dlp252

I never knew when I started my diaries how useful they'd end up being for me.

My mom used to bug me about sticking to it since alot of times I wouldnt bother with it. I felt like none of it was helping or making sense at the time. Its been a long time now and its finally become an invaluable tool.

Okay, I've been convicted, lol. I was determined to keep better journals, and did it for about 3 weeks, then did what I always do and got lazy and stopped a few days ago. I still write down what I eat, but I don't keep detailed info on symptoms. Sometimes it's overwhelming, lol, but I need to do that if I'm ever going to get a handle on this all.

It probably would have been very helpful yesterday when I felt like throwing up to be able to look back over the previous day to see what the timeline of food versus symptoms were.

I think, as a society, we have forgotten how to eat to nourish our bodies and are lost in indulging our taste buds without consideration for the consequences.

I loved your whole post, but this really stood out! I too have friends (and I do it myself too) that won't give up the stuff they know is bad...with me it's not so much that I refuse, I'm just weak, lol.

Boy, have any of you ever started eating something then immediately felt like you had to throw up...I was about halfway through my "lunch" when there was absolutely no warning...I almost had to hurl at my desk. That doesn't happen to me very often...in fact I think this is about the third time in my life that I can remember it happening. Fortunately I was able to avoid it this time, but in the past, I've had to run to the bathroom (and fortunately it was at home). There was no advanced feeling of nausea--in fact no nausea at all, just a knowledge that I was about to hurl. Isn't that weird??

Rachel - good luck with the new meds...when I take Zyrtek, it doesn't take long for it to start making me tired, although if I were out, it's not enough to make me dangerous on the road, lol.

Robbin - I haven't returned to all my vitamins yet. I'm taking some Vitamin C which says no corn (I think--now I'll have to double check, but I think I threw out all the ones that DIDN't say no corn) on the label (but not sure I completely trust that, but I figure the amount can't be much)...I'm also taking my probiotics again. I intended to slowly add back the vitamins which state no corn, but I'm not sure I really want to. Anyway, the Vitamin C is the Vitamin Shoppe brand and the probiotics are NOW brand.

Okay, so all this talk about histamines has me thinking, lol. I eat a lot of the foods on that list, and I have a ton of environmental allergies which I'm getting shots for. I take Zyrtek pretty regularly although I try to give myself breaks every few months or weeks. Zyrtek makes me kind of tired...I'm supposed to take it once a day, so I take it when I get home from work and it usually helps me sleep. It seems to have that affect for several weeks, even months for me...in fact, I know when it's time to take a break from it when I start waking up at midnight or 1:00 and staying awake, lol. Sorry, strayed from my point.

So, anyway, back to the histamines...I always have that drip in the back of my throat and dizzy-ness and nausea were my main nagging symptoms up until a couple of months ago when I started cutting out a lot of the stuff we've been talking about on this thread, some of which are on that list. I still have a lot of congestion though, so I'm wondering if I cut out some of the other histamine foods if it would make a difference in my sinuses. Worth a try...I'm willing to try just about everything we've mentioned on this thread, lol.

Have you ever read Sugar Blues. I forget the author but it is a very good book. We've been overindulging lately as well. I've been buying stuff until I get everything together to bake my own goodies. Sugar in the highly processed form is likened to heroin which is highly refined and very addictive. The body can only handle so many fruits (natural sugar) before we get full, but with sugar we don't have the stop triggered because it is highly refined and doesn't fill us as quickly.

I haven't read that...I'll have to look for it. Sugar usually isn't a problem because I haven't had much of it in the last 4 years, but since going gluten free in November I've been like a fiend with it. I can't even seem to get myself back to the maintenance level of my lower carb diet that I was on just before I went gluten-free.

