Potato Intolerance

[Guest Addicted2Gluten]

I have just been officially diagnosed a few months ago as having Celiac Disease after years of searching for a diagnosis. So, I've recently come off of the gluten challenge and have been keeping a food journal to identify any other food allergies/intolerances. I have so far found out that I have a severe corn and egg intolerance. Now, I think I may have an intolerance to potatoes because within a few minutes of eating them I have severe diarhhea. I've never heard of a potato intolerance...does anyone else have this?

[skbird]

Me! Me! Me!

I can't eat any nightshade plant, including potatoes, tomatoes, peppers (all except for black pepper which is not an "official" pepper), eggplant, tobacco, or kava kava. Uh, deadly nightshade is included but I'd guess that no one can eat that stuff, hence the name "deadly."

I don't have immediate diahrrea but what does happen is this: either within an hour or up to 24 hours later (a lot like gluten for me) I will develop a headache/migraine, very upset stomach (often feels like I ate broken glass pieces) and I get tired, sometimes hot, sometimes cranky. I think my intestinal tract grinds to a halt, and I get bloated. This lasts from 1 day to 4 days. I figured this out 6 years ago and I am more sensitive now than I was before.

In the past I had gotten the "flu" several times after eating russet potatoes with the skins on them, throwing up and having lots of cramps within a few hours of eating them. The thing that appears to cause the reaction is solanine, which is 90% concentrated in the skin of potatoes. It's also in the other plants and leaves. I first made the connection when I got sick shortly after making a really nice homemade spaghetti sauce from homegrown tomatoes and peppers. But over the years I had gotten sick after the potatoes too (even the smell of my mom frying them would make me queasy) and had asked my mom and doctors if it was possible to be allergic to them, knowing I was probably crazy.

Anyway, doctors still think I'm crazy but I know now that if I have a tsp of tomato sauce now I will be sick for days. It's miserable. So I avoid like the plague. Actually made my avoiding of gluten easier as I was already trained to specify food made in a special way.

So you are not alone, and if this is the problem, I would check the others. I have met a couple of people who can't eat tomatoes but don't have a problem with potatoes or peppers, or vice versa. Hope some of this helps! There's not a lot of info on the web about this - best I can do to explain it is it's the same kind of reaction that happens when people eat green potatoes or old potatoes - which have a lot more solanine in them, and get really sick (some can die!) But I only have to eat a very small fraction to get sick...

Anyway, let me know if you have any questions about this... and I'll do my best to inform.

Stephanie

[Carriefaith]

  Quote

I've recently come off of the gluten challenge... I think I may have an intolerance to potatoes

Potatoes contain a lot of starch, which may be hard for your GI system to digest right now. When gluten causes intensive damage to the small intestine, the intestine cannot digest certain sugars very well until it heals. These sugars are lactose, sucrose, and maltose. Potatoes and corn have maltose.

Just a thought... you could just have intolerances to corn and potatoes, you should get allergy tests done to be sure.

[skbird]

I would be interested to find out if there are actual allergy tests for potatoes. I have talked to several allergists in my town and been told to refer to a gastroenterologist about the potato problem, and then talked to gastros and told to talk to allergists. No one knows much about this problem.

Stephanie

[ianm]

Really starchy vegetables like potatoes, corn and squash can disagree with me so I only eat them once in a while and in small quantities. Don't think it is an intolerance problem.

[skbird]

I dunno... I've been trying to find any bit of info on this for years now - all I can find is that nightshade veggies stimulate the immune system, especially with arthritis, and are not all that good for people who have these kinds of problems. Also, solanine is a neurotoxin and too much can cause anyone problems, I guess some are just more sensitive. (Uh, me...)

Perhaps it is just starch in this case. Though I know it's not for me...

Stephanie

[Guest Addicted2Gluten]

Thanks for all the information everyone. I will definitely bring this up with my doctor. I suppose that it could be the sensitivity to starches or a nightshade plant allergy. When I first started the gluten free diet again a few weeks ago, I actually went onto a gluten free Glycemic Index diet (since I was having bad hypoglycemic attacks). Since, the hypoglycemic attacks had stopped I decided to go back to more of a normal gluten free diet to see how I adjusted this time. It's getting extremely difficult with all of these adverse reactions to everything I eat. It seems like all I am able to eat is brown rice at the moment.

