18 replies to this topic

[Fire Fairy]

Trying to find out if I have more food issues besides gluten and lactose. Starting last Sunday I've eliminated all prepackaged gluten-free foods except Lara bars and Kind Bars.

May 30th
Breakfast-Smoothie made of strawberry, banana, and Cran-Grape juice.
Lunch-3 boiled eggs
1 cranberry Kind Bar
Dinner-1 and 1/2 serving navy beans
1 and 1/2 serving wild rice

Had diarrhea after lunch

May 31st
Breakfast-3 boiled eggs
1 cranberry Kind Bar
1 cherry pie Larabar
1 orange
1 banana
Dinner-1 and 1/2 serving Navy Beans
1 and 1/2 serving Wild rice

Diarrhea in the am after breakfast

June 1st
Breakfast-1 banana
1 serving Navy beans
1 cranberry Kind bar
a Cherry pie Larabar
Dinner-2 servings Pinto beans
2 servings white rice
2 servings broccoli

No diarrhea

June 2nd
Breakfast-Banana
1 serving navy beans
Reed's Cherry Ginger Brew
Banana
Dinner-2 egg omelette with onion and green, red, and orange bell pepper

No diarrhea

June 3rd
Breakfast-Smoothie made of strawberry, bananna, and Cran-Grape juice.

diarrhea in the am after breakfast

If you noticed no lunch it's because lunch is at work and I often just eat a Larabar and a Kind bar. Each Morning I had coffee and almond milk. I always forget to add the coffee.

Anyone see a pattern to my little problem?

[lynnelise]

Eggs are a common denominator on a couple of days there. It could also be that you aren't 100% healed or have been recently glutened. I tend to have diarrhea off and on for a week or two after a glutening. Also coffee can sometimes trigger GI distress.

[Fire Fairy]

Eggs are a common denominator on a couple of days there. It could also be that you aren't 100% healed or have been recently glutened. I tend to have diarrhea off and on for a week or two after a glutening. Also coffee can sometimes trigger GI distress.

Could be any of the above. I started this no pre-mixed gluten-free foods diet because I think I've been mysteriously glutenated several times in May. What do you think I should do next? I know taking out coffee will make me go into withdraw so I hate to do that if it isn't necessary. But if it is the problem I will get rid of it. Should I take eggs out for a week and see what happens? Or should I just wait and see if it goes away in a week even with my continuing to eat eggs?

[Korwyn]

My first suspect would be the navy beans, but given that you can react to foods up to several days later, I would strongly suggest you start a full elimination diet and eliminate ALL processed foods including the Lara and Kind bars and nut milks. Revert back to all whole/raw foods, and start with small list of foods (5-6). Stay on any given regimen for a least three days. Change them around until you find a combination you are stable w/o symptoms for a week. Nut milks are not raw/whole foods, even if you make them yourself. They are not anything that exists in nature.

Start adding ONE whole food at a time back in. Eat it for a couple meals a day for two or three days and keep a food/symptom diary. Remove that food. If you had no symptoms, add another food into your diet after three days days on your base diet. If you had symptoms, don't add another food back in until you have been on your base diet w/o symptoms for a week.

I also see no meat in that diet. If you are vegetarian, are you getting adequate nutrition? Because that is a very limited diet nutritionally.

You may also find that there is a combination of foods that are causing issues. I can eat tomatoes or brocolli, but not broccoli and tomatoes within two days of each other.

[Takala]

The smoothies, or something in your kitchen.

Is the coffee safe ? Most of the time it is not the ingredient, it is what happened to it on the way to your lips.

A lot of the Kind bars, which are otherwise delicious, have soy in them now.

[yolo]

The smoothies, or something in your kitchen.

Is the coffee safe ? Most of the time it is not the ingredient, it is what happened to it on the way to your lips.

A lot of the Kind bars, which are otherwise delicious, have soy in them now.

Just from the top of it I would suspect the cran/grape juice--and the cranberry with other acidic fruits like oranges or strawberries.

Personally I would simplify your fruit intake to just one kind of fruit at a time until you get to the bottom of this.

It could also be the quantity of the fruit that could be the problem.

I doubt its the eggs since you had several meals with eggs and had no problem--though you never know, it could be a food combination problem or a delayed reaction--or a food allergy to eggs when you have eggs more than say two or three times a week, with a day or two in between. I have had food sensitivities like that--where things are OK if I don't eat them too frequently, but are a problem if I eat them nearly every day.

[Fire Fairy]

Takala, I don't think it's the blender because it's brand new. I don't think it's the coffee because my mom drinks the coffee and has no problems with it. Could be the Kind bars. I didn't notice they had soy until I read your post and re-read the ingredients. I suppose it could also be the soaps I use to wash dishes?

Korwyn, lots to think about, feeling a little overwhelmed right now. I really am getting more terrified by the elimination diet at the same time I'm getting more convinced I need to do it. Since I started my obviously ineffective version of the elimination diet I have already lost 3 more pounds and it's only been 5 days. My mom asked me yesterday if I was bulimic. Heaven only knows what my co-workers think. Of course that's not what is important. I am in the process of going vegetarian. I was eating the eggs to ensure I was getting a complete protein. How I wish I'd gone into nutrition in college like I wanted to. I'm clueless, I've eaten very poorly my entire adult life and worse since I started getting sick. Until my diagnosis I was living on almost nothing but gluten and dairy. You see I didn't think those caused my migraines, which have been my most painful problem. How wrong could I have been? Any suggestions what foods to start with?

[Fire Fairy]

Just from the top of it I would suspect the cran/grape juice.

That would be so easy to drop.