That's interesting, I hadn't associated the water retention with starch but the joint pain with sugar, YES. I know that sugar is a problem for me and I am beginning to suspect that if I want any treats at all then they should come from my kitchen and be made with maple syrup, it doesn't seem to bother my joints. Eating store bought sweets seems to loose a sugar monster, the part of me that knows reason just shuts down and I find myself continuing to eat when I no longer even want to be eating it. Does anyone else have this experience?

YES! I've told a few people that I'm like an addict with sugar...it's almost uncontrollable after a certain point! Just last week I ate some Hershey's Kisses, and started to feel ill, but it was like I just HAD to eat more. Hum, I'll have to experiment with the maple syrup thing. Agave nectar also seems to be okay, but I've never experimented with making sweets with either one of them.

Ok...I'm getting worried.

The past few days I've had very loose stools in the AM. It seems like I'm not absorbing so good. Some lettuce from my salad was undigested. What could be causing this all of a sudden? I've been eating the avocados and like I said earlier...I dont digest fats well. Does that mean that when I eat alot of fatty foods I wont be digesting my other foods as well either? Its been a long long time since I saw lettuce undigested so somethings up. Too much fruit maybe? Any suggestions?

Okay, I'm trying to remember what I read and where I read it, but I seem to remember reading recently about some people have digestive systems that move things through too fast. I'll see if I can spot it in one of the books I've read at home recently. They had suggestions on what to do. Fruit can definitely cause loose stools for me, but I don't usually see undigested foods any more. I do think the book said that when things move through too quickly it can't get absorbed.

I think I have trouble digesting fats. I dont know for sure or why this would happen but whenever I eat anything high in fat I get real bulky stools. If I use any oils for a salad dressing or like the other day when I ate alot of coconut butter...I can actually see like an oil slick on top of the water after my bm. I dont think this is right.

This is nothing new though....its been like this a long time. I usually dont eat foods high in fat for this reason but I need to so I dont lose weight. Thing is...if I have malabsorption of fats I'm not gonna gain weight from eating it anyway...right??

Yep, you're probably right. Although, I'm thinking your gut must be starting to heal! You've held on to this weight for a while now and so hopefully once the intestines heal enough you'd be able to handle more fat. Then again, if your intestines heal enough you probably won't need the fat because the food you eat will stay where it's supposed to.

Some people just can't eat a lot of fat...kind of the same way some people can't eat a lot of starch, or a lot of sugar, or a lot of protein...God made us all so different.

Rinne - I have a problem with sugar as well, I just tend to ignore it, but I pay every time I eat too much. One of the things I notice is that I retain lots of water when I eat too much starch of any kind, sugar adds a queasy feeling. I think my joints get stiffer too...maybe the extra water retention??? Anyway, I did the same thing as you...I found a new store that carries a large selection of gluten-free stuff and needed to get some dairy free chocolate chips so went in. I ended up buying a bunch of stuff there, plus found some dairy free brownies at Whole Foods so bought some of those, plus two new chocolate bars! So far, I've been doing okay with just having a bite here and there, but my past experience has been that within a day, they'll all be gone, lol.

Yes avocados are a good food...they have lots of good fat, so they have a nice calorie count. I have to watch my weight or I'd eat the whole darned avocado, lol.

I also kind of like sweet potatoes better than the others.

I never thought I liked squash (any of it), but lately I've been buying some frozen winter squash and I really like it a lot. I could never quite get used to the spaghetti squash and it's been many years sine I tried it. I think I tried it with a tomato meat sauce. It didn't quite cut it for me. Lately I've been thinking I wanted to try it again, but haven't seen any at Whole Foods.

PS ..On the frozen food subject, I was told many months ago by a local diettician @ our hospital that frozen food bags & pkgs. had flour in them to help the food come out easily. she volunteered this idea, so when I saw the university dietitcian I asked her & she said did not know of flour being put in fr. food bags. maybe someone will know how to research this for sure.

