I had chips from the chippy the other day, I have them about once a year as a treat. No salt and vinegar, just chips. That night in bed my calf muscles were very tight, it wasn’t cramp like i had over a year ago. The calf muscles were just really really tight and legs felt like moving around.
I wonder if there is something in those chippy chips.
I’d take the cramps. Love sausage and chips
I do too - but they are really bad cramps. I mean I can’t stand up with them (or sit down, or find any position that is tolerable, usually). I go a whiter shade of pale, I’m covered in cold sweat, and feel nauseous with the pain. I usually swear vociferously.
So it’s not your average “bit of cramp” that everyone gets now and then.
I’ve tried once or twice without the vinegar. I thought things were not quite as bad, but still worse than on a normal day, when I haven’t had a chip shop meal.
It’s been too many times now, for me to dismiss as coincidence. Something to do with that meal, from that place, is causing a problem.
I’ve always been prone to cramps, since well before diagnosis, but those very severe ones (toe to groin) are thankfully rare.
Sausage and chips are also pretty rare for me. So something up with two rare things repeatedly coinciding like that.
In general, I’m not much of a believer in connections between diet and MS, and I can honestly say this is the only thing I’ve ever noticed it with. I do eat sausages from other sources from time to time - but not with batter. An ordinary sausage and bacon breakfast has no after effects - except on the waistline.
I don’t eat chips from anywhere else - unless you count occasional oven chips - but they’re fine too.
I’ve considered other explanations, such as whether there could be other factors at work (female hormones?) that influence both cramp AND fancying chips! That could mean I’m more likely to fancy the chip-shop meal on days I’m already at higher risk for cramps.
Tina
What puzzles me is there’s not much to chips. Potatoes and cooking oil, and that’s about it. I know I’m alright with potatoes, as I eat them all the time, in all different forms. And I’m OK with cooking oil too, although I don’t usually deep fry in it.
But just sauteed some mushrooms in oil this evening - no reaction to that yet.
Tina
it is best to not risk future discomfort… i would recommend toad in the hole as a very attractive alternative.
Ooooh Paolo, love that too !!! Often make that for my boys on a Sunday. …
with that creamy onion gravy… suddeenly Swank can go shove his quasi-vegan regime!
Yuppada !!! Throw a bit of mash in there as well. …
Hi Tina
Some chip shops buy their chips in pre-cut and they are preserved in something to stop them going brown before they are fried. This chemical is, in theory, burned off in the frying process. However, I wonder if that is what could be causing your cramps if your local chippy buys their chips in? It might be worth asking them if their chips are freshly prepared on the premises or whether they are bought in ready cut? I only know about this because I have a friend who owns a chip shop but I’ll have to ask him what the chemical is that is used to preserve the potatoes.
Tracey x
It still seems weird, Tracey. Would this chemical not be used in anything else - e.g. supermarket ready meals?
I eat those no problem - in fact anything else, no problem. So it can’t be gluten (I eat bread most days with no problem), it can’t be potato, and it can’t be sausage. Yes, it could be an E-number of some kind - but I’d be surprised if it was one I’m not eating already from somewhere else - I’m not exactly a natural food fanatic!
I accept it’s not such a hardship, if it’s literally just the one thing I don’t seem to be able to eat. And I never ate it often in the first place.
But it’s demoralising when the small treats disappear.
Chip shop lunch used to be a reward for something accomplished, or a pick-me-up on a particularly miserable day. Thank God I can still eat Dairy Milk!
Tina
x
I’ve also been on a mission to find out what I’m reacting to, although it’s not as extreme a reaction as yours. I’ve been itchy for 6 weeks and it gradually became increasingly severe to the point where I couldn’t get to sleep at night until somewhere between 3am and 5am in the last 2 weeks. As I’m now back at work I finally had to book a doctor’s appointment. Luckily (!) by that point I also had developed a rash on my hands, wrists and knees which came up worse whenever I got warm.
My GP said I have eczema which I’ve never had before. I do have sensitive skin and know to avoid cheap toiletries as they will cause very dry skin but I’ve never had eczema. However my GP said as I already have asthma and perennial rhinitis it all goes together. She asked if I knew what had triggered it and I told her that I had already been keeping a food diary as I had already eliminated laundry products and toiletries as I always stick to the same products for those knowing that my skin is sensitive and my son has psoriasis so I dare not change laundry products because of the risk of him reacting adversely.
