Reintroduction of avocado and general update

[SKPurcell]

Hi everyone,

I’ve been doing quite well recently - have found my “safe” foods of lamb, beef, pork, sweet potato, pumpkin, carrots, banana and bone broth. I’ve basically been eating these 8 things on rotation for a couple of weeks now and my symptoms have greatly improved.

Yesterday I tried avocado at lunch time (I know how healthy avocados are supposed to be). I didn’t have any noticeable reaction yesterday so I thought they might be another safe food. But this morning I had a return of D (with urgency) for the first time in a couple of weeks. Does this mean avocados should be avoided for me or is it simply coincidence?? I also have greater skin itchiness since waking up and my post nasal drip is worse (mucus is much thicker). Is it usual that symptoms would be delayed like this??

I also got the results of my food intolerance testing. I know these should be “taken with a grain of salt” so to speak but they did show I was highly reactive to all dairy, and certain seafood as well as being moderately reactive to all grains, chicken, coconut and soy. None of which I’m eating right now so all good. More interesting to me is that it picked up on my Vitamin D deficiency (all this was done using a sample of my hair not blood so I have no idea how it works!). It also indicated that I’m deficient in major digestive enzymes: amylase, lipase & pepsin. It suggested I increase eating foods that aid digestion - hence my trying to reintroduce avocado...is there something else I can do to increase production of these enzymes???

As always, I truly appreciate any feedback people can offer!

Sarah
PS. My soy free 5000IU Vitamin D tablets arrived yesterday - happy days!! And I’m sitting in the sun As much as possible whenever it decides to show up here in cold, grey Melbourne (Australia)

[tex]

Hi Sarah,

Here's my opinion on the digestive enzymes: When the intestines are inflamed, they lose the ability to produce normal amounts of digestive enzymes. Our pancreas also often becomes inflamed when we have active MC, so we lose even more digestive enzymes. We get around this by eating smaller meals but more of them (or more snacks), so that we're not as likely to run out or enzymes before we get through digesting our meals. Most of us don't worry about being short on enzymes because after we reach remission, we're usually able to regain most of our enzyme production abilities as things get back to normal..

The symptoms you've described are what some of us experience if we have histamine issues, and we eat a food that contains too much histamine for our system to tolerate. Avocados are a high-histamine food.

on the vitamin D tablets.

Tex

[brandy]

I would avoid for now. Many people can eat them after healing.

[SKPurcell]

Thanks for the information re: digestive enzymes. I was a bit worried when I read the report but it’s good to know that it should sort itself out when healing has progressed further.

I agree. I think I’m having a lot of histamine issues. It’s frustrating me a lot. Bananas can also be considered to be high histamine. It’s exhausting. I was eating stewed apples but my report came back that apple were a moderate reactive food so I switched to bananas. But maybe they’re not great for me either - I could be getting a cumulative effect from eating 1 a day and then the avocado pushed me over the top... I just feel like I have so little choice. If I’m supposed to be snacking More (rather than eating large meals) what on earth can I actually snack on?? Meat and veggies don’t really say “snack” to me

I have to keep reminding myself that today is just a bad day. I’ve been going to well over the last couple of weeks. Sometimes it can just get so overwhelming.

Sarah

[tex]

Sarah,

As you've discovered, the road to recovery is not a one way street. We all suffer occasional setbacks when we slip up, and sometimes it seems to happen for no reason at all. But don't let that keep you from persevering — you'll get your life back if you remain dedicated. Don't be concerned about your daily progress — always look at your progress over the long-term.

I have had major histamine issues for years. I think what cooked my goose was using too much sriracha (hot sauce). That stuff is fermented forever and all fermented foods are high-histamine. It's great hot sauce, but the histamine content of sriracha is bound to be through the roof. Anyway, I've had to be careful with the histamine content of food ever since, even though I kicked the sriracha habit years ago.

Bananas are my regular snack, mid-morning and mid-afternoon. I eat them frozen, as they just begin to thaw, slathered with cashew butter or almond butter (nuts, and therefore nut butters, are also high-histamine foods). It's a snack fit for a king or queen, IMO. Fruit always tends to ferment over time. Bananas, for example are only a low to medium-histamine food when they're just beginning to ripen. The riper they get, the higher the histamine content climbs. So when most people eat them, they're a high-histamine food.

I buy my bananas when they're still green. I watch them ripen and when they're about half-yellow, half-green, I peel them and put them in ziploc freezer bags and put them in the freezer. They're often already at the proper stage when I buy then, and in that case, I peel them immediately when I get home, and put them in the freezer. If they don't peel well (IOW, if the peeling tears), they're too green. And if they peel really easily, they're probably too ripe. You'll learn how to judge them.

When I want a snack, I take one out, break it in half (I buy the biggest bananas I can find), and let one of the halves thaw for a few minutes (depending on the air temperature), before smearing on some nut butter and eating it. I put the rest back in the freezer. Don't wait too long before eating it, or it will turn into mush as it continues to thaw. I eat only half-a-banana at a time because the nut butter is also high-histamine. If the bananas are small, I eat a whole one.

You may not be able to do that if you're having an acute histamine reaction, but as long as you're not having an active histamine reaction, it should work OK. If you're just getting over a histamine reaction, be stingy with the nut butter and don't overdo the bananas, but as long as you limit the other high-histamine foods in your diet, you should be able to continue to enjoy bananas this way.

I hope this helps,

Tex

[SKPurcell]

Thanks so much Tex. I will try freezing my bananas and see how that goes. I don’t like them over-ripe anyway. I’ll steer clear of the nut butters for now as I’m not eating any nuts (my allergist told me to avoid all of the major allergens until we figure out why my IgE levels are so high).

I’ve been freezing my meat in individual portions as soon as I get it home from the shops and quickly thawing it right before cooking. As well as freezing my broth immediately and defrosting daily portions. It looks like my freezer is my new best friend

Thanks again,

Sarah