Steve, I have had a bad sense of smell all my life, as far back as I can remember. My Mom thinks it is because I wore my brothers boots & walked down the steps & fell flat on my nose. I was 4 and he was 9. Doctors tell me I have a deviated septum. The left side of my nose is always stuffed up. I have also had a bad memory for as long as I can remember. I have never made the connection until I read your comment. That makes sense. I understand the disconnect feeling. Thank you.

Possibly an antihistamine or anti inflammatory might help. If you try either or both, please post with your results, positive or otherwise.

My reaction to sunflower has recently become very similar to peanuts; extreme irritability. For years I would simply get a sinus headache from sunflower products, but it seems to have morphed. I recently relocated from the US to Germany, and wonder if there is a difference in sunflower products here that is behind the more severe reactions.

I would welcome any links to more information on these reactions and what I can do about them, other than food avoidance. It seems like sunflower oil is hidden in many commercial products, and is used in cooking many restaurant foods.

I know what you mean, Scott, I feel the same way when I accidentally eat gluten. For me, and by the sounds of it you as well, the anger is partly because gluten makes me really irritable and stressed out, and partly because I get annoyed at making a stupid mistake/allowing someone else to poison me or whatever, and know I’ll be miserable for weeks.

It helps if you just let go of the anger. Just tell yourself that you’ll get through it and tomorrow will be another better day. You don’t have to get angry, that actually is a choice.

Hope that helps, it does work for me (although I’m not saying it’s easy).

now i noticed that having a bowl of musli, mostly containg oats and traces of gluten puts me in an awfull mood! like crying for no reason and realy short tempered only 2 hours after having it. i notice i feel like im in a bad mood whenever having this… i wondered if it was linked. also thought perhaps if i had gone on this gluten free diet years before my allergies started i may not have allergies in the first place. i hear they are very much linked with digestion.

Well, at least you know that pizza contains ingredients you can’t eat. That sounds like a shock to the system though!

I have more thoughts about this which I shared in a new article Food Elimination Diet – Finishing it Right.