Those Of You Who Are Carb Intolerant --

[BRUMI1968]

Hi all. I am getting a sweet taste in my mouth after eating things like sweet potato and even quinoa. No sugar added. I've had this before once, when I was really sick with stomach-flu...a really sweet tasting mouth. I don't like it. Anyway, my stomach also feels really airy - like when I eat it is joining a bunch of air and starting gurgling. If you think about how when you have a terrible bronchitis or something and every breath feels flemmy? It is very much like that, only in my digestive system.

I'm going to pound some probiotics, which is how I got rid of this last time. But I'm just at a loss - I'm not eating sugar. (Well, I was eating sugar the day or two before ... could it be delayed reaction? or could it be a mild sbbo?) And I'm going to eat ZERO sugar and no more sweet potato for a while (have been grain free, so the sweet potato was my fallback starchiness).

[Nancym]

I would suggest you might be experiencing benign, dietary ketosis which is also accompanied with a strange taste in the mouth sometimes. After awhile your body adjusts and starts getting better at burning ketones for energy rather than excreting them through urine, sweat and saliva. I'm not sure how long it takes, maybe a few weeks or a couple of months. I felt kind of off for awhile, lost my appetite, felt a tad nauseous at first. But now I do great eating no starches or sugars. I think my body has totally shifted in how it processes energy, going from glucose burning to ketone burning. Going the other direction makes me feel horrible now.

Good luck!

[jerseyangel]

Nancy,

Thank you for that explanation. This question caught my eye--I do better without grains but have been eating them again after cutting them out for over a year a while back.

Bully,

While back on grains and eating more sugar than I care to admit , I am just now newly grain free/sugar free (although not completely carb free) again. I have a sweet taste in my mouth sometimes and some sugar cravings, although I'm only 2 days into it. I also gained 20 pounds during the past year, eating gluten-free baked goods, rice and corn. --20 pounds I do not need.

In the past 2 days, I feel better, lighter (I wasn't really feeling too badly before, but lots of little things). My mind definately feels sharper and I can feel the anxiety lifting.

[BRUMI1968]

I was for sure feeling better grain free (just like I did last time)... but was relying heavily on sweet potato to take care of both cravings for starchiness, and calories (I lose too much weight on grain free). The last couple times I've had them, they seemed too sweet, and left a sweet taste in my mouth that I hate...but I said that part already. It also, I noticed after posting but before brushing, leaves a yucky coating on my tongue. I think I am so susceptable to sugary things (I can tell I've had to much by my tongue, and some other stuff that gives it away).

However, when I look back at my diet diary, I also see that for the past three or four days, I've eaten sugar (in the form of agave and dates mostly, no refined sugar). It could be that it was going to get me. I have been feeling bloatier as it went along. The sugary thing. I would really like to be able to eat fruits, dried fruits, agave, maple syrup, etc. But frankly, I just don't think I can right now. Maybe it's a candida thing, I don't know. I hope so, because it would be nice to think I can enjoy these things again. I don't miss refined sugar...but fruit, I miss a bit.

One thing I noticed being grain free for a week was that I was not very stinky. I have been getting too hot (mostly indoors, since the Pacific Northwest spring has been practically colder than the winter was)...and no smell. So that is nice.

Maybe I should eat more meat again. For some reason when I went grain free again, I went meat free. I've thawed a hamburger for myself for tonight (grass fed). Hamburger and salad I guess. I am trying to only eat 1/2 hamburger a day max (1/3 pound hamburger) or I lose the no stinkiness thing.

Thanks for the info on ketone stuff. I'm going to look that up for interest too.

Oh yea, and the clearer mind was the first thing I noticed. I, like you, was feeling pretty good before going grain free -- actually testing out for some itching (that I think is chlorine based maybe). ANyway, thanks all.

[BRUMI1968]

Nancy,

Would the sweet taste come after eating carbs? Like sweet potato? Or does it just come and go as it pleases? I have not been eating high protein - just no grain. Some carbs, mostly in the way of salad, quinoa, amaranth, and sweet potato. Anyway, today it was the quinoa that made it go sweet on me.

Dinner was hamburger and salad - and no sweet taste afterward. Still a bit of a residue from earlier.

Anyway, does what I just ate matter if it is ketosis?

-Sherri

[Kaycee]

I thought it was dangerous to cut out carbs completely because we need carbs to survive.

Cathy

[BRUMI1968]

I certainly eat carbs, and I know Nancy does too. Vegetables are carbohydrates. We do need them to survive, to be sure. They make great fuel.

My dietary rule of thumb is 80% veggies, 20% whatever else (protein). I don't mix protein and carbs; they digest differently and it weakens digestion to eat them at the same time. But most veggies are okay to eat with protein. Best not the starchy ones like potato/sweet potato/winter squash.

You can certainly get enough carbs from garden variety veggies. Whatever our ancestors were eating before Safeway came around, right? So greens, fruits, animals, nuts, seeds, flowers.

[Kaycee]

Bully4you

Thanks for that. I'm relieved about that. I have been trying a low carb diet for a few weeks, and I was just so amazed at where all the carbs are. It seems so hard to avoid them. It's taking me a while to whittle down to about 100g a day. The thing I find hard, is to eat more protein. I'm of the old school and worry about all the fats in the protein. But being coeliac has seen so many changes in my diet, I'm not so scared and to make other changes has not been so hard.

The reason for low carbs is to loose weight, on top of the fact I don't seem to cope too well with too many starchy/carby foods. What are the symptoms of carb intolerance? Does it affect blood sugar levels. Of course it must, but how?

