Sunmountain's Log

[sunmountain]

Jennifer, I'm glad you mentioned sueq's post...I just read it. I've been doing the same thing for about a month -- low-fat, no/low starch.

I'm less scientific, though, so haven't crono'd it, except at beginning which showed too few calories, which I suspected, and is a constant struggle continuing.

Since there is no nonfat goat milk available, the almost quart of low-fat goat milk I drink daily is my main source of fat.

Protein is a challenge for me as I've gone back to mostly veggie, with white fish now and then. What I find on days when I have no starch and lots of milk and cottage cheese for protein and OJ and dried fruit for carbs is diarrhea.

Sometimes I crave beans and lentils, which I grew up on, and then I have them, so that gives some more protein. Yesterday, I made this quick-cooking lentil from childhood (after soaking it overnight), and with a T of CO mixed in plus seasonings, it was so good that I decided it's good for me at least for now and I'm going to have it more often as I need the protein.

After going mostly without starch for almost a month, and diarrhea almost a month, I've started having a small amount of starch now in the form of potatoes or white rice. For lunch today, I had lentils and about 3T cooked white rice, and within a couple of hours I was hungry again (yeah!!) and had about 10oz warm milk with tea in it in the afternoon.

I'm just really fed up with the diarrhea. If I have a bit of starch, I don't get the diarrhea. So maybe my body does better with low starch.

While rice and potatoes seem to digest quickly, I can't say the same for pasta, pizza, etc., so stay away from that.

Every time I eat starch, I pop 4 capsules of Allithiamine, which I feel speeds up digestion.

I guess the main worry right now is if reintroducing low starch will cause weight gain...I guess I'll find out. But the alternative is diarrhea, and I'm truly done with that.

I still don't know if I'm burning sugar yet or not. I'm eating less sugar than when I started, mainly for the sake of taste. I eat to taste now, and lately begun 1:1 sucrose:fructose instead of fructose only.

(I suspect "fructose malabsorption" as another possible reason for the diarrhea. Though to be scientific, I should go back to fructose-only while reintroducing low starch and see what happens. I guess that's what I will do.)

So after about of month of no/low starch and relatively low fat, I'm switching to low starch and staying low fat. And seeing if I gain weight.

As for my stomach, I've figured out it's sticking out for 2 reasons: it swells up after eating, and then there's the insulin-resistant fat around it. So that even after the swelling is down after digestion, it's still sticking out due to fat.

I'm also continuing 200mg caffeine pill in the morning with milk, and 15 drops K2. I tolerate the 200mg caffeine fine; in fact, I like it, it keeps me alert.

Occasionally I've started feeling a bit more energetic lately, like I want to do something physical. So that's why I'm looking into gentle yoga right now, as my knees still hurt going down steps.

I feel like the massage has been a big part of my recovery. I'm also feeling good after acupuncture...less achy. I can't wait to start yoga.

 

[tara]

Another thing I'm looking into starting is gentle yoga. More like long stretches with holding poses for long. That's about all I can do anyhow, with my stomach sticking out and getting out of breath with one flight of steps.

Yay for yoga.
I don't think a sticking out stomach needs to be much of a physical hindrance (though some classes are full of thin people). One of my old yoga teachers from years back had a nice round tummy. I wish had her strength, stamina, flexibility nd balance. I think Iyengar kept some rolls on, too.
I think the strength component can be just as important as the flexbility part, but you don't have to be super it to begin with to start making gains in that too.

 

[sunmountain]

Thanks for the support, guys, I really appreciate it!

I know what you mean, Tara, I've seen belly dancers with bellies too... I'm going to try the first yoga class Monday night.

Speaking of which. The acupuncture has definitely created more energy. That's what got me chasing yoga, I think. I just want to make sure it's good energy, and not adrenaline!!

How do I know the difference? I don't have a racing heartbeat as best as I can tell, just a feeling of needing to get physical. No, not that kind of physical...libido still in the tank. But active.

Do you think pregnenolone -- which I take daily -- can mask adrenaline? If not, then it's probably good energy.

Sleep is much deeper too, with acupuncture, though it had already improved through peating.

 

[Jennifer]

Sunmountain, I would think if the acupuncture was causing adrenaline there would be signs of nervous energy or anxiousness. Seeing as you're able to do yoga, which involves a sustaining calm energy, it sounds like actupuncture is doing you good.

How's your digestion doing today now that you've added back starches?

 

[sunmountain]

Hi Jennifer, no nervous energy or anxiety. So may not be adrenaline.

