HFi or FM?

[gretchen]

Titkavi, that is so awesome that you are feeling so great! And thanks so much for giving us the details of what you eat on a usual day, that's really helpful. You're so lucky that you don't get constipated or have any negative symptoms from your food. What kind of enzymes do you take for dairy and gluten?

[tikitavi]

I take Enzymedica's "Digest Spectrum". It has enzymes specifically for casein and gluten (DPP-IV), plus a bunch of other enzymes which I probably don't need actually.

[tikitavi]

Feeling better and better every day!!

I just wanted to thank everyone again for being here and so supportive and helpful. I am finding that the more strict that I am with staying as close to zero fructose and sucrose, the better and better I am feeling!! It is miraculous and wonderful! And now I can almost immediately tell if something is not OK, which is _very_ helpful!

I wonder too if I even need the digestive enzymes that I was taking for casein and gluten...I ran out yesterday and still continued to have my raw milk cheese and white wheat products, and so far so good! I am feeling great!! I have more enzymes on the way, but I wonder, do I even need them? Maybe I'll try to continue without them for a while!

It would still be interesting to get the official HFI diagnosis, but since I can't afford it right now, and don't even have a primary care physician, that is not possible right now. But really the answer is still there: I finally feel "right"! And not like puking all the time! My whole body seems so happy with me. My digestion is great, my abdomen is nice and flat, my skin, hair, teeth, nails, and gums all looking so nice and healthy!

So I'm just going to continue with the same plan, keeping under 100mg fructose per day and under 300mg sucrose per day total. My meals are consisting of the same that I mentioned earlier: locally raised, 100% grassfed, raw milk products (butter, milk, cheese), local pastured eggs, small amounts of white wheat products (mostly homemade except for pasta), and mushrooms. Occasional plain meat which is also locally raised and 100% grassfed. But, lately I've been worried that the meats might not be totally safe because of the processing facilities. I've had some reactions to what should have been plain meat. So I've been trying to avoid meat recently.

I've had to avoid yogurt, kefir, creme fraiche and sour cream. I had fructose reactions to all of them. I did some research and it seems that the fermentation process allows for some fructose to remain in these products, depending on how far along they are in the fermentation.

I recently discovered the German nutrition database which seems very thorough, and noticed that seitan is safe (when homemade). So I'm planning on making some seitan and using that for a little extra protein. Also it appears on that database, that cocoa butter is perfectly safe! So I've been snacking on little pieces of that for a "chocolate" fix. So far so good! And I've been having a little alcohol here and there, I stick to just Belvedere vodka (which they say has zero additives and seems to be very pure), or Williams Bros. Alba beer, which seems to be safe for me (at least no more than one bottle in a day). But other than these new additions, everything is still the same.

Meals are generally:
Breakfast: French toast (unsweetened, no topping but butter), or homemade waffles (no topping but butter), milk
Lunch: Homemade mac and cheese, or cheese soup with homemade biscuits, or buttered noodles with grated cheese
Dinner: Cream of mushroom soup with biscuits, or scrambled eggs with cheese and homemade bread and butter, or pasta with cream or white sauce and mushrooms

Anyway, I just had to share because I'm feeling so great. Thanks again everyone!

[esmee]

That is great to hear. Congratulations!

[sm]

Another reason to be careful with dextrose is one tends to get addicted, as Colomist mentioned; I can have three to four giant pixie stix or 25 rolls of smarties in one go! Besides not being sure of the purity of dextrose, excessive dextrose converts to sorbital through the polyol pathway ( from what I understand)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyol_pathway

[tikitavi]

Good points, SM. I definitely feel much better now that I'm avoiding all sugars, including dextrose!

Thanks, Esmee!

[colormist]

mmmm... giant pixy stix....

[jejns1]

Thank you SM!

I have been trying to figure out why my kids would react to too many Rockets or too much Dextrose. I figured it had something to do with too much of either, they love Rockets, so this is a huge
help with getting closer to a definitive diagnosis.

