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I've been paleo for about 2 months. On the advice of my naturupath, when I made the Paleo switch I increased my coconut oil consumption and started drinking/ using coconut milk daily. Previously I had used coconut oil in some of my cooking and topically for my skin. I've never had a problem with coconut and hadn't had a problem with the oil, but over the last week I've been beginning to wonder if I'm allergic. I've been getting a scratchy throat and some "tingly" feelings in my face, as well as what feels like some mucus build up when when I consume it.

Related to Coconut oil, does anyone know if it's possible to be allergic to coconut, but not the oil? I just remember from years ago (when my daughter has suspected allergies) hearing that often food allergies are to the protein in an item, so because there's little to no protein in a fat or oil, people who are allergic to a food can have that same food's "fat". So some people who have dairy allergies can have butter and some people with peanut allergies can have peanut oil. Just wondering if that's true of the coconut. I haven't really experimented over the last few days with just the pure oil and how I feel after I eat just oil.

I'm very disappointed, but I'm prepared to remove coconut from my diet to figure out if that's what's going on. I'm just wondering, since this will be my first experiment with an allergy, how many days should I go without consuming an item before testing it again? And how long do I give it to determine if there's a reaction?

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Don't have answers for you, but you might find this piece by Chris Kresser helpful in exploring your symptoms and possible causes for them. thehealthyskeptic.org/… – Liz V. Jul 21 2011 at 19:35

1 Answer

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Coconut is a strong antibacterial agent and can cause some people to have symptoms that indicate a possible candida die-off such as you described. You might want to look into that possibility before giving it up completely.

Here's a link: Candida

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i dunno... if the poster has been consuming coconut pretty regularly, it doesn't really seem like it would suddenly be causing die-off. Her symptoms sound more like an up-and-coming allergy to me. – g. Jul 21 2011 at 23:02
I've heard that drinking coconut milk can exacerbate the "die-off" symptoms, especially the sore throat as the OP described but to be honest with you, I'm not even 100% sure if I believe all the Candida die-off hype myself, which is why I recommend people research it themselves before jumping to that conclusion. – invisible ink Jul 21 2011 at 23:11
i'm not convinced of candida/die-off either; but especially not IRT coconut consumption. i know what you're saying though. – g. Jul 22 2011 at 2:23

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