Food intolerance?

[Round in circles]

I hate having stupid food intolerances. I'm sitting here trying to stay calm. I ate some lentil chilli tonight and had a funny reaction. I made it yesterday and noticed feeling a bit odd then, but forced myself to stay calm. I had some more tonight but the reaction is worse today. It started off with my mouth feeling tingly and a scratchy throat, followed by yawning that came out of nowhere. I thought I was in real trouble when it felt like my throat was closing and I couldn't breathe. Luckily it subsided after about 5 seconds. I had a mini panic attack when that happened but that's back under control.

If the not being able to breathe thing has passed, does that mean I'm ok and the worst is over? The chilli wasn't hot at all, so the tingling mouth and scratchy throat wasn't down to that. As long as it's just intolerance rather than allergy, I can cope with that.

[MyNameIsTerry]

Hi RIC,

Shouldn't you be avoiding things that you are intolerant to? It just seems that it feeds your anxiety when you could alter your diet. Or cant they be avoided?

[Libra]

I have fairly common intolerances to Lactose and Wheat. I can take these things in small doses but a little too much and I have strange effects.
Its a matter of either avoiding or limiting things you have a reaction to.

[Round in circles]

I do limit my diet, this was me just trying to try out new things and increase my variety of foods. Big doh on my part. I've had red lentils before with no problems so I'm guessing green lentils should be fine too. That leaves the chilli powder, cumin, courgette or kidney beans as the likely suspects. I might try a non chilli version to see if that works. My diet is so restricted at the moment that I need to up my protein and vegetable variety.

You're right though, food intolerance reactions do really freak me out when they're bad. That said, I think it was probably an allergic reaction to something last night. Luckily not a bad one (after the not being able to breathe bit passed) but I'm keen not to do that again all the same.

Edit: the symptoms have started back up again. Scratchy throat, sore when I swallow, feeling lightheaded. The biggest problem is that I can't stop yawning. Literally just keep yawning over and over. I don't know whether to try and get a telephone appointment with the doc or just ride it out.

[Libra]

Yawning can be a sign of stress/anxiety.
It might set your mind at rest though to see your GP .Otherwise you may be putting yourself through more worry just trying to work things out.