Quinoa and teff intolerance

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CharlesMarty
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Joined: Wed Apr 17, 2019 5:44 pm
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by CharlesMarty on Wed Apr 17, 2019 5:46 pm

Quinoa and teff intolerance

Hi,

I’d like to share my experience regarding quinoa and teff intolerance.
I am a 38 years old male. I ate Quinoa for my entire life until 4 years ago when all of a sudden I developed an intolerance to it. One day, I had a severe stomach cramps for almost 8 hours following ingestion of a quinoa-based meal. I first did not do the link with the quinoa as it had been a staple of my diet for my whole life. A week later I ate Quinoa again and had the same severe pain about an hour after ingestion. The pain was so intense that I had to go to the hospital. The physician who took care of me had never heard about such a reaction to Quinoa. I did a research on the internet and found out a few comments describing the same symptoms and that this reaction may be caused by “saponin”. I accidentally had quinoa a few times since then and the same thing happened.
A few days ago I went to an Ethiopian restaurant and had an Injera which is a sourdough flatbread made of the Teff flour. I had the exact same symptoms as I had with Quinoa: strong stomach ache for about 8 hours. I later figured out that Teff (an eastern African cereal) also contains saponin.
It seems that this molecule can cause gastritis in some people. Interestingly enough, I am originally from Europe and I never had these reactions when I ate quinoa and Teff there, even after I first developed the symptoms in North America.
I wonder if the varieties are different, or if conservative agents or GMOs are used in North America that may cause these reactions.

If you have any information about that, please share it.
Thank you.