Quite correct! My younger half-sister who shares similar issues with me (interestingly, our shared father has none of this, but of our non-shared mothers have some of our problems, but no where near the severity), made note to me of histamine levels for her problems, and she had a little benefit from a focus on that, but nothing substantial (and my brief testing of that so far wasn't particularly informative...). That's my intended focus after my allergy test results come in, as I'm still amongst other specific item testing I need to finalise first, as if I change too many things too fast, I might miss the underlying cause. It's on the docket, I assure you. Once everything is reset to a baseline (basically, minor removal has been too slow to find the problems, so more radical elimination was required), I will have a more stable state to re-integrate certain things (I already have zero cheese in my diet, aged or otherwise, and almost no pork for various other ingredient issues (even when freshly packaged)). I don't seem to have issues with banana, which is unfortunate because I haven't been a fan of them since I was a child. =P Oh well. Frozen meat for the win! I get my 'burger tube' as I call it (from Costco). Ingredients: Beef. Can't have them on buns or anything (even GF buns), but whatever, it's what's required at the moment. Logged your DAO link in my Save for Later list =) I do have Benedryl on-hand, but like said, it's been ineffective to-date.

Hey kbutton, Pretty much everyone I mentioned my issue with citric acid to says "well, stop eating citrus." Too bad citric acid is in everything, either naturally or as an additive...and a lot of it is in the weird and unexpected places like corn and potatoes. I, too, was confused at first by finding out the "citric" acid comes from everything under the sun that has nothing to do with citrus. I know this thread is from three years ago now, and I assume you may have sorted much of this out by now, but if not, or for anyone else with these problems, here's a summary of my dietary problems, and a couple of citric-acid (CA) specific resources to help you. NB: I didn't read this *entire* thread, as a quick skim showed people touching on important traits that I have confirmed (at least relative to me, obviously there is a lot that can be going on). NB2: I am not an expert by any means, but I am a math, science, physics, chemistry and programming nut, so though I'm not claiming any of this to be working data for you, I simply mean to point out that when I tested through all this, it was done in a very methodical and logical manner. I know how to test things, as best I can, given not actually having medical testing equipment on-hand. I'm 35. I found out 18 months ago that I had congenital celiac disease (CD). The most severe class (anti-body counts were literally off the chart; my doctor actually laughed out loud reading the result), and turns out it's been responsible for a LOT of my problems through my life (not just digestion based; I personally react HIGHLY to gluten on a mood level; 12-16h after consumption I stop talking, become sullen, moody, irritable, and basically can't stop crying. Messy....and this lasts for 3-7 DAYS. Destroyed my life. haha. I laugh, but I'm serious.) Unfortunately, I had to leave a very lucrative career a whopping two years before actually finding out what the cause was. Still on disability from the effects. It made me beyond exhausted to the point where I couldn't get out of bed for more than a few hours per day, all of which I could barely stand up for. Once gluten was sorted, then onto lactose. Brutal secondary lactose intolerance (LI) (specifically caused from the CD damage). No level of lactase supplementation combats the lactose intake; it can mitigate it slightly, but it's *never* worth it for me, even for things that are technically deemed lactose-free (pre-treated or otherwise). The result of the removal of gluten and lactose? Well, I wasn't sitting on a toilet 24/7 and I could actually do some stuff again...but...a lot was still happening randomly GI-wise (turns out that corn was also a huge thing for that), but more specifically, I was reacting to something in terms of my throat. Had been choking on food (coughing from ingesting not only foods, but liquids), and constant congestion, not to mention biting my tongue and cheeks a lot, all of which I was basically ignoring because correcting for CD/LI had been my focus. I also had a pre-existing issue with one of my lungs, and always being out of breath... I do everything 100%. Very black and white. So, there was zero gluten, and zero lactose in my diet, so what the hell was going on? The funny part, I don't even remember what I was searching for, but it had NOTHING to do with citric acid (CA), and on this page (which was just someone's random comment... a testament to why *I* am typing this now...because it's changed everything) was that their comment referenced CA causing breathing issues, and I was like...hmm...that's never been suggested as a potential cause for me (I used to run 10km every single day....and only now, after cutting CA out, have I been able to start running and exercising again....after probably fifteen (15) years...) Now, very conveniently for me, I stumbled across the link I'll put at the end of this, happened to be a site dedicated to CA issues from someone with an obvious science background (or affinity, at the very least), a fun writing style, and comprehensive, well laid-out data. I generally ignore 95% of what people write on the internet, but this looked very different, right from the start. Using the site, I realised just how high my CA intake was, and cut out the major things (namely beverages: I had been using water flavouring to increase my water intake...it was a HUGE part of my problem). I hadn't woken up without being stuffy and blocked up probably three (3) years. I woke up breathing normally inside of two (2) days. Simply amazing. It's been about four (4) months now, following