Accumulated Effects of Food Experimentation???

[Polly]

Hi Friends!

Emboldened by Tex' recent experimentation and successes, I have been trying some of my own. In the past few weeks I have tried some of my triggers again, like chocolate, soy, citrus, and tomatoes, and corn. Most things I have tried only once, waiting 3 days after trying the previous trigger. Except for tomatoes, which I tried several days in a row at one point.

I have had little to no D, but today I realized that I have been experiencing some subtle, but definitely noticeable symptoms. I have grown increasingly fatigued, despite adequate sleep. I also have been increasingly irritable and feel mentally foggy at times. And, although I have no frank aches/pains, I feel very stiff/tight, especially across the shoulders/neck areas. These are all definite changes, and as far as I can tell, I am not coming down with anything. I have not changed anything in my exercise routine or daily activities and don't think I am experiencing any extra stress at the present time. So I'm guessing that it's all due to food intolerances. SIGH.

I have decided to go back to caveman eating and avoiding all of my known triggers for now. I guess I just have too many triggers or too quick a reaction to them to be able to juggle them all successfully with rotation. At least this little experiment has hit home for me once again how well I feel when I avoid my triggers. I want to feel terrific again! It's a powerful motivation, isn't it?

Love,

Polly

[tex]

Hi Polly,

I think you've made a very valid observation. I also noticed that I had minor changes in the way I felt, during my rotation diet trial. Often, after eating one of my intolerances, I would feel slight tummy distress, or that old familiar noisy gurgling, etc., but it usually passed quickly, so I tried to ignore it.

Previously, though, if I ingested lactose, the reaction would be bloating, and D, but it wouldn't last but about 2 days, typically. This time, I'm on the 4th day, and it's still going on, though without any D. Previously, I normally didn't vomit--this time, I've done a lot of vomiting, (I still vomited last night, for example).

Based on that, I would have to venture a guess that playing roulette with my intolerances probably pre-disposed me to a more serious reaction, once I ingested the wrong food, and it triggered a reaction.

Also, I've noticed another issue. Previously, I would get normal warning signs before vomiting--that is, I would begin to sweat profusely, and salavate profusely, which I assume is a natural reaction to help prevent damage to the esophagus and mouth mucosa, by the acid in the vomitus, which will soon be on the way.

For some reason or other, during this episode, those preliminary events didn't take place, or if they did, it was on such a minor level, that I didn't notice them happening. IOW, I would just suddenly vomit, with no prior warning--sort of the way the D used to do, before I adopted the diet. Consequently, it burned my throat, much more than usual. Weird.

Love,
Wayne

[Jean]

This is very sad news for all of us. I was hoping you guys would do better. I wonder if we can get away with eating some of our intolerances on a very limited basis? Like once a month.

I guess we shouldn't be surprised though. Maybe, just maybe, a few more years will help. I'd still be happy if I knew someday I could eat a few things.

Thanks for experimenting for me! Wayne, I was vomiting with you this morning, must have eaten something. Made the mistake of trying three new foods on the same day... I hate when I go shopping and don't have the willpower to try one thing at a time.

I still think I'll try rice when I get laid off. BTW Polly, Wayne was right, I get laid off during the winter once my plants are all put to bed and the Christmas decorations are up. I'll get unemployment, which is standard practice in the golf course business. My birds have laid lots of eggs and more are on the way, so I won't be getting much sleep after next weekend.

Love, Jean

[tex]

Jean,

The rotation seemed to be working pretty well, until the lactose shot me out of the saddle. The combination of lactose and cane sugar may have been too much at one time.

At any rate, since this has been going on for 4 days, now, and I still don't feel noticeably better, I think I may place an indefinite moritorium on the rotation diet for a while--at least until my gut settles down, and I can think clearly enough to think this over, and draw some conclusions.

Love,
Wayne

P S These days, when I have a reaction, I seem to have much more trouble with nausea/vomiting, and less trouble with D, than back a couple of years ago. I wonder if that indicates anything.

