Peanuts, Beans And Sugar Alcohols

[arc]

I went gluten free back in February of this year and have been strict in it except for a couple of accidental glutenings.

Since that time, I have found that I can't tolerate most legumes, including peanuts, and sugar alcohols. I never had any problem with either before going gluten-free. Even a little peanut butter in something gives me bad stomach cramps (well, actually lower than the stomach). Most other legumes do the same thing, though I think pintos might be okay.

I'm not understanding the mechanism behind this. At first, I thought it was cross contamination, but am sure now that it's not. How could healing my gut by going gluten-free make me not be able to digest something I always could before?

Anyone else have something like this happen?

[Nancym]

Hey Arc, fancy meeting you here, assuming you're the same Arc from Lowcarber.org.

Have you tried Erythritol? It is a very kindly sugar alcohol, but a bit pricey.

The reason sugar alcohols hurt your tummy/gut is because most of them are undigestible by the human you. They have to be digested by the bacteria in your gut which, in turn, produce gas. Erythritol is different, it gets absorbed and excreted via urine.

Same with beans, there are resistant starches and sugars that you can't digest so they go down the chute and are digested by bacteria. Same result.

There's also lectins in legumes which might not really be very good for us. You can search for lectins and read up.

[arc]

Yeah, it's me.

I guess the point was that these things didn't bother me at all before I went gluten-free. I could eat sorbitol all day with no gas or bathroom problems. Now, one Breathsaver and I get severe stomach cramps. The same with peanut butter or peanuts in general.

It's not a big deal. I don't want SAs anyway and I can switch to almond butter. Just trying to see if anyone else had this happen to them after going gluten-free and trying to figure out the mechanics behind it.

thanks.

[Nancym]

  arc said:

I guess the point was that these things didn't bother me at all before I went gluten-free. I could eat sorbitol all day with no gas or bathroom problems. Now, one Breathsaver and I get severe stomach cramps. The same with peanut butter or peanuts in general.

It's not a big deal. I don't want SAs anyway and I can switch to almond butter. Just trying to see if anyone else had this happen to them after going gluten-free and trying to figure out the mechanics behind it.

It is a mystery to me. I also feel like I'm more sensitive to things to. Only thing I can figure is:

1) My gluten induced IBS masked other foods causing me issues.

2) I'm just paying more attention to what my body is telling me now.

3) Maybe the "glue" in gluten (and casein) was the only thing holding my intestines together

4) Something else entirely.

Did you have any symptoms you can associate with gluten?

[arc]

I had kind of wondered if I was able to digest those long chain carbs before because of the leaky gut. Now I am healing, making it more difficult.

Or I'm just weird (which is the most likely).

[jerseyangel]

  Nancym said:

Maybe the "glue" in gluten (and casein) was the only thing holding my intestines together

Maybe that's it!....

I never had a problem with legumes of any kind until I went gluten-free. Now all of them give me problems.

Sugar alcohols, though, have always been a problem for me, and I completely avoid them.

[Nancym]

Interesting idea, Arc. Sounds better than my lame ideas. Maybe those sugars were ending up in the bloodstream and going away via urine?

I know they use sugar alcohols to diagnose leaky gut. I think the idea is that the "leaks" aren't normally big enough to let the SA through to the blood stream. So they give you a sugar alcohol with a big molecule and then they measure it in your urine. If it ends up in the urine, your gut is leaking. Otherwise it goes down the chute and meets its doom with the bacteria. Which produces gas and god knows what else. This explains why Erythritol is so gentle on the tummy. It always sneaks out through the gut wall and doesn't end up in the junk yard with the bacteria.

Hey, thanks Arc. I think you answered your own question.

I think you could look at your symptoms as a good sign then.

Here's a description of how they test for leaky gut. Open Original Shared Link

[mookie03]

I had a lot of problem w/ sugar alcohols for the first year after i went gluten-free. Only recently have i started to tolerate those foods and only in small doses. I think for me it has to do w/ my healing process, my body just needed a little more time and i was temporarily "intolerant" to some foods, like sugar alcohols. The good news is it is getting better as time goes on. I would stay away from those foods that are bothering you for a few weeks then slowly try to reintroduce and see what happens.

[Guest Mtndog]

I am making my fist foray back into legumes and it's not going great... better but I still don't think I'm totally ready. I gave in and ate peanut M&M's and have had C since. I was the penut butter queen before going gluten free. I really don't know what happened! I miss pb & j's (on gluten free bread of course!)

[arc]

Well, good to know I'm not the only one (ummm.. it's not good that others are having problems - hopefully you know what I mean) and that there is a possible reason for it. I may try almond butter instead of peanut butter. It's expensive but shouldn't have the same problems.

Thanks everyone.

[kosherkid]

  arc said:

Well, good to know I'm not the only one (ummm.. it's not good that others are having problems - hopefully you know what I mean) and that there is a possible reason for it. I may try almond butter instead of peanut butter. It's expensive but shouldn't have the same problems.

Thanks everyone.

Me too, at least at means I'm not totally crazy .

I started be gluten-free this past February. After that when I ate chummus, it was NOT good , I thought maybe it was something else that I ate, or who knows what as I always used to eat it with no trouble. A couple of weeks later I tried it again. Same problem, so I wrote in big red letters in my food diary not to eat that brand of chummus again! Recently I decided to try a different brand to see if that was the issue - not quite as bad a reaction, but I really started to think about the chick peas being a problem, as it also seems to be the case with other beans for me.

So am also glad to find that it's not all in my head.

I am also curious, however, as to what makes it more of problem now than when I wasn't gluten-free. Your idea is an interesting one.

[JenKuz]

  arc said:

Yeah, it's me.

I guess the point was that these things didn't bother me at all before I went gluten-free. I could eat sorbitol all day with no gas or bathroom problems. Now, one Breathsaver and I get severe stomach cramps. The same with peanut butter or peanuts in general.

It's not a big deal. I don't want SAs anyway and I can switch to almond butter. Just trying to see if anyone else had this happen to them after going gluten-free and trying to figure out the mechanics behind it.

thanks.

I had the same experience. I was glutening up prior to testing, so I got an angel food cake from Publix. The part of the label that read "No Sugar Added" was partially obscured. I had two very generous slices. An hour later, all h*ll broke loose. If I understand right, it's not just that bacteria have to break them down. There's something else about them that affect the peristaltic movements of the gut, and they act like a stimulant laxative. Not pretty. Thought I was going to die. Got excessively angry at Publix. Wrote many irritable letters to food manufacturers telling them to cut out the sugar alcohols already, before some kid dies of diarrhea after eating a couple pieces of candy. They're a scourge as far as I'm concerned.

Sorry for the rant.

I'm also more sensitive to a number of things since my symptoms started. I think partly it's because my gut bacteria have gotten all screwy. Especially since they thought my problem was infectious at first (I'd been in Africa, in a village, drinking questionable water and eating questionable food) and I've taken practically the entire pharmacopea of anti-microbials. Even probiotics aren't helping much, at this point But they help a little. And, sadly, cutting out hummus, peanut butter and tofu, too.