Sulfite Sensitive

Welcome kdavinci60.

You've been reading! There are tons of good threads on the HW website also. Put some keywords in the search box at the top of the page.

Portion size makes little difference if it is foods that contain sulfite. If you are over your tolerance level, which could be one can of soda, you will react. The website I used to find out how to calculate how much is in certain foods is http://www.learningtarget.com/nosulfites/index.htm

What is your reaction? If you have a "true" allergic reaction you have to be especially careful. I have a "sensitivity" but still have to be careful because my reaction is tachycardia which has sent me to the ER all too many tmes. Some people have migraines.

If you have a severe reaction you shouldn't experiment to see what your tolerance levels is, but you can keep a good food journal and make a pretty good guess - using the calculations in the No Sulfites website. (click on the url I posted above.)

The main thing is to avoid processed foods, including things like commercial bread, even at the local bakery, unless you have a bakery that uses no preservatives. No sodas, no wine or beer, very little Italian food unless you make your own sauces without onions and garlic. I don't tolerate pork at all, but can have a little beef. If I avoid foods with high sulfite, I tolerate a bit of milk chocolate. (Forget the nice dark chocolate though.) But keep reading. You're doing well!

A good, experienced allergist can help. If s/he says there's no such allergy find another one! My 3rd one has been a big help.

Watch your vitamins too. Biotin has a lot of sulfite. I don't take anything extra for lowering sensitivity, not sure if it does much.

At least your allergist is honest.

Beef has some sulfite, but chicken should be OK. Fish can be all right if you wash it thoroughly yourself. It's often sprayed down with sulfite to keep it from spoiling. Eggs have sulfite, but you seem to know your tolerance there. Pork is the worst.

What's in your hummus?

Seriously, read the link. It's a whole book, free online with amounts of sulfite and how to calculate.

Avoid bread unless you make it from scratch yourself. Alcohol is fine by itself. Wine is made from grapes which have a little sulfite, but commercial wine usually has added sulfite. I make my own and can have just a little.

Do you use spices? Read how pepper is made. Avoid mixed spices, but many single spices are OK. All sugars have sulfite - read the section on things made from corn.

Milk should be fine if you are not lactose intolerant. Yogurt has sulfite. Soy products have sulfite. I only mention the things that give me problems and I'm not extremely sensitive, just enough to have been to the ER a few times.

What's in the sesame tahini? What's in the Greek seasoning? Lots of different recipes for both.
What's in the Miller bread? Is it labeled no preservatives?
Even pita can have ingredients with sulfite in it. Any corn starch? That's one of my worst.
Stevia is mostly dextrose unless you are using the actual fresh leaf. (I can't stand the bitter taste.)
Sorbet - what's the source of the sugar? If it doesn't say, it's sugar beets which are higher in sulfite than cane.
Yogurt has sulfite. I only tolerate one brand and only a little of that.
Not sure about the cayenne pepper.

Some of these things also have salicylates to which many people are sensitive. Have you been tested for that? It's not unusual to have more than one allergy.

Onelile,

Rick is a dear. He's undoubtedly right about PLAIN yogurt. Most of the yogurts though, have sweeteners and flavors which have sulfite.

Get a different allergist. And read a bunch of the HW threads - see the search box at the top of the page.
Look on Rick's site in the website section for Housemouse's pages for sulfite on skin problems and solutions.

Frozen lemon juice is clean. Don't touch the bottled stuff or commercial products with it - including jams and jellies.

I can't advertize any products for sale, but I did buy Rick's huge paper book for the information on medicines for myself. For free you can look up meds before you take them online and look at the ingredients and excipients for sulfur with a couple of oxygens that could possibly break off during digestion. I've saved myself a couple of times by knowing to refuse some. I had a tachycardia reaction so bad I couldn't get it stopped myself and had to have my heart re-synchronized in the ER. I keep a couple of different beta blockers on hand now that usually gets those events stopped.

So don't worry about the meds. Some of them are very helpful.

And I recommend you start your own topic. Maybe Razzle will chime in - the real expert on anaphylaxsis from sulfites.

I have two problems requiring heart meds. First is tachycardia, which I get when I consume over my daily tolerance for sulfite. Second is life-threatening increase in blood pressure from autonomic dysreflexia caused by breaking my neck.

For tachycardia I can take Inderal (propranolol) which acts quickly but doesn't last long at all. I can also take Tenormin (atenolol) which takes a half hour or so to act but lasts several hours.

For the rise in BP I have an alpha blocker, Norvasc (amlodipine). That's to keep from stroking out when my BP goes above 150 and stays there. I get this from any sort of irritation like constipation or even a seam in my jeans rubbing. Weird.

I don't tolerate any heart meds on a regular basis. I see my cardiologist twice a year to keep up with these problems. When I had my heart attack I was supposed to take meds regularly. That's when I found the intolerances. I tried just about everything. I'm fine on an as needed basis.

My apologies to kdavinci for letting this thread get hijacked. I tried to contact the mods to get the new part separated.
Onelife, it would still be good if you had your own thread. Just click on the "post New Topic" box at the top or bottom of the page. I hope others who happen upon the sulfite stuff will post their own threads also.