Well, now, THAT's scarey, lol. I eat a lot of frozen veggies and fruit. So far I haven't had a horrible reaction, except to frozen spinach after I had done the SCD diet a few weeks...but that was more of a nauseated feeling as I was eating it...not sure what that was all about. I'm hoping it's not true. I can say that most all of the frozen stuff I buy sticks together (I DO buy organic frozen stuff), lol.

Sheesh, I didn't check this thread for 1 day, and I got several pages behind!

So for all of you with chicken problems--have you tried organic chicken? I was just wondering. I thought maybe those lovely pesticides, antibiotics, and growth hormones might be the problem...

It's so easy to get behind isn't it! You may have a point with the organic chicken! I think for me that might be it, combined with the overload like Rachel suggested. When I had my worst itching, I was eating chicken nearly every day and was eating a lot of it...I also wasn't eating organic chicken--it was just from the regular grocery store. The chicken I've been eating lately is organic and I haven't been eating too much of it. So, now my next chicken challenge...eating it for a couple of days in a row, lol.

When I was seeing my old allergist, he suggested rotating my foods since I had so many allergies. He was one of those that feels that people with lots of environmental allergies also have problems with food. He said that the common foods (whatever common is for you) that you ate as a child could be responsible for creating antibodies, so his suggestion was that I eat less common foods. For instance as a child and adult I ate TONS of chicken, pasta, regular milk and beef, so about a year and a half ago I started buying less common stuff for me like buffalo, lamb, cornish game hens, ostrich, goat milk yogurt, etc. and eating them on a rotating basis. I do think that helped, but of course I didn't know about my casein or gluten intolerance so wasn't being careful about that...I knew wheat gave me problems but didn't connect the gluten thing. So, maybe having stayed away from chicken for a while, I can now eat it in small amounts.

I use frozen fruit for my smoothies...yum.

The flax seeds can cause a little tummy trouble if you aren't used to eating them...if you do try them, start with just a little bit at a time and slowly up the amount. I used to buy the already ground up flax meal and started with just a teaspoon full in a smoothie, then was able to do a tablespoon, then started mixing it into stuff like tuna salad. I haven't had it in a long time now so would probably have to start slowly again, lol.

Okay girls...I have no heel itching today...so I guess chicken isn't the culprit--it's been more than 24 hours now. I've been taking Zyrtek everyday for about 5 days now, but I can't imagine that would affect it...they never made a difference when I was in the midst of the worst of the itching.

I don't even know how to do the ratios. I haven't been excercising either, so that doesn't help. I spend too much time on this forum.

I would probably need to do the whole test which I won't pay for. I've got to get off of here and head to the store to replace my colander (which I hadn't done yet) and get some small loaf pans. Maybe I can get some baking done this weekend. I didn't buy millet flour though so I'll just have to make things that don't call for that. I've got a model horse show we are going to on Saturday. The gal I buy my custom model horses from on ebay is going to be there. It will be nice to see her again. She said the show will be smaller than normal because the people putting it on didn't get papers done in time to qualify this show for the national model horse show. There is a pre fair game show on Sunday I might want to take the kids to. I always enjoyed watching gaming (my favorite was the keyhole race) during my 4h years. We used to have a joke that they took all the pleasure out of fair because they judged the rider but not the horse.

The ratios were listed on the email they sent, and it was just a general categorization...the email also said that the ratios would probably need to be tweaked, and for that the full test is required, lol. I'm sure the book goes into it too (or maybe not...the full test looked pretty expensive).

The show sounds fun! I love going to stuff like that.

Silly me, forgot to list the ratios:

Carb Type: 25% protein, 15% fat, 60% carb

Mixed Type: 30% protein, 20% fat, 50% carb

Protein Type: 40% protein, 30% fat, 30% carb

Donna,

I had scored 51 which is mixed. It was interesting for me because I hadn't been eating meat and for those questions I wasn't sure about I picked 5 for the medium. I would probably be in the higher 50's otherwise. I used to eat much more carbohydrates since my protein was coming from gluten and soy primarily. I still need to eat more fruits and veggies.

