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Thoughts On Food And Intolerances/sensitivities

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Posted 15 January 2006 - 01:08 AM

I've been thinking about all the various foods that are problematic for people...and also thinking about mother nature and the animal world....animals in nature, that is. If you think about it, each species tends towards certain limited foods. Panda bears almost exclusively eat bamboo leaves. Lions in the wild eat meat. Horses eat grasses. Each animal eats what its digestive system was developed to handle.

Only humans stuff themselves with an enormous variety of different foods. The question is always one of "what exactly is the human digestive system supposed to handle, which foods exactly?" That's hard to answer. Eskimo people used to eat mostly fatty meats. They didn't have vegetables or fruits or even bread for that matter. Yet they thrived. In the deserts of the Middle East, the Bedouin tribes of old ate mostly dates, camel milk, certain meats. Perhaps humans and their systems evolved a certain way in one area, a different way in another. But one thing seems certain: The human digestive system is unable to cope with an influx of a huge number of food substances. If you look at native diets, they are simple and limited.

I don't really think anyone gets away with having no problems. Look at what an enormous and lucrative business all those digestive drugs are....the heartburn meds, the gas meds, etc. So while someone with celiac disease may have problems more acutely, I really think everyone has their sensitivities. Most people don't pay attention to it, that's all, they just live with it and take their various meds to counter the effects of the food they ate. And people tend to think that if it's a food, if it's sold in a supermarket, well, it must be fine to eat it. Not so.

I'm actually amazed at the limited universe of foods I can eat and still feel well. The broader my variety of foods, the worse I feel. A lot of foods don't mix well in our system, either. I can get away with eating a small amount of corn. Or alternately a small amount of potato. If I put them together in corn chowder (potato + Corn) I suffer for DAYS. For me, potato and meat just doesn't mix. Mashed potatoes are the absolute worst, I just can't handle them.

I'm beginning to think for myself that I need to continually pare down my variety of foods. When I think back to when I was on the Atkins diet, I was totally surprised at how GOOD I felt....surprised because I was not normally a big eater of meats or cheese. The Atkins diet was very very limited in variety, and had no dairy, no grains of any kind, no fruit.

At this point in time, these are the foods that I'm fairly sure don't bother me: eggs, lean meats, apples, grapefruit, lettuce, avocado, carrot, celery, squash, broccoli, cauliflower, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, water (ha ha)

So my particular journey is learning to successfully pare down my daily food list and just stay away from all the other things I love but which just don't go peacefully thru my system. This is hard, though. I feel like I essentially have to lose interest in food, just "eat to live" as they say.
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Enterolab 1/2006
IgA & tTg Positive
Casein IgA positive
Mom has 2 celiac genes
Both kids have a celiac gene.
Lots of celiac disease in my family, both sides.

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Posted 15 January 2006 - 05:00 AM

I find your thinking very logical. There are times I'm standing in the kitchen wanting something to eat, I mean wanting, not needing, and I think about indigenous people and what they eat. They definitely eat to live.
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gluten-free since Oct 1996



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Posted 15 January 2006 - 01:17 PM

I agree with you all. I don't seem to be able to tolerate a lot of foods now. Oddly enough I got worse after getting off dairy. I think maybe because dairy tends to make me constipated, so it was balancing out the other stuff. :}
Finally my too frequent BM's have stopped! I'm hoping I am not going into a constipation bit now.

I'm following SCD now, which is basically meat, most veggies and certain fruits. No grains of any sort. It allows limited milk products, like yogurt that has been cultured for at least 24 hours. The only sugars allowed are mono-sacchrides, like in honey or fruit. I guess a lot of people with very severe intestinal issues have had some great luck with this diet. And, since I can't really eat any convience or restaurant foods, I'm in little danger of getting accidental exposure to things that make my gut go really hay-wire.

I need to lose weight, being one of those that didn't lose but gained instead, with my gluten intolerance.

Of course, if we were really eating like indigenous people... we're probably be eating some grubs too. :P
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Ursa Major

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Posted 15 January 2006 - 02:51 PM

What you are saying makes perfect sense to me. As the saying goes, "One person's food is another person's poison", and it's very true.

When I think of it, the foods I am now left with are basically the ones that have always been available in the part of the world I am from (Hamburg, Germany, which is near the northernmost part of Germany).

No grains used to be grown there, especially not corn (it's from South America) or rice (asia). I guess they have now adapted some grains to cold, wet weather (even though I don't remember seeing wheat fields, but I didn't grow up in the country side).

I can still eat meat, and the vegetables that don't seem to be causing any problems are brussel sprouts, celery, carrots, green beans, cauliflower, kohlrabi, rutabaga (and probably some I haven't tried yet). The only fruits I can eat now are peeled pears and peeled golden delicious apples. According to the salicylate list I should be able to eat bananas, but I can tolerate only one a week at most, or they cause oral allergy syndrome. So, I usually avoid bananas altogether, because I realize they aren't healthy for me.


Ugh, gross!!!!!!!!! but of course, you're right.
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