Digestion. Have had a full stomach all day though no starch until just now at 6:15pm (3T white rice with half cup chickpea curry). Did not take caffeine plus K2 yesterday and today -- thinking to give a break. Just now took 4 caps Allithiamine. Stomach swelled up in the morning after apple and milk, went down a bit, swelled again at lunch (broth, egg, mushrooms, salt, cheese, sweet bell pepper).

I ate a LOT yesterday (starch was lentil plus 3T rice at lunch and a med potato at dinner - is this high or low starch??). Today starch was only 3T rice plus 1/2 cup chickpea.


Going back on caffeine plus k2 tomorrow morning.

 

[Jennifer]

Hmm...have you ever had a meal without fiber and if so, did you notice any swelling after?

In regards to yesterday's starch being high or low, I guess that depends on what you tolerate. I'm curious though, does the caffeine exasperate the diarrhea? I thought caffeine stimulated the bowels and got things moving, but I could be wrong. Did you notice a change in the frequency of the diarrhea when you started the caffeine pills?

 

[sunmountain]

Interesting connection between caffeine and diarrhea, Jennifer. No caffeine yesterday and today, and no diarrhea. I'll go back on caffeine tomorrow and report. I had been thinking fructose malabsorption.

I haven't considered fiber at all. I don't know much about it, so looked it up. Soluble and insoluble. Before reintroducing starch, I was mostly doing milk, cottage cheese with jam, farmer's cheese, broths, eggs, OJ, fresh and dried fruits, etc. Today was the first time I had apple at breakfast with milk. I have apple occasionally now during the day after I discovered this very sweet golden variety at Mom's organic market.

I'm feeling less full now...maybe the Allithiamine went to work. I'm about to have some milk in a bit and will have it without accompaniment.

 

[Jennifer]

Yeah, fiber is a bit tricky. Apple and jams have pectin which can feed bacteria in the small intestines, if I'm not mistaken. I think that's one of the reasons for straining orange juice. Since you mentioned swelling after the apple and milk, I thought I'd ask. My last email to Ray included a question about the safety of eating a fiber free diet and this was his response:

"I think fiber is always a risk (I avoid them all except for occasional well cooked mushrooms and bamboo shoots, which are germicidal). The foods you list contain all the essential nutrients."

I was shocked to find out he doesn't consume carrot salad or bamboo shoots everyday. I have to say, after cutting out all the fiber from my diet, that trapped gas that was always present in my intestines since my fruitarian days, is gone. My gut hasn't felt this great in years. I'm not sure how practical it is for everyone or if it's really that necessary for everyone to avoid fiber, but for me it has really helped. Though, when I first cut it out of my diet, I missed eating whole fruits, but that might just be because I'm use to the satiety from the volume that fiber provides. I think the same could be said about starches. Now I'm satisfied on calorie dense foods.

 

[sunmountain]

Hi Jennifer! I forgot to take the caffeine pill today, but will tomorrow. No diarrhea again today -- 3rd straight day. Somehow I think it has to do with eating a bit more solid food. I had half a cup of starch at lunch today (garbanzo soup), and then rice and lentils at dinner (a bit over a cup maybe).

My stomach does seem more sticking out with starch, but will give it a few days and see. Transit has also been slower perhaps due to lack of caffeine, so that could also contribute to the extra sticking out.

Regarding fiber, I started eating fresh fruit only recently. What is your diet without fiber, that Ray says has all the essential nutrients? After the starch experiment, I can try fiber-free (can one have starch but no fiber?).

I am racking my brains as to how to increase protein, having tried all the usual suspects...

 

[sunmountain]

I hear you about the pectin. Mittir had warned me about it too in OJ. The problem is that I do think I have fructose malabsorption so that when I drink AJ, I more often get diarrhea.

 

[thebigpeatowski]

I don't remember sunmoutain, have you looked in to SIBO?

 

[Jennifer]

Hi Jennifer! I forgot to take the caffeine pill today, but will tomorrow. No diarrhea again today -- 3rd straight day. Somehow I think it has to do with eating a bit more solid food. I had half a cup of starch at lunch today (garbanzo soup), and then rice and lentils at dinner (a bit over a cup maybe).

My stomach does seem more sticking out with starch, but will give it a few days and see. Transit has also been slower perhaps due to lack of caffeine, so that could also contribute to the extra sticking out.

Regarding fiber, I started eating fresh fruit only recently. What is your diet without fiber, that Ray says has all the essential nutrients? After the starch experiment, I can try fiber-free (can one have starch but no fiber?).

I am racking my brains as to how to increase protein, having tried all the usual suspects...

