Because I don’t remember ever hearing that. But I do remember noticing, several months ago, that I seem to have become allergic to almonds. They upset my gut, causing weapon-grade gas and – well – explosive diarrhea. So I regretfully stopped eating almonds. They’re not my favorite nut but I used to eat them with enjoyment and of course they’re a common ingredient in cheap trail mix, which I love. For quite some time now I’ve been pouring trail mix in a bowl and picking out the almonds.
But all this weekend I felt like crap. No nausea at all, which would have suggested food poisoning, but painful gas and all the rest. It would normally have suggested to me that I’d been eating almonds, which I have not been. But it only just now occurred to me that I have been wolfing these things down all weekend…
…and sure enough these do list almonds among the ingredients.
Now, I truly love granola bars. Eat them all the time, whenever I can get them, and they’ve never had this effect on me. Also, trace amounts of almonds never bothered me before. I used to have to eat them by the handful before they became a problem. But growing evidence suggests I’m about to lose a food I really enjoy, because a formerly small problem is growing.
I’ve known a few people to become sensitive to things like that as they age. Keep an eye out for strawberry and tomato seeds to see if they cause issues as well.
Trail mix might be a problem since most of them seem to contain almonds, but it looks like there are quite a few granola bars without…
Yes, food allergies do develop with age. Same in canines tho there it seem to develop younger (proportionally).
Almond allergy, Im not familiar with. Read up on it and see if there’s any other foods in the almond group that you should avoid with an almond allergy.
your problem is right on the label, FIBER one. almonds are high in fiber as well. drop back on the fiber a tad. we older guys need some, but not too much.
If this was an allergic reaction, one thing to remember is that they can grow in intensity with every episode so be careful. It might be wise to get yourself tested for allergies. The last thing you want is to forget, have an almond bar and experience going into anaphylactic shock, when the nearest help is hours away.
Those are very high in fiber. Try only eating half and see if that helps.
Joel, you did yourself a huge favor by figuring out the cause of your distress. I don’t know if I would have successfully made that connection.
As others said above, yes, allergies can go away or they can ‘appear’ as one ages. And changing shape (getting/losing weight) can affect this also.
Other issues could be… too much fiber in a normally low fiber diet. Simple remedy is cut out the fiber. Or…
Gut issues like diverticulitis. Do the symptoms appear when eating small seedy things also?
But.. since this is a recent thing, associated with the recent influx of those bars, yeah, you pretty much pegged the cause, hopefully. (And it may not be the almonds but something else in the chewbar that is getting you, like one of the chemicals or some other filler…)
You can develop food *sensitivities* that will not show up in any allergy test. All you can do is keep track of what you eat and how you feel afterwards. Our youngest (30 last year) has developed a sensitivity to potatoes or potato starch. Almost impossible to weed out of things.
I get the same symptoms from those, I eat one a week otherwise I am in distress.
It’s the sugar alcohol. I can not eat anything fiber one makes. check the contents. Stay well, shannon
Though it could be an allergy, it would be an odd one. Allergies generally appear on the second exposure of a person to an antigen. I think it’s more likely to be a reaction in your digestive tract to certain foods.
I’m a endo nurse, so I see this a lot.
As we get older many of us develop gut conditions, such as diverticulosis, chrohn’s and similar, that react to certain food types.
The most common is diverticulosis. The easiest way to think of this condition is to think of your gi tract as a highway. When the highway is new, everything is smooth, traffic flows easily. As the road gets older and more abused, potholes form. Those potholes are the diverticula. As you know, potholes collect various crap. As long as they wash clean, no problem. When they don’t, the crap sits and festers, at which time diverticulitis can occur. Diet change is usually the answer to prevent this disease. Avoid foods with kernels or nibs (corn, black eyed peas, etc), small seeds (like strawberries), spicy foods, and nuts of all types. Essentially things that do not digest well or irritate the gi tract. This is what I call the cardboard diet- cause everything needs to be bland and well you might as well eat cardboard for all the flavor you’ll get.
Diverticulitis is painful, usually requires antibiotic treatment to clear up, and/or surgery if it gets to an advanced state. Untreated and at its most dangerous it can cause peritonitis, as the infection in those potholes will eat through your intestines and dump into your abdominal cavity; leading to a very painful end.
It could be one of the ingredients – or it could be a change in source or preparation. An example: I am not allergic to shrimp, but several years ago I had a reaction when I ate them – at the time, much of the shrimp in the country was imported from places that put HUGE doses of Penicillin on their shrimp. I AM allergic to Penicillin.
Once import laws started to be enforced, the problem went away because imports with too much penicillin (or growth hormone, or other stuff) got rejected.