Paleo and weight gain

[Reggie]

Holy cow, I can't believe I wrote that last bit. Wannabe. About two days later D returned and Norman seems to have deserted me.

What does it mean when you eat paleo+rice for 2 weeks with absolute precision, and then it makes you sick?

I made a salad with broccoli, raisins and nuts on the 16th. I added a small amount of green peas. I ate less than a couple tablespoons of the peas. Could that give me 5 days of diarrhea after 2 weeks of not eating any other legumes? Five days with no end in sight?

Could it be because I ate so many eggs during the 2 weeks? I've eaten all this stuff for the last 6 months with no problems.

I didn't expect this food plan to make me sicker.

[artteacher]

Hi Reggie,

I don't have answers, but I thought I give a few things to think about.

1. food poisoning or flu or stomach bug?

2. raisons are high in sulfites, maybe you're sensitive. Nuts can also be dusted with sulfites, & all trail mixes that have dried fruits in them are

3. Maybe the skin/fiber of the nuts irritated you colon or other parts of your digestive tract. That happens to me . .

Hope this helps . . don't give up yet. And don't feel bad about the wanne-be comment, I thought it was cute, andI totally empathize with the feeling. I think we just want to have a definitive name for what's wrong with us. None of us wants to be sick. Remember, you're with friends.

Love, Marsha

[mle_ii]

Also raisens are high in fructose/sugar, so if this is a problem for you then I'm sure it didn't help any.

[tex]

Hi Reggie,

I'm inclined to agree with Marsha - it could be some kind of bug. Remember, having MC doesn't exempt us from the same viruses that everyone else gets. I had some kind of stomach virus a couple of weeks ago. I only felt bad for about 24 hours, but the next day, the D started, and lasted for 4 or 5 days.

Also, I couldn't handle raisins until my gut healed. I blamed it on citric acid, but that was just a guess - for all I know, it could have been the sulfites, or even the sugar.

Very few people here are actually intolerant of rice, though some avoid it just because they are avoiding all grains.

In your infamous 'wanabe" post, you mentioned non-food triggers for MC. Actually, there are quite a few of them. There are a number of meds that can do it, the most common of which is NSAIDs. Certain proton pump inhibitors have also been shown to precipitate MC. There are others, they don't come to mind right now.

Even something as seemingly unrelated as stopping a smoking habit, has been associated with the onset of MC. It can also be triggered by bacteria - C. diff is a prime example of that.

The bottom line is that lotsa things can cause MC, but nothing can cure it, and precious few things can even control it, at this stage of the game.

Tex

[gowest]

I read this thread with interest because I really want to gain weight (I'm 5'6" and about 105 lbs. currently). As I mentioned in an earlier post, I was doing paleo + rice + a bit of good dark chocolate and more eggs (call it Mark Sisson's "Primal"). I'm about three weeks into removing the rice completely and already I notice the acne on my forehead clearing up. However, the rice was something that made me full and provided a few extra calories.

I did a caloric needs assessment yesterday based on my body weight, height, gender, age, and activity levels, from this website: http://www.exrx.net/Calculators/CalRequire.html. My basic caloric needs to survive and maintain body weight are, according to this, about 2000 calories. So to gain weight, I figured I'd throw in a few hundred more calories, and basically I need to eat at least 2300 calories per day to gain some weight.

I felt like I was eating a lot, but still felt skinny and weak. So I actually entered my foods and amounts into Fitday yesterday, and it turns out I only ate about 1500 calories! No wonder!

So I'm kind of frustrated with what to eat... my body doesn't seem to handle fat or fruit well. I seem to have problems still with almond butter, avocados, coconut milk, fatty meat like ground beef or pork roast (which tastes so good, though, :o( waah!), as well as too much fruit. I just made a smoothie this morning with half a banana (bananas are usually okay) and 1/2 cup of sliced strawberries, 1 tsp of honey, and ice. It made my stomach gurgle and then D.

