Daveyboy

There is a lot of truth in the saying 'you are what you eat'.

Ive spent numerous weeks in the past living on junk, high carbs and foods generally lacking in essential vitamins and nutrients, and i felt like a sloth!

Ive also spent numerous weeks eating all the right stuff, with a good mix of fruit, veg, proteins, carbs etc... and the difference in how i feel is VERY noticeable.

Now these are things that are within my control. There are some things however that i am more than likely missing that would make even more of a difference to how i feel.

Question is... how do you find out about all those little things that make the difference? things like intollerance to certain foods and drinks? Do you just run your own little experiments and cut out certain things for a while to find out if it makes you fell better? do you visit the doctors?how do you find if you are intollerant to certain things?

Stu @ M Developments

iTrader: (12)

Jees... now heres a topic Nicole and I both know something about!!

I will make a LONG reply...

Daveyboy

thanks Stu, appreciated

Stu @ M Developments

iTrader: (12)

Hi Davey,
My intolerance issue's go back many many years as my close friends will know...

I used to have mood swings like you wouldn't believe, but what you all have to realise is that "I" did not know i had mood swings, i was "To Me" Just a normal everyday working fella who perhaps had a shorter fuse than most and didn't like small talk much... not a big issue?

• Symptoms were:
  Feeling tired and low most of the time.
  VERY irritable with people.
  Hard to Predict my moods from 1 min to the next.
  Could never relax at night.. had to be busy.
  Couldn't sleep more than 5hrs a night.
  Couldn't get a hangover. (Seriously)
  Seriously paranoid about things. (Such as partners going out without me)
  Brain fog.. cannot concentrate, forget what i was doing for a moment.
  No tolerance of those close to me. Often shun them and ignore them, somehow irritated by them.
  Blow up at the slightest provocation.. to tiny irrelevant matters!

The above symptoms are all from the top of my head, there were more, but i must stress again that until i was CURED i didn't realise any of the above traits existed. Only now can i list them as i thought they were "Normal".

Nicole eventually convinced me enough to seek some professional advice before it split us up and reluctantly, feeling it wasn't me at fault anyway, i did, and ended up chatting to some Phyco specialists at a hospital and he noted me, amongst other things, sat there tapping both my feet whilst i spoke to him and he suddenly piped up:

"Stewart, do you drink coffee or coke at all?"

I replied yeah pal, lots.. why?

Well, i am going to ask you to refrain from consuming anything with Caffeine for the next 2 weeks, including coffee, tea and coke/pepsi and see how you get on. I believe from what you have told me about yourself that you are intolerant of caffeine.

Well, i went away thinking "What a load of bollox, more doctors spouting shit because they don't know the answer... and when i got home i fired up good old google to confirm that i was of course totally right, and the doctor was yet another plank!!

Hmm... just one example i wasn't expecting...
http://www.doctoryourself.com/caffeine2.html

It seems its very common and VERY hard to diagnose, and i am very lucky that i took the time to research his prognosis and then of course acted on it instead of just ignoring it as i first intended...

I went cold turkey on it as prescribed and soon felt ill, VERY ill, i was shaky, my vision was blurry, i began to get genuinely worried, so phoned the chap and he reassured me that it could be as bad as coming off heroine if i used to drink a lot of it! (I used to chain drink brews and cans of pepsi.. i had been a self confessed caffeine addict almost all my adult life, as friends will confirm!)

Well, about a week later, the poor feelings subsided and out of the blue Nicole commented i seemed very happy lately, even wandering around singing (NOT something i would normally do.. in fact, EVER do!) and she was right, i had a brighter outlook on virtually EVERYTHING!! We started going to the pictures and walking the dog along the beach every day and generally just enjoyed everything in life far better and far easier than i used too. The tapping of feet and fingers has gone, it just doesn't happen anymore, its incredible, but life is just totally different now, and i can finally accept, that the old Stu was one miserable bastard, but i want you all to forgive him unconditionally, as it wasn't his fault at all, he was just poorly.

Incidentally, if i have caffeine now by accident* i can tell, within about 6hrs, i start to feel really angry for no real reason, and very very intolerant even of small talk by innocent people, i just want them to fook off and leave me alone. Sorry chaps!

So there you have it folks... That nice cup of coffee isn't always what its cracked up to be!!

I still cant believe i spent the last 25years feeling like that! What a waste of good years.


*Sometimes at my mums or somewhere like that i will be offered a brew and i just say "Yeah, tea, 1/2 a sugar please" Its a habit of 20+years.

