The father of Medicine, Hippocrates, said, “Let thy food be thy medicine and thy medicine be thy food.” This discussion contains information found by some members to be helpful for controlling the symptoms of microscopic colitis, by diet alone, or in conjunction with certain medications.
Hi!
My Husband just came home from Costco with a bag of "Kirkland fruit and nuts." I can't have cashews and this mix is perfect for me. However, it states that this food is processed on equipment that uses tree nuts, eggs, wheat, etc. Does anyone know just how far wee have to go to stay away from ANY contact to our allergens?
I haven't opened it yet, so I can still return it. Any input would be greatly appreciated as I am just beginning to put my kitchen together. My Husband is a gourmet cook, so he is not too happy right now that I can't eat most of his foods. This is the pits...Uh oh...I might just be allergic to those too! :)
Trish,
I was a gourmet cook, and I guess still am when I have the energy to cook. I am really limited in the foods I can eat, so it's been a challenge to produce food. The first year and a 1/2 I cooked up a storm. Made all sorts of things to try. For the last 6 months I have had NO energy, and have difficulty standing in the kitchen, so I have been eating very basic foods. Baked potatoes, grilled something, some sort of veg sometimes. Not always.
A good cook can adapt recipes. If you can have eggs it makes a HUGE difference to what you can make.
Nice to have a gourmet cook hubby. Present him with a challenge.
Many/most food processors put those warnings on their non-allergenic products just to cover their butts, in case something unanticipated happens. In most cases the products are safe, because the processors are very conscientious about cleaning their equipment when they switch products.
There are probably a few out there that simply switch products and throw away all the output for a while, and then start saving the output when it appears to be pure (again, depending on the products and their sequencing). There is always a risk that a few remnants of the previous batch might be hanging in a corner of a bin or a machine somewhere, and they could get knocked loose and fall into the current batch. The risk of course depends on the type of product, and the type of processing and bagging equipment used. I have limited familiarity with such production lines (I used to be in the food corn business, and I often watched some of my customers' chip and tortilla production lines in operation, and I occasionally was on hand when they were cleaning the equipment in preparation for switching products), and in general, I would rate such risks as quite low. As always though, the ultimate risk still depends on the dedication and attention to detail maintained by supervisors and workers (and the types of products that go down those production lines). I would think that a fruit and nut mix should be a relatively low-risk product, as far as cross-contamination is concerned.
Personally, I would be more concerned about my own ability to tolerate the various fruits and nuts in the mix, since many of us cannot tolerate various fruits and nuts. I'm somewhat unique, in that I can't tolerate any nuts of any type, for example, including almonds. I can, however, use almond milk without any problems. Some members here can't tolerate nuts while they are recovering, but they can tolerate nut butters.
While it may be true that variety is the spice of life, when we are recovering from an MC flare, a good general rule to follow is that less variety in our diet typically leads to a faster recovery, with fewer problems with setbacks. That said, in some cases we can handle fruits and nuts, as long as we limit the serving size (dosage).
Good luck with this, whatever you decide to do.
Tex
It is suspected that some of the hardest material known to science can be found in the skulls of GI specialists who insist that diet has nothing to do with the treatment of microscopic colitis.
Tex, you are a wealth of information! I know everyone on here and myself included are greatfull that we have someone so knowledgeable and intelligent. You should be a Gastroenterologist!!
Thank you Lesley for the positive encouragement! Much appreciated. I sure do hope that you are feeling better soon. I will be praying for you.
T
hanks again for your good suggestions!
~Trish
This is the pits...Uh oh...I might just be allergic to those too! :)
