December 22, 2025
Mystery solved! The beans were the culprit, but not in the way you might think. So, let’s go back and lay out the perplexing case. It all started with a seemingly innocent bowl of pasta.
On the Sunday after Thanksgiving, we arrived home around 5:30 pm after a 10-hour drive from Utah, where we had spent the holiday. Tired from a long day of travel, I opted to make a simple pot of pasta with a jar of Rao’s marinara -a very close second to homemade sauce.
The pasta was a new brand I picked up at Costco, which we had yet to try. It was imported from Italy (a good sign in the pasta world), was made from two simple, healthy ingredients (durum wheat and lupini beans), and boasted 21 grams of protein and 9 grams of fiber, which was music to my nutrition-loving ears.
I have tried several different varieties of protein pasta, and this one was, hands down, the best. The texture and taste were so similar to those of regular pasta that I could hardly tell the difference – a rarity in the protein pasta world. And 9 grams of fiber?!? Yes, please!
A couple of hours after dinner, we pulled out some Trader Joe’s chocolate chip cookies and ate them with hot chocolate while watching a show. And, shortly thereafter, Carson, our 17-year-old, started complaining of stomach pain. Having been exposed to the dreaded norovirus over Thanksgiving, I thought maybe he was coming down with that. But it was pain, not nausea, which was an atypical presentation.
Around 10:30, we had just climbed into bed when Carson came into our room coughing and complaining that he could not take a deep breath. I could hear a slight whistle with each breath, which seemed strange given that his only other symptom was stomach pain, and both had come on within the span of a couple of hours.
He has carried an EpiPen since the allergist, after looking at his blood work when he was four years old, said, “He has a high likelihood of having an immediate and life-threatening reaction to peanut exposure,” but we have never had to use it. Every accidental exposure led to immediate hives, which were effectively managed with Benadryl, but never anaphylaxis.
So, when he was having respiratory symptoms hours after eating food that did not contain peanuts, and with the absence of hives, his typical response to the dreaded allergen, an allergic reaction did not seem likely. I did have him take Benadryl for good measure, but I wondered if he was coming down with some strange, quick-onset virus. I told him to lie down for a few minutes and see if the Benadryl helped.
He came back in five minutes later, announcing it was getting harder to breathe. We still did not think to administer the EpiPen because, again, it had been hours since he had eaten anything, and every past reaction had been immediate. So, we put him in the car and drove the 10 minutes to the ER.
By the time we arrived, his skin was flushed and covered with hives. They determined it was an anaphylactic reaction, administered epinephrine, and his symptoms resolved within minutes. They kept him there for a mandatory four-hour observation period – standard after a dose of epinephrine – and sent him home.
But what caused the reaction? He did not eat peanuts.
The next week, I took him to the allergist, who was also baffled at the atypical presentation. He looked at the ingredient list for the Trader Joe’s cookies and said there was nothing suspicious. He tested him for a certain bacteria that can cause respiratory symptoms and sometimes trigger anaphylaxis, and he surprisingly tested positive. So he thought that was probably the unsuspecting culprit.
But I didn’t even think to mention the pasta with its two simple ingredients: durum wheat and lupini beans.
Last night, we ate that same protein pasta again. And, a couple of hours later, Carson’s stomach started hurting. And, an hour after that, he started having respiratory symptoms. It seemed as if we were repeating the events that landed him in the ER two weeks ago.
I had him take Benadryl as soon as his symptoms started, which seemed to help, but did not completely resolve the symptoms. He could breathe and was not in great distress, but there was a slight whistle to his breathing, and he did not feel normal.
Should we take him to the ER again? Should we give him the EpiPen, which would then require a 911 call? Should we continue to observe him, since things were not progressing quickly and seemed to be slowly improving?
Of course, it was 11 pm, which made things feel more complicated.
With his input (only he knew how he was feeling) and the fact that he did not feel the situation was urgent, we decided to continue observing him, with the intention to take further action if things worsened or did not improve within a reasonable time. Within 30 minutes, he said he felt normal, could breathe fine, and was going to bed.
Crisis averted.
But, during the observation period, where we were watching and waiting, I was researching. I learned that people with peanut allergies are at a high risk for allergic reactions to lupini beans because they share similar proteins, causing significant cross-reactivity.
It looks like we found our culprit.
Apparently, lupin (from lupini beans) is a common ingredient in some parts of Europe and Asia, but it is just now becoming more widely available in the United States, where people like me have no idea it can cause issues for people with peanut allergies. It is increasingly found in gluten-free products and things like imported protein pasta.
I’m grateful we learned this before sending him off to college or on a mission to Europe or Asia. And, from now on, we will be reading labels even more closely.
Lupini beans, we are on to you!
**Read the rest of this journaling series here.
