Possible allergy to soy?
#31910 - 12/15/03 10:41 AM
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Hello Everyone,
I am new to the message boards so if I don't do this correctly bare with me please or clue me in. I have all of Heather's books and have been trying to follow the IBS recommendations. In the last year I'm convinced I have IBS but predominantly with constipation episodes (small hard stools), right lower abdominal pain, sporatic flatulence and trapped feelings of air/gas, (lovely) back pain when all my Sx. are present. Anyway, I am wondering if I may also have an allergy to soy. My symptoms recently improved with a strong focus on eating the IBS recommendations but I bought this soy butter from Whole Foods and my symptoms returned. I'm just questioning if my symptoms worsened because of this. I also get a small kinda itchy rash on my lower right abdomin this happened once before when my symptoms were aggravating. I've been to a few regular family doctors but they didn't want to do tests since my symptoms do improve when I change my eating habits. I'm actually a pretty healthy eater in general I just think that when I change my eating habits to too many whole grains, veg's, don't eat regularly, eat too much at one sitting, or maybe to much of one thing and not enough variable foods my symptoms appear and it takes a long time to improve once they are here. My basic question is does anyone know anything about soy?
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Hi Wendy - Your doc can actually test you for an allergy to soy (or refer you to an allergist to run the test). Soy is a very common food allergen so it's a popular test.
Have you been avoiding all soy products completely before the soy butter? Allergies usually show up even if you're eating teensy amounts of the food (as opposed to just an IBS intolerance to something, where quantity can really matter). Also - the soy butter is probably very high in fat. If you used a lot of it, and especially without a soluble fiber basis, that could trigger your IBS just like any other high fat food.
If you often have skin reactions in association with your GI problems, that could point to celiac. If you haven't been tested for that, insist that your docs run a gluten intolerance test for you. This disorder is very often overlooked for many years...
Best,
Heather
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Heather is the Administrator of the IBS Message Boards. She is the author of Eating for IBS and The First Year: IBS, and the CEO of Heather's Tummy Care. Join her IBS Newsletter. Meet Heather on Facebook!
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Thank you for your reply Heather. I checked the butter "Earth Balance" and low and behold...total fat for 1 tbsp is 11grams, sat fat is 3.5g, poly fat it3.5g, and mono gat is 3.5g. It contains no gluten. The ingredients are expeller pressed natural oil (soybean, palm fruit, canola seed, and olive) water, salt, natural flavor from corn (no MSG, no alcohol, no gluten) soy protein, soy lecithin, lactic acid from sugar beets, and beta carotene.
I have tried soy milk in the past and felt it caused me to have lower GI distress and bloating. I probably assumed it was the milk because at the time it was the only new thing I was eating.
I have no idea if I have an issue with soy. I was just feeling better and then I tried this new butter. I love butter on my toast in the morning or on a potatoe. I will try and find some made with rice milk or if you have suggestions I'd love it. I used to eat "I can't believe its not butter" a lot before. Now I'm just really trying to watch everything now that I'm following your book. In the past year I think I've had my worst symptoms....(right side pain with all the others minus diarrhea)in the past I had mostly transient constipation with other mild IBS sx and I would just up the fiber. I'm 39 years old. I do remember in the past maybe having some side pains and I attributed each of these episodes to having eaten green beans so now I never eat them. Who knows what foods I really am bothered by. You did mention an IBS intolerance and quantity of food. This makes sense and I will have to watch this. I have in the past had the tendency to wait too long between meals and then eat a good dinner or lunch. Recently I've been really careful to eat just a little bit of food and slowly.
Thanks for your help. I normally work as a psychologist (although I recently got married for the first time and I'm trying to conceive and work on our new house so I'm not working at the moment) and I feel like I'm back in school.......getting a Master's Degree on how to EAT! ha
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IBS
#32050 - 12/16/03 12:42 AM
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Linz
Reged: 09/01/03
Posts: 8242
Loc: England
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Wendy, you do NEED to have tests to check that you've got IBS, not something else. A diagnosis of IBS can only be acheived by ruling out anything else (by stool tests, colonoscopy, etc). It does sound like you've got IBS, but you should really get properly checked out.
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Dear Linz,
I know, you are absolutely correct that I need to get all these lovely tests instead of self-diagnosing. I'm a psychologist and should know better!!! A few doctors I have seen didn't want to do a colonoscopy as my symptoms are so transient. I go for long periods of time with no symptoms at all. I've had two episodes in the last year eacho of which may have been triggered by eating whole wheat.....yet it takes awhile for my body to recover so who knows if ingesting wheat can cause the body to freak out for a long time before readjusting.
Anyway, I am going to get the tests done. Right now I'm taking pre-natel vitamins from the health food store (trying to get pregnant) and they have alfalfa, beet juice and all sorts of stuff in them (no soy, no wheat) and I wonder if they are causing me some distress (mostly just thinner smaller poops).
The benefiber I determined almost made me lift off to the moon.....and caused my husband more distress than I was experiencing! I read about it in the message boards and realized "that is causing this horrific gas". I quit the stuff and "I touched back down to earth the next day". I bought the Acadia from Heather......am I going to shoot back to the moon on this stuff too?
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Re: IBS
#32461 - 12/17/03 02:11 PM
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Heather
Reged: 12/09/02
Posts: 7799
Loc: Seattle, WA
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Hi - You may not actually need a colonoscopy - to some extent this will depend on your age, when symptoms began, what symptoms you have, etc. They may just do blood work. There's good info about all this in the glossary here web page
The Acacia should not cause the bloating that Benefiber did - they're two different fibers. Acacia is supposed to be the soluble fiber that's least likely to cause bloating and gas, and after you've used it regularly for a bit it will help increase your good gut flora, which will actively decrease bloating and gas.
Let me know how you do!
- H
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Heather is the Administrator of the IBS Message Boards. She is the author of Eating for IBS and The First Year: IBS, and the CEO of Heather's Tummy Care. Join her IBS Newsletter. Meet Heather on Facebook!
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