eirl.livejournal.com]

What is the reason for needing to avoid tumeric, cumin, and coriander? I'm sensitive to the red pepper family (though I don't have any reason to think tomatoes bother me). I've noticed that these spices also bother me, but I haven't been able to pin down why. Are they some how related to peppers?

[bookofjude.livejournal.com]

Actually, all have different reasons: I have an allergy to ginger, and turmeric is from the same family (Zingiberacea). I used to be able to get away with turmeric, cardamom, etc, without issue, but I recently developed a sensitivity so I've removed them from my diet for the time being.

Likewise, cumin and coriander are in the same family, and I had developed a sensitivity to cumin, so I decided to avoid all of them for the time being so that it would hopefully go away!

[eirl.livejournal.com]

Wow, thanks! That's really useful to know. Thank you!

[perbac.livejournal.com]

Have you ever tried a white sauce lasagna? One of my favourite recipes (that I never make because it takes forever) is a spinach bechamel lasagna - you could try subbing a vegan bechamel, like http://www.theppk.com/recipes/dbrecipes/index.php?RecipeID=172 ...

Not a sub for tomato sauce, certainly, but an alternative taste you might enjoy.

[rathdei.livejournal.com]

That's awful! How does one even DEVELOP a nightshade sensitivity? Man, if I ever get that, first I'm blaming you, and then I am buying lots of toilet paper.

[rax.livejournal.com]

I have no idea. :/

[eirl.livejournal.com]

For what it's worth, restaurants should be doable with some effort. I am quite sensitive to all things in the red pepper family (including bell pepper) and am able to eat out while avoiding them if I choose my restaurants carefully. I could even, until recently, still eat some Mexican and some Italian-- recently it looks like I've developed a problem with some kind of starch, though, potentially gluten. Anyhow, I haven't tried restricting tomatoes as well, but that should not be a great additional burden beyond the restrictions I already have. Eating out should still be possible. We can talk about it sometime if you want and I can give you tips.

I find it an interesting coincidence that we're both having this problem. I've never been clear whether I have a problem with the whole nightshade family or with just the red pepper family. Anyhow, makes you wonder if environmental triggers can cause issues like this.

[eirl.livejournal.com]

Oh-- Sorry, I'm an idiot. I just remembered you're vegan. Eating out, for me, is not too difficult with a little thought. You might be right that for you it will be impossible. Most of my strategies for eating out involve eating the plain meat dish. That won't work for you. I'm sorry I forgot this-- I know it's a big part of your identity. I'm kind of stupid this weekend because I've been pretty sick. I keep losing track of what's going on. Sorry about that.

Also very sorry for your discovery about nightshades. Sounds like a big frustration for you given your food preferences. I hope you discover plenty of ways to deal with it. Unfortunately it sounds like my experiences won't be too helpful to you since our preferences for diet are so different, now that I think about it. But it looks like you have other people on your friends list with experience with this sensitivity, so I am glad to see you have resources.

[rax.livejournal.com]

If any of your tricks don't involve meat, I'm still curious. :) But yeah, the vegan thing's pretty big, and I hope you feel better!