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hi everyone,

im new to paleo and have been doing it for about 1 month. i thought it would be tough but so far im loving it. it is much easier than any other dietary/lifestyle change that i tried in the past and i am eating healthier than every before! :)

my question is that foods and condiments that use to eat before (not totally paleo but a little cheats) are now causing allergic reactions that i NEVER had before. for example, siracha chilli sauce... i love spicy foods. i use to DROWN everything in this stuff. but now when i eat it, i get intense stomach pains for hours. i actually thought paleo was causing me an ulcer. also, trader joe's organic beef jerky. i thought "organic" so it should be okay... nope. broke out with the itchies all over. the only common ingredient in both is sugar. the chilli sauce has preservative in it so it could be that too.

in any case, i know they are cheats. but it makes me wonder if i could ever transition back to normal foods. im getting such terrible side affects from things i used to devour without issues.

any advice would be appricated.

also, this is such a great site!! :) happy hunting!

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3 Answers

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More than likely it isn't the sriracha itself or the heat, but the HFCS or other added ingredients thats in it causing the issue. The whole point of an elimination diet is to identify these things that were, unbeknownst to you, causing health issues for you. Your body had just become acclimated to them.

I would suggest making your own - get a bunch of chillies, vinegar, and bottle away. Soon enough you'll have REALLY SPICY SAUCE!

Also, paleo IS NORMAL FOOD. Stuff in boxes and cans with "added ingredients" are the weird stuff.

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i think making my own sauce is the only option at this point. unfortunately i am not a great cook. lol on the "normal food" comment. you ARE 100% right on that!! looking at anything in a box is actually starting to gross me out. – tbonesteak Apr 8 2011 at 15:20
The only way to start cooking is to do it often, and don't worry about mistakes. I had a roommate in college who had never made boxed macaroni before! – Oranges13 Apr 8 2011 at 16:00
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I'm at the 6 month point and I'm just starting to notice new sensitivities. For example, I'm just getting over a 4-day allergic reaction to something on my lips, nose, and eyes. It was probably a facial product (aftershave from Kiehl's), but I can't be sure of this, and such a reaction has never happened to me before. Also, I had puffy, dark bags under my eyes for almost a week, which was also an unprecedented experience for me. For what it is worth, other confounding factors that were introduced during this period were: kittens shedding for the first time, pollen season beginning, beef liver purchased from new butcher who ground it for me, pure cranberry juice, and sleeping issues with noisy neighbors. While I can't isolate the primary causal variable, I definitely know that for almost 30 years I was never sensitive like this before going paleo, and I'm not sure why that might be.

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Yeah, I've discovered things that I didn't have an issue with before in my first 30 days of paleo. Not all of them are allergies per se, but they definitely cause inflammation or wishing that my skin could be scratch resistant.

Big one: Chocolate. Was having some issues with itching, and isolated it to chocolate. Cut it out, and suddenly not only did the itching disappear, but it must have caused inflammation in my throat/sinus area too. I haven't snored since. No sleep apnea either. Which was weird, but welcome...

Gluten. Had a random beer (figured out a while ago that I was allergic to wheat, so that had already been cut out), and felt horrible. I found that wild yeast makes it okay to drink some beers/lambics, but I'm very picky at this point.

Canola oil. Went out to a restaurant that advertised it on their menu that they cook with it, and was sick to my stomach afterwards. Same thing happened at another restaurant, and then figured out that it was the oil that was being used.

I haven't seen any issues with sugar or hfc, but I do know that when I had a "cheat" this last week with cheesecake, all of my cravings for sweet things came back. Still not over that, but I'm hoping it'll go away soon.

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were you eating "regular" chocolate (ie with sugars) or the pure stuff? i always assumed that the no sugar pure stuff is good for you. thanks for the heads up on the cheat... my bday is coming up and i was thinking of cheating... now ill think twice about it. – tbonesteak Apr 8 2011 at 15:22
chocolate is a common cross reactant with gluten as is coffee. – No more. Apr 11 2011 at 6:13
I was eating high quality dark chocolate. That was week #1. I tried it this last week (Week #5) and I didn't have any noticeable issues. Though I admit, I threw out all the trader joe's dark chocolate and had a bar from Belgium instead. Yeah, the cheat was surprising. I'm just doing the journey a bit differently now. I'm okay with doing a gluten free cheat, but no sugar, no gluten. It's just not worth it at this point. I feel a whole lot better doing the straight "cut everything" paleo. I find the only thing I do tolerate well is sweet/regular potatoes, dairy and eggs. – Jake Apr 11 2011 at 7:26

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