What In The World Could It Be?

[Guest Jsn7821]

Hi everyone - I am new to this forum, it's a little intimidating how much stuff there is to sort through. Basically I am hoping someone can help point me in the right direction, I feel like I have reached a dead-end with my search for diet that doesn't give me reactions.

I am a 20 year old college student self-diagnosed with gluten intolerance. I am still getting reactions somewhat regularly. My main physical reaction is that the skin on my face becomes rashy and flakes, and my mental reactions affect my mood, energy, and give me brain-fog. The symptoms sometimes come together, but not always.

I probably shouldn't go into too much detail right off the bat - but maybe someone could give me some guidance: What other information about my diet/lifestyle/etc. would be helpful for me to give here?

My diet consists of absolutely NO: gluten, dairy, soy, corn, caffeine, sugar, alcohol, processed/canned/boxed foods.

I only drink water, eat vegetables, rice, fish and chicken and some red meat. I cook with olive oil and sea salt (and spices that I dried & ground). Occasionally (in moderation, too much is no good) I have fruit, beans, potatoes. I buy my food organic when I can.

I have been gluten free for 4 years, and it was just recently - in the last few months - that I cut everything down so drastically. For instance, 6 months ago I was eating most all of those things I listed out (dairy, caffeine, etc).

[Mother of Jibril]

Welcome to the group!

I have a few thoughts for you...

1. Have you seen a doctor about your concerns? A rash could be an allergic reaction, but flaky (dry?) skin is not... that sounds more like rosacea, hypothyroidism, a vitamin deficiency, etc...

2. Diet is very important, but not the only thing that affects your mental health. Changes in mood and energy come with a LOT of different autoimmune disorders... fibromyalgia, hypothyroidism, Addison's disease, etc... anything that upsets the balance of hormones in your body. True celiac disease is an autoimmune disorder. Also... is there anything happening in your life that would make you feel depressed, anxious, stressed out? Are you finding it difficult to stick with such a restrictive diet?

3. Are you taking any supplements? Vitamin and mineral deficiencies can do dangerous things to your body. A good place to start would be a multivitamin, some fish (or flax oil), and vitamin D. Again... a visit to a doctor would be a good idea. You could get a lot of information from a basic CBC and metabolic panel. It's not very expensive to run those tests.

4. Two good books on nutrition are "Ultraprevention" and "Eating Well for Optimal Health." Cutting grains out of your diet is OK, but there might be some healthy things you could add to your diet. For example... nuts and seeds. They have lots of healthy fats and minerals. A lot of people avoid coconut because of the saturated fat, but it has some other things (like lauric acid) that are very good for your body.

[debmidge]

Hi everyone - I am new to this forum, it's a little intimidating how much stuff there is to sort through. Basically I am hoping someone can help point me in the right direction, I feel like I have reached a dead-end with my search for diet that doesn't give me reactions.

I am a 20 year old college student self-diagnosed with gluten intolerance. I am still getting reactions somewhat regularly. My main physical reaction is that the skin on my face becomes rashy and flakes, and my mental reactions affect my mood, energy, and give me brain-fog. The symptoms sometimes come together, but not always.

I probably shouldn't go into too much detail right off the bat - but maybe someone could give me some guidance: What other information about my diet/lifestyle/etc. would be helpful for me to give here?

My diet consists of absolutely NO: gluten, dairy, soy, corn, caffeine, sugar, alcohol, processed/canned/boxed foods.

I only drink water, eat vegetables, rice, fish and chicken and some red meat. I cook with olive oil and sea salt (and spices that I dried & ground). Occasionally (in moderation, too much is no good) I have fruit, beans, potatoes. I buy my food organic when I can.

I have been gluten free for 4 years, and it was just recently - in the last few months - that I cut everything down so drastically. For instance, 6 months ago I was eating most all of those things I listed out (dairy, caffeine, etc).

I have no suggestions but hope you find out your triggers asap. Some on this board say that "Nightshades" bother them, but I have forgotten what their reaction to them are.

[AliB]

Hi. Sorry you are having such a struggle.

As you already seem to be on the right track, why not check out the Specific Carbohydrate diet? It cuts out all the long-chain carbs and starches that feed rogue bacteria in the body causing many different problems.

