Donīt get me wrong, Ana, chocolate has indeed triggered me before, like the last straw issue and Joan, it was a chocolate that had a high content of cacao. It is the chocolate and if you eat a bunch of M & Ms youīll find yourself with a lovely flush just due to the chocolate. It is indeed an issue for us like Spinich and Tomatoes and certain cheeses.
However, first, everything in moderation and two, these things only when you are doing well!! On a bad day I could never take even a bite of chocolate and bittersweet is usually more concentrated than milk chocolate and it was bittersweet which triggered me.
Yet, again, on a good day I can handle almost any one of these foods except spinich. Thatīs the one which I just canīt seem to handle even on a good day. It will send me racing to the bathroom.
And I donīt think that itīs really so much whether the chocolate is white or dark, the issue here are the enzymes and the histamine content. Iīve seen the fruit of cacau and had it in my home one time. A friend of mine had just come back from Manaus which is in the Amazon and brought me the cacau fruit as a curiosity knowing Iīd never seen the fruit before (cashew is also a fruit where the nut hangs down off the bottom of the fruit). Fruits are tricky things for us as some of them have MC degranulation properties. Cacau is one of them. Itīs a MC degranulator which is why it upsets our systems. This is why white chocolate is the same for itīs made from the pulp of the fruit whereas dark chocolate is made from the seed itself. This is why white chocolate has the vague flavor of chocolate for the fruit itself is sweet and has the flavor of chocolate all through it. Again, itīs a MC degranulator and this is why itīs trouble for us.
I just had a reaction to a spray of propolis, a natural antibiotic which is an extract from honey. 3 sprays of this burned the back of my throat, my esophagus and stomach and almost put me into anaphyalxis! I also had a fever that evening and some syncope as well! Just from 3 sprays of the stuff!!! This happened just the day before yesterday. On looking now on the internet about propolis and mast cell degranulation I came up with an article which confirms that is has this properly of causing MC degranulation!! Who would have guessed for itīs a common spray for fighting sore throats and infections here in Brazil. Itīs becoming known in Europe and the States as well. But my doctors would NEVER have warned me about it for NOBODY ever reacts to the stuff!!! They would have said that the burning in the back of my throat was due to the virus Iīd just gone through!!!
This is why itīs tricky dealing with things for us for there are MANY things out there which are known to have this property of MC degranulation - even "natural" products!!!!
Too much care seems to be never enough when you have masto!!
Hugs and my hopes for a more STABLE 2012, Ana!!
Happy New Year!
LISA