Strange reaction to tallow?! Help appreciated

(David) #1

I have severe CFS/ME. I switched to a keto diet 3 years ago which helped a lot with sudden onset blood sugar issues, and was able to eat a pretty varied keto diet. However, several months ago, I deteriorated and began to develop intolerances very suddenly. It began with salicylates – avocados were giving me breathing problems, so I had to cut them out, then robust olive oils, nuts, etc.

For the past 2 months, I’ve been down to meat, chicken, eggs, fresh garden salads and peanut butter (plus a little coconut oil in coffee). I began to notice that even ‘natural’ peanut butters were causing issues; I assumed they could be too rich/oily so switched to a spread and was okay, but then even that became problematic. I was also boiling eggs to avoid using oil, and noticed that would give me GI distress.

I began to freak out because it seemed I was running out of fat options, and keto with protein alone doesn’t seem sustainable (fat is calming, helps me sleep etc). Someone on a forum suggested trying tallow. So I bought a fancy bottle of grass fed tallow online and made sure to scramble my eggs in it last night (plus I dissolved some tallow in hot water to drink for extra fat to sleep). Shortly after eating the tallow-eggs, I was hit by sinus congestion, anxiety, diarrhea. I slept okay but today have the worst brain fog and feel like I have the flu.

Can anyone guess why this might happen? Is it adaptation? I’ve read tallow can cause detox symptoms. I just can’t see why I would be intolerant since I eat fatty meat without issue, and eggs have never caused this reaction so I have to assume it’s the tallow. Really at a loss here.

(Edith) #2

Sounds like histamine intolerance. The foods you mentioned are also foods high in histamine. You may want to look into it.

(Lonnie Hedley) #3

I’m trying to cut out any high histamine items to see if it helps with some skin issues. I have high hopes. Along with some morning sinus issues. Inflammation. I don’t care how good a food tastes if it makes me feel suboptimal.

(Bob M) #4

Tallow has histamines?

(David) #5

But tallow and lard are listed as safe on low histamine diets? This reaction clearly seems to be to the tallow since I’m normally okay with scrambled eggs.

(Bob M) #6

Best thing to do: test tallow by itself to see what happens. If no reaction, it’s not the tallow.

(Bunny) #7

Leaky gut (food your eating is going directly into your blood stream rather than being digested properly; holes punched from pre-keto diet in-between the tight junctions in your stomach lining).

Maybe start eating bone broth to get the glutathione levels up? To heal/seal up a possible leaky gut that MIGHT be the core of the issue and once you resolve that then you might be able to tolerate the foods that were once intolerable OR “… the two enzymes that are responsible for breaking down histamine are not working (under active)? They are DAO (diamine oxidase) and HNMT (histamine-N-methyl-transferase). When these enzymes aren’t working like they should (vitamin B-9 and B-12 deficiency)—or if we are genetically wired (MTHFR?) to have underactive enzymes—we begin to show signs of histamine intolerance. …”…More

Why Bone Broth is good for histamine intolerances and auto-immunity issues & why eliminate allergic foods then reintroduce them?:

  1. Can Food Sensitivities Be Reversed Or Are They For Life? - Dr. Will Cole
  1. How to Naturally Treat Your Allergies - Dr. Kelly Ann
  1. Can You Really Reverse Food Allergies?
  1. Yes, You Can Reverse Food Allergies: How I Did It
  1. The Hidden Food Intolerance That Could Be At The Root Of Your Inflammation
(Katie) #8

Maybe not anymore? Perhaps you developed an intolerance to them, that often happens when people eat them too often. That could be why the boiled eggs also did not agree with you.

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #9

I don’t react to tallow or lard, and I am asthmatic and allergic to anything and everything airborne, so breathing problems ‘r’ me!

Are you by any chance taking a beta blocker for any reason? The doctor who diagnosed my asthma warned me that aspirin and beta blockers can bring on an asthma attack. So if salicylates are now affecting your breathing, that means you have probably become sensitive to beta blockers, as well. I’ve been mostly okay the few times I’ve taken aspirin in the last eighteen years, but found out the hard way that beta blockers are a real problem for me.

My mother developed breathing problems in her forties, and with the help of a good allergist discovered that they—and some other weird, idiosyncratic reactions—were the results of allergies to her favorite foods, among them tomatoes, cheeses, and eggs. It might be worthwhile going in for a battery of sensitivity tests. The allergist explained that often people turn out to be allergic to their favorite foods, because apparently part of the allergic reaction is a craving for the allergen. Or at least, that’s how I remember his explanation, as Mom relayed it. It was a while ago.

(Consensus is Politics) #10

There can be so many variables tracking down a problem like this. It’s also possible to be a combination. Beware of jumping to conclusions. Simply because you cut out a certain food (let’s say boiled eggs) doesn’t mean that was the problem or not. Could depend on the time of day, the perfume/aftershave, even the water you drank. You would really need to log pretty much everything you do up to the point of having a reaction, and continue to do this for several days and look for the trend.

I have a lot of pine trees around my house. Twice a year we get pollen drifts. Think snow drift, made of pollen. Sometimes about an inch thick drift on the front porch, of a good 1/4” on the windshield of my car. On the day that begins I know is coming as my allergies and asthma start to perk up.

(Bob M) #11

And also test multiple times, with items by themselves. If you think tallow is a problem, test it by eating it and only it, separated by say a few hours from eating anything else. And test it at different times over the course of a few days or weeks (or whenever you can). If you do two things at once, you cannot tell which one caused the issue. Ideally, you would make one change at one time.

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #12

Another possibility is that some ingredient in that bottle of tallow you bought might be the source of your trouble. You might try buying beef fat from your butcher and rendering it for tallow yourself. I suspect you may find that your own rendered tallow will be fine.

ETA: How are you with butter, lard, and bacon grease?

(Edith) #13

Hey @Outdamnspot,

It’s been a little over a month since your original post. Have you figured out anything?

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #14

He doesn’t appear to have returned since starting this thread.