Your diet is not far off the SCD but it would remove the rice and potatoes as well but introduce a few other foods instead. Healing the body and the gut takes time and can be a fairly slow process but we don't mind as long as we are going in the right direction.

So many of us have been where you are - frightened to eat anything! But we are gaining relief from the diet and would encourage anyone to give it a try.

The SCD thread on this section is a good resource as are the 'breaking the vicious cycle' and 'Pecanbread' websites.

Regards, Ali.

[Rachel--24]

Intolerances to certain foods or chemicals (even naturally occuring ones) can cause both rashes and dry skin. You may want to investigate possible intolerances to food chemicals (i.e. salicylates, amines, glutamates and sulfur).

These types of intolerances are actually more common than having reactions to the foods themselves. More often than not when people are suffering from multiple intolerances it is caused by an inability to break down these naturally occuring chemicals. This is more of a metabolic problem (enzyme deficiency/dysfunction) and not really an "allergy".

The SCD is worth a try as well.

[Guest Jsn7821]

Thanks for all the replies, and so quickly too. This gives me some stuff to look into. It's actually quite comforting to know other people have been in my situation (frightened to eat anything is a good way to put it).

Mother of Jibril:

1. I have been meaning to see a doctor. I have been somewhat hesitant to go, because in my experience they have tried to give me various prescriptions to solve my problems, which I feel is the wrong approach, and I would rather not risk being reactive to the ingredients in the pills. Does anyone have any advice for me to take to the doctor when I visit?

2. I have been focusing on ways to deal with stress, and lately (the last few months) I have gotten it to be very manageable. The only 'pill' I take is a Rhodiola tablet once a day which helps me with stress. I notice an increase in sensitivities and reactions when I get stressed out.

3. A Nautropath gave me a liquid multi-vitamin to take a while back, but it had an artificial cherry flavor to it, which irked me out and I stopped taking it when I got a reaction (the reaction could have been unrelated to the multi-vitamin, but I tend to cut out anything questionable when I get one). I feel like it did give me a boost in energy and mood. Could someone recommend a vitamins that have been tried and tested by people (like me) with lots of sensitivites?

4. Thanks for those book recommendations. I don't do nuts because I feel like they are always either cooked with oil, or cross-contaminated with other products, etc. I would love to get into nuts and seeds. Are there any places to order cleanly shelled, raw nuts online?

Also, I used to cook with coconut oil religiously until I got into a rut where I couldn't figure out what was 'getting me', and when I took out coconut oil I got better. Could be a coincidence, could be the batch of oil I got, who knows... I am just too scared to introduce it again.

Debmidge:

I did try taking nightshades out a few months ago. I didn't see that much improvement, so I gradually introduced them again, and I think I have been fine with them. Thanks for the support!

Ali:

I will look into the SBC. Rice is such a cornerstone of my diet right now, I don't know what else I could fill it with? It's true though, when I have lots of rice at one time, it's no good (I always try to ignore this and pass it off as something else). Same with white potatoes. Hmm.

I feel that there is something to regulating the amount of food I eat throughout the day. For some reason I have a lot of trouble with this... I get hungry and don't feel satisfied until I feel 'full' which can be quite a bit of food later. Rice and potatoes help "fill" me up, but I usually feel sluggish and in a bad mood after I pork out on them.

Rachel:

I have looked into salicylates, and it the list of high-salicylate foods seemed to be way too restrictive to try this diet. I haven't heard of the other three so I will take a look. Are there any tests I can do - or is it mostly trial and error?

[ShayFL]

After I cut out gluten, I then over the course of a few months had to cut out ALL grains. Especially rice. I wasnt happy about it at first cuz I ate rice daily. But I find winter squashes/pumpkin quite filling. So those are the "new comfort foods".

I buy my nuts from Jaffe Bro. in CA usually and dont have a problem with them. I buy my nut flours from digestivewellness.com

To make the nuts more digestible, you can soak them overnight and then sprinkle with sea salt and toast in the oven for a few minutes. As long as they dont get too hot, the enzymes wont be totally destroyed. I soak mine and then make homemade almond milk with them.

If you are handy, you can make yogurt out of almonds or hazelnuts and even cheese!

[Guest Jsn7821]

Thanks for the tips Shay.

I read on my egg carton "Only fed the finest organic wheat, corn, barley, etc" and started wondering if the feed could get into the eggs or meat somehow. I came across this article on fast food that says scientists can detect if the animal was fed corn.