[Korwyn]

Korwyn, lots to think about, feeling a little overwhelmed right now. I really am getting more terrified by the elimination diet at the same time I'm getting more convinced I need to do it. Since I started my obviously ineffective version of the elimination diet I have already lost 3 more pounds and it's only been 5 days. My mom asked me yesterday if I was bulimic. Heaven only knows what my co-workers think. Of course that's not what is important. I am in the process of going vegetarian. I was eating the eggs to ensure I was getting a complete protein. How I wish I'd gone into nutrition in college like I wanted to. I'm clueless, I've eaten very poorly my entire adult life and worse since I started getting sick. Until my diagnosis I was living on almost nothing but gluten and dairy. You see I didn't think those caused my migraines, which have been my most painful problem. How wrong could I have been? Any suggestions what foods to start with?

Well if you are becoming vegetarian for ethical reasons, you probably need to talk to some of vegetarians on the board for advice not me. If you are doing it for health reasons, unless you have animal protein allergies I'd suggest you don't make that change at this time. I'm about as far from vegetarian as you can get, having done more than one multiple month stint of eating nothing but meat (fish, poultry, beef, pork, venison, elk, etc). I would suggest reintroducing chicken - cooked at home, and some lean beef, and organic beef liver if you can get it. A 4 oz portion of liver provides more nutrition than you can believe. Go look it up on the USDA website. Also, your body is not dependent on the bacteria in your intestinal tract to digest nutrients from animal and fat. It does depend on the vilii, so if you have damaged vilii from celiac disease the malabsorption will still be an issue.

My elimination diet base consisted of the following items: chicken baked, broiled, or cooked in coconut oil, or beef (broiled or cooked in coconut oil or bbq), or fish, quinoa (which can be cooked like rice then eaten as a cereal (with coconut milk), fried, cooked in chicken broth, etc), spinach, kale, coconut milk, coconut oil, and banannas. I would take a Saturday and BBQ a bunch of whatever the cheapest 'value pack' meat was I could buy, and the cut it into serving sized portions and freeze them in ziploc baggies.

My breakfast was 1/2 bananna, spinach, kale, unsweetened coconut milk, coconut oil, fish oil, blended into a smoothie. Not juiced. One of the first foods I tested were strawberries and blueberries so that I could add them to my smoothies. A thick smoothie. I also

My lunch was usually a piece of bbq beef or some chicken and some quinoa.

Dinner was usually more beef, chicken, fish, or pork once I tested that, and a maybe a small spinach salad.

This was my base elimination diet.

[Fire Fairy]

Well if you are becoming vegetarian for ethical reasons, you probably need to talk to some of vegetarians on the board for advice not me. If you are doing it for health reasons, unless you have animal protein allergies I'd suggest you don't make that change at this time.

Honestly I am doing it for both reasons. I don't have animal protein issues but the more info I get on the safety of meat the more I think I'm better off without it.

[Korwyn]

Honestly I am doing it for both reasons. I don't have animal protein issues but the more info I get on the safety of meat the more I think I'm better off without it.

That's why I buy our most of our meat from a local butcher and we buy a half a grassfed beef from a farmer about 30 miles from us.

[Korwyn]

Not to mention that the beef works out to about $2.50/lb. Which means that I'm eating prime cut grass-fed New York and T-Bone for $2.50 per pound instead of $5-$8/lb.

[Jenniferxgfx]

It's possible to be vegetarian with food allergies. I agree the safety of meat is a good reason to avoid it, and not everyone has access to or money for the so-called "safer" meats.

Do you have access to fresh fruits or veggies? What about some precut fruit and nuts instead of the Lara/kind bars, just to make sure it's not those doing it? Sometimes I have reactions to anything in a package. I know it's a lot of energy to prep veggies and fruit, but is worth having edible food.

Also, sometimes juice causes diarrhea! I'm not sure if it's the juice itself or one of the additives. I avoid it because it makes my reflux so bad. (maybe someday I'll be able to have juice again if my tummy gets better without gluten.)

Omg soy can be such a huge trigger for diarrhea for me, as well. Sometimes it doesn't bother me at all. It's so frustrating. I tend to just avoid it now but I slip up a lot. (and straight tofu doesn't bother me like some of the processed-with-soy stuff. It's weird.)

Oh! And are you sure your almond milk isn't the culprit? Sometimes the carageenan affects people.

...just some random ideas from my own tummy!

[mamaw]

My guess is too much fiber from the smoothies & the beans, lara bars......your intestinal tract may not be ready for that much fiber...

[Fire Fairy]

It's possible to be vegetarian with food allergies. I agree the safety of meat is a good reason to avoid it, and not everyone has access to or money for the so-called "safer" meats.

Do you have access to fresh fruits or veggies? What about some precut fruit and nuts instead of the Lara/kind bars, just to make sure it's not those doing it? Sometimes I have reactions to anything in a package. I know it's a lot of energy to prep veggies and fruit, but is worth having edible food.

Also, sometimes juice causes diarrhea! I'm not sure if it's the juice itself or one of the additives. I avoid it because it makes my reflux so bad. (maybe someday I'll be able to have juice again if my tummy gets better without gluten.)

Omg soy can be such a huge trigger for diarrhea for me, as well. Sometimes it doesn't bother me at all. It's so frustrating. I tend to just avoid it now but I slip up a lot. (and straight tofu doesn't bother me like some of the processed-with-soy stuff. It's weird.)



Oh! And are you sure your almond milk isn't the culprit? Sometimes the carageenan affects people.

...just some random ideas from my own tummy!

Thank you Jenniferxgfx. The fruit and nut idea is good one. I'll take the bars and the juice out of my diet and see what happens. I suppose it could be the almond milk I might have to try going without that too.