Food Sensitivities?

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Not sure if this is more prevalent among those on the spectrum... but seeing as we seem to, for the most part, experience so many other sensitivities, I thought I would post this here.

I wouldn't know where to start with trying to pin down the culprit/s but I find that after most food, and even drink sometimes, my stomach really bloats out...and I am not talking just a little, at times I look 5 months pregnant, and it looks most odd with the rest of me. I find it distressing.
I have no idea of the best way to try and find out what is the cause...but anyway, does anyone else have food sensitivities, and if so, when did you first realise and what have you dont to deal with it?

I think the word is food intollerance. It's different from a food allergy. I've been wondering about it in relation to myself, (not that I suffer from the same symptoms as you) but I still don't know what to do about it. Apparantly there's something called an elimination diet, which is kind of tricky. You have to be careful you don't suffer from malnutrition during one of those.

I am hypersensitive to foods. I physically can't eat foods with certain textures and tastes. I cant eat most wet foods, it makes me gag, and even a little black pepper and salt is very seasoned for me. I have some bad physical reactions too (not my gut/stomach though). I am just hypersensitive to food. And I hate it. If there was a single thing I wish I could change about myself, Aspie related or not, its my sensitivity to food.

I get terrible gas/bloating too. Although I can’t pinpoint any one food. I almost wonder if it is a wheat intolerance or something though, because a few years ago I tried the Atkins diet (contrary to popular belief, it is NOT an all-the-fat-you-can-eat kind of diet, and – done properly - actually involves a huge amount of veggies), and my gas/bloating all but disappeared for the entire 12 months I followed it. When I started eating cereals, grains, and starches again, it came back. The problem is, eating nothing but meat, vegetables, and cheese gets extremely boring.

I’m going to try peppermint and fennel capsules. I’ve read it’s supposed to really help.

Yes, I found my bloating went a little when I cut potatoes and bread etc, but rice was never much of an issue. Potatoes cause me hell for some reason. But then so do too many vegetables or fruit, which is very annoying as I absolutely love veg and fruit. Chocolate doesn't affect me, nor porridge I don't think. But just having a hot drink swells me up and I am starting to wonder if it is the artificial sweetners I have in them.

I suffer from these things, too, and while researching it, have recently discovered a website that makes me wonder if there are other factors causing IBS, than just certain foods. You might like to check it out, its www.drnatura.com.

Last edited by hartzofspace on 10 Mar 2007, 4:40 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I've read that eating mostly soluble fibre can help - stuff like white rice, white bread (non-enriched), pasta, potatoes without the skin, soy, etc, can greatly help with gas and bloating.

I just remembered that one of my most severe triggers is whey protein. Whey is one of the main proteins in dairy, although straight dairy products don't seem to bother me at all (except for some of the higher-protein cheeses, like cottage cheese). A lot of processed foods contain whey and this is probably where many of my problems came from (Atkins virtually eliminates processed foods from your diet). The most obvious culprits being protein drinks and bars, but also more subtler things like cereals and bread can contain a lot of whey too.

Last edited by Erilyn on 08 Mar 2007, 7:09 pm, edited 1 time in total.

IBS is a neurological disorder rooted in the brain, and is only aggravated by foods, not caused by them. I was diagnosed with IBS at 17.

Wonder if there IS a connection. Logic would suggest that if you’ve got one neurological disorder, you might as well have more.

Some great (and not so great) info can be found here:
www.helpforibs.com

I am very hypersensitive to food and won't eat quite a lot of things due to the texture and taste

Now i'm going to say this. Most of us haven't got IBS it's just the fact that we're gluten intolerant and it causes IBS symptoms, i have these kind of problems too. The gfcf diet will most likely eradicate your IBS unless you actually do have proper IBS

That's very interesting. Some of the things that are considered almost guaranteed triggers for IBS symptoms (like high-fat foods, and carbonated beverages), don't seem to bother me. I've always wondered about that.

Definitely a problem for me.

Many parents have reported improvement in their severely autistic kids after switching to a gluten-free and/or casein-free diets.

Personally, I've stuck with the "Eat Right For Your Blood Type" diet; it just makes sense to me to take metabolic differences into account if large chunks of undigested molecules are leaking into my bloodstream.

I don't have a problem with bloating or gas. There can be a number of causes of that - food intolerances, candida, poor intestinal health, IBS, even endochrine problems like diabetes or polycystic ovarian syndrome.

I do have food allergies and sensitivites. I'm allergic to soy, corn, tree nuts, and somewhat to milk (although it depends on what kind of milk - apparently milk from soy/corn-fed cows causes the worst reactions). I suspect I am sensitive to gluten, although I can handle small amount of whole wheat on occasion. I just generally don't tolerate refined grains very well, be it wheat, white rice, whatever. Some other grains and legumes that I should be able to tolerate I don't, like quinoa and chickpeas. I can only eat small amounts of the grains, brown rice or legumes, and it's better if I don't eat them everyday.

I've long known that I'm sensitive to MSG, although I didn't known until recently how common MSG is in many food additives that don't require labelling (it's only labelled if they add pure MSG, but not for an additive that has MSG in it, like autolyzed yeast extract). So between the soy, corn and MSG, I can't eat most processed foods.

I also have developed a sensitivity to aspartame, so I've nixed out all artifical sweeteners to be on the safe side. Aspartame has a similar effect as MSG - both are "excitotoxins" which over-stimulate brain cells and may cause neurotoxicity. There's a huge medical debate over this - all I know is both MSG and aspartame make me feel like crap, and I'm doing so much better without them! It's seems logical to me however that someone with Asperger's might be more sensitive to excitotoxins than the average population.

I'm still trying to figure out my ibs type problems. I tried gluten-free but I just got more constipated than usual I am definitely sensitive to fructose. A lot of people are. And Sorbitol, which is an artificial sweetener that's a form of fructose.

anyway, this topic isn't anything about IBS, just about hypersensitivity to certain foods

i'm not sure if it's relevent to this topic but according to my parents i did some pretty weird things when I was a baby. Apparently I used to throw up after being breastfed or even after eating. they took me to the doctors and they couldn't find anything wrong with me. At the moment I seem to be allergic to a specific brand of pilchards which is sold in my country