How can I get more calories on such limited foods? I seemed to be doing pretty well about a couple months ago (before my month abroad to Germany and Italy) on super lean turkey and chicken breast meat, fish, well cooked veggies like squash, about 4 eggs per day, white rice (except that I had acne from the rice), and the occasional tablespoon of cooked strawberry puree. Is rice a binder? Does eliminating it make BMs looser? Maybe I should incorporate it only once in a while, instead of eating it two- or three-times per day like I was? Do I just go to Costco and stock up on chicken and turkey and fish, and eat veggies galore, in every fashion (stir fry-ish, in soup, smoothies- ugh, and steamed)? Would I be missing out on any critical nutrients?

I'm just bummed out because my nice breakfast of shrimp and 4 scrambled eggs, plus the smoothie was a nice start to the day with 775 calories (50% from fat, 35% from protein, and 15% from carbs), and then I went and D'd most of it out. Grrr!!!!

[tex]

I just made a smoothie this morning with half a banana (bananas are usually okay) and 1/2 cup of sliced strawberries, 1 tsp of honey, and ice. It made my stomach gurgle and then D.

Here are some random thoughts:

1. All of those items contain fructose. Fructose digestion is a common problem for the general population, let alone those of us with MC. It's not that it causes an autoimmune reaction, it's just that we don't digest it very well, so too much fructose can lead to problems. Even honey contains more fructose than glucose. Consider this:

Greek researchers recently undertook the first randomised investigation of incomplete carbohydrate absorption after eating honey. Twenty students and staff from Athens University were given differing amounts of honey after an overnight fast. Breath hydrogen measurements were used as a way of diagnosing whether the carbohydrate had been completely absorbed or not; subjects were also asked to report any intestinal discomfort or diarrhoea after eating the honey

When given a 100g dose (equivalent to 3 tablespoons), 65 per cent of people showed signs of incompletely absorbed carbohydrate, and 30% reported loose stools. For a 50g dose, 40% didn't fully absorb the sugars, and 15% reported loose stools. The authors cheerily conclude that honey and water, a traditional Greek remedy for constipation, should be tested on patients.

For athletes with the opposite problem, however - eg, runners' diarrhoea - it could be worth cutting out honey and seeing if there is any improvement in symptoms. If you are fructose-sensitive, cutting out sources of excess fructose should show an immediate benefit. Apples, pears, and their juices also have a high level of excess fructose

('Honey may have a laxative effect on normal subjects because of incomplete fructose absorption', Ladas et al, American Journal of Clinical Nutrition vol 62, pp1212-5)

http://www.pponline.co.uk/encyc/0044.htm

2. Thermal shock can upset the digestion process. IMO, that risk is much lower for elevated temperatures than for cold temperatures, but this may be an individual phenomenon. In my case, for example, before I healed, if I drank one of those large slurpee or slushy things, (you know, those drinks that are freezing cold, and you can feel the numbing effect at least all the way down into the stomach), it seemed to sort of shut down my digestive system, and digestion would sort of grind to a halt. As you mentioned, the gurgling would begin, and it would be followed by D.

3. Most/all of us seem to have a fiber limit, and if we exceed that limit, we get into trouble. Fruits, of course, are a prime source of fiber, and like most food ingredients, the effects are cumulative, so whether or not we react, depends on how much total fiber we ingest during any particular time span.

Soooooooo, smoothies can be a triple whammy, in some cases, since they are usually a blend of fruits, (fructose and fiber sources), and ice, (a source of thermal shock). I ingested a fair number of smoothies while I was recovering, and while I never was able to convince myself, one way or the other, I had enough reactions following them, that I eventually stopped making them.

I'm a meat and potatoes fan, myself. They were the basis of my diet while I was healing, and they still are. Eggs and bacon are my standard breakfast, (though I eat pancakes with maple syrup and bacon, now and then, for variety).

All grains contain a form of gluten, as a component of their prolamin protein, and rice is no exception. And yes, rice gluten does have adhesive qualities, similar to all the other grain glutens. However, I doubt that the adhesive characteristics of gluten enhance the ability of the colon to extract water from the lumen. On the contrary, it would seem intuitive that water extraction would be more difficult, in the presence of gluten, but maybe I'm not visualizing that process correctly. After all, gooey rice would seem likely to "stick to your ribs" better than conventionally cooked rice.

Maybe you're just getting a little too much fiber, in your daily diet. I had to really cut it down, while I was recovering. Maybe someone else will have some better observations and suggestions.

Tex