My score was 81, and I did the same thing with a couple of questions...picked 5 for the mid-range. I actually don't eat as much meat as they suggest [ETA: for my type]...they suggested ratio of 40/30/30, with 40 being protein...right now fat is my biggest chunk and it's around 40-50%, carbs are my next and then protein...I may give this a shot and see if making my protein around 40% does anything. When I was feeling my best, my fat ratio was up around 55-60% with, protein next at around 30%, and the rest in carbs. The fat came from mostly good sources, but I did have a lot of red meat too, so some of it was saturated.

I've been asked recently if maybe that diet didn't have something to do with my enlarged bile/pancreatic duct and the cell changes...I have yet to determine that, but will ask my doctor when I see him next month. Theoretically if I had been eating the correct proteins and fats, for my body, it shouldn't have had an effect, but I have a suspicion that it wasn't quite the correct ratios nor the correct types of proteins and fats.

The blood type diets sound interesting...I know I'm A but not sure if I'm A+ or A-... I've always felt really good just eating meats and veggies with a little fruit, so I'm not sure how that all fits, lol. I'll have to see if I can find Dr. Mercola's questions.

I meant to say blood typ/e metabolic diets sound interesting, lol. Well I just did the 9-question thing at Dr. Mercola's site...and just with that it said I'm most likely a protein type. That fits with what past experience has shown me.

Sorry I didn't get to get online before now to respond to the question about the kugel-I just buy the Manischewitz kugel mix that is in the grocery store and experiment with that. I added an extra egg and 1/2 c. sweet rice flour to it and baked it in a larger pan than the little tin that is included in the box. You could do a lot of experiments with this and best of all it is gluten free, cheap, and easy. It has onion in it already, so it easily adapts to savory foods. It's in the Jewish foods section and I learned about it from a thread in the cooking/baking section or the products section, can't remember which. celiac3270 recommended the Manischewitz products and I tried them and they are good. I like the sweet potato pancake mix too. I normally cook from scratch but if you don't feel well and need to throw a meal together for a family that can't just pick up and get take out, any kind of convenience food is great.

Great! Thanks so much!!! I'll see if Whole Foods has any of these products tomorrow, and if not, I'll check out my regular grocery stores--I KNOW I've seen them somewhere, lol.

The blood type diets sound interesting...I know I'm A but not sure if I'm A+ or A-... I've always felt really good just eating meats and veggies with a little fruit, so I'm not sure how that all fits, lol. I'll have to see if I can find Dr. Mercola's questions.

I've never seen it in Whole Foods. I used to work at the Safeway in downtown Los Altos but in all the years I worked there I never went into Draegers which is on the same street. The other day I decided to check it out...I also went to Andronicos (same area). The only thing I found at Andronicos was the coconut butter....it was with all the jams and spreads. Draegers had alot of organic produce which is what I was looking for. They have a big sign outside that says "Organic and Gluten Free Foods". I did see a couple displays of gluten-free foods but you kind of had to look around for it. Andronicos is on Foothill Expressway....are you familiar with that area?

I think I know where Draegers is and I can probably find Andronicos...I ocassionally travel down Foothill Expressway. It sounds like it will be worth the attempt, cuz that coconut butter sounds wonderful!

What??!!

They were just there a few weeks ago.

Oh well...I had to stop going there cuz they have all the yummy stuff that I cant eat anyways.

Let me know when you find out about this other gluten-free store....what city is it in?

Glad to hear about your foot...thats good news!

Yah, it was a shock...I went to the door to open it and it wouldn't open, lol. Then I actually looked at the window and everything was gone....then I walked back out to the parking lot to look at all the stores to make sure I was actually at the right place...thought maybe the quilting store went away, but nope...everything was there except CN...I tried going to their website today to and couldn't get connected. The new store is in San Jose near Oakridge Mall. My mother lives near there and I'll be over there on Saturday, so I'll check it out.

