left – Jemma, right – Kay (the accidental lupin supplier)
Just when you think you are on the right track and have your diet and allergies cracked, life (or a fellow tricky eater) can throw you a curve ball.
A few years ago, I totally eliminated wheat from my diet. Self-inflicted tests on my body concluded it was causing red rashes on my dry skin and giving me puffy eyes. I wasn’t coeliac, like my fellow tricky eater friend, but cutting out wheat definitely worked for me. So when my mate offered to cook me up some pasta, I thought nothing of it, as I knew it would be wheat free.
All was well, the pasta was great and I ate it all up. I found the gluten-free pasta much lighter than the normal stuff and it didn’t leave me with any bloating. Whilst eating it and in the hours after, I suffered no symptoms. But on waking the next day, my face was red and blotchy and felt really tight. I also felt totally drained.
My initial thought was that I had slept under bedding that had not been washed with my usual super-sensitive laundry powder and that a hot shower and some fresh air would calm everything down. But I was wrong and the symptoms lasted three whole days.
I retraced my food steps and pin-pointed the pasta as the only different thing I had eaten. I Googled the product ingredients and ticked them all off as OK, until I hit lupin I had never heard of lupin before, so I Googled this further.
Lupins are tall garden flowers and the seeds from some types are crushed up and used in flour for pastries, pies and PASTA. And to my surprise, lupin can cause allergic reactions to people with peanut allergies – like myself!
So I can now add lupin to the list of foods that do not agree with my body – on top of wheat, yeast, dairy and nuts.
Happily, I can report that Sainsbury’s and Tesco’s seem to have removed lupin from their gluten-free pasta range. So that is good news.
But having suffered reactions to food all my life, I’m now taking back control and not taking any chances.
I’ve currently taken to vegan cooking, using foods that only have a few ingredients. I’ve also thrown away all pre-packaged and processed food and cook all my meals from scratch. This way I know what is in my meal and I can safely stuff my face without the fear of an allergic breakout.
By Jemma Woolley – a super tricky eater taking back control