I've tried many of the Shopper's Drug Mart Nativa products and almost without fail, they are excellent and don't make me sick. I know that may sound like a backwards way of complimenting a company, but it fits.

Shopper's Drug Mart is a Canadian firm that has, at least in the Edmonton, Alberta region, come out with an entire line of organics under their own name "Nativa," with an orange banner on their boxes, bags, cans and bottles.

If you have access to these processed foods, lucky you. I'll elaborate more on specifics later, but suffice to say, my wife and I stock up whenever something goes on sale. Plus, the store has a points Optimum card that lets you redeem points and earn bonus points a few times a year when you purchase a certain dollar amount.

Beware: I may come off as sounding like an advertiser for them, but I am not and I'm not employed by them, nor are any family members that I'm aware of.

Got word today my company is planning a three day educational/personal growth retreat. I can't see how I can possible go and eat safely given the last two work functions I attended in my home city  turned into fiascos.
 
The first was for a full day of training, at a major hotel, where I received confirmation by email at 2:45 p.m. the day before that they would provide organic food for me. This was after I had been chasing answers from them for three weeks. I left a message for their organizer, but with an hour and 15 minutes left in my day before leaving to commute home, I didn't hear back from her to clarify what exactly that would include: organic spices? organic pepper? organic lemons or lemon juice instead of lemon juice concentrate which is loaded with sulphites?
 
So I brought my own damn snacks and lunch and made sure they looked delicious because I knew that whatever everyone else was going to be served would be a) effortless on the attendee's part and b) nicely plated as they say in the catering world. Did the hotel have food for me? Yes, but it was mediocre - at best, although it was several months ago so I don't recall exactly what was served.
 
The second time was at another downtown hotel for our staff Christmas lunch. I talked to the catering manager beforehand, in fact, over several weeks, told him about what I could eat and even pointed out the website. While my co-workers had a great looking buffet, I was stuck with a handful of organic salad greens that cost them $4.99 for a HUGE package at Superstore, a cup of 10-30 weight oil for 'dressing', an unspiced/naked chicken breast and some unspiced couscous. And for this my company paid around $40 - of which I chipped in around $20.

Then the catering manager seemed rather insulted when I attempted to make simple suggestions for a next time, including some organic spice, and maybe even some dessert too.
 
It's just seems so NOT worth the effort and time to argue with the organizers of these conferences and the hotel staff or caterers. What do I say? "I'd rather have a kitchen suite please and reimburse me what you'd pay for my portion of the food, thanks, I'll cook for myself so I don't get sick?" Am I the only one who gets tired of fighting for health and food safety?

Well this is one test I passed with flying colours! Yep, practically all As, if you could describe it as such in the food allergy world.

I shelled out $400 Cdn, which is worth about $200 rubles or euros or U.S. bucks or whatever the economy is floating on these days, for an Elisa test to measure IgG4 (immunoglobulin  G4), a type of antibody in the blood which cause delayed symptoms and IgE (immunoglobulin E) which measures rapid reactions in antibodies.

According to that, I'm highly reactive to egg whites; kidney, navy and pinto beans; and brazil nuts. And I'm moderately reactive to casein (part of milk); cheddar cheese; cottage cheese; swiss cheese; egg yolks; almonds; pineapple; green beans; honey; mushrooms; bleu cheese; ginger; and tumeric.

My immediate reaction was 'that's great' because I was expecting to be allergic to everything except anchovies and garlic. Mmmm, yum. But it also proves everything I've ever read about sulphites - that it doesn't show up on a food allergy test.

I did know I was sensitive to eggs because for the past couple of years I've only been able to eat organic eggs, and only two at a time, and not two days in a row, so it was affirming to have that actually supported on paper. The almonds showed up on a different test, even though I haven't had major problems with them and I'm not too concerned yet, but I'll talk about that another time (it's late and I'm tired). I have had problems with ginger, which also showed up on the same test with the almonds.

Everything else I've been able to eat and not notice IMMEDIATE effects. Hmmm. I wonder what would happen if I stopped eating the few things on that list long term that may be triggering an immune reaction.

Remembering what not to eat is sometimes the hardest thing to do. This blog is about my challenges with a sensitivity that makes me as sick as someone with a fullblown "allergy" even though sulphites are classified as "just" a sensitivity, and it's damn frustrating at times.

 Maybe, like me, you’ve been eating the same way and the same foods for decades. Yet suddenly (and seemingly without warning) you’re forced to completely change the way you eat. However, if you think about it, you’ll be able to look back and notice the changes started years before.

 Little things, like an inexplicable bout of hives, asthma, headaches, or stomach upset, were present. It was an inconvenience but not necessarily all that memorable. You may have linked it to food, and thought, ‘maybe if it happens more than once with a certain type of food, then for whatever reason, I can’t eat that anymore.’ But the incidences increase, sometimes with embarrassing consequences. 

 January 15, 2007:

 I recall having problems in 2000 when I would sometimes have instant flavored oatmeal for breakfast, the delicious candy-like kind that came in individual packages. I’d buy the variety box and leave the plain ones for last. The peach flavor was the best. How could I go wrong with healthy oatmeal for breakfast?

 But I would have such bad gas that I would need to go to the large washroom at work and hope no one else was in there while I was depressurizing. Then I’d be thankful there were double doors. I thought maybe I was allergic to the oatmeal.

 After I stopped eating the oatmeal, I next noticed it immediately after eating hot dogs. I still don’t exactly know what’s in hot dogs that I react to, but I strongly suspect it’s the corn syrup solids. I used to get the ballpark franks – the big delicious hot dogs, and the reaction was swift – but it wasn’t just gas, it was diarrhea.

