Library: Helen - true story
"I have been suffering for many years with what I think is “fructose intolerance” and now recently “wheat intolerance” as well as some “caffeine” problem as well. My story is as follows:
As I grew up I always felt ill after eating any piece of fruit, and my stomach became sore or I had a loose bowel movement. I stayed away from fruit.
When I reached the late teens, I would feel as if I wanted to pass out after one sip of wine. My friends thought this was weird: “She gets drunk after one sip”. So that kept me away from drinking at all.
Sometime in my marriage, probably about 20 years ago, I thought I was a bit over my optimum weight, and my husband and I went on a diet where we only ate fruit in the mornings until lunchtime, thereafter salad and perhaps a meat dish in the evening. By the second weekend, I was totally crippled, not even able to pick up a teacup with two hands. Everything was aching: my joints, my skin, my bones – and I would cry at night with the pain in my limbs, not able to sleep. I went to the doctor, totally unaware that it may be what I had been eating.
Of course the doctor also did not think it was the food intake, and he sent me to a physician. After many tests and innuendos in the form of “but where exactly is the pain” (the physician would not believe me that it was everywhere and that I could not say whether it was joints, flesh or whatever), he dismissed me without any help except by giving me painkillers. Of course the painkillers worked but after 3 days I threw them away as I was not prepared to live on painkillers. I wanted to know WHAT was causing the pain and no-one could help me.
It just so happened that my husband and I were going overseas on holiday (hence the diet just beforehand). Of course while on holiday in Holland, I ate everything that I liked, and there was NO FRUIT in that intake at all. I was as fit as a fiddle and putting on weight again. So when we returned after two weeks, I went back on the “fruit only in the morning” diet. Wow! All the symptoms came back. Then I tested myself, and by means of elimination realised that it was ALL fruit. So I tested with “fructose” sugar and it was definitely that which was causing the problem.
So now I don’t eat ANY fruit, and I also don’t take any other things such as mayonnaise, vinegar, sauces that may have fruit sugar etc, sweets and so on.
However, something else seems to also be developing in recent times. I began to swell up in my face, have strange facial pains in my jaws, and get severe migraines about a year ago. Eventually I discovered that I could not eat bread. I presume it is the wheat because I also cannot eat too much cake or biscuits or pastries either (all things that I loved). Even pasta (100% wheat) causes the same reactions. So I took it out of my diet totally and found that I lost 8 kg in one week. I went from 68Kg to 60Kg and felt fantastic. Now and again, if I start to be too hungry and eat a biscuit or bread roll (I still don’t eat even one slice of bread), I see the weight go up, and the side of my face begins to swell again.
And then the heart palpitations have also happened during this time. I used to drink many cola drinks and coffee. I stopped them because someone suggested it would cause palpitations. Now I do not get them either anymore. However, I still get them when I eat cucumbers. This is a riddle to me.
So there you have it, I am left eating vegetables, rice, meat and whatever wheat-free products I can afford to buy. Wheat-free pasta and wheat-free flour are more expensive so cakes etc are not good.
It has just been the Christmas season, and I was naughty, having salads with mayonnaise, and cakes, biscuits and am not feeling too good right now, and have put on some kgs again. I am waiting for all this to get out of my system so that I can start the new year 2010 with a healthy body again.
This afternoon I have had major palpitations for about 4 hours, and when I got up from the bed, I decided to search the Internet. That is when I found your site and was so happy to read some of the stories there and know that I was not alone. It is not pleasant when even the doctors look at you funny when you tell them something about you that is true, and no-one believes you.
Thank you for allowing us the opportunity to share. God bless you all, Helen."
