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Reaction after eating Naan bread - does this sound like an allergic reaction? UPDATED BELOW

12K views 17 replies 12 participants last post by  monkeybum 
#1 ·
I've eaten Indian Butter chicken a million times, along with naan bread and never had a problem. I have no known allergies, (other than a weird blotching of the face and neck after eating shrimp last time - had always eaten shrimp no problem, but have avoided it since).

So tonight we're at the mall food court and I had naan bread, butter chicken and basmati rice. I also had a nibble of my son's onion rings. My 3 year old shared my butter chicken. I ate it over the course of about 20 minutes and felt fine, just a little "heat" on my tongue from the curry.

After the meal, I took a few nibbles of the naan bread and within about 30 seconds to a minute I felt funny - very light headed, dizzy, like I was going to pass out, and my heart was just racing like crazy. Then I got super hot all over, like from the inside - even my arms were red.

It all calmed down and I returned to normal about 10 minutes later, but I felt "weird" for about another 10 minutes. I had a mild tummy upset for about 1/2 an hour, and now I feel fine. (This was at about 6:30 pm -it's now 9:30pm).

Could this have been an allergic reaction? If so, to what? I wondered if it was something in the naan as I ate the butter chicken over the course of almost 1/2 an hour and felt fine, then as soon as I had the naan it hit. Everyone else I was with (3 and 6 year old plus my friend and her kids) all shared every thing else I ate, but nobody else ate the naan but me, and everyone else was fine.

Should I tell my doctor about this? I have a phobia of allergic reactions so I'm not sure how much to worry about this, but don't want to get freaked out - I've literally just gotten over having panic attacks before I eat ANYTHING as I am always worried I'm going to suddenly be allergic to it (my phobia came on about 2 years ago, and went away about 3 months ago). This was definitely a real reaction though - and my heart was pounding like crazy and I felt like I was going to black out and couldn't catch my breath - more than just a panic attack as I've had many and there was more to this.

Could it have been the curry in the butter chicken making me hot? It was like an internal heat, even my arms got red, and I've never felt like that after spicy food before. It was unlike anything I've ever felt before - the closest I've come is after drinking red wine, but this was a more sudden intense heat through my body, wine is usually just my face.

Thoughts? I emailed the company to ask the ingredients in the naan bread.

I did have this same weird feeling with racing heart and dizziness, (minus the heat) last time I had thai food, but a much milder version. My husband had the same feeling and we asked the restaurant if there was MSG in the food as we both felt so weird, they insisted no.

This was just so intense, quick and I was so hot and felt so much dizzier/weird.

TIA
 
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#2 ·
I just remembered another "kind of" related reaction - after eating a tuna sandwich and some mini cucumbers I got really cold, then I started to feel light headed. It was during my "phobia" phase and I started to have a panic attack, and I was convinced I was allergic to tuna.

But then after I stopped having panic attacks 3 months ago, I tried tuna and have had it a few times since with no problems. Same with cucumber, no problems, so maybe and likely totally unrelated.

I just read the thing about the dropping of blood pressure and it made me remember that.

I'm starting to feel panicky and don't want to get phobic about this again!!
 
#3 ·
What other foods were fried with the onion rings that you shared of your son's? Is it possible there was fried shrimp or something and it was all a shellfish reaction?

Anyone can develop allergies at any time though, so it's possible that it's something new.
 
#5 ·
The onion rings were from A&W and I don't think they have shrimp there, probably would have only been fried with fries.

The place I got the naan from serves a shrimp wrap, or a shrimp curry. I'm wondering if there was cross-contamination on the grill where they grilled the naan bread (perhaps they grill a shrimp wrap there?). I'll see what their head office says - I asked what else they might have grilled on there.

Now I'm afraid to eat.

Is it most likely something on the naan? This is what my gut tells me since I ate all of the other stuff, but the "weird" lightheaded feeling came within about 30 seconds to a minute of my first bite of the naan. Then I had a second bite and I felt worse, then I had a third and clued in and stopped eating it, that is when I nearly passed out.