Cola

Does it have the same affect on tea drinkers? My mum used to be on a constant supply until a few years back when she was told she was allergic to that. Not allowed any caffine now.

Stu @ M Developments

iTrader: (12)

Yes. I very rarely drank coffee at all. Caffeine is caffeine, the only difference is the tea has less Mg in it.

Anonymous

fair play Stu

Daveyboy

Thanks Stu, im glad you've got yourself sorted out now

I can certainly relate to a fair whack of what you wrote and could honestly say that i suffer some, not all, of the symptons you describe. The only difference is that I 'feel' like im a misery. I dont think theres a day goes by when i dont call myself a miserable old bastard! bit of a running joke now, but could be attributed to intollerances i guess.

I think i'll cut out the tea and coffee at work and see how i get on. i do drink far too much

Cola

..and there won't be one waiting for you at home

Stu @ M Developments

iTrader: (12)

That could i suppose be down to how you percieve others. I chose the line that everyone else was wrong to be laughing and joking about fook all and i was the normal one, where as you may be more realistic and wonder why your not as cheerfull as everyone else, ths labelling yourself misserable.

Im no bloody doctor, but at least its plausible

On another note, Nicole has some intollerances that she may or may not be happy to discuss on here, so we will see later, a couple of heres are quite fooking terrifying!!

The amount of shite we fill our bodies with in the UK is quite frankly incredible, yet we dont realise until we STOP doing it!

Stu @ M Developments

iTrader: (12)

A usefull site for some of you maybe?

http://www.allergy-testing.com/

Daveyboy

Well its definately worth a shot eh

As you say, its bound to happen considering the amount of shite we put into our bodies!

best cancel the milkman as well

cheers Stu

rsnissan

iTrader: (9)

Not going to do a long reply however i cut caffine out a month or so back.
I still have the odd can of coke or whatever but i was drinking loads of tea through out the day and when i got home before.

I noticed a marked inprovement in my allertness and sleeping patterns. dropping off earlier and waking up on time but moreimportantly not feeling tired all the time.

Daveyboy

waking up fresher would be a good thing! i ALWAYS feel like i never have enough sleep, no matter how much i get. usually have to peel my eyelids of my eyeballs lol!

ive drunk my last cup of caffeine for a few weeks then. i'll let you know how i get on

Treen

Good luck Davey

Stu - have you replaced those drinks with caffiene free alternatives or just stopped them altogether?

Stu @ M Developments

iTrader: (12)

If i want a hot drink i drink Caffeine free tea. But normally i now drink water and have grown to actually enjoy it with a Meal, its FAR better.

Lambchop

iTrader: (1)

you guys encouraged me to put on the kettle and make some proper filter coffee in the cafetiere

mmmm mmmmmm

Daveyboy

I already use caffeine free teabags, although that is only at home. I think i'll try and knock it all on the head for a while and see how i feel afterwards. Im sure going home and having a cuppa is just habitual. I'll soon get out of that

Treen

I drink decaf coffee - but coke (the fizzy drink kind lol) is my big thing. I don't even enjoy it that much now but just crave that fizziness in a cold drink.

I'm thinking now after reading this that I really should really stop it - maybe sparkling water would be a good replacement.

Stu @ M Developments

iTrader: (12)

Scary symptoms of caffeine intollerance:


http://www.doctoryourself.com/caffeine_allergy.html

Redkop

I have been using de-caff coffee and tea for years, but like Stu I do drink more water than coffee/tea.

I suffer from a food allergy which is called Salicylate Sensitivity which can manifest itself in many ways including the symptoms Stu posted about. So there's loads of foods and drinks I have to avoid.

Salicylate Sensitivity

I usually avoid everything that's listed in the high/very high/extremely high categories from here

Stu @ M Developments

iTrader: (12)

for people to read as it may affect them.

Thrush

iTrader: (1)

You are what you eat?

Then I am a complete cunt

bigwelshlad

this is very true

on the stupid side....look at me ! guess my beer gut means i drink a serious amount of beer.....TRUE

on the serious side....our bodies will obviously display the outcomes of the digestion of any intake (food, drinks, drugs, vitamins, supplements etc) and so whether what we eat is good or bad it will show up in some way

look at that......a sensible discussion from me for once !

TIFF

VERY VERY interesting Stu

I may know someone who needs to read this

Turbo Zetec

iTrader: (1)

sounds suprisingly like the symptoms of a friend i know and the doctor has diagnosed something to do with 'acute stress' or something... i think i might suggest cutting out the caffiene, its worth a try

Replica

"you are what you eat" - apparently tiff eats shit

Katie

My only allergy, a blessing in diguise probably, is coke..and so I've never really had a problem with that...not a big coffee drinker either..and not a fan of red bull...tea is my only fall there really.