The coconut doesnt have anything you listed in it. It actually says on the bottle "Absolutely no peanuts, gluten or dairy". The brand is Artisana...the only ingredient is raw organic coconut. Its really good so if you can tolerate coconut its a yummy and healthy way to get some fat into your diet.

I use coconut oil which I get at Whole Foods, but I'd love to find this coconut butter...what store did you find it at?

This is a bit of what Armetta wrote...

"My cleaning lady had to call my doctor and an ambulance came and rushed me to the hospital - intensive care."

It was hard to understand if that happened today or she was telling a story of what happened before, but she's bad sick. I'm worried about her.

Please keep her in your prayers.

When I read that I took it to mean that the last time she took a steamy shower that happened, but I'm really worried about what Judy in Phili wrote after that post from Armetta:

ARMETTA NEEDS OUR HELP---- ASKS US FOR PRAYERS AGAIN

I JUST GOT ON LINE AND HAVE BEEN TRYING TO FIND HER THREAD..I SPOKE WITH HER THIS MORNING AND SHE WASN'T GOOD...SHE ASKED ME TO POST FOR HER...SHE REALLY REALLY NEEDS OUR POWERFUL PRAYERS...

THIS IS A CUT AND PASTE SHE SENT ME...I'M SORRY I DIDN'T GET IT UP EARLIER BUT LET'S RALLY AROUND HER....

ARMETTA WROTE--

One used to own a home health care service. She said that it sounded like it has gone into pneumonia. I am going to call and see if they can squeeze me in earlier. I am getting worse by the hour. I don't wheeze at all anymore, the rock has gotten to heavy. I will email you after the doctor appt. If you could reactivate my thread for prayers, I would appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Love and Hugs,

Armetta

SO I'M STARING MINE NOW..SHE IS REALLY COUNTING ON US.

JUDY IN PHILLY

I seem to get gluten reaction regardless of whether I take antihistamines or not. They do help with some of my nasal symptoms though. The gluten-free/dairy-free diet has really helped in that regard, so I don't have to take the meds as much, but I do still have to take them ocassionally. I still get other symptoms though when I eat gluten while taking antihistamines.

Oh yeah your right Donna... just looked at the ingredients, it has non-fat milk.... sorry, didn't know that, was another blonde moment for me..

No problem, lol, at least it wasn't a senior moment which I've been having all day!

For the diagnosis question, I actually started the diet first, then had a positive diagnosis from Enterolab, THEN had the blood tests done, lol. I ended up picking "positive through Enterolab, no blood tests", because neither my doctor NOR I thought we'd see anything on the blood tests, but ran them anyway for a baseline. I also had started to see positive dietary response before the Enterolab testing, but not a lot because it was only about a month so didn't choose that one.

For the symptoms question, I needed an "All of the above symptoms, plus more"...so just picked diarrhea, but really I had all the ones you listed and more.

For the diet question, before going gluten free I was on a low carb/anti candida rotation diet (but had fallen off the program which is how I figured out I had a gluten problem), eating a variety of meats and fish, veggies, fruit and a little bit of alternative grains (not much) and a little yogurt.

I saw the Vance's Dairy free at Cupertino Nutrition (a health food store), but I went there yesterday and they (the store) was gone. I can also do soy milk, hazelnut milk and almond milk, but I think Carnation Instant breakfast has dairy in it by itself though--I could be wrong because it's been a long time since I've bought any.

A friend tells me there is another health food store near where my mom lives that claims to have the biggest gluten free selection in the Bay Area (that's what Cupertino Nutrition used to say--hey maybe they moved, lol), so I may go look there this weekend.

Course, if I starte drinking that stuff again I'll GAIN weight, which I really DON'T need, lol.

Just a random thought... I read everyone's posts on here and in my head I imagine they sound like me, I wonder how many of us have different accents...

