Problems Eating Fruit

[MollyG.]

I think I have problems digesting fruit and possibly vegetables. I usually eat a banana every morning with my breakfast but then I get gas and sometimes I become bloated all morning long. I thought this would go away after I stopped eating gluten in the morning but it has been 3 months. I love to eat all day long and sometimes have fruit for a snack but it seems like I can not eat fruit on an empty stomach. I have stopped eating things like grapes, oranges, and strawberries because I can not seem to handle them at all. When I spoke to the nutritionist she said that I was just eating too much fruit and veggies in one day. How can that be when most days I only eat 1 banana. The nutritionist I believe told me that there was some sort of pill you can take to help you digest fruit but I do not remember the name. Does anyone know what I am taking about? Since it seems I can not eat fruit for snacks does anyone have any good suggestions on snack foods (I have not have diary either)?

[joemoe003]

isnt chron's disease where you get sick from eating fruit and vegetables? ...and other things too! maybe thats it?

[CindyK]

I have several friends who are vegatarian and they all advised I try beano. I have not traide it yet so I don't know if it works or not. You can but it at any pharmacy. Also recommended was zimethacone (sp?). It may be that you are still adjusting to eating this stuff. Please let your MD know if you continue having problems!

Cindy

[LBear]

MollyG.

There is also something called delayed digestion. My dietician thinks I might have this along with celiac disease (which I was diagnosed with in June 04). I'm going to ask my doctor about it next week at my appointment. Foods that can trigger this are fruits and veggies that have skin and red meat. People who have this should eat 5-6 small meals a day and take in no more than 50 grams of fat per day. This might be something to ask your doctor about.

LBear

[tarnalberry]

I believe a fructose intolerance can also cause that sort of problem with fruit.

[strack2004]

The delayed digestion idea sounds good to me since celiac disease does mess up one' small intestine and probably also ones's entire digestive tract to some extent. I have personally had little luck with Beano, but do feel that simethecone helps. I take one capsule with breakfast and another with supper. I still have a little gas pressure, but not a whole lot. Mine is entirely in my right side. I am thinking it may have something to do with adhesions. When I had my gallbladder out, the surgeon said he had to cut through alot of tough adhesions to get at it. He also said they would probably grow back. Drinking alot of water seems to help,too, only I have to try not to just gulp it down. Earlier in my life I had an appendectomy and a hysterectomy, so no wonder I have adhesions. Walking or other exercise may also help. Cheers, Strack (Ruth)

[neeta]

Hi there, I am still undiagnosed celiac disease, but have come off of gluten and feel much better! I was diagnosed with IBS for years and years and I too have problems with fruit. Now I did learn a thing or two during my years of IBS (I combine both diets right now). Try cooking your fruit but peeling them first. So try applesauce (low acidic apples) try cooking peaches with blueberries and cherries (in season right now) you can cook strawberries with blueberries. What you want to do is break down the insoluble fibre. (the skins). It certainly helps me. Soluble fibre is o.k. (inside of fruit) but skins can cause bloating. I have suffered from bloating for ever (I'm now 45). I haven't been able to tolerate fruits for about a year now and am just managing to get back into it (going gluten-free rocks!). Try a bit of cooked fruit with maybe a piece of gluten-free cake or hemp icecream. That's what I did last night and it sat well. I don't eat fruit every day just yet, I feel giving the gut a rest helps. So maybe start once every couple of days only cooked and see how that goes. The premise with ibs is eat everything with some soluble fibre. Soluble fibres for us would be our gluten-free breads, cakes, cookies, nothing with roughage. Try it and see.

Take care, Neeta

[catfish]

If bananas cause this, then I would look at fructose as the culprit. Bananas are very low in insoluble fiber so that is unlikely to be your main problem. Fructose intolerance is a lot like lactose intolerance in symptoms- gas, bloating, even diarreah. I don't know whether Beano will help with fructose digestion, but it will help for digesting high-fiber fruits (skins-on) and vegetables (beans, cabbage, etc), or at least it does for me. I take 4 or so tablets whenever I eat that sort of stuff.

[burdee]

Molly: You never actually said whether you have celiac disease or whether you are abstaining from gluten. Maybe that's a foregone conclusion and I just missed that ... ... BUT if you do have gluten intolerance or celiac disease, I would make sure you have eliminated every speck of gluten before you consider fruit as the culprit. Then I would consider dairy, soy or other possible allergens. Strawberries and oranges often cause allergies and I have problems when I eat too much of those. However bananas are often suggested in the old fashioned BRAT (bananas, rice, applesauce and is it tea or toast? ... gluten free I hope!) to cope with diarrhea. 'Sorry if I'm off base here, but I don't know how long or whether you've been gluten-free or whether you're abstaining from dairy or any other possible 'culprits'.

Neeta: I also received that useless MISdiagnosis of IBS and religiously followed ALL the IBS diet suggestions for more soluble fiber (and INSOLUBLE fiber from whole grains and WHEAT bran ), avoiding sorbitol (which can cause symptoms in nonceliacs as well), taking lactaid to consume dairy (IBS diets don't consider the possibility that the milk protein CASEIN causes problems), taking BEANO when I consumed cruciferous vegies (brocolli, cabbage, onions, etc. ) and beans and avoiding fats, acidic foods, coffee and alcohol (even more restrictive than my current gluten-free/CF/SF diet)!! Still my symptoms got worse every year (for 10 years following IBS suggestions) until my most obvious symptom of EXCRUCIATING ABDOMINAL PAIN made me consider celiac disease. I still try to eat lots of fruits, vegies, lentils and nuts for fiber and nutrition, but eliminating gluten and casein did so much more to relieve my lifelong (57 years) symptoms of gas and bloating than any other 'IBS' suggestions.

