A little over a month ago, I started the pseudoallergen-free diet (PAD). This diet is in addition to low histamine and low salicylate diets I've been following for nearly a year. I also avoid grains, because they trigger me as well. And, just today, I figured out that dairy is a problem, too. Blergh. Anyhow...

A few weeks ago, I read several scientific journal articles on treating chronic urticaria with PAD, which varied slightly across articles. I chose the diet from this article - Incremental build-up food challenge – a new diagnostic approach to evaluate pseudoallergic reactions in chronic urticaria: a pilot study - and went with it for three weeks. During the complete pseudoallergen elimination phase, I found that certain emulsifiers, thickeners, and stabilizers (such as guar gum and soy lecithin) that had been in my cream cheese, cottage cheese, and vanilla chips seemed to be triggers. During week one of adding a few pseudoallergen foods back to my diet, I found that dairy is a trigger.

However, while typing this I also just realized that all the emulsifiers, thickeners, and stabilizers were in products that contained dairy.  
If I ever find a product without dairy, but with one of those ingredients, I'll have to test it out.

Anyhow, I wanted to share this diet. Maybe it can help someone else identify some triggers, too.

Joan, I did! After eliminating all dairy products and seeing such improvement, I thought the additives were the triggers. (I had been eating quite a bit of cream cheese with stabilizers and small amounts of plain milk, cream, or half and half every few days or so.) So, I kept avoiding additives and started making custard at home with plain milk. I quickly regained all my symptoms and then crashed hard one evening when I ate a ton of it. (It was delicious!)

When I'm more stable again, if I run across any foods I can tolerate that have the additives I eliminated, I'll try one. For now, I'm still working on recovering from custard fest 2013.