Does that mean my blood pressure dropped if I suddenly felt dizzy and lightheaded, like I couldn't breath and I was going to pass out, my heart started pounding. Soon afterwards came the heat.

Or is it possible it was something in the curry and it just took a while to develop?

This is so frustrating. I feel like I'm panicking now - what the heck do I eat if I don't know what it is?

I understand that statistically deaths from allergic reaction are quite rare. If I get that feeling again should I administer an epi-pen right away - every time I get lightheaded and heart racing right after eating?

This is so stressful for me - one of the basis for my anxiety (among other things) is that I have no-one that I trust with my children, and my fear since my second child was born is that if I die, I don't know who could care for them. Now this is pushing me back in to huge feelings of anxiety. I knew I had this phobia before but it was unrealistic as I had no allergies and had eaten every highly allergenic food a million times, now it's like my worst nightmare come true.

Last night I had a dream that I was chewing on all these sesame seeds and they were stuck in my teeth and I couldn't chew them...(a co-worker is anaphylactic to sesame and it's one I used to be quite worried as part of my phobia).
TIA.
 
#6 ·
Here are the ingredients of the onion rings - I did eat an onion ring between bites of the naan, so it's possible it was that, but I'd had a few earlier and it doesn't sound like there would be anything in here I haven't had a million times:

Details :
Onion Rings: Spanish type onions.
Batter: WHEAT FLOUR, YELLOW CORN FLOUR, CORN STARCH, MILK INGREDIENTS, DEFATTED SOY FLOUR, PALM OIL SHORTENING, SOY PROTEIN ISOLATE WITH SOY LECITHIN), SALT, BAKING POWDER (SODIUM BICARBONATE, MONOCALCIUM PHOSPHATE), SODIUM ALUMINUM PHOSPHATE

A&W Breadcrumbs: toasted wheat crumbs with spices (wheat flour, salt, vegetable oil shortening (soybean), baking power, spices)

A&W Seasoning: salt, spices, sugar, dehydrated garlic & onions, corn starch, dextrose, silicon dioxide, whey, flour, colour, maltodextrin, flavour, soybean oil, canola oil, citric acid, sulphites

Note: All deep fried products are cooked in a non-hydrogenated, high stability canola oil that has zero trans fats.


Although I generally try to avoid sulphites, I've had things many, many times with sulphites in them with no problems. I hope I can get the list of ingredients for the naan.
 
#7 ·
Here are the ingredients to the naan bread:
REGULAR NAAN

· UNBLEACHED ENRICHED WHEAT FLOUR

· BUTTERMILK

· HOMOGENIZED MILK

· EGGS

· CANOLA AND/OR SOYBEAN OIL

· SUGAR

· BAKING POWDER

· SALT

· GHEE

· DEXTROSE

· DEXTRIN

· CARROT FIBER

· YEAST

I believe Ghee is just clarified butter. Something is fishy here though because none of those ingredients sound like they would cause a reaction - I've had them all a million times, and there were little black seeds, likely carroway seeds in it that are not listed here.

The company says the grill is only used for naan so little chance of cross contamination.

Could it possibly be some kind of blood presssure/heart related issue? Would that make me feel hot afterwards?
 
#8 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by monkeybum View Post
The company says the grill is only used for naan so little chance of cross contamination.
Well, I wouldn't take this as an absolute. Also, there are a million ways to contaminate in the kitchen. Perhaps a worker handled shrimp and then handled the naan. If I had a severe allergy to something and it was being used in the kitchen at a restaurant (or in the home kitchen of someone who wasn't super duper careful) I wouldn't eat food from there.
 
#9 ·
I was going to suggest possibly heart or blood pressure/blood sugar issue. The fact that you were having palpitations is a concern, that and the fact that the reaction only lasted for about 10 minutes without any type of intervention. I personally would probably go with benedryl in hand and try the Naan again. If it happened again, I would go to the ER as well.
 