CATFISH: I also have used BEANO successfully, but 1-2 tablets seem to be enough for me before consuming cabbage and onion family vegies or beans/lentils. I use the tablets because the drops (do they even make those anymore? ) were pretty useless. I never had problems with fruit skins, although acidic fruits causing acid stomach stuff, so I just use beano for vegies/lentils.

BURDEE

[strack2004]

I just reread my previous post recommending simethecone. Have learned that Gas X, the commonly used med for gas and bloating is not gluten-free. Cheers, Ruth

[strack2004]

I have checked out Family Pharmacy's Gas Relief since my last post. This one does not seem to contain any illegal ingredients with the possible exception of white edible ink. Also the food colors. They do have an email address: www.family pharmacy.com. Ruth

[strack2004]

p.s. to the above: Beano is not gluten freee. I checked out all my otc's meds and also soap, shampoo,etc. I just checked out my list. The ingredient that sticks out is potato starch. That may not have gluten, but would not be allowed onthe SCDdiet, I suspect. Don't know about mannitol. The other things sound okay. The inactive ingredients in so many of these things are surely hard to deal with. Someone else mentioned they don't have a clue as to what many of them consist of. I wonder if there is a list anywhere of things like croscomellose sodium, titanium dioxide, butyl paraben, methyl paraben, copaiba oil(in JOintritis), etc. etc. Ruth

[burdee]

Ruth: I'm confused. You said: "Beano is not gluten freee. I checked out all my otc's meds and also soap, shampoo,etc. I just checked out my list. The ingredient that sticks out is potato starch. That may not have gluten, but would not be allowed onthe SCDdiet, I suspect." Although Beano DOES has potato starch, but potato starch is gluten free. Not all of us need to follow the SCD diet to resolve our symptoms. Abstaining from dairy and gluten (my lab tests showed antibodies/autoimmune reaction to those) and soy (I currently don't tolerate that either) relieves my celiac disease symptoms.

You also said: "Don't know about mannitol." Mannitol is gluten free according to the Celiac Sprue Association's product listing guide which says: (mannitol) may be madeas hydrogenation of sugar solutions containing glucose or fructose or fermentations of sugars or sugar alcohols such as glucose, sucrose, fructose or sorbitol using the yeast Zygosaccaromyces rouxii. Some people report sensitivities to mannitol." I am sensitive to sorbitol but not to Beano, but perhaps people sensitive to mannitol might also be sensitive to Beano.

However, I was curious enough to check the Beano website's FAQs (www.beano.net) which included "Does Beano contain gluten?" and they said:

"The smallest amount of gluten that can be chemically detected in a product is 0.00016 percent. Results of our tests show that Beano contains less than 0.00016 percent. Although the amount of gluten in Beano is less than the limit of detection, speak to your physician if you have concerns." (Sounds like a pass the buck, to me.)

However, the only suspicious ingredient I could find on my bottle was "invertase" which is 'an enzyme capable of inverting sugar' (ala Webster's). So I'm not sure where that 0.00016% gluten comes from. Has anybody else researched Beano?

BURDEE

[strack2004]

Dear Burdee, Thanks for your comments about Beano. I have been only a week and three-fourths on SCD. So far results are mixed. I suspect some of my problems are due to increased consumption of fruit. I have always eaten alot of veggies. Also my digestive tract has to adjust to the loss of wheat and oatmeal fiber. Have been reading with interest the information given on Celiac.com about oats possibly being okay for gluten free diets. One would still have to deal with possible factory, store contamination with wheat, etc. possibility, and do the research. I am not at all sure that I need to be on this restricted a diet since my blood tests came back very low negative. But enough other folks seem to have had negative blood tests and still were found to have celiac disease. I have not gone through the testing from enterlabs . Felt they are expensive and I could better use the money on the different foods I will need to follow the diet. If the diet works that's proof enough, then after a time, I can try out other things like oats. Actually, the worst part of the diet is leaving out oatmeal in the morning. I usually eat a variety of vegetables and good amounts of them. I don't tolerate dairy either. I have been eating more fruit. I think that is giving me some problems with right sided pain. and burning into my esophagus, and clear through my digestive tract. I usually eat mainly bananas ( constipating, I know) and some cantalope. In this fruit season, I have been trying out apricots, plums, etc. one at a time. It is really hard to tell what causes a particular day's symptoms. I'll give Beano a try again. My past use of it didn't seem to help much, but it has been quite some time since I used it. Again, thanks for your input! Cheers, Ruth

[burdee]

Hi Ruth:

Before I learned I can't tolerate dairy OR soy, I substituted (for hot oatmeal) a mixture of rice bran (available through Ener-G Foods) and Quinoa flakes cereal (available at many healthy food or Whole Foods stores as well as online) as a hot cooked cereal. I didn't trust oatmeal, since I'm soooo sensitive to any gluten. I used more rice bran than Quinoa in the mix for extra fiber, but the quino added a flakey texture like oatmeal. I LOVED it and the extra fiber really helped my regularity struggles. I should try it again with rice or almond milk but haven't yet returned to hot cereal during our hot summer weather.

BURDEE

[Mballerina]

Fruit is a problem usually when youu have celiac disease induced damage in your body. While this damage is still there you may have Leaky Gut Syndrome which some people may tell you is IBS. The damage causes a problem with digesting either fructose sugar or carbs that ar in fruits and undigested sugars whether simple or complex cause gas in your intestines.

Magdalena, ON, CDA