I now have a soap substitute to shower with and a potent steroid ointment to use for the itchy parts (which for the first few days was everywhere). Things calmed down quite a bit until last weekend when I had a sudden flare up again.
I think I’ve narrowed the field down to a ‘berries and cherries squash’ but now the problem is working out what is in that squash that is causing the reaction. It doesn’t help that the pharmacist told me that you can suddenly become sensitive to something to which you have been exposed your whole life! It could be that I’m suddenly sensitive to strawberries. Part of me wants to experiment and find out but part of me doesn’t want any more sleepless nights especially now that I’m back at work after the summer break. I cannot function on 3 or 4 hours sleep.
Tracey x
Hey Elmo. I bin missun yew. Sorry to hair yew bin itchie. I see yew hint bin orn lartly. Wint to Wells Friday. Bootiful day. Dew yer keep a troshin bor. Andy 
I love strawberries… 
Yes, you can definitely become allergic to something that hasn’t previously been a problem.
Sometimes it’s because they’ve sneakily changed the formula, but other times it’s you that’s changed.
My mum (now 75, so you’ve got a way to go yet, I think) now cannot wear any perfume (which she has done all her life), can use very few toiletries, and is even having trouble with her wedding ring - which she’s upset about, because we lost Dad eight years ago, so she doesn’t like to take his ring off. Gold is a very non-reactive metal - especially at the 22 carat purity usually used for wedding rings - so it’s unusual for people to suddenly start having a problem with their gold jewellery.
She’s now claiming also to have a reaction to the scent of flowers - although she has never historically suffered from hayfever.
It will be her birthday soon, and she’s becoming a nightmare to buy for. No toiletries, no flowers, watching her cholesterol, so no chocolate, “off” drink, so no bottles of bubbly (she gave the last one away), and so on… I think I’m going to be limited to some kind of ornament.
I’m not suggesting this in any way applies to you (or me), but I’m starting to wonder if all these restrictions are psychological. Everything now seems to be: “Oh no, don’t get me that - I couldn’t have that!”. Flowers used to be a safe standby, but what do you do when you can’t even send your own mother a bunch of flowers, without her saying: “Oh no, I’m reacting to them - I had to put them outside!”?
Tina
x
Just buy her a goat for a family in Africa !
My dad is similar - he has never enjoyed alcohol, is prone to migraines so chocolate is out, is on steroids for life and battles with his weight so any calorific treats of any kind are frowned upon, had to give up his allotment due to arthritis and so on. He does still do his best to wash his car weekly but there’s only so many car cleaning kits you can buy someone.
Do they get pleasure out of watching us try really hard to think of something we can buy them?
Maybe (subconsciounsly) I am turning into an old, grumpy person already? My son will just not bother buying me anything though, he won’t jump through hoops trying to please me ha ha!
Tracey x
Hey Andy
I’ve bin on holiday from me school job and I forgot to log on and check the boards. I only check the forum when it’s me tea break! I han’t bin to Wells for donkey’s. Bet it han’t changed much.
Tracey
No, not a lot ! We walked from the beach to the playground there. My boys love the pirate ship on the playing field… amusements, then caught the lil train 2/3 back to car…
They use ‘drywhite’ as do many catering venues/stablishments including the NHS, I would think the company would be able to tell you, I would suspect sausages more, they are made with rusk, maybe find out what’s in them first. My best friend’s parents had a chippy and we used to earn a bit of pocket money chipping the potatoes, also had many trips to the NEC for the catering exhibitions and the highlight of the year…the annual fish fryers ball…yes really! When I went to my nephew’s wedding reception, found it was in the same room, shame it wasn,t fish and chips though!
Cobb salad - delicious, I know what I,d choose between sausage and chips and a Cobb salad,just takes a lot of prep.
I’m tempted to say (after Fawlty Towers and the Waldorfs) that I wouldn’t know where to get any cobbs.
Had to Google what it is. I’d happily settle for the meat, egg and cheese, and leave out the leaves altogether.
Still wouldn’t beat sausage and chips for me, and the salad does look a whole load of work.
One of the perks of a chip-shop lunch is not just the yumminess, but that someone else does the preparing, and there’s minimal washing up. Important considerations when you’re always knackered.
Hi Tina, you might also consider what type of casing is used for the sausage a combination of rusk and an artificial casing may not be too good for you…I do eat sausages but only from the butcher who makes his own. Having worked in a well known butchers years ago I am quite wary.