I have known for a very long time that I can't eat Bell peppers. I would get bad indigestion from them which sometimes lasted a couple days. So I've always been pretty careful to avoid any food that might be cooked with them.
It seems that my bouts with Bell pepper-related indigestion have been occurring more frequently in recent years (coinciding with the aging process!) and have gotten a little more severe in my reaction to them. I've tried to stay away from the term "allergy", choosing rather to claim a "sensitivity" to the enzyme in them.
As Graham and I have been able to travel more extensively since his retirement, I notice that I need to be more careful with my diet, especially in foreign countries. Since we began traveling with Grand Circle, however, some of that burden has been transferred to the company. This was especially true when we took a river trip in France. Upon notification of my "allergy" the Kitchen manager hovered over my meals every day, assuring a pepper free environment for me to enjoy! It was touching, but more than that, very health-full.
And that brings me to the subject of this post. For several months I have been experiencing symptoms of something more than indigestion with just about everything I eat. One or two days a week I would feel badly enough to postpone appointments and stay in bed. After Treasure died it seemed that my body just let down and the aggravating distress took over. Finally, I had had enough and called the gastroenterologist for an appointment.
After a check of my esophagus, stomach, small intestine, and ultrasound of my upper organs, the preliminary finding was gastritis. All the test results were negative, which should have made me very happy. But I still had this growing problem that produced very unladylike belches. And I was getting little help from the doctor.
So, the day after the unproductive appointment I began to search the internet for causes. I put in Bell pepper allergies on a whim and hit the jackpot! Among the foods that contain the enzyme that causes the allergy were sweet pepper, paprika, green pepper, hot pepper, red pepper, cayenne pepper, pimiento, and Mexican peppers. My little nemesis has friends! And the reactions from this allergy range from itching to rash to belching to constricted breathing and death. Yikes!
Graham went straight to the refrigerator and began looking at labels. You can't imagine how many processed foods contain some fashion of one of these peppers. We threw out several bottles of salad dressing, a half eaten container of pimento cheese (my favorite), several boxes of flavored crackers and chips. I came to the conclusion that I have been systematically poisoning myself for years.
I think it will take some time to rid my system from the months of eating these foods, but I am already feeling the cleansing effects in my body. I'm grateful for the results of the tests which show a generally healthy inside of me. And am so appreciative of the technology we now take for granted called the internet. When used for good it can be a godsend. I consider the information I got from it to be "God-sent."
