No Fly List
Since 1999, I’ve been doing diet modification in an attempt to figure out what foods trigger endometriosis pain, or make existing pain worse. The following list applies to me, but may serve as a reference guide to others who are trying to figure their own bodies out.
In removing food from my diet, and then adding it back in later, sometimes I have come across old allergies I thought I had outgrown. This complicates matters. Omitting the allergen foods so far has not eased my pelvic pain, but now I’m stuck having to omit the foods because of more severe allergic reactions to the foods I thought I was okay with.
I’ve come to call this my No Fly List: foods I can no longer enjoy because of the side effects they have caused me - either pelvic pain related or allergy related. I originally wrote this out in January, 2008, and I have it posted on my fridge:
Food I should not have if I can help it:
Artificial sweeteners (hello carcinogens?)
Butter (I have a problem with gallstones and butter and eggs contribute to gallstone formation. Added this restriction in 2009)
Caffeine (leads to immediate pelvic pain during menses, and makes my joints hurt in general. Sometimes I get heartburn. Sometimes I get high anxiety/panic after ingesting caffeine)
Chocolate (it’s in the bean family and also has caffeine. My face always breaks out when I eat it, and it leads to immediate pelvic pain during menses)
Coffee (coffee beans…bean family and caffeine)
Shellfish (dioxins, and I always get simulated hypoglycemic attack and/or serious pain/bleeding when I eat shellfish while menstruating)
Sugar (feeds candida and cancer cell growth. I get depressed and anxious when consuming sugar for too many days in a row, even in small amounts. Consuming sugar during menses tends to bring immediate pain)
Food I am truly allergic to or which brings immediate pelvic pain. I cannot under any circumstance consume:
Barley (cross-reacts with wheat)
Beans and anything in the bean family (I have a bean allergy which manifests as lower gastrointestinal upset and severe dermatitis)
Buckwheat (has high cross-contamination incidence with glutenous grasses, such as wheat. Unless I approve of it and soak it overnight, I cannot and will not have it, because I have had too many reactions to trust it).
Cheetos (they get a special mention because I was so hooked on them and still crave them from time to time. They contain MSG and other mysterious ingredients which leave me in head and pelvic pain. I am sensitive to MSG)
Corn syrup (I have a giant rant brewing about this. Corn syrup, fructose, high fructose corn syrup… ingesting even small amounts of it gives me uterine/bladder pain for days, and sometimes it can be unbearable)
Cow’s milk and anything containing cow’s milk (I am lactose intolerant)
Eggs (I have a moderate egg allergy. I can eat gluten-free baked goods made with eggs but cannot have eggs on their own. I get a histamine reaction which leads to heart palpitations and panic attack within an hour of eating eggs)
Fructose (I have a giant rant brewing about this - see corn syrup above)
MSG (Headaches, anxiety, depression, pelvic pain, stomach upset)
Oats (cross-reacts with wheat)
Oranges (as of September, 2009, oranges specifically have been giving me instantaneous canker sores which can last for days and can get quite painful. My original allergy test in 1977 resulted in “required elimination” from my diet, but I thought I’d outgrown this. Guess not).
Peas (bean family)
Rye (cross-reacts with wheat)
Soy (bean family, naturally highly estrogenic [they are a phytoestrogen], and Endometriosis feeds off ANY kind of estrogen. See Carolyn Levett’s site for more info. I get flushed/rash, as well as lower gastrointestinal upset when consuming soy, as of 2009)
Wheat (I have a gluten allergy)
Yeast (Part of the fungi family, and I have severe fungus and mold allergies)
For additional dietary modification ideas, see Carolyn Levett’s site.