I'm new here so forgive me if this topic has been discussed before. I did my best searching and couldn't find anything related.

For the past week or so, I have been extremely sick. Any stomach problems, you name it, I have it. I have been to the doctor and hospital several times, to no avail. Until yesterday. I explained to my doctor that I have been on IP for about 6-7 weeks now and haven't really changed any of my eating habits during this time. He suggested that I likely have an intolerance to a protein source in the diet, likely either Whey or Soy.

I was wondering if anyone else developed an intolerance to whey or soy while they were on this diet. And, if so, what did you do to accommodate IP? Are there alternative products comparable to IP that just don't have soy or whey? Most of their products, if not all, have whey or soy isolates. I'm going to try one week of just soy products and one week of just whey products to figure out which one is the culprit. It's very frustrating though because I have had such great success on this diet and would hate to stop it altogether. I am going for my weekly weigh in tomorrow and will discuss it with my coach then but wanted feedback here as well. Thanks in advance!

There are a few posters that are allergic to the soy who are still on IP but the items are limited. Maybe they will chime in to give you an insight

I have added a PDF file of the ingredients of SOME of the IP products so you can see which has Whey and Soy. Not all of the products are on it since they have come out with more items now. Hope this helps

After I had been on IP for 5 months, I had some testing done called Igg testing which looks at sensitivities to certain foods and I showed a low sensitivity for casein. Casein is milk protein which while it could be separated from whey, it generally isn't, and it's used in many other products, including lunch meats, as a binder. My initial reaction was that this sensitivity would prevent me from ever going back on IP. I was not having any symptoms of reactions to casein food though. If I were to over-indulge in a spaghetti dinner or a block of cheese, I would be paying for it though!

I've had to learn a lot about Igg testing and another type called Ige which checks for full-blown food allergies because my youngest daughter has a list of sensitivities that is a mile long. (I think 50+ foods out of 133 tested). The testing can be useful to point in the direction for an allergy/sensitivity and might be worth having done just to know. I've reached the point where I can pretty quickly tell what foods bother me and so I don't see repeating the tests for awhile, but my daughter is still figuring out her body and we are working hard to get her intestinal tracts working better.

I choose to try IP again because it worked the first time and I hadn't had any real problems while on it, but I'm still paying very close attention to my reactions to certain foods.

If you wanted to do something similar to IP but without soy or whey, you might look into the paleo/primal diets. They are basically protein based and then good carbs. Initially, you'd want to limit the fruit and stay with low carb veggies. The only real difference would be cooking your meat for each meal rather than a packet and you could still keep the carbs low.

Stomach troubles are no fun, that's for sure. Just a random thought... have you tried taking some sort of a digestive enzyme to see if that helps?

Thanks so much! This will be a huge help when I go in to talk with my coach tomorrow. Hopefully she'll be able to provide any updates in the ingredients. Thanks again!

I'm allergic to dairy, so therefore I cannot have whey or cassein protein.

Soy is heavily processed, so on my doctor's advice I also avoid that.

The protein powder I use comes from...peas! Seriously. It's a complete protein, as well. I use one called "Plant Fusion" which is 100% vegan and contains no dairy, soy, gluten or animal products. It works great for me. The only downside to that particular formula is they do add a bit of fructose to it. There are vegan protein forumulas that do not have any added sugar. I went to GNC and they only seem to carry casseine or whey proteins...but my local health food store had a variety of vegan hypo-allergenic protein options.

Thanks for your advice! My Dr. suggested eliminating each from my diet to see if I could spot it that way. If not, then he would do more tests to see what the deal was. I haven't tried taking a digestive enzyme but that does sound helpful. Is it a type of supplement? I'll add this to the list of questions to ask my coach tomorrow!

If you've been able to drink milk and eat cheese in the past I'd eliminate the soy first. I'm soy sensitive and used IP products for 5 months, albeit with very little variety.

Linden, My Dr. suggested cutting soy first as well. He actually did a diet similar to IP and discovered his allergy to Whey that way. Not happy about the limited variety but happy that I'll at least be able to continue IP. Thanks!

What are your symptoms ? Every day I have very bad D but I don't figure is that whey, soy or sugar alkohol . I'm back on diet again and want to lose rest of my extra weight and it started again ;(

I wish you the very best of luck. Bullerlina's mentioning the sugar alcohols reminded me that there was a woman year or more ago who was extremely allergic to the artificial sweeteners. I guess I wouldn't rule that out. (Kind of wish he'd do the testing now, though.) My reaction was itchy eyes and ears, rash -- the usual stuff.

Bullerina, my symptoms were everything stomach related. I had bad D almost every day, nausea, cramps, bloating, etc. These persisted for DAYS, even with the help of medication (both over the counter and prescription).

I am starting the IP diet next week. I am a vegetarian, I do eat dairy and eggs. I try to stay away from soy due the the estrogen link and increase risk of breast cancer. I use and love the Plant Fusion protein powder. Is it an acceptable protein source on the IP? will the fructose really matter?

Here are the guidelines for your packet alternatives. If it fits in these, it's good-to-go.

I don't do soy either. There is a more recent thread with a list of IP products without soy

Updated: here is the link to the other thread
http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/idea...soy-stuff.html

I've been doing IP for about 3 months, and suddenly developed a sensitivity to the bars and shakes. I didn't have any GI issues, but my mouth would get itchy and irritated for like 2 days.

My coach noted that those two things were the most dairy-heavy items, and I could switch to just the soy ones to see if that improved it. I've never had any sort of whey or dairy sensitivity before so this is totally baffling.

I'm going to go off of the packets for a week, or however long it takes for my mouth to feel normal again, and then try focusing on just the soy products.

Annoying as heck, because IP is working great!