#10 ·
Here are the ingredients of the rest of what I had:
BASMATI RICE
*BASMATI RICE
*CANOLA OIL
*CLOVES
*SALT

BUTTER CHICKEN
*CHICKEN
*YOGHURT
*SALT
*CAYENNE PEPPER
*GARLIC
*WHITE VINEGAR
*CANOLA OIL
*TURMERIC
*GARAM MASALA
*FOOD COLORING CREAM
*CHICKEN
*TOMATO PASTE
*ONIONS
*CANOLA OIL
*POTATO STARCH
*SALT
*GARLIC
*CAYENNE PEPPER
*CUMIN
*TURMERIC
*YOGHURT
*WHITE VINEGAR
*GARAM MASALA
*FOOD COLORING

Nothing that I haven't had before. I suppose it could very easily be a cross contamination of shrimp. I just am not sure if I am allergic to shrimp or not - had that one issue of blotching after eating shrimp and drinking pink zinfandel wine. It was nothing like this though.

This is baffling. I think I will make an appt to see a doctor for sure. I was thinking maybe heart related too. I have been a little more out of breath than normal the past few weeks, but I've also gained a lot of weight recently so I thought it was that.

I just realized that I had barely eaten all day too -toast and scone for breakfast around 9:30 that day, then just a rice krispie square about 3pm after working through lunch (with no lunch). Maybe it's related to eating on an empty stomache?

So frustrating to not know what this was!

Does it sound like an allergic reaction even for those who've seen/had one?

The "whole" thing lasted about 10 minutes from the sudden lightheaded feeling I was about to pass out, to being totally back to "normal" where I could get up and walk around. The initial dizziness was about 2 or 3 minutes, followed by sudden feeling of blacking out, for about 2 minutes, then the "hot" part was probably about 3 minutes. Then my heart started to slow down, I started to feel less dizzy etc. and returned to almost normal within a few minutes. So "start to finish" was about 10 minutes (where I didn't feel quite right).
 
#11 ·
Again, I think you need to calm down about it being an allergy. Could it be? Sure it could be but given your other history I would really look into it as a last resort cause. I think you should not do anything (ie diet modification or anything like that) till you see your Dr.

Good Luck
 
#12 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by monkeybum View Post
Something is fishy here though because none of those ingredients sound like they would cause a reaction - I've had them all a million times, and there were little black seeds, likely carroway seeds in it that are not listed here.
FWIW, the seeds were likely kalonji. Black poppy sometimes substitutes.
 
#14 ·


Usually anaphylactic reactions would not subside like that.

I would be careful about shrimp (and eating at places that also prepare it) until you can get allergy testing for shrimp and shellfish. If you're allergic you'd want an epi pen. Carry benadryl. I wouldn't eat at that place until you know you're not shrimp allergic.

But, given your history and fear I'm wondering if, instead, your anxiety is switching up on you. That has happened to me. Is it possible you have OCD? Your description of your fear sounds like that to me and you could/should treat that for sure.
 
#15 ·
Do you have any heart conditions by any chance? Or panic attacks? Both a heart arithmia and a panic attack feel like what you described when I've had them. Both my mom and a friend have said they felt like that with a heart arithmia and another friend agreed that a panic attack felt like that.

 
#17 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by monkeybum View Post
Nothing that I haven't had before. I suppose it could very easily be a cross contamination of shrimp. I just am not sure if I am allergic to shrimp or not - had that one issue of blotching after eating shrimp and drinking pink zinfandel wine. It was nothing like this though.
I think wine has lots of sulphites.

Quote:
Sounds like blood sugar to me, and then maybe you were having a mild panic attack about it?
Sounds very possible to me.
 
#18 ·
Thanks everyone.

I'm 40, so maybe a hot flash? Weird that the heat was just after almost blacking out. And weird that it coincided with just finishing a meal I'd never had before (at least not from that place).

I do get panic attacks, so the heart beating thing could be that - but it all started with the blacking out feeling. Maybe I started to black out and that caused me a panic attack? But why the heat permeating from within? And what caused me to nearly black out in the first place?

I've never had the heat or the blacking out from a panic attack...

Hmmmm....

But it sounds like maybe it is not an allergy. I wonder if it could be related to the fact that the Butter Chicken was spicy????

I just hate the not knowing, and it was very scary so I don't want to eat that again...and I will be avoiding shrimp!!!
 
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