h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

D'E, are you the one who is allergic to HFCS? The reason I'm asking is because I have been having a lot of food sensitivities lately and I do seem to have a reaction to HFCS. The thing is, my reaction is different from the normal symptoms. I need someone who has the problem to talk to about it.

Yup, that would be me. Not just corn syrup, all varieties of corn and the symptoms vary depending on the form the corn is in. If I eat hard corn snacks (tostitos, fritos, etc) I get blisters in my mouth. Corn syrup will do the same thing if there's lots of it in some bbq sauce or something, but more likely I end up with gas, bloating, acid reflux, and further digestive and excretory unpleasantness. Corn starch and corn flour seem more immediately digestible, so (in addition to the gastric distress) they lead to itching and hives. Then there are the joint aches, headaches etc.

I don't think I have a problem with other corn products. But I'm not sure about much of anything at this point. I am having trouble with several things which is complicating things. Definitely soy and msg. Something, and it happened twice after eating things with hfcs, caused my throat and tongue to swell. I have headaches all the time and the roof of my mouth tingles, breaks out and sloughs off skin a lot. The current suspect for that is yeast, so I am now on a yeast free diet.

But the hfcs isn't supposed to cause the symptom I have, so I'm not sure what is causing it. As long as I do all of my own cooking and use nothing with preservatives or additives, I feel much better. So since we're having a hard time tracking down exactly what is going on, I may just decide to live like that from now on. Better safe than sorry.

The soy causes headaches and terrible bloating and water retention. The msg causes headaches and a rash. At first I thought I might be gluten intolerant, but I can have flour without a reaction if I use to to coat a pork chop, for example. But bread causes a reaction. So, yeast could very well be the problem, there.

Almost everything manufactured has soy or msg or hfcs. I've pretty much given up trying to eat out. And I'm sooooooo tired of feeling punk all the time.

I know how you feel.

The blisters I get when I eat corn chips or things that are really heavy on corn syrup kind of sound like your symptoms. I get the tingling, then the blister which can be very large and filled with blood. Eventually it bursts and then I have the loose skin. Maybe your skin is breaking before the blisters form, or when they are much smaller? Anyway, you can say both of us are getting oral skin irritation, or contact dermatitis or something.

I'd be more suspect of corn than yeast, but that's a personal bias. Anyway, I thought it might be yeast for a while too, but we've got yeasts in our gut all the time, so if you have yeast problem you'd probably experience symptoms whenever you ate anything that yeast could feed on, including bread, flour, cake, sweets etc. Something I read said that a food allergy will disturb your digestion, which gives the yeast a boost, which in turn makes your digestion worse and less likely to break down the allergen, so it forms a cycle. It makes it *seem* like your allergic to yeast, but it's really something else.

And an allergy to corn syrup but not other corn products is unlikely - there's nothing in corn syrup that's not in corn. It might be that the syrup gets absorbed by your system faster, so creates more of reaction. If you want to reduce or eliminate corn from your diet, do *all* corn products. And watch out for the hidden surprises - baking powder is about 1/3 corn starch, confectionary sugar has corn starch, things like "dextrose" and "maltodextrin" and "modified food starch" are often made from corn.

I cook for myself a lot too. But I've learned what stuff is safe - look for organic products, most of which avoid corn syrup (but might have other forms of corn, I even found one that claimed to have "organic maltodextrin" ). They'll probably avoid the MSG too. And kosher foods are often good - corn is usually kosher, but not at Passover; rather than change their ingredients many kosher products simply avoid it all year long. And watch out for the "simple" ingredients - ketchup, sauces, gravies, broths, they've often got some corn hidden in them.

And keep a supply of antihistamines handy - but watch out, the pills are made of cornstarch, and the liquids have corn syrup (but not children's Benadryl. It still uses good old fashioned sugar).

Thanks for the info. If this yeast diet doesn't do the trick then I'll leave all things corn alone and see if that is it. The first three weeks on this yeast thing is fairly strict. Besides things that contain yeast, you have to avoid things that feed it - pretty much all starches and sugars. Also no mushrooms or tomato juice or grapes or anything that is bruised or a bit old and might have mold or fungus. Then you can be a little less strict after that. You're supposed to give it 12 weeks total.

I have kept antihistimines on hand for years because I am terribly allergic to spider bites. I've had two that were both from nonpoisionous spiders that nearly did me in. My doctor told me to always take antihistimies when I go outside to work in the yard or go walking in a natural area.