Hi,

I'm wondering if anyone has heard of this or has any suggestions. I grew up eating Italian foods. I LOVE tomatoes, but now I can't eat them. When I do eat them, I get gassy the next day, then the following day (the cycle takes 1 1/2 days) I get severe cramps then explosive diarrhea. It's at the point that I can't use ketchup, BBQ sauce, or even pick the tomatoes off because the juice gets me sick. I had a similar, yet very less severe reaction to grapefruit juice. I talked to my primary care dr and he kind of dismissed it. My gyno said it was probably IBS and to look it up on the internet. So I guess my question would be, is there anything out there that can be taken to avoid the reaction so I can have some of my favorite foods again? (antacids don't work).

Thanks.

This sounds like an intolerance to Tomatoe not a food allergy.
But the results are the same -- You may try going to a Doctor for testing.

With Food intolerances -- many times you can get over it by not eating them for some period of time??

Yeah, I know it's not a true allergy, but it's the word I use when I go to restaurants. Certainly gets the attention of the servers so they take my tomato free food request seriously. I hope that this will pass, but it's been going on long enough that I'm thinking it won't. But thank you for taking the time to answer. :)

This sounds like an intolerance to Tomatoe not a food allergy.
But the results are the same -- You may try going to a Doctor for testing.

With Food intolerances -- many times you can get over it by not eating them for some period of time??

Hi!
I know it's been awhile since you posted this - how's it going with the tomatos? I'm allergic - well I guess the word is intolerant - to tomatoes as well. I had the exact same symptoms, it was like that all the time because I ate those foods on a daily basis. I was going to the GI for 4 years and finally they just said IBS, which it wasn't. I stopped eating tomatoes and products containing them and haven't been sick since. It hasn't gotten better with time, I still definitly can't eat it, but I've gotten used to it. I eat white pizza, pesto sauce, mustard. You definitly have to say allergic at restaurants or they won't take it seriously. It's wierd, but thats the way they are I guess. Hope you are doing alright, hang in there!

Get used to it. I have the same problem. I used to grow them when I was young and eat them like apples. In about my mid-twenties I started having the same problems you do. Everytime you get exposed (eat tomato products) the symptoms will get worse. I am very up front when I'm out about the seriousness of the "allergy". My symptoms also include vomiting and the other end things start within 8 hours and last for days.

Kathy

I'm 53 and I ate tomato related foods until age 47 without problems. One day I found my right upper lip quite swollen without pain, and without any rash. Doctors were perplexed. Over the next 5 years I would get periodic facial swelling--on my upper or lower lip, my cheeks. Every time it was in a different location. The frequency increased until my face was swelling up several times a week. Finally I had 63 blood tests looking for allergies and discovered that I was allergic to all substances related to tomato (potatoes, peppers, eggplant, and tobacco smoke). I stopped overt exposure to all of these things, but I still occasionally get swellings because it is difficult to avoid all of these things completely. If someone is smoking near me, I can get a swelling. It's odd, and I've never met anyone with this problem. Is there someone out there that has a similar affliction?

Alex Hammer

Hello,
The foods that you are allergic to fall into the nightshade family and there is a known allergy to these foods, called "nightshade allergy". There is a very well known environmental doctor, Dr. Sherry Rogers, who has written about this in her newsletter. In fact, she spent many years with similar sympoms not knowing that she had this allergy.
Perhaps a google search would reveal why you are suddenly having an allergic reaction to these foods.
Best wishes.

I have mysterious swellings of the lips and face at times. Fortunately it is less frequent (and my allergies overall have improved over the years). I had this also occur last year in the same place where a canker sore had healed inside my mouth. Preceeded by a warm and a mild itchy feeling it developed into a dime size knot within 60 seconds. It happened several times in a 4 week period. One evening I told my husband (demanded he look at it) and he was amazed how quickly it had swelled up. About an hour later and it was gone. I don't think it's related to tomatoes though.

My husband on the otherhand can't eat red tomato sauce in the evening. He never fails to have nightmares that wake me up! I just don't make spaghetti or any dark tomato sauces anymore.

That sounds like a food allergy as well. Does it seem to correlate with something that you're eating? If it isn't something in the nightshade family, mangos would probably be the next most common reaction. Could be all sorts of things, but if you can think of a connection there may be some common theme.
Best wishes.

That sounds like a food allergy as well. Does it seem to correlate with something that you're eating? If it isn't something in the nightshade family, mangos would probably be the next most common reaction. Could be all sorts of things, but if you can think of a connection there may be some common theme.
Best wishes.

Come to think of it...I do eat mangos (love them) when they are in season. I'll have to keep that in mind!