a highly CA reduced diet. The difference is simply astounding, and now I can very clearly tell when I have consumed even mild amounts of CA, because I struggle to swallow, become fully congested, and if I consume enough CA, I can't breathe well the next day (similar to how gluten is more of a time-bomb for me, whereac lactose is a 30-120 minutes response). Repeated over and over through tests. If it's not CA causing the problem, I'm allergies to being alive. On the allergy note, namely the "allergy v sensitivity/intolerance" usage. I just did a blood IgG response food panel for sensitivities (this is different than an IgE response, which is an allergy). IgG response (intolerance) is your body's inability to deal with something (say, lactose: the damage celiac caused my insides means that I can no longer produce lactase to counter the lactose), whereas CD itself is an auto-immune response (IgE, allergy). One is problematic, the other can be dangerous and life-threatening). I will be doing my allergy testing in a week (both skin prick and the blood panel), because my throat/lung problems with CA are becoming more troubling, and I feel I may need an EpiPen, just in case). For the food panel, I tested to have "elevated sensitivities" to 52/222 foods or food ingredients (and this panel goes so far as to include horse meat....). This panel has no direct testing correlation to CA testing....but it overlapped with highly with my issues with both CD/LI/CA. The only exception was the fruit category, amusingly said most fruits were fine (again, from an IgG standpoint; I bet when I get my IgE panel done in a week those will all pop; for example, apples are listed as low CA, but I can't eat one without my throat feeling tight; allergy, not sensitivity). Unfortunately, when you combine my CD/LI/CA issues, you are left with VERY little food. It's still doable, I haven't died yet, haha...but it's...very very very different than normal eating. You can't eat out...hell, I can barely eat at home. There are plenty of GF options out there, and then you can cut the dairy out of them....but the CA makes it borderline impossible. The latter does depend on your tolerance (on the site I list at the end, I seem to be able to tolerate items at 0.1g/100g, and 0.2 is....fine-ish....but anything 0.3 or higher and I notice it. The writer can't even do what I can....but you may be able to handle more. I basically can't have grains (gluten-based), dairy, nuts/seeds, fruits, eggs (yolks or white) and a lot of vegetables. I can't even have legumes (only green beans (no others) and chickpeas...and some lentis). I can't even have rice, cassava or amaranth (GF options, but I either have an IgG response, or they have CA levels beyond my tolerance). It did cost me $325 CAD to do it (sure you can find cheap deal ones online...but if you have issues like I do, I really wouldn't skimp on it, plus reviews of those ones tend to say they're a waste). Mine was done through Dynacare (https://www.dynacare.ca/DYN/media/DYN/eng/Patients Ind/GDML-Food-Intolerance-Brochure-for-WEB-EN_REVISED.pdf) in Ontario, Canada. The linked page below goes into more detail (and has external sources), but CA issues are I believe classed as a "Type I hypersensitivity is also known as immediate or anaphylactic hypersensitivity. " (which then I again, believe classes as an allergy...but like the CA vs citrus issue, you now have "allergy" and "sensitivity" being used in near-similar ways. What you had to remember is that scientific definition is logical and makes perfect sense when you dig into it, but on the surface, to the average person looking for answers, it seems contradictory or confusing. Similarly with people talk about "natural" versus "chemical", my personal favourite: Sorry to ruin everyone's day, but chemicals are natural too, and there are tonnes of "natural" and "organic" compounds that will kill you damn near instantly! =P Point being, don't get stuck in common-use terms. Pay attention to what is actually being said, not how they're saying it. Organic doesn't mean at all in science, what it does in the supermarket, and if you're looking for answers, look to the science. =) The primary site I use: https://citricacidallergy.wordpress.com/staying-alive/ Amazingly useful. Lists CA content by food group, CA levels, has label-reading tips, even goes into what's not on labels, misleading label content, and even some processing-level CA contact/introduction that will never be listed (the person has a HARDCORE reaction to it.) I also just last week found this site (https://www.verywellhealth.com/citric-acid-allergy-symptoms-and-how-to-cope-1323907) More of a basic intro to some reactions, and a few related articles about potentially connected conditions). I only very very very minimally browsed the root site to see if it seemed usable, but what I read looked like it had potential (for CA or otherwise), but I'm just guessing on that and figured I'd post it anyway if it proved useful for anyone else. Really I just still use the first site above. At this current moment, I actually interrupted combining my food panel/CA values into a convenient page for reference, colour coded and grouped by food. If it looks pretty enough I'll post it to show my dietary limits. I know this was long, but it's a lot of experience rolled into one post. I hope it's helpful to you, or anyone. As per everything relating to health, everyone should always remember that we are all different. For example, I may be highly reactive to all this food...but pharmacology and my body are the complete opposite: I basically don't react to a lot of medications; I don't even bother with anything OTC. Half the prescription strength stuff doesn't work on me. Point being, learn what works for you, and what doesn't. There is no unified resource, whether doctor or website or posts like this that have all the answers. Andrew p.s. As per your subject re: coconut: I'm currently in the testing phase for that, so I'm not sure of my reactions to it yet.