Open Original Shared Link

Could it be possible that some sort of chain of gluten (excuse my biology, I know nothing about it) or corn, etc. could get passed into eggs or meat?

It feels a little strange to me to be eating meat and eggs that are essentially derived from corn and wheat.

[Mother of Jibril]

I have been meaning to see a doctor. I have been somewhat hesitant to go, because in my experience they have tried to give me various prescriptions to solve my problems, which I feel is the wrong approach, and I would rather not risk being reactive to the ingredients in the pills.

The only 'pill' I take is a Rhodiola tablet once a day which helps me with stress.

Are there any places to order cleanly shelled, raw nuts online?

Rice and potatoes help "fill" me up, but I usually feel sluggish and in a bad mood after I pork out on them.

To answer your questions...

I agree that medications can often cause more problems than they're worth. BUT... since I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism I had to start taking synthetic hormones. It's not really a drug. It's just a replacement for what my body would have been making naturally if my immune system hadn't destroyed my thyroid. Being on hormones is a LOT better for my health than being off them.

I've tried Rhodiola... good stuff. It works by supporting your adrenal glands and doesn't cause a lot of side effects... it's considered to be an "adaptogen."

I ordered some raw, shelled, organic brazil nuts from www.nutsonline.com They have a wide selection of nuts and seeds... I was very happy with my purchase.

If you feel sluggish after eating rice and potatoes, that sounds like a blood sugar issue. Those foods are very easy for your body to digest, so unless you eat them with something fatty (meat, dairy, nuts, avocado) they'll give you a big spike in your blood sugar.

Grass-fed, organic meat and wild-salmon are good sources of protein that are not contaminated with grains, antibiotics, and heavy metals. IMO, it's even more important to buy organic meat than organic vegetables. You can wash off the vegetables... but you can't wash contaminants out of meat.

[ShayFL]

Tropical Traditions raises chicken without wheat, barley, rye, oats or corn. They use coco feed derived from coconuts and let the chickens free range and eat bugs and such.

MOJ - Freeze those Brazil nuts. They go rancid the fastest of all shelled nuts.

If you have $$$ there are online sites that sell wild turkey, deer, etc.

[Guest Jsn7821]

Last week and a half was sort of a disaster: I got sick with a sudden fever Monday, and a few days of that lead to a bad rash and my gut was extremely unhappy with almost anything I ate. I got fed up with eating and fasted on Friday, which helped get my system into recovery mode (at least it felt like it did), and ever since I have been even more careful with what I eat. This last week it has been only vegetables and salmon; mostly dark greens (tomatoes and leeks too). Even sweet potatos and rice were bugging me.

I saw a doctor today, she recommended to take vitamin D supplement, and get a blood test for Iron, B12, D3, etc. I guess lately studies are showing that we need a lot more D than we once thought, and a lot of people up in my latitude (longitude?) are way below what we should have.

I am happy to have found a doctor that doesn't jump to conventional medicine. She actually recommended a number of different people to see for acupuncture, muscle testing, and other naturopathic stuff. Cool.

Another thing she recommended was a bamboo vegetable steamer, and to research a bit into juicers.... I picked up a bamboo steamer for $15 and it rules. Made some broccoli and zucchini with it. What do you guys think about juicers? What about the Vitamix... I get the feeling I'm being marketed to when I read about it, but it sounds like they've been around for a long time and get a lot of good feedback.

[AliB]

Well, I have never had a Vitamix and have heard some pretty good stuff about them but do wonder whether they can really justify the huge price.

I have just bought a new blender from Lidl over here in the UK for

[pele]

What do you guys think about juicers? What about the Vitamix... I get the feeling I'm being marketed to when I read about it, but it sounds like they've been around for a long time and get a lot of good feedback.

I use my Champion juicer to make nut butter. Never use it for juicing!

Glad to see you on the SCD thread. I'm another one who has seen a big benefit from the SCD. And I think your doc is on the right track suggesting to get vitamin levels checked. Vitamin D is part of the endocrine system and crucial for a healthy immune system. We can get really messed up when it is low.

Are you using probiotics? Overgrowth of bad gut bacteria can cause digestive distress--this is really at the heart of the SCD.

