Brainstorming time- huddle up, I need your thoughts.

[carolm]

Hi all,
It’s been an odd and upsetting week. After meeting with a nutritionist she suggested I try the AIP (AutoImmune Protocol) which means I drop almonds, potatoes, eggs and rice (which I didn’t eat very often). It’s considered an elimination diet- a person is on it 3-6 months then you see what foods you can re-introduce. I bought ‘the Healing Kitchen’, read the rules, tried some recipes to replace my almond flour based favorites. I was supplementing with D3, Mag, and 3000 of Omega 3 (this was new). Started the diet July 2nd. After about 3 days my upper GI tract was calm, quiet, virtually no reflux. I was sleeping better and a rash on my upper arms seemed to be drying up. Good stuff. Another 3 days- things were not so good. I started noticing more mucus production, which I generally only get if I have dairy. Saturday I felt tired and headachy. I felt like I needed more calories but had no appetite. On Sunday I woke and rushed to the bathroom with diarrhea. Felt washed out and light headed. Monday I was still washed out. I weighed and found I’d lost 3 pounds in the 9 days since I started AIP- which could explain some of my symptoms. No bms of any kind Monday or Tuesday. I was very tired but stayed on the diet. Weds- was the worst; I was nauseated, dizzy, with urgent bms, in a flare! Clearly this was not going well. I talked to the nutritionist on Monday and stopped the Omega 3s. On Weds I emailed her again and we agreed I needed to go back to my previous diet until we can figure out what’s happening.

I’m stumped. Could a lack of calories prompt a flare like this? AIP is mostly meat, vegetables, and fruit- was it too much fiber? Too much sugar from sweet potatoes almost daily? I had to use more coconut, coconut flour, and coconut aminos. I didn’t seem to have any issues with coconut but I didn’t use it in these amounts. The more I reflect back, the more it felt like I was reacting to something- except I’ve always been C prominent, so D is a real surprise. AIP is not necessarily low histamine but I tried to be mindful not to eat too many in one day. Too much stress from changing diet and adding supplements at the same time?
Today I added almonds and potatoes back in and by the end of the day my arm rash was back so I need to figure out where that’s coming from. But I feel better today eating a bland diet.

So any and all thoughts, guesses, theories are welcome at this point.

Thanks in advance,
Carol

[tex]

Here's some "country logic":

Any farmer or rancher can tell you that in a feedlot situation at least (where there's no grazing to supplement the ration), if you change an animal's ration too abruptly, that animal will go "off feed" (stop eating and lose weight) because they can't digest the new ration well enough. You have to change rations very slowly in reasonably moderate iterations over time (a few weeks) so that their digestive system has time to adjust (enzyme production) to optimally handle the new ration. She should have realized that.

I have to either eliminate or cut my use of almond butter and cashew butter significantly during the summer if I intend to prevent major histamine issues (mostly itching from rashes and hives on my limbs. I have to conclude that for me at least, tree nuts are a relatively high-histamine food — high enough to be a major problem for me if I eat too many.

But it's possible that none of this was significant in your situation.

Tex

[carolm]

Actually that makes a lot of sense Tex (that we need time and gradual change to produce those enzymes). Now that you mention it, I did read on the AIP Facebook site where a few people were talking about transitioning slowly and more systematically vs making all changes at once. Of course, they are going gluten free, dairy free, etc, which is a much bigger jump than I perceived my changes to be. I really got schooled this time. I found it took very little to knock me off course.
Edited: I recall Gabes saying this too in another post, but I didn’t generalize it broadly enough.

So in light of this I’m questioning whether I can make any major diet changes at the same time I’m adding supplements. It’s not removing foods but adding/ substituting that can create problems. That might be a lot to ask of my digestive system right now. I may choose to keep my diet the same and see if I can get the supplements on board. Either way it sounds like changes will have to be more gradual than I thought.

Thank you as always for sharing your thoughts Tex. I greatly appreciate it.

Carol

[JFR]

Carol - I haven't had a reaction as severe as yours but recently I added avocados back into my diet, one a day for a couple of days, and I suspect that just the added fiber got me, not exactly a flare but some distress. I believe you are right. It is not the elimination of things that is the problem; it is the adding of new things, trying to substitute. Going back to very simple safe foods is probably your best bet and then adding things back slowly or not. I continue to stick with a limited number of safe foods. I can eat salads now but other than that nothing much has changed in a long time. I truly treat food as medicine that supports the health of my body and not a source of entertainment beyond liking it to taste moderately good.

Jean

[carolm]

Thanks Jean. Yes, I’m thinking it might make more sense to add in what I need to as substitutes then start to take out one thing. Rice and rice products for example would be the easiest to drop. It’s the only grain I eat and I eat it maybe once every 2-3 weeks. I do eat red potatoes and almonds and these will be tougher to find substitutes for but I think I should at least see how I do without almonds to see if they are creating any inflammation. Definitely think I’ll have to go slower if I want to try this. Since my CRP level is elevated I need to figure out why. I agree with food as medicine.

Thanks for your thoughts on my self inflicted mess.
Carol

[tex]

Carol,

I realize that we are all different and you might be sensitive to cashews, but even though almond butter causes me to have histamine issues (when combined with the heat of summer), I find that I can eat cashew butter without any symptoms.

Tex

[carolm]

Thanks Tex, I’ve tolerated cashews before so that may be a good direction for me to explore. They would substitute for almonds fairly well I would think.
I know I can find cashew flour around here too. I would rather stay with a known food rather that tackle something completely new.

I like this idea!

Carol

[skp]

Carol, I buy unsweetened cashew milk and prefer it over almond and coconut milk.It seems creamier to me. I buy the Silk brand at my local grocery store. I prefer it over the Whole Foods cashew milk that they sell, at least here in Asheville.

Also, you can buy cashew butter at Whole Foods and other grocery outlets.

Susan

[carolm]

Thank you Susan! I always appreciate the recommendations from fellow MCers.

[missbutterfly]

Hi Carol - you mentioned eating sweet potatoes. I am also doing an elimination diet; sounds a little different from yours, but I bought sweet potato chips and they gave me some GI issues. Also agree that an abrupt change can cause problems...when I started this diet, I felt awful, anxious, foggy, and just off. That's gotten better, but I'm still having problems with any fiber I eat. Gabes mentioned in my post that elimination diets are usually successful with inflammatory issues, but for some reason, MC is different from other inflammatory bowel diseases and these diets don't always work for it.

Hoping things have gotten better for you.

[carolm]

Hi miss butterfly,
When I was reacting I had to eat a very low fiber diet. I’ve been in remission for roughly 3 years, so a flare this dramatic was a true eye opener!

Things have settled down for me thankfully, although I’m fairly sure I still have some gut inflammation from that episode. I decided to ditch rice and any rice products, and I stopped eating almonds but am still using almond flour in small amounts, for now. Still eating red potatoes. I like sweet potatoes but they are not a satisfying substitute for red potatoes, nor is mashed cauliflower. Ultimately, if I’m really going to do AIP I’ll have to stop eating them, but I am not 100% sure I can successfully do that.

As far as fiber I eat chopped salads almost daily (broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, cranberries, plus whatever else I feel like). I thought that would be plenty of fiber (and that fiber would not be an issue) but I did react as if I was getting too much fiber on AIP.

I’m still a little stumped as to why I reacted so strongly to what should have been a few changes. I’m more cautious and calculated now, that’s for sure!

Warm regards,
Carol