[Matthew]

Wayne, Polly and Jean-
I am thankful to hear the results of your experiments with foods that you have a history of not being able to tolerate . I guess I have not been embolden enough to try those kinds of experiments in that if I stray even the smallest amount form my MI caveman diet I feel like I am living on the edge. Fortunately the D is no longer a problem but if like Polly, I stray to far from my diet I experience the same kind of malaise, irritable mental fog and muscle tension in my shoulders that can throw my posture off enough to cause low back pain. I mentioned this in a post a while back in conjunction with eating Beef. On the rare occasion that that happens now I know enough to renew my convictions to not stray in that it is a foreboding ofthings to come. These symptoms were at their extreme before I started the diet and now only rarely visit. I can hardly consider my diet boring when along with a regular program of daily stretching and exercise I have no symptoms. That does not by any means say I feel it is always easy but spending time in the kitchen making a big pot of soup, a meat loaf or something else that I know will not cause any problems always ends in a feeling of accomplishment. Eating the SAD diet was easy. It seems that I have found that easy and worthwhile are in two separate worlds.

Yes Polly, feeling great is a very strong motivation.

Love to you all,

Matthew

[moremuscle]

I agree with Matthew's last statement, that feeling good is a strong motivator - that's what keeps me on track day after day; otherwise I would have liked to sneak taste a little of the Halloween candy the kids brought home a few days ago; just an example; not very important, really, in light of everything else.
My whole family benefits enormously from me feeling good and being normal (as far as what meets the eye). We are all pretty health concious as a family and I make sure the children get some protein, vegetables, and fruit instead of being on a complete grain/sugar/dairy diet. I remember clearly how I used to think that whole wheat and whole grain diets were god's gift to humanity and please, drink up your milk!!

Feeling good and being healthy are two important motivators that by far over shadow everything else. Last year at this time I was basically w/o both of those entities - just SICK and unable to do the things in life that I most wanted to do; back then I thought that getting back my good health was the one thing that had priority over everything else.
Perhaps good health and feeling good are really the same thing?

Love,
Karen

[Polly]

Hi Friends,

It's always so good to hear from everyone. Jean, maybe we will find out after more years that we can tolerate certain triggers again. We can always hope. It is true that some people lose their allergies as time goes on, so who's to say it couldn't happen with intolerances too.

Matthew, it's so interesting that you get the same symptoms I do when you stray? Isn't it amazing how in tune with our bodies we've become?

Wayne, I forgot to mention that I have also had a little off and on "sour" stomach during the past few weeks. Especially upon awakening. This is significant because stomach problems/nausea/vomiting were never a major feature of my MC. Once or twice I even thought I might vomit.
I hope your flare is subsiding by now - this really was a bad one, wasn't it?

Karen, good for you for sticking to the straight and narrow. You are incredibly determined! And three cheers for teaching your kids to eat nutritiously. I now advise parents to stop giving milk to their infants at age 12 months and always recommend minimal grains. Grains and dairy really are not very nutritious foods in the scheme of things, although we have been led to believe the opposite by their spokespersons.

Have a great week all.........and enjoy our good old caveman diet. At least we have THAT! See, there's always a silver lining. LOL!

Love,

Polly

[tex]

Polly,

Thanks for pointing out the early morning stomach problems. Now that you mention it, I experienced that same problem on many mornings, (during the rotation diet trial), but it usually disappeared after I ate breakfast. Normally, that doesn't happen to me, either, so obviously, my body was trying to tell me something.

I've finally stopped vomiting, not I just have the bloatng and pain to contend with. I'm able to eat/drink a little broth, but don't have any desire to eat anything substantial, yet, as it just adds to the bloating and pain.

I reckon it's back to the straight and narrow path for me, too.

Love,
Wayne

[Jean]

Hi All,

I get the same feeling in my shoulders and neck, it's what I call achy. That might be my worst symptom now as it lasts two days. I hate the mental fog! There are times I can't remember a football score long enough to write it down. When I have a reaction now, I usually only have D once or twice, often with vomitting.

I wonder if popcorn has less protein than 'normal' corn, or if the protein is changed during the popping process? (Wayne, looks like this question is right up your alley). I hope you are getting over your lactose reaction.

