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probably reaction to undelcaired sulfites in cashews

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Posted 8/16/2015 8:29 PM (GMT 0)
I've been enjoying cashews from a big wholesale warehouse for a few years. This time I noticed that the nuts were quite a bit whiter than usual, but there was nothing but cashews, salt and oil listed on the ingredients.

I only ate a few, but within a half hour I was having tachycardia at 172 bpm. I did Valsalva maneuver and took an Inderal to try to slow my heart. It didn't work, just came down to 165, so I called my doc and he had me take another. That worked, but slowly.

I called the company but was assured that the nuts had not been processed, although they had been imported. I took the nuts back for a refund and emailed my complaint.

I have had previous reactions to a major brand nut company's cashews.

My warning is - If the nuts look too white they may have been bleached. That means sulfite.
Posted 8/16/2015 10:19 PM (GMT 0)
Wow, sorry you had to go through that, how frightening. Thanks so much for posting though, it could really help someone avoid what you had to get through.
Posted 8/17/2015 12:35 PM (GMT 0)
Alcie, if you don't mind answering, do you have a sulfite allergy, or are you sensitive to it? How did you find out, were you tested or did you use use elimination/food diary? The reason I'm asking is because I think I may have issues with sulfites too, but I'm not sure of the degree of the problem. I have asthma (which is horrible right now) and environmental allergies. No food allergies the last time I got tested. But, I had an immediate asthma attack the last two times I tried to eat dried apricots, which I now know are full of sulfites. I also have SVT, but I've never traced it to any foods. Now I wonder.
Posted 8/18/2015 10:18 PM (GMT 0)
Cashews can't be eaten raw (poisonous), thus they are always processed (boiled or otherwise heat-treated) no matter what the company says.
Posted 8/19/2015 1:53 AM (GMT 0)
The Raz is right. There's a nasty toxic skin on the nut.

According to current docs (the splitters) I have a sensitivity. My allergist is a lumper and says it's an allergy. Who cares? My reaction is life-threatening.

There are lots of reactions to sulfites. Some people get headaches. Many people get the "true" allergy or throat closing, etc. My esophagus and stomach get unhappy and often give me a gastric reflux reaction and then the vagus nerve gets in the action and triggers vasospasm in my cardiac arteries. (See cardioesophageal reflux.) I get SV tachycardia. I had a heart attack back 10 years ago triggered by eating cereal with dried fruits when I was overweight and had high familial cholesterol. I've been to the ER often, once needed chemical cardioversion when I couldn't get it stopped with Valsalva maneuver and heart meds. Ask the Razzle about asthma and allergic reactions.

I also have regular pollen allergies, which are acting up right now even though I get the shots. It was a very wet spring, so there is extra pollen now.

There is no recognized test for sulfites, but it's easy enough to figure out if you keep a food journal/diary/log. Dried apricots are right at the top of my list. Give the diary a try! It's free and easy! just keep a notebook or daily calendar on the kitchen counter. Check out the MANY threads in the search box at the top of the page.
Posted 8/21/2015 11:43 PM (GMT 0)
Alcie...Gosh! That's terrible, and no doubt quite frightening.. gGad you're okay! I will take a look at some of what you suggest manana.

I wondered, I buy dried organic apricots online which I use when I make Kefir, do you think they should be okay? I only use one at a time and being that they are organic I would have thought they should be, they do look organic, not bright apricot colour, quite dark, quite unappetizing actually.
Posted 8/22/2015 1:32 PM (GMT 0)
The dark apricots, if they are labeled organic, should also have a label no preservatives, but I'll bet they're not sulfited. If you can have sauerkraut, yogurt and other fermented things, you probably have no problem with sulfites.

I can eat unsulfited apricots, but they taste awful.
Posted 8/22/2015 8:19 PM (GMT 0)
Alcie, The problem is that I have been eating all these foods for a while, never thinking that I might actually have a problem with them, and so its only recently, due to feeling worse (and looking worse) that I have kept a really detailed food diary, and its not looking good! I eat a lot of homemade coconut yogurt, and coconuts, I only found out today are not great if you have a problem with sulfites, so I am going to ask my allergist next week about that! and so I really need to not eat anything that may have sulphites in them for a few days before trying a proper test later on in the week when the hives on my forehead have gone down.

On top of this, my allergist suspects I have a problem with histamines, which appears to be right, judging by my heart rate the other night after eating some peanut butter on GF rice crackers and a glass of wine, and of course I now know I can't have rice, which I had no idea about when I ate the rice crackers. I am starting to feel upset to be honest, I love my home made coconut yogurt, it makes me happy, and this morning I woke up and wept because everything I love seems to be causing me problems. I honestly am starting to wonder what the heck I can eat, I also keep forgetting stuff, for example, yesterday I bought some Gluten free bread, and then remembered it contains egg, which I now cannot eat, and I bought rice flour for my pancakes, which of course I now cannot have. I feel like I am becoming so awfully sensitive that soon I will live on a diet consisting of a straw and something like Ensure!! One other thing that I am finding quite alarming, and I wonder if you have experienced this is that after eating some foods in the evening, my body seems to shut down and I fall into a deep sleep, and that is even without taking an alcoholic drink, its as if my body is just shutting itself down.

The good thing is that I am to have the immunotherapy soon, for my perfume intolerance, and that will change my life a bit as I will be able to go out more.
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