Is it ever prudent to make yourself vomit??

Zizzle · Post by **Zizzle** » Thu May 31, 2012 1:05 pm

I'm in a horrible flare. It's been manageable for ther past 2 weeks, having D 2-3/day. Yesterday I ate lunch at a Roti Mediterrenean Grill across from my office that advertises GF offerings. I had rice, seasoned chicken, cooked veggies, olives, and GF pita bread, without even thinking to ask about dairy/soy, etc. Within 10 minutes of eating, my belly was swollen like a balloon and the food felt like a brick in my stomach. I raced to the bathroom and had very watery D. I got better over the evening, but woke up this morning with the weirdest D ever - it was pure slime!! When the reaction first started, I asked myself if I should just go make myself throw up, to spare my intestines from having to deal with this. Since I got better, I assumed maybe it was a false alarm...until this morning.

Have you ever/would you ever, voluntarily vomit a meal to get rid of an accidental trigger/allergen?

I wrote to the company, and their head chef wrote back right away...so kind. I suspect the sesame seeds, and I suspect I may actually be allergic to them, not just intolerant. Of course gluten cross-contamination is a possibility too. Ugh, I feel like death!!

Read from the bottom up...

I am waiting for the spice company to Confirm Maltodextrin (corn or wheat)! I did read mostly corn in the USA and Wheat in European Countries as well by the time Maltodextrin is broken down the gluten is rendered harmless. That is all speculation until we here from the spice company.

I want to Clarify, Sesame is only in the steak seasoning-no other seasonings at Roti have Sesame seeds.
Products at Roti with Sesame or Tahini would be- hummus and tahini sauce. Make sure you do not eat those products.

Once we find out about the Maltodextrin, we should be able to put together your clean menu items so you can eat Roti for the rest of your life.

Chef

--------
Chef Barry,
Thanks so much for the quick response! The bread looks perfectly safe for me. I'm fine with eggs. What I never suspected was sesame seeds! I recently tested intolerant to them, and eliminating them has made a big difference (so sad to lose hummus). Is it in both the chicken and steak seasonings? What about the rice? Finally, you mentioned maltodextrin. I know it usually comes from corn nowadays, but wheat is the other major source. Can you confirm which form you use? Thanks!

On May 30, 2012, at 6:19 PM, "barry brooks" <bbrooks> wrote:

I will work with you and get us as close to 100% feeling great when eating Roti Food!
This is the GF Bread (notice egg whites)

Rice flour, tapioca starch, sugar, egg replacer, xanthan gum, egg whites, canola oil,dry active yeast, almond meal.

Chicken Roti Seasoning is void of any dairy or gluten products, it is all spices and herbs that include Cumin,
oregano, saffron and a soybean oil

Steak Roti Seasoning is void of any dairy or gluten products-it is all spices and herbs that include
maltodextrin (sugar chain) Coriander, cumin ginger garlic and corn oil. Two other ingredients
that should be healthful however may have side effects to you. They are Toasted Sesame seeds and Foenugreek

You should test single roti products by themselves and see how you feel.

hope this is a good start,
Chef Barry

Barry Brooks
Executive Chef
10 South Riverside Plaza
Suite 1851
Chicago IL 60606

312-475-6435 Office
708-341-0990 Cell

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Gluten free pita bread ingredients?
Date: Wed, May 30, 2012 3:29 pm
To: <feedback>

Hello,
I am on a gluten free/dairy free diet for medical reasons and have enjoyed your restaurant on a couple of occasions. As with most restaurant meals, I don’t feel 100% well after eating at Roti. It just occurred me that I may be reacting to dairy or other ingredients in your GF pita bread or your meat seasonings. Your website did not list ingredients for these items. Can you please list the ingredients in your gluten free pita bread and chicken and steak seasoning? Thanks so much, and thank you for providing gluten free options.

fatbuster205 · Post by **fatbuster205** » Thu May 31, 2012 1:36 pm

Hi Zizzle,
Sorry that you are not well! I would say never make yourself vomit particularly if an allergen is involved because it could make things much worse aside from the damage it can cause. I speak from experience having suffered bulimia. I honestly would never advocate purging of any kind - if a reaction is really extreme there is always A&E!
Anne

Post by **tex** » Thu May 31, 2012 2:03 pm

Hmmmmm. Interesting question. It has always taken at least an hour or two before I could see the tsunami coming, and by then the damage is pretty much done, so I had never given that option any thought.

Realistically, I suspect that the only way to test that out would be to try it, because much of the logistics involved with food sensitivity reactions is still uncharted waters, and I suspect that there is a great amount of variability in the rates at which we respond. IOW, I'm not sure how much exposure is required in order to guarantee at least a, say, 75 or 80% reaction level (or any other reaction level, for that matter).

I definitely agree with Anne about the risks involved. I can certainly visualize the potential for a bulimic-like pattern of learned behavior by vulnerable individuals with food sensitivities who will do virtually anything to regain the opium-based sensation that they get from ingesting gluten, even if it means promptly vomiting it back up. That could become a very self-destructive habit in naive individuals.