Love, Jean

[Matthew]

Jean, Polly, Karen and Wayne

I have come to think that the brain fog is really a lot of what causes the kind of upper body muscle tension that I get when I am having a reaction to some unacceptable food. Before I started my recovery I would fight the brain fog so hard that I would tense my shoulders and back trying to concentrate that I could hardly lay flat on the floor at the end of the day. I feel fortunate that I am free of that now but I can see that even the mildest reaction can set me back into a habitual body reaction. I see that kind of tension as and early warning system on the rare occasions that it happens and with the tools of stretching , meditation and attention to diet always at hand feel it is not anywhere near as frightening as it was years ago.

Matthew

[moremuscle]

Easy and worthwhile are in two separate worlds as far as our diet is concerned and yet, the caveman diet is incredibly simple or else there is something I haven't quite understood, a likely scenario

I am impressed with you taking your new knowledge into your practise as a pediatrician, Polly, and advising parents to go easy on milk and grains. How do they react to that? Do they sometimes question your advise in the light of what the conventional wisdom/food pyramid suggests?
Do you advise giving babies younger than 12 months cows milk?
When I had my babies I read they should not have any milk before, I think it was age 2 years?! We didn't give them any cows milk until they were 2 or 3 years old. They did however get a lot of human milk until the age of 1 1/2. After that they started drinking an aweful lot of fruit juice - then I read fruit juice was not so good for the tots and started giving them cows milk instead.

I am not terribly successful in making the children eat like cavekids - they love their whole wheat, cheese, and milk - and sweets of course. But it has rubbed off on them that I prepare caveman dinners for us almost every night. Tonight they ate salmon, cauliflower, and brocoli (with a glass of milk).

It's good to know you've stopped vomiting now, Wayne.

I can't help being impressed and a little jealous of how good all of you are at reading your body signals and paying attention to what your body tries to say to you. I realize that you are all veterans in this business of paying attention to how you react when eating certain foods. This is something that doesn't come over night - it takes time to learn to listen and to learn to understand what the connection is to what you ate. Most of us who have always been able to eat anything we pleased until the day MC struck from a clear sky have a hard time even comprehending that food plays any kind of role in how we feel - we've never before needed to pay attention. I am speaking mostly for myself even if I use the phrase WE

I no longer doubt the connection between the food I eat or don't eat and how I feel. It isn't just a physical sensation located somewhere in the body, say in a shoulder, a leg, or in the back; it also carries over into how I feel emotionally, my feeling of competence and self reliance, my feeling of being independent, my feeling of confidence that I can do what I want to do, my hopes and dreams, plans and goals for the future, my feeling of being young or my feeling of being old and decrepit (sp?).
The connection is most certainly there.

For me there is currently no other way than the "straight and narrow" although I don't experience it that way at all. For me it is nothing like a tunnel. It is much more like an oriental fan that opens and spreads out and gives me all the options and choices back that I felt I lost when MC started. Much like branches on a tree - they just keep on growing and spreading out; just like a river delta - that's BIG isn't it?! LOL!!

Enough already! I've gotta go read a little more in my new Paleo diet book by Loren Cordain. It's kind of cool but it repeats much of what the original Paleo Diet book by him taught us. Only, in this book it is directed toward a group of people who consider themselves atheletes. Those folks have to learn not to eat so many carbs from grains and starches - stop the carb loading girls and boys!! It's interesting to me to try to follow the logic behind it and to see how it is scientifically justifiable to believe that you can become a better (faster/stronger) athelete by eating the paleo food. I have some skepticism in relation to that kind of far flung justification project - however, I also need to believe that it is true since believing it is true (that I can become a better athelete by living the paleo lifestyle) will help me become more competitive. Much of an athelete's success is in the mental department; believing that you can win, believing in yourself while you train and while you race/compete.

Like I said, enough already!!
Good night!

Love,
Karen

[tex]

Jean,

All corn types/varieties in general, have roughly the same protein level, about 7 to 8% crude protein, (roughly half the protein level of food-grade wheat). Growing conditions usually have some effect on the actual protein level, with the level going up, with good growing conditions, and down, with less desirable growing conditions, though there are exceptions to this rule..

Love,
Wayne