This is the last email I wrote to Ray:

Do you think eating a diet that consists of milk, cheese, meat/shellfish, eggs, juice and small amounts of butter or coconut oil would be a nutritionally complete and healthy diet to do? After doing the fruitarian diet, I don't seem to tolerate fiber at all. It gives me a lot of painful trapped gas in my colon area. I could try the flowers of sulphur again and see if it helps, but for the time being I'm hoping to avoid fiber if I can.

I hear you about the pectin. Mittir had warned me about it too in OJ. The problem is that I do think I have fructose malabsorption so that when I drink AJ, I more often get diarrhea.

Hmm...do you get fructose malabsorption symptoms with orange juice or other fruit juices besides AJ? Also, like BP asked about SIBO, how do you distinguish fructose malabsorption from bacterial/fungal infections? Because it contains no pectin/fermentable fibers, unripe acids that can be irritating ect., you could try drinking just a glass of sugared water away from all other foods and see what kind of reaction you get? If your issue is fructose malabsorption and because sugar is 50% fructose to glucose like most fruits, I would think you would suffer FM symptoms. Just a thought!

 

[sunmountain]

Thanks for helping me out, Jennifer and BP!

Before I reply your posts, here's today's update:

No starch until 8pm. 10oz milk with tea and 1:1 sugar:fructose in it for breakfast, plus supplements including 200mg caffeine and at least 15mg Thorne K. Sipped coke after reaching work; then lunch cottage cheese, jam, large fresh orange, rest of coke, 4 caps allithiamine. BM around 3pm (TMI WARNING!!!!) nice and large gave relief, but still felt there was more not coming out. Milk 10oz with sugar:fructose again around 4pm. Reached home around 5:30pm and two diarrhea in short order after each other. Then went for massage. Dinner around 8:30pm one boiled to death potato scrambled with 2 eggs and plenty salt and cheddar cheese. Milk 10oz and 4 caps allithiamine. After an hour, tall glass OJ sipping now.

I don't need crono to tell me today's total is woefully under. That might be part of the problem. I was still hungry after I ate my meager lunch, but just did not know what else to eat, short of going across the street and getting a subway veggie sandwich. Maybe hunger plus 4pm milk liquid with fructose in it = diarrhea at 6pm.

So there was caffeine today in the morning around 10am, and diarrhea around 6pm. Starch from last night probably exited at 3pm BM, though probably some is still in there. During diarrhea I felt odd like there was constipation and diarrhea at the same time...is this possible? I felt...could be wrong...that last night starch had not fully exited at 3pm today, and meanwhile lunch plus 4pm milk exited as diarrhea at 6pm.

Don't know if this makes sense.

To reply your posts. I do get FM diarrhea with OJ also, but much more easily with AJ. OJ on empty stomach or without solid food will do it.

I am not sure about SIBO but here's my thinking. I've tried low-dose (50mg) mino at least 3 rounds by now of several days each. The first time I felt a slight difference, but no difference the other two times. Might that suggest no SIBO? I tried working with GI, but he kept pushing colonoscopy, so I dumped him.

Happy to try sugar water experiment. So...just table sugar in water, no fructose added, right? Away from food. Will do and report back. Maybe I'll drink it instead of my mid-morning coke.

Gosh, unravelling this is so confusing!

 

[sunmountain]

To be precise, I didn't feel hungry right after lunch, but not long after. I can only eat a little at a time and feel full. So felt full after the small lunch, but then hungry maybe an hour after.

 

[sunmountain]

Also want to add that I have 3 small acne, two on face and one on body.

I wonder if this is a good or bad sign. It could be good from ramping up energy by acupuncture. It could be bad if it's caused by too high blood sugar -- reminds me of my father's boils (though these are tiny) and he has diabetes.

 

[sunmountain]

Well, I'm stumped. Today I decided to have starch at lunch to see if it might prevent hunger and therefore diarrhea. Quick-cooking lentil soup with some farmer's cheese, an orange, the rest of the mid-morning coke. Milk as usual around 4pm. Reach home around 6pm, and diarrhea around 7pm, same as yesterday two times in succession.

Could caffeine be the culprit? It doesn't seem related to what I'm eating at lunch or in between. Tomorrow I'll skip caffeine and see what happens.

I like the mental alertness caffeine gives, and also that peristalsis is quicker, though I hate the diarrhea. I thought I was tolerating it well, with no adrenaline symptoms. But if it is causing the diarrhea (still to be determined), then either I need to find a 100mg pill to replace the 200mg I'm presently taking, or discontinue it.

Of course, I also took 4 caps of allithiamine at lunch today and yesterday. Maybe that plus the morning caffeine 200mg pill is too much...

Still to do sugar experiment. Will do tomorrow as expect to be snowed in.

