sugar

Belle · Post by **Belle** » Thu Mar 22, 2012 3:48 pm

Has anyone found that it helps to completely eliminate sugar? I am off of sugar and pretty much all sweeteners now but I'm finding it hard as sugar is in everything. Not that i crave it but I just want to be able to make a "normal" GF recipe for once without having to cut out most of the ingredients. Also now that it is close to passover there are so many GF passover items out there but they all have sugar so there is nothing i can buy. it's getting depressing.

Lesley · Post by **Lesley** » Thu Mar 22, 2012 3:52 pm

I have given up on Passover. I know there is nothing I can eat out there. Everything has rice or corn, even though Ashkenazis don't eat rice on Passover.

What I WILL miss is gefilte fish, and not from a bottle. I hate the stuff from the bottle. In Israel you can get the mixture of fish already minced. It's wonderful.

Belle · Post by **Belle** » Thu Mar 22, 2012 6:45 pm

you can get it in American too if you live near a community with a large jewish presence

Leah · Post by **Leah** » Thu Mar 22, 2012 8:25 pm

You're right, Passover will be tough. This will be my first with no Matzo ball soup! I guess I am down to brisket and vegetables. I guess I can still have a coconut macaroon, but that would be out if you are not doing sugar. :(

Post by **tex** » Thu Mar 22, 2012 10:46 pm

Belle,

Significant amounts of sugar seemed to make me sick, when I was recovering, so I minimized sugar in my diet for a year and a half, or so. I didn't avoid all traces of sugar, (because it doesn't cause an autoimmune reaction), I just avoided anything that contained added sugar, because when our enzymes are in short supply, (due to inflammation in our small intestine), we can't properly digest sugar, so it ferments in our colon, causing gas, bloating, cramps, and D. In my case, I believe that sugar was the primary trigger for the leaky gut syndrome. For some strange reason, the only type of sugar that didn't cause me to have D, was maple sugar - I could eat a fair amount of maple sugar, without any problems, so whenever I craved something sweet, I ate some pure maple candy.

Tex

Belle · Post by **Belle** » Fri Mar 23, 2012 11:16 am

thank you for your reply. so you didn't find you had to eliminate sugar completely to resolve the leaky gut?

Post by **tex** » Fri Mar 23, 2012 11:42 am

Right. I just had to make sure that I didn't overdo it. No GF pie or cake, for example, maybe one or two GF cookies, but not more. I could drink one sweetened soft drink per day, but two would be too much. Your limits might be different, of course.

Tex

Belle · Post by **Belle** » Fri Mar 23, 2012 12:36 pm

thanks. for some reason though my joint pain got somewhat worse again last night. i couldn't fall asleep b/c of severe pain in my knee and pain in my back. today my back is very stiff again which it hadn't been for about a week. i was hoping i was on the road up. i'm wondering why the pain is getting worse again after finally getting better. i am still on a quite strict elimination diet so i can't imagine it is something i'm eating. i've been having some plain proteins, a few cooked veggies, cooked apples and pears and some oat bread. other wise just salt for flavor

Belle · Post by **Belle** » Fri Mar 23, 2012 12:37 pm

by the way tex,
how can you tell what your limit is?

Post by **tex** » Fri Mar 23, 2012 7:03 pm

Are you sure that oat bread is safe? My back and neck, (and various joints), get stiff and sore whenever I react to something, and many of us are sensitive to oats, including me.

Belle wrote:by the way tex,
how can you tell what your limit is?

I kept a diary. If I got sick the next day, or the day after, I knew I had overdone it.

Tex

brandy · Post by **brandy** » Sat Mar 24, 2012 6:08 pm

Hi Belle,

Yes it helps to reduce/eliminate sugar while the leaky gut is healing. That being said while I was on Entocort I did occasionally have several gluten free cookies here and there. I also occasionally had some honey in my tea. I also about twice had about an inch of dry white wine (also sugar.) Despite having a bit of sugar here and there I was still able to move forward with healing. AFTER MY LAST ENTOCORT PILL I WENT COMPLETELY SUGAR FREE during the 8 week danger zone after last pill. We have a risk of relapse during that period so I wanted to help prevent relapse. Hope this helps. Brandy

Belle · Post by **Belle** » Tue Apr 03, 2012 6:40 pm

so is pure maple syrup as a sweetener better then sugar. can you use it freely or do you also need to limit it?

Post by **tex** » Tue Apr 03, 2012 7:08 pm

You can also get pure maple sugar. At the time, I seemed to be able to tolerate a lot of maple sugar, or syrup, but these days, if I overdo it, the syrup seems to give me D, (at least large amounts do - there may be a difference in brands, though). I haven't noticed any problems with the sugar, but I don't usually overdo it with the sugar, either.

Tex