Hello!!

[Jen]

Hi just wanted to introduce myself!  I have a self-diagnosed sensitivity to sulfites, I love cooking (which is now a necessity as well as a hobby), playing piano, home and yard improvements, and being a general computer nerd.

My voyage of discovery began a year ago:  One day out of the blue I started getting extremely bloated after every meal with enough intestinal pain to confine me to the couch.  The family doctor told me IBS and prescribed some neurological drug that gave me heart palpitations  and when he wanted to try anti-depressants next I told him in so many words to get lost LOL.  So he referred me to the gastroenterology department.  I got an gastric emptying study (swallowed radioactive eggs and lay under a big scanner for 1.5 hours) to confirm that my stomach was moving food at the proper speeds.  Then an upper endoscopy (swallowed a camera on a 2-foot-long tube, thankfully I zonked out for that one) found some gastritis but still didn't explain my bloating and pain.  Lastly a celiac panel came back with 5 negatives and 1 borderline, and I was advised to try going gluten free anyway.  So I switched to gluten free specialty breads and cookies, and saw only marginal improvement in my symptoms.  I started a food diary and at first didn't notice a pattern.  Then one day when two sips of canned coconut water had me feeling like a bomb had gone off in my stomach, I said "that's it, something in this can is the culprit," and turned to the back of the can and read the word "potassium metabisulfite".... and a lightbulb went off!!

The first lesson I learned is that it's not as simple as checking the ingredient list for the word "sulfite," because there are natural sulfites in many foods, as well as undeclared traces of sulfites in many processed foods.  I started researching the topic online, becoming quite knowledgeable about the sources of my food, and along the way learning to be conscious about other things like the presence of GMO and pesticides and antibiotics in the US food supply, my food's carbon footprint, and the vast list of chemicals that other countries have banned but the FDA has approved.  So now I'm a raging organic sustainable local foods nut to boot.   

Anyway now I cook almost all of my meals at home, much of it from scratch with whole foods.  I enjoy finding ways to make a variety of food that is healthy, tasty, not boring, works around my sulfite sensitivity, doesn't break the bank, and doesn't require me to spend all my spare time in the kitchen.  A tall order but I'm up to the challenge!  I hope to find some folks on this site who are interested in swapping a few recipes.   

[twinturbo]

You could follow all the recipes in the forum recipes but they will all limit you beyond what you need because we must avoid the food itself while you are avoiding a food additive. They will not be necessarily prescriptive for you especially since you are self-diagnosed to a chemical. While we do have people who are react to sulfites and suffer the chemical anaphylactoid equivalent* to allergen induced anaphylaxis, typically this doesn't have anything to do recipes. Sulfites are also present in non-food items so again, food is not necessarily the culprit.

I'm not expert on sulfites but I do know that with anaphylactoid reactions you treat them as you would anaphylaxis. I have no idea if your reactions warrant getting an epinephrine auto-injector from your physician or not, and whether you could see some relief in case of a reaction from Benadryl.

*Request FAS fact-checkers for anaphylactoid reactions/chemical

[Macabre]

Most severe sulfite reactions are anaphylactoid as TT says, but anaphylaxis is possible.

The thing is, how do you tell the difference?  I've had some bad sulfphite "reactions," and I treated them like allergic reactions. I'll say that benadryl provided relief each time.

My sulphite sensitivity seems to be waning a bit, fortunately.  I still won't drink domestic wines or white wines at all, save Champagne.

[mommabridget]

Wow, I thought soy was hard to avoid!  Welcome!!! Be sure to check out the recipe section -- a lot of "from scratch" cooks here!