[ery]

  Addicted2Gluten said:

I have just been officially diagnosed a few months ago as having Celiac Disease after years of searching for a diagnosis. So, I've recently come off of the gluten challenge and have been keeping a food journal to identify any other food allergies/intolerances. I have so far found out that I have a severe corn and egg intolerance. Now, I think I may have an intolerance to potatoes because within a few minutes of eating them I have severe diarhhea. I've never heard of a potato intolerance...does anyone else have this?

Yes. It was diagnosed in 1987 after having been on an elimation diet. Potatoes were the first foods to be re-introduced and I had a severe reaction. It was a huge relief to find a rational cause for some disturbing symptoms I had suffered for years: migraine headaches, disturbed sleep - I used to wake suddenly with tachycarda - loss of energy and sleepiness bordering on narcolepsy.

The hospital consultant I was seeing (a consultant nephrologist and clinical ecologist) was studying food intolerances and allergies and had only recently added potatoes to his list of possibilities, after a chance remark from his secretary who said that she always felt sleepy when she had baked potato for lunch.

If you have a potato intolerance, then you will have to be very careful with so-called gluten-free products - potatoes are gluten-free and are often used as a wheat substitute in, for instance, bread. Airlines, for instance, only ever seem to offer bread made with potato flour if you specify a gluten-free diet - I always have to take my own food as I just can't trust them and the flight attendants never know what the ingredients are. Potato starch is widely used in all sorts of foods, even cheese and peppermints.

My consultant was convinced that potato intolerance was a likely indicator in most cases of narcolepsy where brain damage was not a factor. Tomatoes can also be soporific - when they were first brought to England by Sir Walter Raleigh, they were called 'Love Apples' - I have often wondered if they got their name, not because of aphrodisiac qualities, but because they rendered the lady unconscious and therefore more 'amenable'!

I also wonder whether the dietary advice during the awful 'wholemeal' 60 's and 70's when wheat bran was added to nearly everything, coming on top of war-time waste-not-want-not attitudes isn't to blame - we had it drummed into us that the best part of any fruit or vegetable was immediately under the skin and therefore we had to eat the skin to be sure of getting the only real nutrition..... this during a time when all kinds of pesticides and fertilizers which have subsequenly been banned because they are deadly poisonous were in common if not universal use.

[skbird]

This is really interesting info, ery. I have done some research on my gluten genes and one of them is very common in people with narcolepsy. I don't believe I have any symptoms at this point but used to have episodes of being very drowsy out of the blue. I used to get the nods in my classes like you wouldn't believe. Also had sleep problems (insomnia) for years.

I'm actually doing pretty well in all of those departments these days and don't consume any potato/tomato at all, nor gluten. I also try to control my sugar but have allowed that to creep up since going gluten free as it doesn't affect me quite as badly as it used to.

Thanks for the info.

Stephanie

[dperk]

I also have trouble with potatoes. It causes me to feel bloated, sick to my stomach and my stomach is on fire. But I haven't noticed a problem with tomatoes, so just assumed that it was the starch in them that was the problem. It just seems so strange to have a problem with something so simple and bland as a potatoe. People just don't understand when I say "no potatoes". They look at me like it's un-American to not eat the french fries.

[josie656]

I'm starting to suspect potatoes. I don't know if I'm imagining it but I seem to get grumpy and brain foggy the next day. Seems a bit crazy and very hard to pin on a potato (fries seem to be the worst) but it might be worth cutting them out to see. Yes, agree it's hard to avoid potato starch when eating gluten free bread. Thanks for the interesting posts

[bartfull]

My most reliable Celiac symptom is psoriasis. Potatoes of any kind - russets, red potatoes, gold potatoes, and even organic potatoes, make my psoriasis flare badly. I don't really like tomatoes or peppers, and it's hard to find decent eggplant where I live, so I don't know if it's because I am intolerant to nightshades, but I assume that is the problem.

I MISS potatoes, maybe even more than I miss bread. But that's just the way it is, so I accept it. I DO think though, that if I were ever tempted to cheat, Kettle Brand Chips would be what I would reach for!

[farmer jennings]

I also cannot eat from the nightshade family. I have an extreme reaction to white potatoes and potato starch. I can eat yams and sweet potatoes with no reactions. I stopped all breads and finally have gotten relief from extreme stomach pains, gas and bloating from the potato starch. I will be testing myself for an allergy to yeast.