No accent here, although some words come out slightly "valley girl" at times (not from the right area, so don't know where it comes from, lol). Also some words come out "mid-western" even though I'm from California...my parents were both from the mid-west so guess I learned pronounciation of some things from them.

Floridian - I LOVE carnation instant breakfast but haven't had it in years...now I can't because of the dairy, but gosh I loved that stuff, lol.

Thanks Andrea! I always have a good time in Las Vegas.

I love "experiments".....its almost exciting for me to find out what happens with these challenges!

I guess if the "heel itch" comes back chicken will be out for good?

Sorry to hear about your foot....bummer.

I feel like I'm having a deja vu right now.

Did you hurt yourself on the mini trampoline before (like halfway into this thread) or am I just totally confused?

Yep, if the heel itch comes back chicken is out. Or, at least drastically reduced, lol.

Hum, I probably hurt something halfway through this thread, but not my foot, lol. Although the way we post on this thread, Friday probably WAS halfway through. I hurt my foot on Friday (6/16) afternoon just as I was finishing my workout.

Good news on the foot front, lol. As I also suspected, the doctor doesn't think it's broken or even sprained because I have excellent mobility with virtually no pain and she can't imagine that I could move that well with this little pain if it was broken. She thinks the swelling black spot yesterday was just blood collecting in my foot...I neglected to ask if we should be concerned WHERE the blood was coming from, lol. Anyway, she wants me to continue to do what I've been doing which is put up my feet when I can and elevate that foot while I sleep. Icing it in the evening is also a good idea. She thinks it will probably look pretty ugly for a couple of weeks.

Rachel - I like to do the same thing on my vacation time. I'm taking next Friday off and most of the following week. Friday I'm just going to hang out, but do have a hair appointment...next week I'm going to Las Vegas...

Hey, did you notice Cupertino Nutrition is gone! I went there yesterday to get some dairy free chocolate chips and they were GONE!

Robin - what is potato kugel...it sounds interesting! Is there a ready made mix or do you make it yourself?

Armetta - glad you are feeling a bit better...I've also been praying for you.

Well, we just got back from the gastric emptying study and it's not good news. She is refluxing constantly and aspirating frequently into her right lung. There is so much damage done by the fundo coming undone, they don't think anything can be done short of another fundo. The radiologist agreed that the fundo shouldn't have been done in the first place, but it coming undone is what has caused all of the present issues. It just breaks my heart that I let them do that to her even though my instincts told me not to. They said it was the only thing that would work and it has caused her more health issues than anything ever has. He also said that they could try a G-J tube to but the food directly into her intestines, hopefully avoiding the aspirations. I think this is the next step we want to try, but her open heart surgery is scheduled for less than 2 mos. and her sats are dropping, so I don't know if the GI folks will agree to a less invasive approach since she will have to be ready for the surgery. I just feel like it's all spiraling out of control. We can't fix one thing without hurting everything else. I'm soooo torn. Please continue to pray. Pray for healing and wisdom.

I'm so sorry! I've just prayed and will continue to pray for Megan and you and the doctors.

I may be posting more after tomorrow, lol. Tomorrow is another chicken challenge. My heel hasn't itched at all now for a couple of days.

I've been feeling pretty well...the Vitamin C seems to be sitting well so far. I've also started taking my probiotics again. I think I'll wait a full week before introducing new vitamins though.

I have a doctor appointment later today because I fell on Friday (while getting off a mini trampoline, lol) and hit my shin on the frame of the rebounder. It hasn't hurt much, and just started getting really bruised on Monday. Well today when I got up the whole left side of that foot is black and there is a slight shooting pain on that side but higher up...the side of my foot didn't hit the frame at all, so not sure what's up with the whole thing. I'm sure it's nothing but thought the doc should probably look at it just in case I damaged a blood vessel or something. I hit pretty hard, but it never did hurt to walk on it (okay it hurt a little on Sunday when I put on heels, lol) until today.