[AliB]

Definitely we need more Vitamin D. At the end of the day there aren't many of us in this world that are too far from a source of fish - the sea is full of them and so are the rivers, but we just don't get enough of it, well certainly not good fish, anyway.

It is very expensive on the whole unless you buy the tinned stuff which has often been cooked to a very great degree which may well have destroyed a lot of the vitamins and minerals.

Fish oil, Cod liver oil, etc, would be a better source of vitamin D than tablets. It contains other substances like GLA which are beneficial. One book I read reckoned we need around 10,000mcg/IU a day especially in less sunnier climes - I don't think I would go that far, but I am taking around 2000mcg/IU - 4 x 500mcg capsules a day.

[mftnchn]

Since you sound very careful about your diet, further celiac diagnosis might not be possible. If your rash has any blisters at all though, you can ask a dermatologist to do a biopsy on that for celiac.

I hope your doctor will check for both 25 hydroxy vitamin D and 1,25 vitamin D levels. The first is more common, and the latter more expensive. If you have low on the first but elevated on the second, this can be a sign that something else is wrong--like an infection. If both are low you need to supplement and recheck your levels until they are in a therapeutic range. This alone could help with your symptoms. (But also could be many other things)

I second the SCD approach, as it does sound like the carbs are upsetting your system. Villi damage from celiac means we cannot make several digestive enzymes for carb digest. Some people naturally recover on gluten-free but others of us need more help.

Glad you found a doctor. I was thinking you could ask here if you didn't as there are some folk from Portland and Seattle that might be able to recommend someone.

[Guest Jsn7821]

Right now I'm feeling a lot better. Could be that I'm just getting past the bug that got me two weeks ago, but I also added in some supplements in my diet. I have pretty much been on the SCD diet - I haven't read through the thread, but I think the diet that I sort of naturally found when I was trying to heal myself is very similar (if not that same thing). I have had a few sweet potatoes though (are they allowed?). Are any vegetables off limits?

Ali: I eat lots of fish.. Usually one or two servings of every other day. A company sells freshly-frozen Alaskan fish once a year, and this year I decided to fill up my freezer with salmon, halibut and rockfish... Best decision ever. Except I'm going to run out of it about 5x as fast as I anticipated.

Mtf: I'll ask my doctor about 25 hydroxy and 1,25.

I'm doing 2000 IU of vitamin D3, 1000mg of glutamine, and I have started using Milk Thistle seeds ground up on various dishes.

Today (just a few minutes ago) I tried goat yogurt. First dairy I have had in a long time. Wish me luck...

[Rachel--24]

I just wanted to point out that nearly all fish contain methyl mercury. Some fish contain greater amounts than others. Mercury is toxic and a powerful immunosuppressant. Some people are more capable of excreting it than others (genetics is huge factor).

Since you already have health problems and are eating lots of fish....you may want to look into the types of fish you eat (whether or not they contain significant amounts of mercury)....and you may want to cut back on the amount of fish you consume.

I live in California and by law anywhere that fish is sold there must be signs posted to warn consumers that the fish does contain mercury.

Here are a couple of links about mercury in fish.

Open Original Shared Link

Open Original Shared Link

[AliB]

You are so right Rachel about the Fish, we don't know the half of it. As I said, we can't get much good fish these days, except perhaps a bit of wild salmon if you are fortunate. Man has an awful lot of cleaning up to do and I am not sure he will ever achieve it!

Apparently cod liver oil is ok as the mercury settles in the protein part of the fish so it is the meat that we are more likely to get it from.

I had a thought the other night. I had bought some herring milts (soft roe). Normally we would have them on toast but that is out of bounds so I fried them and served them with vegetables. Ugh! They had a real tang to them - not bad but very 'metallic' and actually made the veg taste horrible - very bitter!

I could eat the roe, but the aftertaste made the veg disgusting. I did wonder afterwards whether they might just be loaded with heavy metals!!!

[nora-n]

Interesting about the mercury in fish.

Here in this country, we have a huge fishing industry too.

The mercury comes from paper plants, (they do not use mercury there anymore) and the authorities have tracked mercury for years now. The fish with mercury comes from the fjords where the paper plants have been.

The fish form the open sea is supposed to be okay, and the arctic fish. We can get both kinds. I do not worry about mercury from fish.

But the tuna story worries me. I have been eating tuna in cans, I think it comes from Thailand. I have to look into it.

Thanks for the warning.