Trip to Taiwan interlude: the joys of traveling

[ilai]

I knew I had it coming: my nose is now running non-stop. Dust allergies aren't terribly fun, especially in a city in surrounded by mountains that fence in the smog. I'm nuking a bowl of peanut soup (花生仁湯) to see if the steam would help some. Luckily one of my gifts to my parents this Christmas is an air purifier, so they're running it as well.

My brother W has got it worse though, I admit. Ever since he stepped off the plane he's had severe gastric distress. I blame the airline food aboard United, because my stomach wasn't terribly happy either, but I did not eat as much as W so my pain was short-lived. I suspect W's also becoming lactose intolerant--it seemed like he was getting better, but he had some pound cake and some flan and now he's suffering for it.

Comments

[shumashi.livejournal.com]

Ooo, lactose intolerance. They make you self diagnose that. If he wants to save a trip to the doctor's, the thing you do is just go off dairy for a week and see if you feel better. The other thing they suggested when I was going through my own troubles was not enough fiber, so they had me take crazy amounts of Metamucil for a week. The dairy thing turned out to be it. I hear lactose intolerance is very common amount adult Asians, so yeah, statistically speaking, that might be the place to start investigations.

[ilai]

I didn't know you were lactose intolerant as well. :) My parents have complained for years that they keep running into stealth dairy that makes them ill, so there's definitely a family history here. About two years ago (after several bouts of intense stomach pain) I came to the realization that maybe I shouldn't be eating dairy after all, and when I stopped, my stomach started feeling better than ever before. I spoke to my doctor about it, and my impression was that if I thought I had it they weren't going to try to confirm it via other means.

On the upside, I think I've gotten a lot more used to cooking for myself, since I decided the only way to cut out all dairy (lactase only helps me a little) was to avoid eating out whenever possible. And vegan butter is now one of my best friends for baking, as well as soy and rice milk.