My Food Story: Learning (Again) What My Body Can and Can’t Tolerate

If I look back honestly, my body has always had opinions about certain foods — I just didn’t always listen as well as I should have.

Even before perimenopause entered the picture, I was what we might politely call “funny with bread and flour.” Wheat-heavy meals would often leave me bloated, sluggish, or just not quite right. Pasta has never been something I’ve loved, which in hindsight feels like a bit of a blessing. It’s one less emotional food to “grieve” as my body’s needs change.

These days, I naturally lean more towards wholegrain rice or sweet potato (kumara) as my go-to carbohydrate sources. They simply feel better in my body — more stable energy, happier digestion, and less of that inflammatory, puffy feeling I now recognise more clearly.

Both private testing and NHS allergy and intolerance investigations have flagged wheat and barley for me, which honestly just confirmed what my body had been trying to say for years. That’s been a recurring theme in my 40s: the science catching up with my lived experience.

When Knowledge Becomes Personal

Being a nutritionist absolutely changes how you approach this.

I’m used to reading labels, spotting hidden ingredients, and being aware of how processed and ultra-processed foods can affect the body. I cook most things from scratch and don’t rely heavily on packaged foods, which definitely makes managing intolerances easier day to day.

But knowledge doesn’t make you immune to frustration.

Eating out, grabbing food while travelling, or being out for a long day can still be challenging — something I’ve talked about in previous articles. Even with growing awareness around allergies and intolerances, there’s always that extra layer of vigilance: asking questions, double-checking ingredients, sometimes feeling like “the difficult one.”

It is getting easier in many places as awareness improves and research continues to grow globally, but it still requires planning, confidence, and sometimes accepting that the safest option might not be the most exciting one on the menu.

The Latest Plot Twist: Chilli Allergy

Just when you think you’ve got a handle on things, your body throws in a new twist.

Recently, I’ve been in the monitoring and assessment phase of what appears to be an allergy to chillies — likely linked to proteins within chilli peppers known as capsaicinoids. As someone who has loved spicy, fiery food since I was young, this one has been particularly hard to swallow (emotionally, not literally anymore!).

There’s a real sense of loss when a food you associate with enjoyment, culture, or comfort suddenly becomes a potential trigger. But this stage of life seems to be asking for adaptability more than rigidity.

Instead of focusing only on what I can’t have, I’m exploring:

• Other natural ways to bring depth and warmth to meals

• Using herbs, roots, and spices that don’t trigger symptoms

• Building flavour through cooking methods rather than heat alone

And in a small silver lining, my other half Craig has never been a fan of spicy food anyway — so at least on the home-cooking front, adapting recipes isn’t causing domestic disputes!

Listening to the Body — Not Fighting It

What perimenopause and increased allergic reactivity have really taught me is this:

My body isn’t being awkward — it’s communicating.

Some foods, like wheat and barley, have likely been simmering in the background for years.

Others, like chillies, are newer developments. Add fluctuating hormones, histamine responses, and a more sensitive immune system into the mix, and it’s no wonder the picture keeps shifting.

Now, instead of pushing through symptoms or dismissing them as “just one of those things,” I pay attention. I track patterns. I notice how my tolerance changes at different stages of my cycle. I adjust — not from fear, but from respect for what my body is telling me.

It’s not about creating a smaller or limiting life, it's about creating a life that my body can actually thrive in — even if it looks a little different from before.