Janice

[sarosh]

I think my mad craving for smarties/rockets was because of my body seeking dextrose ( hypoglycemia) and vitamin C which all of us lack. I now take 1000mg of vitamin C a day and the craving is not that bad.
Sarosh/sm

[tikitavi]

I've been thinking about vitamin C lately. I did some research and found that the raw milk that I've been using is an antiscorbutic, especially 100% grassfed as mine is! And, funnily enough, the pine/spruce ale that I've been drinking is also an antiscorbutic too. I was reading that some arctic expeditions or sea voyages would carry spruce or pine ale to prevent scurvy.

Apparently you can also make a tea made from pine needles, which is also a super high source of vitamin C, even higher than lemons or limes. I read that's what they used in pre-colonial Quebec. Very interesting! I always prefer to get my vitamins from food than from supplements whenever possible.

This isn't HFI related, but gluten intolerance related: I wanted to mention that it seems I do need my digestive enzymes after all, they finally arrived yesterday after me being out of them for a couple days. I started using them again and I immediately felt so much happier and more energetic! I think I have a slight gluten intolerance and without the DPP-IV enzyme to break down the opioids, I start to get irritable and foggy-feeling. I perked right up once I had the enzymes again!

[esmee]

Thanks for sharing about the enzymes. I really need to try them.

The pine needles may also have pycnogenol, a potent antioxidant which helps the vitamin C to work better.

[susan]

Please tell more about the pine/spruce ale. What is it? How is it made? Where you get ingredients? Etc. Susan

[tikitavi]

The pine/spruce ale is called "Alba" and is produced in Scotland by Williams Bros. Brewing. The ingredients listed are malted barley bree, spruce, and Scots pine. However when I emailed them they said there is also a "small handful" of hops also.

I think I am starting to have a reaction to it though. The last two nights I've been having some typical fructose reactions and the only possible culprit is the ale. :-( So I'm going to go back to Belvedere vodka, which is the only other alcohol I've found that seems to be safe for me.

[esmee]

In the video I posted in the "Links" section called Sugar: The Bitter Truth, Dr. Robert Lustig says that alcohol is processed in almost the exact same way as ethanol, the only difference is that ethanol also goes through the brain which fructose does not do. He does not identify the specific enzymes need to process alcohol, but says both must go through the liver and this is why the physical outcome (fatty liver disease) is the same for alcoholics and those who consume a lot of fructose in their diet (which includes most Americans). Perhaps this is why people with HFI don't do particularly well with alcohol.

[tikitavi]

I just wanted to mention another nice benefit I've noticed since strictly avoiding fructose and sucrose, besides feeling MUCH MUCH better and having better skin. My bodyfat seems to have slimmed down! People are even mentioning it! It's very nice. Especially some small appearance of cellulite that I had on the back of my thighs, seems to have gone! So that's really nice!!

[charlie]

I would imagine alot of that change is less water retention too, especially cellulite changes, your body is working much more efficiently on a suitable diet for it.

[tikitavi]

Yes, Charlie, that's exactly how it feels! That my body is running more efficiently!

[tikitavi]

Well I got a little hungry last evening at work and tried the plain Lay's potato chips. I had a _horrible_ reaction! I feel like I want to die!

I looked potato chips up in the German database and they are very high in sucrose (and high in fructose, for me) which explains it:

www.daskochrezept.de/bundeslebensmittelschluessel/naehrwerte/kartoffelchips-verzehrsfertig_K280111_6.html
Fructose (Fruchtzucker) 406 mg/100g
Saccharose (Rübenzucker) 812 mg/100g

Gah....I should have known better. I've had problems with potatoes before. I need to just stay away from anything that comes out of the ground or grows on a tree! Besides mushrooms and white wheat products.

I just hope I haven't messed up the results for my cholesterol test this morning. I'd been strictly super low in fructose and sucrose, and I was wondering if that might make my cholesterol levels lower.

Once I've taken the test this morning and am allowed to eat again, I'll definitely have some milk. That always helps!

[esmee]

potatoes make me feel like i am falling down a black hole. i cannot think or function for hours after eating them.

[tikitavi]

This is interesting - I just had my yearly eye exam, and the doctor noticed that my eye pressure is excellent. Apparently it was "good" last year, but now it is "excellent!". He asked "What's different this year?" And the one thing that has changed, is that I'm now following a strict HFI diet! I wonder if that was the difference? Isn't that interesting?