<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>>

My daughter has been very ill and her GP has referred
her to a rheumatologist because of elevated ANA
levels.  While we're waiting for that appointment to
come around, her GP prescribed a round of cortisone to
try and get her on her feet again and back in school.


It helped some, but as the dosage diminished, she lost
her energy again.  The relentless fatigue and dark
circles under her eyes, and the palor to her skin,
really made me think that food was somehow still an
issue, even though we were certain that she had not
been contaminated (we can't eat gluten, casein or
legumes).

Last weekend, one of my son's friends brought him a
huge bag of Skittles.  My son told me he knew they
were safe because I had checked them a long time ago,
but I couldn't remember for certain, so I consulted
Dea's list again.

As it turns out, Skittles are indeed gluten and
casein-free, which must have been the only proteins I
was checking for when Dea first posted her list.  We
only discovered later that legumes, including soy,
gave all of us trouble, too.  And guess what?
Skittles have soy in them.

My daughter was in the room when I warned my son about
the soy in the candy, and you should have seen the
look on her face.  "Oh, my gosh," she said, "I've been
eating Skittles every day at school."  When I had been
asking asking, "What did you eat today?" she never
mentioned Skittles, thinking they were casein and
gluten-free (and probably knowing that I would just
generally disapprove of candy everyday anyway).

So, now that she's gluten-free, casein-free and
Skittle-free, she's actually starting to feel better!
We are still following through, of course, with the
rheumatologist (I haven't heard that soy could be
responsible for raising ANA levels, or that it could
account for all of the other symptoms that she has
had), but I am hopeful that she will continue to
improve in the interim and that she won't be facing
other serious autoimmune troubles as we had begun to
fear.

Thanks, Dea, for your work in putting that list
together and for making it available to everyone.  I
don't know that we would have stumbled across this
answer without it!

Deborah in OKC





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