Cathy

[bluejeangirl]

Bully,

My first thought was candida. The sugars in sweet potatoes are pretty high. I love to make sweet potato oven fries but I never feel good the next day after eating them. I'll get spacey and crabby.

Gail

[jerseyangel]

Bully,

I got the sweet tase last night after eating a banana. I am eating fruits and veggies, along with meats and nuts.

Did you feel lightheaded at first after going grain/sugar free?

[Nancym]

Nancy,

Would the sweet taste come after eating carbs? Like sweet potato? Or does it just come and go as it pleases? I have not been eating high protein - just no grain. Some carbs, mostly in the way of salad, quinoa, amaranth, and sweet potato. Anyway, today it was the quinoa that made it go sweet on me.

Dinner was hamburger and salad - and no sweet taste afterward. Still a bit of a residue from earlier.

Anyway, does what I just ate matter if it is ketosis?

-Sherri

Hmmm... I don't know. I think it'd come as it pleases. But if you're eating sugary fruits and starchy veggies it isn't likely that you're in much of any ketosis.

Sometimes the body does weird things as it adapts to a new diet, I'd just give it time.

To help with the weight loss can you eat things like avocado, nuts, nut butters, oils, and so on?

[BRUMI1968]

I am actually a threat to the availability of avocados worldwide, I eat so many of them. The nut butters, though, I can't tolerate very well. Nut milk I can tolerate pretty well, and nuts themselves seem fine -- I just think the nut butter might be too much. It is honestly as simple as eat bread/tortillas: gain weight up to about 130 -- don't: lose weight to about 123-125 or so. It's alright, maybe that's my natural weight. It's a bit light, but as long as I have energy and stuff...

As to feeling lightheaded when I quit grains, nope. I immediately felt more grounded. My mind felt lighter; but not lightheaded.

Candida is sure a bit possibility. I've never done anything other than a no fruit/sugar/starch diet and probiotics (as in, never taken any of the drugs or supplements for it) and it probably ebbs and flows.

Also, as a sidenote - I think I might've gotten mildly glutened the day I got the sweet taste. I also had a canker sore, tingling in weird places, a general feeling of anxiety, and a tummy ache. I had been at my parents' house. they think they're gluten free, but they're not. My step-dad has DH, but he's on dapsone so hasn't been in the position to find out when he's getting glutened.

Anyway, thanks all!

[Nancym]

I'm a little wary of using Agave syrup personally. Fructose is being associated with some really nasty things like insulin resistance and uric acid issues, which leads to gout.

Open Original Shared Link

Open Original Shared Link

I'm with you on the avocados. Man, something I love, that doesn't bug my gut. What's not to like?

[BRUMI1968]

Nancy, how do you deal with sweet tooth? I don't have a severe one, but it is there to a degree, especially when everyone else is eating cake or something.

[Nancym]

I like erithrytol and xylitol. E is great but expensive, X can be hard on the digestive tract if you eat too much. Google on them and read up, they are naturally occuring in fruits and other things. I also use splenda too for some things.

[Nancym]

I thought it was dangerous to cut out carbs completely because we need carbs to survive.

Cathy

Well, the grain/potato/sugar and food processing industry would certainly like you to believe that.

There are many places where carbs are nearly unheard of in the diet. Eskimos, the innuit, and my niece's boyfriend's tribe in N. Minnesota (their traditional diet) is pretty carb free, at least part of the year. Many hunter gatherer societies have not had year round access to carbs. They thrive on their native diet of pretty much mostly meat and fat. And as someone who has been on a low carb diet for many years, I'm doing just fine. Although my diet actually contains a lot of veggies. Probably far more veggies than most grain eaters. There are carbs in all veggies, but most of them are indigestible fibers.

Some of the myths are that your brain requires carbs. No, actually it requires glucose and your liver is quite adept at converting protein (dietary) into the glucose needed by the few tissues in the body that DO require glucose. Other systems can run off of ketones. In fact, many cancers thrive on glucose and can't utilize ketones for energy. They're starting to look into ways to make cancer cells switch to utilizing ketones because it makes the cancer cells self destruct. And there has been some promising research into using ketogenic diets for some forms of cancer.

Here's something about a whole town in Canada that went back to their native diet: Open Original Shared Link

If you want to read about someone who lived on meat alone for many years and chronicled it, then Open Original Shared Link is the guy to read. He journeyed to the Artic in 1906 and lived with the Eskimos and adopted their diet.

[Jestgar]

Some of the myths are that your brain requires carbs. No, actually it requires glucose and your liver is quite adept at converting protein (dietary) into the glucose needed by the few tissues in the body that DO require glucose.

Well sure, but it's fairly difficult to do and think of all the energy you have to....burn....just..._to

Don't many south pacific islanders live mainly on fish with the occasional, seasonal green thing thrown in?

[Nancym]

Well sure, but it's fairly difficult to do and think of all the energy you have to....burn....just..._to

Don't many south pacific islanders live mainly on fish with the occasional, seasonal green thing thrown in?

There was one group of people living on nothing but coconuts and fish, I read about them in Gary Taubes, "Good Calories, Bad Calories". They were extremely healthy! Coconut is very low carb, btw.

I'm not sure if you were joking or not but once your body makes the adjustment from being glucose burning to fat burning it isn't difficult at all. In fact, it is great for people who need long, sustainable energy, like distance runners or swimmers. Your body can store a lot more energy in terms of fat than it can in terms of glucose (glycogen). So you can go longer before running out of energy. But running on fat is not so good for people who need bursts of energy, like sprinters.