 And then I noticed it with cola.  The reaction was swift and becoming very predicable.

 Not unlike cattle getting a shock from an electric fence, I’d start avoiding those foods. Then it broadened to more and more foods, and I wondered, what is wrong with me?

 I hurt. At one point, my intestines were in such poor condition because they were constantly being taxed that I had severe internal hemorrhoids, which were extremely painful. Going to work and traveling was excruciating. Doctors prescribed medication to treat the hemorrhoids, but they couldn’t treat the source because they didn’t know what the problem was. I began to think I was dying of some mysterious, or not so mysterious, illness.

 In 2005, as a reasonable individual, I again turned to a physician. I told him ‘I eat food, I get sick and I’m losing weight, is it the big C? Is it stomach cancer? What’s going on?’ He’d asked how long I’d had the problems, and it had been going on for a couple of years by that point. He said “Oh no, if it was stomach cancer, you’d be dead by now.” Quite reassuring and comforting.

 Only by persistently questioning my physician about my extreme discomfort was I sent for numerous medical tests including an abdominal ultrasound, a barium enema and a barium swallow, to name a few. They’re not very fun but procedures allowed any serious disease or abnormality to be ruled out.

 At one point, the doctor diagnosed irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), which sounded quite official, and then he sent me to a nutritionist. I was relieved – it sounded like I had an answer. And if there was a name for it, there must be a cure. When I did some research on IBS, I found it was very much a catch-all for what ails you internally when doctors don’t know what else to call it. 

 At my appointment with the nutritionist, she was pleasant enough but seemed only to be able to help people with fast food diets. As a former restaurateur of an establishment that served basically healthy foods, I believed that I already had good eating habits because I didn’t eat fast food or eat out a lot. I rarely ate at a place where super sizing was an option. From the charts and posters on her walls, it was clear that the nutritionist was there to talk people into having fewer burgers, fries, etc. but I was already in that mindset.

 She wasn’t sure what to do with me. Her best advice was to keep a diary for the next month of my food, drinks, physical activities and symptoms. When I took it back to her, she couldn’t figure out the problem so I knew it was up to me.

 I started looking at the ingredients of the foods giving me trouble. For example, I had a can of chunky soup and then the same thing in a low-fat version. One I was fine with and the other I reacted to. It struck home that there’s something particular in the one soup that caused the swift and unpleasant reaction. I compared the ingredients and phoned the manufacturer about the ingredients that were unique. Because I already had some savvy about sulphites, I asked if that was an ingredient. The call centre agent said absolutely not, because he too read the label, and couldn’t see ‘sulphite’ listed.

 That’s when I discovered, on the internet, that caramel color was the offender. Caramel color, which is in so many prepared foods, has an appealing colour, and there’s a bonus of it being a preservative (not realizing at the time that it has sulphites  in it). So I thought, optimistically, that caramel colour was the offender. It made sense because cola has it, as do so many things (just read the labels on items in your cupboards). I had a solution - avoid caramel color.

 However, symptoms persisted with other foods. Through dogged determination and internet research, I found the extent of sulphites in our foods. Simple items such as concentrated lemon juice and spices were causing me grief. Wine and beer were also problems, and I enjoyed both, but they didn’t enjoy being in me. Colored alcohol such as rye or colored rum would also give me gastrointestinal discomfort. (Sulphured molasses is in rum, I found out, and alcohols don’t usually have an ingredient list on the bottle).

 I started looking at organic products, because they didn’t usually have sulphites as a preservative. When I switched to organic products, I found I didn’t have the usual problems.

 Please don’t think this a blanket testimony for all organic foods, to wear tie dyed t-shirts and move to a commune, because I understand there’s skepticism about organic foods. Before my health problems, I never shopped organically. In fact, when I told an 89 year old acquaintance that I needed to eat organic, he said he didn’t believe in organic foods.

 But I reminded him that for the majority of his life, he would’ve eaten organically without knowing it because his family had a big garden and ate very natural foods – it simply wasn’t even an option to eat the garbage we eat now. Even at restaurants 30 years ago, the levels of preservatives would not have been what they are now. Shelf life is everything now, as is ease of preparation.

 And not all organic foods are safe – some still contain caramel color for example.  I’d gotten into a lengthy discussion for naught with the manufacturer about their use of caramel colour – Canada’s food regulations with respect to organics is lacking.

Usually, the labels with fewer ingredients tend to be safe. If something says it has organic spices, I don’t have to worry that they may have been preserved with sulphites. To buy a product that says ‘no preservatives added’ doesn’t mean it’s safe because even a single ingredient contained in that product (such as pepper which could have sulphites added to prevent mould), could cause a reaction.

A good rule of thumb for fruits and vegetable, is that if has to be peeled, with a decent size skin, such as a navel orange, you stand a good shot at eating off the shelf.  But if you enjoy biting into a crisp apple – go organic – it didn’t stay that pretty and fresh without some chemical help.

 If I think back before 2000, I realize I was known for my flatulence – the sulphite problem may have been creeping up on me like a two ton elephant for the last 15 or 20 years. Now, if I’m eating properly, I’m not gassy. However, if I eat something dubious, my symptoms can include flatulence, stomach pain and/or diarrhea so severe it’s like I’ve taken a really powerful colon cleansing agent. My body makes it well known that it has a problem with whatever I put in my mouth. It’s not that different from your car backfiring.

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