Is It The Kool-aid Or Sugar?

[Chalula88]

Hello everyone,

In the last week or so my stomach has been bothering me on a daily basis. I am really frustrated because I have felt great for 4 months since going gluten free and now all the sudden I have crampy, gasy, bloaty stomach and diarrhea.

At first I thought I had just been glutened accidentally, which I still think may have happened, but the food in question was eaten now about 8-9 days ago and I am still suffering.

The strange thing is, I narrowed down what's giving me a stomach ache to Kool-Aid. Every time I drink a glass of Kool-Aid I get a stomach ache.

I already knew that I was sensitive to the blue Kool-Aid and have gotten diarrhea and stomach cramps from it several times. I thought it was just the blue dye and have had red or pink Kool-Aid numerous times since then.

I decided to cut out caffeine from my diet because after going gluten free I started getting really hyper whenever I drank a soda. So for the last probably 3-5 weeks I have been drinking Kool-Aid instead of soda, the last week of which I have been suffering these stomach aches, bloating and cramps.

I know it's the Kool-Aid because I drank it in isolation and got the stomach ache, then I drank an herbal tea a few hours later and had no stomach pain. I did this twice with the same results.

What I'm wondering is: what is it that's in Kool-Aid that's giving me these stomach aches?

I have a carbonated tropical punch soda that has almost identical ingredients, including the same food dye: Red 40 and it has NEVER upset my stomach. I just drank it yesterday with no problem at all.

The only difference I can see between the two drinks is that the soda is made with corn syrup and the Kool-Aid is made with pure sugar.

Does it make sense to be intolerant to pure sugar?

I would test this theory, but I don't think I have any food items at all that contain pure sugar.

Any thoughts or similar experiences?

Thanks!

[jststric]

never heard of anyone being intolerant of sugar, but I suppose you could be. My first thought as I was reading was citric acid. I know several people that cannot have that and its in SO many things. I do know that sugar feeds things like yeast infections, etc. Could you have a low level infection you don't know about? Just a thought. I would say if you have isolated it down to the sugar, then take it out of your diet and see how things go. Much of this way of living is by trial and error anyway. I would check out the possibility of a UTI or something though, just to make sure.

[AliB]

Anything processed and with added chemical substances is not going to be doing you much good in the long run.

There is an awful lot of stuff out there that looks like food, smells like food and passes for food, but is not made from anything the body would recognise as food.

My body is paying the price from a lifetime of consuming substances that masquerade as food and I am not going down that road again (and no, I don't cope with sugar - or carbs in general).

Chemical substances are damaging, highly processed corn syrup is damaging, too much sugar is damaging, too many highly-refined carbs are damaging - this high-carb, high-sugar, highly-refined and highly-chemicalised 'Western' diet is damaging (and yes, it does all encourage yeasts and unwanted organisms to flourish in the body).

Fresh pure fruit juice with water? Now that's something the body recognises as food and can do something with.

[txplowgirl]

Hi Chalula,

I have a sensitivity to sugar, yes, you could be reacting to it. I get the same symptoms you do plus heavy, debilitating fatigue as well.

Try to find something that has just sugar in it and try it and see.

I hope you get to feeling better soon.