Over exposure to previously safe food causing flare up?

[hollyG]

Hi, I'm a new poster, but long time reader. Officially diagnosed with Collagenous Colitis a year ago after a lifetime (45 yrs) of issues.

I have a question that I haven't seen addressed here, and that is if anyone has experienced a flare up after what might be termed "binging" on a previously safe food? Would it be possible that my system is reacting to being bombarded with the same thing from over exposure?

Because my diet is restricted, once I find a certain food item or preparation that I really like, I tend to eat it consistently for weeks or months. Not for every meal, but basically, every day the same breakfast, same lunch, and a variation on two or three different dinner options.

I have been having the following for the past 10 weeks for lunch with NO issues until a few days ago, when soon after eating, I got the tell tale feeling that this wasn't going to sit right.

1 cup unsweetened almond milk
2 T organic, natural almond butter
1 frozen banana
4 frozen pitted dates
2 T Fry's cocoa (no preservative Dutch processed)
(all blended together)

I'm now going to refrain from this smoothie and it's ingredients, but wondered if anyone else had the same experience or any other suggestions or insights?

Thanks! Holly

[tex]

Hi Holly,

Welcome to our Internet family. I suspect that what you are saying is possible, but IMO in order for that to happen, a certain degree of intolerance to a food would have to exist in order to develop an intolerance toward it. This is what the rotation diet is based on. Some people claim that if we rotate foods to which we show minor reactions on a 3 or 4 day rotation plan, they will be tolerated indefinitely.

IMO that will only work if the intolerance level is very low, and it probably would not work indefinitely, even at that level, because the purpose of our adaptive immune system is to learn how to detect and attack such antigens. A food that does not cause the production of antibodies should not cause a reaction at any level. And even a trace of a food that triggers the production of antibodies will cause a reaction after our adaptive immune system builds up an antibody production response that exceeds our tolerance level (after repeated exposures).

However, foods that are irritants to the intestines (such as fiber, or sugars), but do not cause the production of antibodies, behave in a dose-dependent fashion. IOW, if we eat too much of them, we will react.

That was true for bananas for me. I'm not sure if it was the sugar or the fiber (or both) but one banana was fine, whereas 2 were too many.

Dates are extremely sweet. I have no idea what "2 T Fry's cocoa" is, but it probably involves sugar (I'm guessing), so maybe between it and the dates, larger servings provide to much sugar for your digestive system to handle at it's current stage of healing. We can only digest a limited amount of sugar while our intestines are inflamed, and as we heal, we once again regain the ability to produce the specific enzymes needed to digest certain sugars. And there is a specific order in which the enzymes are lost and regained. The longer our gut remains inflamed, the more enzymes we lose the ability to produce, and therefore the more types of sugars we will not be able to digest. For example when the gut becomes inflamed, lactase is the first enzyme lost, and as the gut heals, it is the last to be restored. That's why anyone who has enteritis (an inflamed intestine) immediately becomes lactose intolerant. Even the flu causes temporary lactose intolerance.

I could be all wet of course, but the sugar would be my guess as the culprit in that mix. I finally had to give up smoothies when I was recovering, because they seemed to make me sick too often.

Again, welcome aboard, and please feel free to ask anything.

Tex

[JFR]

As Tex said, the sugar content of that smoothie may very well be the culprit. I checked your recipe on Cronometer, a nutrition tracking app, and the sugar content of your smoothie is equal to the sugar content of 2 Snickers bars. Probably best to find something else to eat for lunch.

Jean

[nerdhume]

I seem to have trouble with smoothies when I wouldn't have a problem eating a banana, etc. Thant's why I haven't tried juicing. The fact that it is liquid may allow it to leave the stomach quicker and race thru the intestines? At any rate smoothies usually cause a complete evacuation for me (they did previously anyway while I was still inflamed).

[hollyG]

Thanks everyone for your insights and suggestions. Here I was thinking it may be the almond content, and not even thinking about the sugars, since they were "natural"!

[UkuleleLady]

It probably is the sugar, but you could have an almond sensitivity, I know I do. I use sunflower butter and hemp milk in smoothies, or coconut milk.

You could try playing with fat content to get a more palatable smoothie that's less sweet. A half an avocado instead of the dates could be delicious. My smoothies are more fat than sugar these days and I love them.
Cheers.
Nancy

[lisaw]

I make a smoothie like that, but don't use dates. Find it's sweet enough from the banana. Also use only about a tsp of unsweetened cocoa powder, that makes it chocolatey enough for me. As Nancy had said, sometimes I put in some avocado, too. I switch off between sunflower seed butter, and almond butter.

I think it's good to vary your diet more, and rotate more foods in. What proteins work for you? Vegetables?

Lisa

[hollyG]

Thanks all. I looked up the Fry's cocoa and it is just cocoa and sodium carbonate which doesn't seem like it would be a trigger. I tried the subbing half an avocado for the dates and same reaction, so I'm still uncertain as to the culprit in this.

I may just try the almond butter alone to see what happens.

Sigh, it really is a delicious and healthy (for those that can tolerate it) smoothie!