Fruit may be a big problem

nancyl · Post by **nancyl** » Wed Apr 20, 2011 3:41 pm

I had a pretty bad morning after several good days. I started Entecort last Saturday. I decided to check my food diary and noticed a pattern. I peeled and cooked some apples and ate a little with some some non-dairy frozen dessert on top two days ago. I waited a day and had some last night. It's like ice cream (organic nectars raw agave gelato). This morning I had nausea and then several BM's. Not watery. I looked back and had the same thing last week and was even sicker then. Perhaps the Entecort helped a little this week. Then I looked back to the week before that and noticed I had made a smoothie with rice milk, strawberries and bananas. I was thinking it was the rice milk, but now I am thinking it may be the fruit. Each time I went back to normal for several days in between until I ate the fruit. Hopefully, this is just temporary until everything heals, but until then I guess I have to stay away from all fruits.

Nancy

Gloria · Post by **Gloria** » Wed Apr 20, 2011 6:21 pm

Hi Nancy,

Yes, unfortunately that's the same conclusion I came to about 1 1/2 years ago. I don't know what is in fruit that irritates our gut, but several of us are unable to handle it. We can hope that we will be able to introduce again after we're healed.

Gloria

catarific · Post by **catarific** » Wed Apr 20, 2011 6:25 pm

Could be a fructose intolerance. How do you do with dry fruits - such as raisons or apricots? If you get a bad reaction from them, you can probably guess it is the fructose added to it. Dry fruits have a very high fructose content. Apples and pears are also very high in fructose as are bananas.

connie · Post by **connie** » Wed Apr 20, 2011 6:33 pm

Nancy,
I second Gloria's post and just wanted to say you are not alone. It's disappointing when we have to give up another food source but maybe once the body has time to heal it can be reintroduced.
Hope things settle down and you have some really good days.
Connie

Pat · Post by **Pat** » Wed Apr 20, 2011 6:34 pm

Yeah, it's possible it is the fructose. Entocort doesn't seem to help with fructose malabsorption for some reason. The malabsorption occurs in the small intestine pulling lots of water into the colon and fructose to feed the bacteria. Methane gas is given off from the bacteria. It's the pits. I'm told that as my gut heals from diet that the malabsorption problem should improve. I'm hopeful!

Pat

nancyl · Post by **nancyl** » Wed Apr 20, 2011 7:03 pm

Well, I guess I am not alone. I have not tried dried fruit. If it means healing I will stay away from all fruit and hope in the future to reintroduce. I will sure miss the apples. Living in New England in the Fall - that is all you see are apple orchards.

Nancy

TooManyHats · Post by **TooManyHats** » Wed Apr 20, 2011 7:31 pm

The only fruit I can eat so far is blueberries. They are low in fructose and low in histamine.

So far, I haven't had much success making a smoothie with almond milk. But I am going to try again. I also haven't tried it with rice milk.

But alone, a portion of blueberries about the size of a small apple is fine. I have noticed that I don't digest the skins though.

Post by **tex** » Wed Apr 20, 2011 8:02 pm

Nancy,

In addition to the fructose, it could also be sorbitol. Many fruits are high in sorbitol, and humans are incapable of digesting the sugar alcohols. That's why mannitol, (another sugar alcohol), is sometimes used in certain food tolerance testing. I still have problems if I eat significant amounts of sorbitol, but at least I can now tolerate small to moderate amounts of it, (in fruits).

Fructose is concentrated in dried fruits, because of the dehydration process, and then as Sue mentioned, some processors add additional sugar, to make dried fruit even more potent for us. In addition to that, dried fruit is high in histamines, which places them off-limits for those of us with mast cell involvement.

Most of the fiber in fruit is in the peel, so peeling all fruit first, can reduce the risk of ingesting too much fiber, but that obviously won't eliminate all the fiber.

Tex

MaggieRedwings · Post by **MaggieRedwings** » Thu Apr 21, 2011 4:48 am

HI Nancy,

Same results I had way back in the beginning when I ate fruit. I am now able to tolerate it but not too much and almost always cooked. Any of the melons still treat me poorly and I so love them but totally avoid them.

Maggie

harma · Post by **harma** » Thu Apr 21, 2011 5:03 am

When it comes to fruit, I can eat apples, pears and banana's and any cooked or dried fruit (that includes my favorite fruit tin). But I have noticed I can only eat it as solid fruit or as juice. Smoothies are a big no for me. I don't understand it and don't know why but it gives me gas, restless bowels. Even a juice that is big thicker than normal equals problems. Sometimes it's also the guar gum, carrageen or pectin added to it. But it is also the fruit pulp itself.

Last week I ate a frozen smoothy (so an ice cream), bad idea.

I don't know why this is, but maybe this could be (part) of your fruit problem

nancyl · Post by **nancyl** » Thu Apr 21, 2011 6:04 am

I don't hear anyone mention grapes. Red grapes are my other favorite fruit. I will wait till things calm down then try a few. I need to give myself a few weeks. This has happened three weeks in a row and I need to give my body a rest. Hopefully, I won't run into somthing else that gives me trouble. I can't wait to get my tests back, that should help some.

Thanks all,
Nancy

Post by **tex** » Thu Apr 21, 2011 9:02 am

You didn't ask about grapes.

Since you're asking now, I have to say that grapes are the only fruit that I am aware of that I still cannot tolerate. If I eat more than two or three, they give me the Big D, within about 2 hours. I'm guessing it's due to the sorbitol, but I suppose the sulfites could be part of the problem, too. Also, grape skins are a major source of fiber.

Tex

nancyl · Post by **nancyl** » Thu Apr 21, 2011 12:43 pm

Thanks Tex and everyone else who responded.

I decided to just stay away from all fruits, at least during the 6 week healing process on Entercort. I may as well give myself a chance to heal. Then perhaps someday I'll be able to tolerate small amounts.

Nancy

rsfarm · Post by **rsfarm** » Thu Apr 21, 2011 12:59 pm

Like Nancy I am off of all fruit but I think that I need to add them back in. What would be a good place to start? From these posts it looks like blue berries, apples, bananas

sarkin · Post by **sarkin** » Thu Apr 21, 2011 12:59 pm

Nancy,

Wishing you speedy healing. It also sounds as though your food diary has been a great help. Good for you! When I start to feel better, I get a little lazy about mine. Gabes mentioned she could eat certain foods individually but not together. Maybe that will be the case for you, as well... and it could be the food diary that gives you the key.

Best,

Sara