Just also want to note that boiled potato and rice seem to digest pretty quickly for me. I don't feel an insulin spike...does that mean there isn't one?

 

[Jennifer]

Hmm...well, the days you skipped the caffeine you didn't have diarrhea, then you took it yesterday and today and the diarrhea came back? Yeah, my guess is still the caffeine.

Instead of the pills, have you tried just plain old caffeinated coffee? You'd get magnesium and other minerals, along with a lower dose of caffeine. I actually use a cold brew coffee concentrate (decaf for me), this way I can make coffee milk. So instead of reconstituting the concentrate with water, I use milk. With supplements, things get trickier because of the purity issues during manufacturing so the diarrhea could even be a reaction to irritants in the pills.

 

[thebigpeatowski]

I am not sure about SIBO but here's my thinking. I've tried low-dose (50mg) mino at least 3 rounds by now of several days each. The first time I felt a slight difference, but no difference the other two times. Might that suggest no SIBO? ...Gosh, unravelling this is so confusing!

Hi sunmountain...SIBO is not always caused by bacterial overgrowth. It can be caused by a yeast or fungal overgrowth too, which antibiotics will not cure and can actually CONTRIBUTE to the problem. Also, some bacteria become resistant to antibiotics, especially low dose repeated rounds, so again that could explain your issue.

I will be the first one to admit that gut issues are especially difficult to resolve. Part of the reason for that is because we all harbor different quantities and ratios of species. The best thing to do is to keep experimenting with foods that make you feel best, while avoiding PUFA like the plague. Some of us do better with more starch, fiber and/or saturated fat, some of us do better with less of those things....it's all very individual in that regard.

How is your body temperature?

 

[tara]

The refined caffeine sounds suspect, as super sleuth Jennifer noted.

Did your gastroenterologist say if there was something in particular they wanted to check for with a colonoscopy? I gather they are unpleasant, but I'm not sure about the technology used - do they use x-ray or ultrasound?

Amongst the many ways of approaching gut issues, one is to consider that prolonged energy deficit normally results in gastroparesis and slowed peristalsis, and may also result in reduced stomach acid and reduced digestive enzymes. All of these can make it easier for bacteria and maybe fungii to get uppity and overpopulate, including settling further up the tube than they are supposed to.

 

[sunmountain]

Thanks guys, your help is much appreciated, as I try to figure this out.

Yesterday no caffeine = no diarrhea! Kudos, super sleuth, Jennifer! :P

BUT no BM either until I took an additional cascara in the afternoon, and then went late afternoon. Also felt bloated and waterlogged all day until the BM, then felt better and started peeing more. I guess my body had got used to the caffeine.

Last night I took two cascara pills again, instead of the usual one, plus one this morning also as usual, and had a BM this morning, though didn't void fully. I think I'll have to double the cascara, going forward.

Ate moderate amounts of starch at lunch and dinner yesterday. So far the main problem I see with the starch is even slower peristalsis, which I might be able to move along by doubling the cascara. It remains to be seen if the starch causes weight gain.

Jennifer, I had switched to french press coffee from tea, but couldn't sustain it. The concentrate is not the problem; I got sick of the taste after a few weeks -- believe it or not! I dropped down to just a morning cup, but didn't stay with that either. Ultimately went to making tea in hot milk, and I don't seem to get sick of that at all!

BP, I did not realize the yeast connection to gut issues, though I tried pretty high doses of olive leaf that you had recommended a while ago. It did nothing. That's not to say there isn't a yeast overgrowth, of course. Is there a way to find out if it's bacteria or yeast? My physical is in late March, I think, and I could request some tests.

I like your suggestion of experimenting to find out which foods make me feel best. I guess that's what I'm trying to do. The challenge is to not rely just on taste, I guess, but to evaluate the "feeling good" holistically in terms of things like edema, peristalsis, BM, achiness, and so on which plague me. Maybe get a blood glucose monitor, too, and see what it says.

I haven't taken temps in a while; the last time I took them at the onset of winter, my waking temp was in the 96 range. Since then I was able to up my thyroid, so I'll take it again soon.

Tara, the GI said he wanted to do the colonoscopy routinely because I was over 50 but also because I was having digestive issues. He mentioned wanting to check for polyps. I didn't go back to see him in part because I don't like invasive procedures. I don't know if it would be an x-ray or ultrasound; I just didn't like the idea of something up my butt. He was insistent about doing the procedure before trying other things, although he did have me try one probiotic called Align which did nothing.

Reduced acid and enzymes could be a possibility. My mother is or was on both. I did try some enzymes, but they did nothing. Is there a test to check for these? Maybe I could ask at my physical, unless it's GI turf, in which case my doc might not agree.