That said, I would guess that it would help to minimize clinical symptoms. After all, the purpose of D is to get the offending agents out of the body as quickly as possible. I have a hunch that someone could probably ingest some bentonite clay as soon as they realized what had happened, with the same or better results. A dosage that amounted to approximately 2% of the amount of the food that contained the offending allergen (by weight) should be sufficient to mask any further reactivity.

Obviously, I'm just guessing here, since I'm not aware of any research trials based on this concept. However, bentonite clay is successfully used to mask mycotoxins in feed for livestock, with virtually 100% efficacy, so there's a very good chance that it could be used to mask the gliadins and glutenins in wheat, as well, and it wouldn't be quite as stressful as vomiting. The problem is, eating clay is not much of a culinary treat, unfortunately.

Tex

JLH · Post by **JLH** » Thu May 31, 2012 7:52 pm

"Chicken Roti Seasoning is void of any dairy or gluten products, it is all spices and herbs that include Cumin,
oregano, saffron and a soybean oil "

Zizzle · Post by **Zizzle** » Thu May 31, 2012 8:03 pm

JLH wrote:"Chicken Roti Seasoning is void of any dairy or gluten products, it is all spices and herbs that include Cumin,
oregano, saffron and a soybean oil "

Huh? If you are referring to the soy oil, I regularly eat small amounts of soy, including food cooked in soy oil, without any reaction.

jmayk8 · Post by **jmayk8** » Fri Jun 01, 2012 1:27 pm

I have celiac and have been religiously gf for the past 5 1/2 years. However, 2 years ago I had a regular slice of whole wheat bread. (don't ask how i did it-stupid mistake!) Anyways, About 10 min after I ate it I became super bloated and very nauseous. And with-in the hour I threw it up (not on purpose) bc at that point I still didnt realize what I had eaten. My body just completely rejected it on it's own. I had never thrown up with eating gluten in the past, just horrible D. So I guess my body didn't even want to try to digest it, it just came right back up on its own!
Jenny

Zizzle · Post by **Zizzle** » Fri Jun 01, 2012 2:41 pm

Wow, that sounds very similar to my reaction (minus the throwing up), although I generally don't have a tendency towards throwing up. I now suspect more than a trace amount of gluten -- probably their couscous balls fell into the veggies or rice. I still feel awful and I look like hell. Feels like overnight anemia! I'm so scared to eat, but the D has slowed down considerably, so I am able to leave the house!!

I wonder if the severe reaction within 10 minutes is a sign of celiac? Meaning, my body knew and freaked out, well before it hit the intestines where a "gluten sensitive" reaction might originate?

I do such a good job at hiding my discomfort, my husband had the nerve to ask about my bloated belly, saying I look full-on pregnant these last 2 days. So sorry!!!

Post by **tex** » Fri Jun 01, 2012 4:02 pm

Zizzle wrote:I wonder if the severe reaction within 10 minutes is a sign of celiac?

IMO, it has to be due to a mast cell reaction (IgE-based reaction), because there is no way that an IgA-based reaction could be propagated that quickly.

Tex

Gloria · Post by **Gloria** » Fri Jun 01, 2012 6:05 pm

Tex wrote:IMO, it has to be due to a mast cell reaction (IgE-based reaction), because there is no way that an IgA-based reaction could be propagated that quickly.

Yes, I get mouth sores within 15 minutes of eating something high in histamines. The intestinal reaction comes later, however.

Gloria

Joefnh · Post by **Joefnh** » Fri Jun 01, 2012 8:54 pm

This is an interesting question, as ipecac is used to induce vomiting when a poison is swallowed. But like poison the question would be how soon can you effectively purge that substance out of your body, as once it has passed into the middle to lower portion of the duodenum, throwing up would make little difference. Additionally as has been mentioned, the damage the acids would cause could be fairly significant, especially if this were to become a more frequent behavior.

brandy · Post by **brandy** » Sun Jun 03, 2012 1:16 pm

Hi Zizzle,

I hope you feel better! Brandy

Zizzle · Post by **Zizzle** » Sun Jun 03, 2012 9:36 pm

I feel much better now, thanks. The belly deflated, the D is only 1-2/day but still urgent and watery. My energy is back and I'm eating very carefully. I'm still having a hard time accepting that some small amount of gluten - something I could not see - could make me feel so deathly ill. My upper body skin rashes have gotten worse (more red, tiny bumps and itchiness), not sure if it's related to the flare. I'll be making a dermatologist appt this week. Hopefully he's heard of mast cells...

Gabes-Apg · Post by **Gabes-Apg** » Mon Jun 04, 2012 12:08 am

Zizzle
glad to hear you are a feeling a bit better

years ago (ie 14+ years ago) when is first sought Naturopathic support for my IBS, i was doing the food combining eating plan.
no protein or carbs at the same time, any fruit was consumed a minimum of 30 mins before any protein or carb.
after about 3 mths or so, if ate protein and carb together i would vomit. My body got a point where it couldnt digest it. The eating plan did help the IBS, but at the time it was too restrictive work wise and socialising wise, as those were the times it was near impossible not to have protein and carb together, so i stopped. One group of friends thought i was bulimbic as everytime i ate at their place i would end up in their bathroom vomitting.
(if only i knew then what i now know.... i might have stuck with it)

in the case where your body is not coping then sometimes purging is the only option. in your case some of the damage was already done and you have had the mast cell reaction.