Phil gave up drinking coke at Christmas...I really do think he's been a lot more alert and feels a lot better for it. He's had about 3 cans since but he used to have a 2l bottle a day

bigwelshlad

trying to calm down on my beer binging lifestyle with green tea and lemon ! AH !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Nicole

I have some pretty serious intoleranes and a couple of allergys.

I am allergic to Sugar. That includes all sugar, be it natural sugar in fruit and vegetables or normal sugar in chocolate and pretty much everything we eat in our daily diets. If i have sugar by mistake it's not fatal but it's pretty scarey, my throat and tongue and mouth swells, not to the extreme that i cannot breathe or anything but it's pretty scarey and really uncomfortable

I also have an intolerance's to all dairy products, Monosodium Glutamate (preservative in most common foods), wheat, gluten, sweetners, yeast, Enumbers, and a wide range of preservatives, spices, nuts, pork, shell fish and quite a few more things.

I have a very strict diet these days, i only found out/became intolerant/allergic approx 5 months ago when i had been poorly for some time and the doctors couldn't work out what was wrong as intolerances don't show up on blood tests and allergy's only show up if you actually have an anaphalactic *sp shock (which are mostly fatal). So i was in and out of the doctors for quite a few months and even taken to hospital a couple of times when my airways where swelling up

Our local NHS PCT doesn't "fund" an immunologist, so in the end i went private and it was the best thing i ever did, i spent 5 hours having various tests done and i came away so relieved and diagnosed with food allergies and intolerances. I had a diet plan to stick too and i started to feel better within a day

I feel for you guys that have to live with intolerances/allergies, but if you are unsure and think it "may" be possible you have some form of intolerance then my advice is to get it checked out ASAP, you have NOTHING to lose and it really can change your life

RichardPON

Davey,

Edited for Captain Sensible, although might I suggest yuo edit Benn's post as well you flid

Now, do as I tell ya, get rid of that stuff, and get out on the JD - you're far more entertaining like that

Treen

Nicole - it must be quite a mission for you when you eat out. I've found that most people who work in restaurants don't know themselves what's in the food half the time.

My Missus was diagnosed with Crohns about 5 years ago and we had to work out what her intolerances were. I done it with her to make it easier. She had to start with a really basic diet then gradually introduce different foods to work out which ones 'suited' her and which ones didn't.

It turned out that sugar was her big no-no too. she loved sweets - not chocolate - just things like gummy bears and those sort of jelly sweets - as well as having loads of sugar in her tea. She's cut all that out now and is 75% better. Thanbk god food labelling has improved so much these days - so we know exactly what we're eating.


PON - you've made a good point in your post - I hope it leads to something positive.

Cola

No no no no NO!!!!

Benn 304R

100% agree to that
But dont go on the JD if with me as we tend to have a scrap otherwise

RichardPON

ROFL @ that!

Redkop

Nicole

I get this when I take antibiotics, it's very scary. I am allergic to practically 99% of them and there's only 2 that I can take safely. I have to take ABs conservatively because of the danger that I will become immune to them.

My doctor referred me to a specialiised allergy clinic in Birmingham - where it was diagnosed I was Salicylate Sensitive.

gingeRS

i have a severe allergy to nuts

i'm also allergic to shellfish and eggs (not so severe)

it doesnt really affect my eating habts as i have always been allergic, however i am extra cuatious when oredring takeaway (chinese, tahi etc) annd i have to steer clear of some cereals, and products cos of the nut allergy.

there is one MAJOR drawback of this though. when i order a curry, i like to experiment, and the FIRST thing i as when ordering is does it contain nuts, and i forget to ask whether its hot or not

Cossie Helen

iTrader: (1)

I came off all caffine when i moved down to Surrey


I was drinking way too much coffee at work and it led me to have panic and axiety attacks.

My panic and axiety seem to be getting a lot better now tho, and i dont really bother with tea or coffee now, i have the occasional cup, but nowhere near as much as i used to.

I drink a lot of fruit tea's now

DanRSturbo

If I am what I eat, I'm a halfpounder and chips with a side salad for decoration and a pint of hurliman

JxBabe

Bloody hell Nicole thats awful, what on earth can you eat?

I don't have any intolerances that i know of... I don't really drink much caffeine, only tea if someone offers it. (Although I do sometimes have diet coke binges lol).

Makes me feel lucky that I can eat what I like!