Two Bad Stomachs for £2.50

[tamaranth]

When I caved and bought corned beef sandwich filler* the other night, it was a 2-for-£2.50 deal on Tesco Sandwich Fillers: the other one I bought was a seafood cocktail, which I demolished with fresh bread last night.

Then I felt woozy and nauseous, went for a lie-down, couldn't stay awake, had vivid and stressy dreams, and had a bad stomach this morning. I don't feel as headachy or as sick today as I did the morning after the corned beef, but otherwise effects are similar.

Maybe it wasn't the red meat content that upset my stomach. Maybe it was something else ...

It's time I worked out exactly what sets off my stomach: one thing in Tesco's favour is that they list ingredients online. (Just to clarify, I don't think the food items themselves were 'bad' or 'off' or anything: I think that one of the ingredients set off a recurring food-intolerance problem.)

* texture reassuringly un-meaty. I am still not tempted by large slices of dead mammal. Fish is quite fleshy enough.


Chunky seafood cocktail: Mayonnaise (48%), Crab Flavour Surimi Fish Protein (30%), Prawn (18%), Tomato Purée, Tomato Sauce, Lemon Juice, Sugar Mayonnaise contains: Water, Vegetable Oil, Pasteurised Egg Yolk, Cornflour, Spirit Vinegar, Stabiliser (Xanthan Gum), Dijon Mustard, Sugar, Salt Crab Flavour Surimi Fish Protein contains: Textured White Fish, Water, Wheat Starch, Sugar, Crab Flavour, Salt, Vegetable Oil, Stabilisers (Diphosphates, Triphosphates, Cellulose), Colour (Lycopene) Prawn contains: Prawn, Water, Salt Textured White Fish contains: White Fish, Sugar, Stabiliser (Sodium Phosphate) Dijon Mustard contains: Water, Mustard Seed, Spirit Vinegar, Salt Tomato Sauce contains: Water, Sugar, Tomato Purée, Spirit Vinegar, Cornflour, Salt, Pepper Crab Flavour contains: Flavouring, Humectant (Sorbitol), Water, Yeast Extract, Salt, Shrimp Extract
Corned Beef and Onion: Mayonnaise (40%), Corned Beef (39%), White Onion (13%), Tomato Sauce, Tomato Purée, Lemon Juice, Chive Mayonnaise contains: Water, Vegetable Oil, Pasteurised Egg Yolk, Cornflour, Spirit Vinegar, Stabiliser (Xanthan Gum), Dijon Mustard, Sugar, Salt Corned Beef contains: Beef, Salt, Sugar, Preservative (Sodium Nitrite) Tomato Sauce contains: Water, Sugar, Tomato Purée, Spirit Vinegar, Cornflour, Salt, Pepper Dijon Mustard contains: Water, Mustard Seed, Spirit Vinegar, Salt

Comments

[fastfwd.livejournal.com]

You may have fallen victim to the Winter Vomiting Virus that has devastated large parts of the UK. I have had this and food poisoning--at different times, of course--and sometimes it's hard to tell the difference. I hope you're better now.

[tamaranth.livejournal.com]

nah, nothing as severe as that, thankfully! And two distinct episodes: I felt fine the rest of the time. But thank you for good wishes. I shall be staying off the Tesco Sandwich Filler ...

[purplecthulhu.livejournal.com]

What she said. This doesn't sound unlike norwalk...

Feel better soon!

[purplecthulhu.livejournal.com]

I don't think it produces explosive vomiting and diarrhoea in all the people who catch it, those are just the most obvious cases...

[tamaranth.livejournal.com]

I've had something pretty similar to novovirus, and I've had food 'intolerance' issues: this is the latter. I'm using 'intolerance' because it fits better than 'allergy': I want to say, 'food that disagrees with me'. No vomiting or actual diarrhoea or fever or anything, either, just queasiness, fatigue, bloat and ache.

[moral-vacuum.livejournal.com]

I've had that for the last few days - no idea what's causing it, but it's not fun.

[tamaranth.livejournal.com]

See above -- I honestly don't think this is a bug, I think it's my stomach problem resurfacing. As it were.

Sunday: ate cheese, smoked salmon, fresh bread. fine
Monday: ate paella. fine
Tuesday: ate Tesco sandwich filler. not fine
Wednesday: ate tuna risotto. fine
Thursday: ate Tesco sandwich filler. not fine
Friday: ate fruit, Ryvita, Marmite. fine.

There is a pattern ...

[serennos.livejournal.com]

What about what you've been drinking? My husband and I both used to get really bloaty and yukky until we cut aspartame from our diets and we're mostly fine now. Aspartame turns up in all sorts of things, but it seems to be in nearly all 'diet' drinks (diet coke, diet tango etc etc).

[tamaranth.livejournal.com]

I haven't been drinking anything that I don't usually drink. (And I don't tend to drink soft drinks, except Red Bull ...) I ate two similar things and suffered two similar sets of symptoms, in both cases quite soon after eating the dubious items: I'm pretty convinced it is something in Tesco sandwich filler that set me off. May experiment some more, but then again, ewww!