Re: Fructose intolerance

[Guest guest]

This post was really helpful. This is something I might try, as I have some upper GI issues as well, even though lower GI is normal.--

The SCD was a miracle for me when I started it 7.5 years ago. For the first time in my life I had normal bowel habits. I wasn't very ill when I started the diet, so I jumped right past the intro and enjoyed good health immediately. But a couple of years into the diet, I began having trouble. It wasn't diarrhea anymore, it was abdominal pain. I was pregnant at the time, so very little could be done to determine the source. I ruled out gallstones and my internist put me on Prilosec for GERD. I knew I didn't have GERD, but I took the drug with no effect. At one point the pain was so bad that all I was having was Knudsen's fruit spritzers. I remember thinking at the time that nothing was in them that was illegal on SCD, but I had a feeling those drinks were hurting me.

By God's grace, the symptoms did disappear. In the meantime, I found that every time I ate eggs alone, I had stomach pain. I suspected that my overeating of eggs in recipes like Midas Waffles (which I love) had contributed to the problem. Fortunately, I could still eat eggs IN things, just not by themselves. Fast forward to recently when I have been very ill. I even had a mild return of diarrhea which I haven't had for years. Some people might suggest I just had a bug and it would pass. I knew that wasn't the case because my rhinitis became severe and I developed severe, almost crippling heartburn that I would describe as esophagitis.

I eliminated dairy from my diet as I had long suspected that I am not just lactose intolerant but allergic to casein. I had recently begun having almond milk nearly every day so I eliminated that, too. Nothing changed. I was in agony. I read the excellent book, Diet Wise (see www.alternative-doctor.com), and commenced an elimination diet to determine the source of the problem. I began eating all foods I never eat (quail, papaya, beets), but my symptoms continued. I reverted to an SCD intro diet of Cornish game hen broth and cooked carrots (both things I rarely eat). Although this was all I was eating, my symptoms continued to worsen. In the back of my mind, I KNEW what the problem was, but didn't want to admit it: fructose. The truth is before I started the SCD I ate huge amounts of wheat and sugar. After the SCD, I had begun eating huge amounts of fructose and nuts. Between baked goods, honey, smoothies, fruit juices, and fresh fruit, I was taking in a staggering amount of fructose every day.

I made the very difficult decision to eliminate fructose from my diet temporarily to see if I could get my symptoms under control. I had no idea that fructose and related fructans and sorbitol, etc. were in even many of the vegetables I was eating every day, and even in my toothpaste! Because I was still off dairy (I still believe dairy is an allergen for me), a fructose-free, SCD diet left me with very little to eat but meat. After the first day on my meat-only diet, the esophageal pain limited itself to the upper part of my throat. For the next two days, I felt only like I had a sore throat that was improving. Today the pain is almost non-existent. Before quitting my sorbitol-laden toothpaste, my entire mouth had been burning every day. Now, I feel completely normal after weeks of suffering. After several weeks on a very low fructose diet with complete healing, I will add foods with more fructose back to my diet.

In the process of trying to get well, I have discovered that fructose (not just HFCS) is implicated in IBS in research done in the past couple of years. Just as Elaine theorized that undigested carbs led to overgrowth of bacteria in the colon, researchers now believe that undigested fructose can lead to an overgrowth of bacteria in the small bowel. This can lead to constipation, diarrhea, or as in my case, heartburn. The FODMAPs diet is receiving much positive attention and results in the treatment of IBS. Reducing or eliminating fructose from your diet is well worth considering if the SCD does not resolve your symptoms. What I wish I had known is that no matter what diet you choose, you must eat moderate amounts of various foods (and probably smaller amounts of all sugars and grains) and you should NOT eat the same thing day after day. This kind of eating will create a food allergy or intolerance that will in turn lead to suppression of the immune system and a host of other illnesses. Changing my diet has had the delightful benefit of eliminating the rhinitis I've suffered for years. I no longer have to take the Zyrtec I took daily for 3.5 years. I also wish I had known how to detect foods I was intolerant/allergic to that I assumed were fine for me. I would have saved a lot of money on Zyrtec. ;-)

There is much more to this story, but I pray that something I have shared will be helpful to some of you.-- MelUC since 12/85; no drugs or surgeriesSCD since 9/01