Comments? Advice? [The Stars and the Cookie Jar]

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I believe I'm showing an allergy ,or a food sensitivity, as you prefer, to white sugar.

I'm fine with fruit, breads, crackers and juices.

Cupcakes, Girl Scout cookies, sponge cake, sugared cola and ice-cream cake make my throat itch and I have to gasp for breath around my suddenly less friendly throat.

Is this even possible? I know I'm not imagining the shortness of breath, but I've never met anyone that only had a sensitivity to cane-sugar type things.

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There are 14 comments on this entry. (Reply.)

Er... I miscliqued on

bansidhe's LJ flist, but actually - cane sugar allergies do exist. :) I have a friend who has that.

The juices thing is odd though, since those do have high sugar content, usually, as do fruits naturally I think. It'd be worth going to see a specialist on it and getting tested, though.

...moving on along now! XD Good luck!

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In my experience, you can be allergic to anything at all. Sucks.

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Hm. It does sound like an allergy, but for what it's worth, it sounds a bit like it could be reactive hypoglycemia, which is when your body goes "OMG SUGAR *overcompensates with insulin*" So that may be worth looking into, though I've never had any kind of shortness of breath or itchiness. Mostly just seeing spots and being disoriented.

But yeah, after many years of having hypoglycemia and controlling it with diet, I too have a somewhat extreme sensitivity to processed sugar. Mostly my reactions involve going somewhere to lie down and sleeping it off until I stop being loopy. XD

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Not only is it possible? I have it. (Luckily, after years of allergy shots, I can deal with it now without reaction.)

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People can be allergic to damn near anything. It might be cane or beet sugar, but it could just as easily be a sensitivity to corn or to [high fructose] corn syrup. HFCS is the primary sweetening agent of choice in many processed foods. Coke*, for instance, uses HFCS instead of cane or beet sugar (with the exception of kosher-for-Passover Coke, sweetened with cane sugar). You might want to check out the ingredients of the things that induce a bad reaction. You might also want to talk to your doctor. *nodnodnod*

*Made for the US market

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We think it's either HFCS or caramel colour. /things you were dying to know

We discovered this (not the royal we, my wife and I) in a comparison chowdown on several happy varieties of Girl Scout cookies.

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I'm guessing that corn syrup is the more likely culprit. Caramel color is just burnt sugar in aqueous solution; allergy to that would probably come with an allergy to all browned baked goods.

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And that would be tragic. *munches on sourdough, which was very well-behaved this past baking* Corn syrup seems likelier and likelier as the days pass, as this morning I had the same reaction to plum jam.

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What others have said, but also, are there other common ingredients in the things that are getting the reaction? Preservatives? specific sugars? dyes? caramel flavoring?

There are lots of kinds of sugars (sucrose fructose lactose...) and at least one of those is widely known to cause a reaction, enough there are a zillion products, right?

Get the ingredients lists of foods that do and don't do it, and compare.

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We've actually narrowed it down to caramel colour and high-fructose corn syrup as the two likeliest suspects! It was all a matter of girl scout cookies. The ones with caramel colour bothered me intensely, and the ones without (Do-Si-Dos or Peanut Butter Cremes, depending on region) don't do a thing and I munched like a happy pig. The only things Thin Mints have that the peanut butter ones don't are the corn syrup and the caramel colour.

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Try eliminating white sugar and see if things get better. It's really bad for you anyway. I use honey and maple syrup almost exclusively now as they are far more nutritious, and local honey can even help reduce allergic reaction. I've had no trouble substituting them for white sugar, even in cakes and cookies.

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Actually, food allergies are quite rare. Just so's you all know.

See http://www.uthouston.edu/HLeader/archive/allergy/010529/ for example.

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I know statistically speaking it's only about 2% of the adult population, but it would be just my luck. :)

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Ran across this while skimming friends'-friends'-etc.

If you're actually having throat-closing reactions, please stop experimenting at home. Go find a doctor (preferably an allergist) and get yourself an Epi-pen. And carry it with you always.

Especially since this sounds like a new allergy? If your symptoms are ramping up this hard on subsequent exposures, I really think you should be on guard for anaphylaxis.

- Your Friendly Neighborhood Busybody

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The Stars and the Cookie Jar

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get thee to an allergist

February