Skip to main content

It Hurts When I Eat This!

Newbies in the low-carb and paleo community often say, "the diet is great, but I still have problems eating (fill in the blank). What should I do?"

Maybe they're too young to remember a certain old joke. A man goes to see his doctor and says, "Doctor, it hurts when I do this." (Picture the patient holding his arm in odd way.) "What should I do?" The doctor says, "Stop holding your arm that way."

This old joke now represents a radical idea. If you have trouble eating something, then stop eating it. Or eat smaller amounts of it if the smaller amount doesn't give you problems and you can stop yourself at a little bit.

I have FODMAPs problems--polyols in particular. I can't eat more than a strawberry a day or a few spoonfuls of lemon juice without getting an upset stomach and acid reflux. Too much alcohol sugar gives me gas. I could try probiotics, resistant starch, fermented foods and the other latest things that purportedly heal your gut. Having taken antibiotics like candy since childhood for sinus problems and acne and taking a couple of massive courses of them to kill Staphylococcus aureus and Helicobacter pylori later on, my gut bacteria population is probably down to a few isolated tribes.

For myself, though, I don't see a point in eating more starch (carbohydrate) so that I can...eat more carbohydrate. My digestion works perfectly if I don't eat fruit or more than a little sugar alcohol or large meals. And I had some serious upper GI problems--acid reflux and an esophageal ulcer.

What if I could eat all the beans, potatoes, fruit and sugar alcohol I wanted, though? If I did, I'd probably weigh 200 pounds. I'd also have roller-coaster blood sugars and I'd start getting cavities and sore teeth again. As for large meals, I have zero need to be able to knock back a five-course dinner.

For me, taking things to "heal" my gut would be a solution looking for a problem.
Labels:

Comments

Lowcarb team member said…
"For myself, though, I don't see a point in eating more starch (carbohydrate) so that I can...eat more carbohydrate." Absolutely agree with you Lori.

I'm looking forward to tonight's lovely meal of smoked mackerel, served with a great salad variety. Good summer low carb high fat (moderate protein) foods. I love this lifestyle.

All the best Jan
July 25, 2014
Lori Miller said…
I'm having a lamb chop and buttered broccoli for lunch. If the potato heads want to have pea soup, though, that's fine with me.
July 25, 2014
Lowcarb team member said…
Lamb chop and buttered broccoli.

Can you send me some over please LOL .....great food.

All the best Jan
July 25, 2014
Galina L. said…
May be it is convenient when you just can't eat what is wrong for you .Many people simply don't realize some suboptimal foods make them sick.
July 26, 2014
Galina L. said…
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
July 26, 2014
Lori Miller said…
Getting horsewhipped with acid reflux within 20 minutes of eating something I shouldn't definitely keeps me on the straight and narrow.
July 26, 2014
Larcana said…
I agree, It just isn't worth it anymore when I can eat what I like and not have to burp/pass gas. I had some cuban lamb shank last night at a restaurant...but I forgot they load on the garlic. I am not an alum family eater, no garlic onion or leeks for me.
Mmmm but the lamb shank was good...I paid for it with lost sleep and a lot of misery. Oh well I can make my own without garlic and onions...and not suffer!
July 26, 2014
Lori Miller said…
I love garlic--it's one of the few food pleasures I have left. But I like lamb with rosemary and mustard, too.
July 26, 2014
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Blog Lineup Change

Bye-bye, Fathead. I've enjoyed the blog, but can't endorse the high-fat, high-carb Perfect Health Diet that somehow makes so much sense to some otherwise bright people. An astrophysicist makes some rookie mistakes on a LC diet, misdiagnoses them, makes up "glucose deficiency," and creates a diet that's been shown in intervention studies to increase small LDL, which can lead to heart disease. A computer programmer believes in the diet and doesn't seem eager to refute it because, perhaps, scientists are freakin' liars and while he's good at spotting logical inconsistencies, lacks some intermediate knowledge of human biology. To Tom's credit, he says it's not the right diet for everyone, but given the truckload of food that has to be prepared and eaten, impracticality of following it while traveling (or even not traveling), and unsuitability for FODMAPs sufferers, diabetics and anyone prone to heart disease (i.e., much of the population), I'm...
24 comments
Read more

