My first reaction to yeast
Hi all, not quite sure where to put this so apologies mods if it’s wrong.
i have never had an allergic reaction to any food that I am aware of. I’m 41 and can’t think of a single instance.
on Friday I baked my first loaf from the Ken Forkish book, Flour water salt yeast. Amazing book and made really tasty bread. Waited 30 mins after taking it from the oven and had a few small slices with butter.
later that night my arms were a bit itchy, like mozzie bites or something. The next mowning I had one big slice again with butter and 30 mins later my chest, back, legs and arms were covered in an itchy red rash. This was the only thing I ate that morning.
a little reading leads me to think it might be the yeast but I’ve a few questions for you.
1) I’ve been eating bread and yeast based products all my life, why and how suddenly did this flare up with that bread? I had a chicken roll in ciabatta for lunch the same day as the rash. No reaction.
2) can you be allergic to a specific brand or type of yeast? This was mc donnells dry yeast.
3) if this is going to be with me for good can I ‘microdose’ on yeast to gradually built up a tolerance?
it’s so strange. Thursday for lunch had 3 slices of bought bread. Friday night I’m itchy after my homemade bread and Saturday I’m covered in a rash.
many thanks
For your notes... might also consider the flour, salt, flour anything rubbed on pans, clothes if wearing the same time as rash appears or even the water or mixer bowl or kneading surface. Your location might be helpful. Take all the bread ingredients with you to the doctor.
Hope you get this solved soon.
Always sad to hear - but
What you should do is see a doctor - that's your best bet. Enjoy!
Although the timing seems suspicious, Healthline says a yeast allergy does not commonly cause a rash. It causes more in the line of gastro-intestinal probs.
Let us know if you get it solved--it's very curious.
First of all, I ditto the above recommendations to see a doctor and get proper support for any future reactions. Until you figure it out, it may continue or get worse.
Allergies can be difficult to figure out. While the timing is suspicious, the bread may not be the only source of the problem. Allergies can develop out of the blue and can also be caused by an additive effect of multiple allergens so pinpointing a single cause gets tricky. Viruses and insect bites can also trigger allergic responses not only to the bite but to other things as well. Dehydration, being too warm and a high salt intake can all set the stage for allergic reactions to things that normally would not bother you.
Speak to an allergist, keep an exposure diary until you do, stay hydrated and cool.
If the problem was only with the bread that you made yourself, perhaps the reaction is to the enzyme component in the flour. You don't say which flour you're using, but King Arthur recently changed the amylase ingredient. I don't know if it's fungal amylase or what the source is, but it is something other than malted barley flour. Other brands may be using the same. Read the ingredient list. If it just says 'enzymes' it's probably not from barley. You can find white flours without additives now and you can source your own malted barely flour if needed.
If I had this reaction, I'd throw out the bread and all the ingredients, replace them, thoroughly wash everything and try again with new (different) ingredients. If that didn't solve the problem (I'm assuming the water is okay), and I was able to eat other bread (store/bakery), then I would suspect something in my environment was contaminating the ingredients.
Yeast is a microorganism that dies or goes dormant at certain temperatures. I don't know how you bake your bread, but I suppose yeast is all died when you eat the bread. If you adopt very specific baking techniques (low temperatures, long time) then some yeast can remain alive in the humid core of a large loaf, and can reproduce itself during the maturation after the baking. That takes days. The result can be a very complex and interesting aroma of the bread. It is something some bakers look for. I don't think it's your case, you ate your bread only half an hour after baking it.
Yeast and enzymes, which comes from yeast or from flour itself, do "simplify" the molecular structure of the bread, but all that is present in the bread is something that is present in your body when you eat any wheat based food: yeast and enzymes just pre-digest the flour, and present you with partially digested food. No molecule in the bread is something that your body doesn't seem during digestion.
I would look in the direction of butter (who knows, some anomaly in its conservation, got rancid, was contaminated by some not-normal bacteria) or flour - additives to flour, flour that you normally don't buy, flour which had conservation problems, insects having laid poisonous eggs, some moulds attacking the flour and leaving in it some toxic substances, etc.
Or, you are beginning developing an intolerance to wheat products in general (to gluten, for instance) and that would be a bit serious and I would research into this stuff. If that's the case, the cure is usually eliminating gluten for six months or so, inserting fermented food in your diet, e.g. making fresh Sauerkrauts at home, eating raw vegetables, eating real food, not buying pre-washed salads, not disinfecting everything, throwing away your Listerine, stop disinfecting your floor or your hands, make peace with bacteria in your house and in your food, bacteria are mostly good, and they will displace the bad ones in your bowel, given time.
This is not medical advice so ask your doctor but, also, do your homework yourself, doctors are sometimes very superficial, and it's your health which is at stake.