New diagnosis - new test results. Needing advice

[Dawnrunner]

Hi all,
I have had D for the last nine months. I was diagnosed with LC in October and just got my Enterolab results this week.

There doesn't seem to be many foods I can safely eat. I'm hoping that someone who's been at this a little longer can help me find a 'safe' diet and advise me on how long I should be on it before trying to add back a few items. I understand that Gluten and dairy eliminations may be lifelong.

Fat score = normal
Gluten = 971
Dairy = 79
Egg = 30
Soy = 26
Mean value = 30

Reactions:
0 = None
1+ = None
2+ = Corn, Oat, Chicken, Beef, Pork, Walnut, Cashew
3+ = Rice, Tuna, Almond, White potato

This list doesn't leave me many options. I'm hoping you know of foods that are not in the 'families' above. Nightshades are out.

Is turkey safe if chicken is not? I think yams could be ok. Maybe turkey, lamb or bison with yams and well cooked green beans?

Where does coconut and Chia fall as a normal sensitivity? I could make a honey sweetened pudding with collagen powder as a treat.

How long should I eliminate before trying to add back things other than gluten an dairy.

Thank you. I really appreciate any insight and help you might have

Dawn

[Dawnrunner]

Hi,

in case it makes a difference, I am on Budesonide for the next three months.

Dawn

[tex]

Hi Dawn,

Welcome to the group. After looking over your results, here are my thoughts:

I'm surprised that with such a high gluten result your fat malabsorption score is still normal. Your gluten score suggests that you may have been reacting to gluten for longer than a year. But that's irrelevant.

Taking budesonide at the same time as you change your diet should allow you to reach remission as quickly as possible. Note that the budesonide will mask some of the food sensitivities, so you'll want to wait until several weeks after you've ended the budesonide treatment (to give the budesonide time to clear your system) before trying to reintroduce any foods. Most members here find that they have the best results if they step down the budesonide dosage at the first signs of constipation symptoms, rather than by the calendar. And tapering the treatment well past one capsule per day, to one every other day, then one every third day, etc., for a week or so at each stage, helps to prevent a relapse after the budesonide treatment is ended.

Is turkey safe if chicken is not? I think yams could be ok. Maybe turkey, lamb or bison with yams and well cooked green beans?

Yes, turkey is always safer. Sweet potatoes and yams should be safe. Cauliflower, when overcooked, can be used to make a substitute of sorts for mashed potatoes. In fact, most wild-type meats are safe, even when farm-raised. This includes ducks, geese, rabbits, lamb, cabrito (goat) quail, pheasants, venison, antelope, and caribou. Unfortunately, it does not include bison because these days, virtually all bison contain DNA from domestic beef cattle, due to crossbreeding over the decades.

Where does coconut and Chia fall as a normal sensitivity? I could make a honey sweetened pudding with collagen powder as a treat.

Coconut should be safe, and many feel that it helps healing. Chia, flax seeds, and similar tiny seeds have to be used with caution because flax seed hulls, for example are an old folk remedy for constipation, which suggests that chia hulls (and the oil) might act as a laxative, also, but few members here have tried them, so I'm only guessing. In general, we have to minimize fiber and sugar while recovering, so go easy on the deserts while recovering. We're unable to digest normal amounts of sugar before we get the inflammation stopped. And because they usually contain too many ingredients, it's safest to avoid baked goods until after you've reached remission. That said, a simple pudding (with very few ingredients) may be safe. Honey and maple sugar seems to better tolerated than most other sugars. Fruit sugar (fructose) is especially difficult to digest for most of us, since it has to be digested by the liver. Fruit contains too much fiber for many of us, anyway. With the exception of bananas (which are generally safe for most of us, as long as we don't overdo it), it's best to save most fruits until after remission.

How long should I eliminate before trying to add back things other than gluten an dairy.

We're all different, but generally after you've been in stable remission for a while. You may be able to tolerate eggs as ingredients in baked goods, but to be able to eat them whole (fried, scrambled, or boiled), would be very uncommon. Duck eggs work for some of us, but soy (including many legumes) is virtually always a permanent sensitivity.

I hope this helps. Again, welcome aboard, and please feel to ask anything.

Tex

[Dawnrunner]

Thank you so much, Tex. That does help a lot and I really appreciate your advice.

I'm sure I've had this for at least a decade with small flares every few years, but never diarrhea. My normal state is C, so maybe it just presented differently.

Is 971 an unusually high gluten sensitivity?

Dawn

[tex]

Is 971 an unusually high gluten sensitivity?

Yes it is. Most of us test well under a hundred, but 10 years of reacting would tend to do that. It doesn't necessarily imply that you are more sensitive to gluten than anyone else here, but ten years of producing antibodies to gluten has probably caused your increased intestinal porosity (leaky gut) to become severe enough to cause plenty of additional food sensitivities. That's why the foods in the "11 other antigenic foods" category are mostly 2's and 3's, rather than having some 0's and 1's.

But that probably goes along with C-predominant symptoms, Constipation won't inspire you to set up a doctor visit as urgently as frequent watery diarrhea will. I had C all my life, and never gave it a moment's thought, but when it suddenly turned into watery D, and wouldn't stop after a couple of weeks, that got my attention, and sent me to my doctor. Many doctors don't even realize that MC can be associated with any pattern other than diarrhea (if they recognize MC at all).

MC can cause constant diarrhea, or constipation, or alternating D and C. When I first started getting sick, I thought that I was having a relapse of the flu every month or so. Then the cycles started to come around every 3 or 4 weeks, and I decided that I must be getting food poisoning over and over, because I was working a delivery route at the time, and eating fast food in whichever town I happened to be at lunchtime. But as the cycles shortened, I finally had to admit to myself that something else was going on. Especially when the diarrhea started and wouldn't stop. Before I figured out that food sensitivities were causing my problems, and successfully changed my diet (this was over 20 years ago), I spent about a year with alternating D and C, on about a 10-day to 2-week cycle, more or less. I would have a few good days, as I recovered, and then I would get sick as a dog for a few days as I went downhill again.

Tex