Collagen-filled Low Carb Burritos

Low-carb, grain-free Mexican food is hard to find, but it's easy to make your own at home. This recipe has an authentic ingredient: carne de lengua, or beef tongue. Don't be put off: beef tongue is tender, delicious, and full of collagen. Look for it directly from farmers in your area. To cook it, cut it in 1" to 1-1/2" slices and pressure cook for one hour. Enjoy the delicious broth as a bonus. Ingredients 1 slice cooked beef tongue, peeled and cut into small cubes 1 egg wrap (I use these  from Egglife) 1/4 cup cooked black or pinto beans Chili pepper Oregano Garlic (powdered or minced) Cumin Guacamole (with no emulsifiers) Salsa Shredded cheddar cheese Sour cream or homemade cream cheese  with no emulsifiers  Put the egg wrap on a plate and put the beef and beans down the middle of it. Sprinkle with the herbs and spices. Wrap, turn over and microwave for 1-2 minutes. Spoon salsa over the burrito and sprinkle with cheese. Add guacamole and sour cream or homemade crea...
Post a Comment
Read more

Not Only Cheaper, But Easier

A while back, I wrote about saving money on break time coffee and snacks. I haven't done very well putting it into practice. But a post by James Clear today got me thinking about it again: Warren Buffett uses a two-list system to prioritize things. Check it out --and follow the instructions. Using Buffett's two-list system, two of the goals I ended up with were taking care of myself and saving $400 more per month than I already am. As I said, I've been wanting to save money, and the system made me really focus on this. I came up with 11 money-saving ideas, six of which had to do with food. Buying hamburger in bulk. Ranch Foods Direct sells one-pound packages of 80% lean pastured ground beef in bundles of 20 for a lot less than Whole Foods. Sprouts only carries super-lean beef that's grass-fed, and it's more expensive, too.  Not driving to Whole Foods. Whole Foods is out of my way, and saving a weekly trip saves gas. Coffee at home, tea at work. Tea is fr...
24 comments
Read more

Palpitations Gone with Iron

Thanks to my internet friend Larcana, who alerted me to the connection between iron deficiency and palpitations, I doubled down on my iron supplements and, for good measure, washed them down with Emergen-C. It's a cold medicine with a mega-dose of vitamin C, plus B vitamins and minerals. I don't think vitamin C does anything for a cold (a friend bought the stuff and left it at my house the last time she visited), but vitamin C does help iron absorption. After doubling up on iron in the last three days, I feel back to normal. (I'd already been taking quite a bit of magnesium and potassium, so I probably had sufficient levels of those.) How did I get so low on iron? Maybe it was too many Quest bars instead of red meat when I had odd cravings during my dental infection recently. Maybe because it's too hard to find liver at the grocery store and I haven't eaten much of it lately. Maybe the antibiotics damaged my intestines . And apparently, I'm a heavy bleeder . ...
18 comments
Read more

In Defense of Fast Food

Another modern trend - healthy food should be expensive, not nutrients-dense and preferably exotic, or you would be eating like plebs who live on a dollar McD menu. --Galina L. I don't try to jump over seven-foot hurdles, I look for one-foot hurdles I can step over. --Warren Buffett, pleb who eats at McDonald's Despite all the talk about wild-caught v. farmed, grass-fed v. CAFO and the vilification of fast food, a lot of us plebs benefit simply from carbohydrate restriction. But even though diabetes and obesity are rampant, and carb restriction alone would help millions of people, the impression is out there that you need to eat in a very specific way, far beyond just watching the carbs. Following a low-carb diet is already a high hurdle for many people. If some people want or need to raise the bar for themselves, that's fine with me, but there's no need to turn low-carb into a hurdle that a lot of people can't jump over. Organic produce and grass-fed or p...
17 comments
Read more