I’ve been a good eater all my life, and, except for one or two things which I don’t digest too well, have been able to say “no dietary restrictions” whenever asked.
About a month and a half ago, though, I started feeling sick after eating seafood. Not acutely ill, just stomach upset/moderate nausea and unease. At first, I ignored it and figured it was a fluke (no pun intended), but I eat a lot of fish and shellfish and it became obvious that the issue occurred every single time I ingested more than a couple of bites. I experimented a little, and there didn’t seem to be any limitations (tuna is okay, but shrimp are not, that kind of thing).
This is very upsetting to me, as I love all seafood and travel to Japan often specifically for the fish. I did some research and found out that fish intolerance isn’t all that uncommon and can develop suddenly as an adult. The good news is that many people report that it goes away if you abstain from seafood for “some period of time” and begin eating it again “at a later date.”
My question is, how long? Weeks, months, years? Has this happened to anyone on the board, and do you have any experiences you could share?
I just had a similar experience with oysters 2 months ago and got ill enough to go to the emergency room because of it. Just like you I thought it was a one-off incident so when I had a crab cake 2-3 weeks later and started getting hives and having trouble breathing I popped a benedryl and just figured that that’s it for me and shellfish. Some things are not worth dying for.
That is too bad. My partner has ongoing food intolerance issues, most of which developed in her 30s (so about 20 years ago) and so I have a good idea of what a pain they can be. I’m afraid her story is not very encouraging. Perhaps with fish, the prognosis/progression can be different.
The first food items she started reacting to was rye/wheat and she has symptoms very similar to what you report --intestinal upset and digestive issues. It took us a while to figure out what the problem was and she eliminated it completely from her diet. That issue has not resolved over the last 20 years and now she’ll have a reaction even if she accidentally ingests some toast crumbs (that I may have inadvertently left on the butter )
Every couple of years it seems something new and seemingly random is added to the list of things she can’t tolerate – lentils, squash, eggplant all now have to be avoided. For her, eliminating those foods from her diet means she has a more virulent reaction to them when she does encounter them.
My daughter’s story (she’s 14) is a little more encouraging. She is a dairy fiend. If she overdoes yoghurt or ice-cream, she’ll have a violent skin reaction. It’s actually quite scary because you can see the hives/welts appearing in real time on her body and spreading uncontrollably. However, if she backs off from dairy for a couple of weeks and then doesn’t overdo it, she can tolerate a moderate amount of cheese, milk, or whatever without any problem
So hopefully your fish reaction will turn out to be more like this.
My son, pushing 50 just had a similar reaction recently to eating fish.
I have had to shy away from eggs since my twenties when given sulfa after an accident. I could eat small quantities when in food. but after a trip to Italy 15 years ago, when spending too much time in hot springs and eating pasta and drinking mineral water, I became overly sensitized to any food containing sulfur. Half my previous diet was eliminated, mostly from the cabbage family which I dearly loved.
My wife had a fish intolerance, similar to what you describe. All of sudden fish she ate for years, she could no longer tolerate. She had testing done at our doctor to determine if they could narrow it down, but they actually came back negative. She didn’t eat fish for 3-4 months than slowly reintroduced it back into her diet. Zero problems since then.
She also had the same issue with eggs.
Yep, developed a shellfish allergy in my mid 20s. One day my face turned red and hot eating crab, the next time my chest started to tighten up eating shrimp and that was the end of shellfish for me.
About a year ago I starting having issues any time I ate. Bloating, nauseous and throwing up all night. It took months of testing but I was finally diagnosing with gastroparesis. Unfortunately now I can only eat very small (2oz!) meals. Hopefully your issues are only temporary. Not being able to enjoy food really sucks!
I can no longer eat shellfish, and that truly sucks. It used to be just oysters, but now even shrimp will give me trouble. Bright red, chest pain, unfun…
I have a problem with fish. First it was certain fish, then most any fish. Got away with calimari, (breaded with sauce), shrimp, crab and lobster if I had a sauce to conceal any fish flavors for years but if I get a really fishy one, my throat closes, I’m unable to swallow and have trouble breathing and better be close to a bathroom. I’m pretty sure my problem is psychosomatic versus allergic, but it has limited my range of food. I have never tried Sushi to this day out of fear of the reaction I might have. I lived in Japan for three years and never had an opportunity to “enjoy” their fish dishes but I did try a few before learning there were great vegetable dishes and a $30 steak in 1962 was worth every penny.
I’d take a serious 60-90 days away and then dial in just a little high-end cooked fish and see how that goes. You may have a learning curve as you re-expand your fish tolerances if that first meal after a rest goes well.
There was a radiolab episode about someone who becomes allergic to meat later in life, as well as the medical cause: Alpha Gal.
Probably unrelated, but you may find it interesting or at least moderately entertaining. (Not one of their better episodes but everything they do is pretty good.)
Thanks, all. Some encouraging words here. I actually did go to the doctor and was told that 1) there’s no such thing as fish intolerance and 2) if it bothers me to eat it, stop eating it. She asked a whole bunch of other questions, of course, and ran various tests. Found nothing wrong with me. I plan to see another doctor, who practices both western and various less mainstream medicines, to follow up.
I have been off fish for two weeks now. Timing is bad, though, as we’re heading to Galicia in two weeks and I will be faced with amazing seafood at every meal. I will probably eat it anyway and deal with the discomfort, providing it remains relatively mild, then do a real elimination when we return.
Wow, sounds like the old joke (‘Doctor, it hurts when I do this’) - I hope that your second consultation is more enlightening. Good luck, and have a great trip.
Sarah,
I got real bad stomach cramps that would come in waves after eating crawfish at age 23. I thought it was just a bad batch for the boil.
A month later, it happened again.
I would get waves of cramping few hours after ingesting.
It then moved to shrimp, crab and then horrors, lobster…and it is this way today.
However, I can eat fish, oysters, no prob.
I think somehow my body developed an aversion to iodine.
Up until then, I ate shrimp all the time.
I had this happen to me with shrimp and (especially) scallops. No real problems but the smell and or taste made me queasy. Others at the table could have them but I couldn’t. I cannot remember, nor can my wife, exactly when this happened; I didn’t get food poisoning or anything. It wasn’t a big deal, I just quite cooking them at home or ordering them out. About 2 years ago shrimp started sounding better and about a year ago I started eating scallops again. Both have to be fresh and well prepared to its a no-go for me.
I did some research and talked to my doctor who basically told me the solution was to stop eating shrimp and scallops. So, yes, the exact same thing happened to me and it went away with time.
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