Green tea

[makavelica]

Hello, I have 2,5 year old son who was diagnosed with HFI when he was 8 months old. My question is: is it safe to give my son green tea? I have reading this forum for a while now but I didn't find anything about green tea.

[shan]

Hello.

Yes, green tea shouldn't be a problem at all - as long as you can get him to drink it! My lad enjoys a cup redbush (rooibos) tea - it has less caffine and tannin than regular tea so it's good for young ones. Have also just discovered Caro - it's an instant barley drink which mixes with hot or cold liquid so you can make it up like coffee or like a milkshake...also great for turning into ice lollies (using evaporated milk so you get less ice crystals.) The only drawback with it is it's made by Nestle but hey beggars can't be choosers...

8 months is good going for a diagnosis...I thought i was doing well at 11 months! Where are you from?

[ukbill]

Do not forget peppermint tea! It's lovely and very refreshing particularly ice cold on a hot summers day.. Err.. OK we did not have any of those this year bet maybe next year you might remember on the hot day.

Camomile tea is good for last thing at night and white teas are good as well and low in caffeine too

Enjoy

[makavelica]

Thank you for answers shan and ukbill. We'll try some of tea that you have recommended. We are from Serbia and we are the only registered case of HFI in whole country so we have a lot of hard time explaining his condition to other people, even a lot of doctors don't know what it is. We have learned a lot of things from this forum and we are getting used to this way of life.

[shereebailey83]

question for Shan - what is the barley drink you speak of?? I thought barley contained fructose?

[shan]

Hi Sheree,

It's Caro by Nestle...It's also known as Pero in the US so don't know which one they'd have where you are.

The nutrition breakdown on the back of the tin gives 5.9g/100g sugars but because it's a really fine powder it works out to 0.1g per serving. No problems whatsoever with my lad and I've been getting a taste for it myself!

[charlie]

I'd forgotten about that stuff. Meg may enjoy that thinking about it, we used to have at as children as my stepmum was into healthy foods and wouldn't allow traditional hot chocolate, will give it a go. Great idea for the winter when you need to warm them up..................

[makavelica]

What about the nettle tea? Is it safe for HFI? I have tried to find nutritional data for the nettle but there are no informations about sugar content. I have even heard that i can be cooked like spinach and eaten instead of it.

[ukbill]

It should be ok but use only the green leaves not the stems.

Nettles make wonderful hair shampoo too.

But make it and use it, because if you keep it for more than a couple of days.. then remove the sham part of the name to get what it smells like!

My children used to make all sorts of "natural" products and sell them round the village where we lived.. hence knowing how bad the Nettle shampoo smells when its more than a couple of days old!

During the WW2 and for ever going back in time before that, Nettles were used to make everything from soap to rope and cloth! And if I remember right they were used in dyeing cloth as well, but I cannot remember the colour they gave.. Poo brown I suspect

A couple of leaves of Mint or pepper mint in a cup of boiling water makes a wonderful drink and it also settles a grumbling windy tum really quickly as well.

Great made and chilled on hot days as well, really refreshing, add a TINY and I mean Tiny drop of lemon juice to the iced peppermint tea to make it taste sparkling but without any bubbles..

Fennel herb seeds and celery seeds also make very refreshing teas.

The Celery is supposed to help with reducing cholesterol as well. Although I have no proof of this.

[makavelica]

Thank you very much ukbill. I will try to give nettle tea to my son and I hope that he will be ok with it. I will try the shampoo too, I hope it can remove the dandruff that I have problem with

[charlie]

Somewhat surprised I found nettle on the finelli database and surprised by the content too. Now you would have to have alot to get to 100g in weight but they are high in sugars.
These measures are per 100g

sucrose 0.2 g analytical, generic independent laboratory 587
lactose 0 g estimated according to logical deduction value created within host-system
fructose 0.5 g analytical, generic independent laboratory 587
sugar alcohols 0 g summation from constituent components value created within host-system
fibre, total 4.1 g calculated, generic value created within host-system
fibre, water-insoluble 2.7 g summation from constituent components value created within host-system
polysaccharides, non-cellulosic, water-soluble 1.4 g analytical, generic independent laboratory 587
glucose 0.6 g

Also mineral and vitamin content quite high as well as something called tryptophan which those with fructose malabsorption can be low in, its an essential amino acid good for production of seratonin therefore melatonin.

Finally got round to getting some Caro and Megs really likes it, started having it too to reduce my somewhat high caffeine intake.

[makavelica]

I am sorry Charlie but my English isn't very good and I didn't understand very well this last post of yours. I see that you wrote that nettle is high in sugar, so it isn't safe for HFI?

[ukbill]

Makavelica,

I think Charlie was saying although the analysis shows high sugar you are unlikely to eat 100g of nettle leaves!

100g nettles will produce 100Mg of Fructose.

Sucrose = 50% glucose and 50% Fructose.

If you use only the leaves (no stalks) then the Fructose content will be very low.

I have not made nettle tea but I would think maybe 5grams of nettle leaves would give a strong flavoured drink so would also give 5mg of Fructose.

We use 100Mg as the maximum safe level to take in any day because its the only result we have as to the maximum amount an adult can tolerate before we run out of the enzyme needed to break down the Fructose phosphate.

For most of us our kidneys produce a tiny amount of the enzyme so we can handle very small amounts without causing damage.

100 Mg is 1/10th of a gram or 1 / 20th of a small teaspoon full in a whole 24 hours.

Glucose contains a minimum of 4% fructose so the maximum amount anyone can tolerate is 1/2 of a 5 gram teaspoon full in any 24 hours.

However most Glucose is likely to contain much more (up to 40% "other sugars") so It cannot be considered safe for anyone with HFI, in any quantity.

Dextrose is an unknown quantity and I have been unable to discover how its made and what the likely contamination level might be.

I have to say people who have swapped from using Glucose (and being frequently ill) have reported getting on better with Dextrose.

So it seems to be lower in Fructose than Glucose, however treat with extreme caution until we can find out how its made and from what its made.

Bill A.

Keep smiling

[makavelica]

Thank you very much ukbill. Now I understand what Charlie was saying. I didn't know about the 100mg as a maximum safe level for an adult with HFI. My son is 3 years old and has only 12,5kg of body weight. Do you know what might be maximum safe level for him? I will start giving him the nettle tea but I will start with small amount ( I'm thinking maybe 1ml of tea) to see if there will be any reaction ( he doesn't talk yet) and gradually increase the amount of tea. He has been drinking only the green tea till now, but I want to give him nettle tea because it has higher amount of vitamins and minerals.

[ukbill]

Sorry I could not hazard a guess but if you assume an adult weighs 100Kg and work from there to be safe.

[charlie]

Don't worry about the english, I didn't understand half of what I posted either, I cut and pasted from the finelli database and didn't have time to tidy it up.

Here is the link to the database, I'm finding I use this one more and more to look up specific foods as my daughter seems to have more than one sugar problems going on.

www.fineli.fi/index.php?lang=en

The other one is www.nutritiondata.com

Good luck with the tea, a little one won't want a very strong taste anway so there should hardly be any fructose in it.

[makavelica]

Charlie, thank you for the fineli link. The nutritionaldata.com is the site that I used so far for information about the food.

[ukbill]

Makavelica,

Do not worry too much about vitamins and minerals.

It is a common misconception that vegetables have lots of them, compared to meat they have very little.

If your little one has only a variety of meats and a safe Carbohydrate like white rice or pasta he will be fine with only a little Vitamin C.

Most parents get very worried because they are told, all the time, how essential Vegetables are and fruit also .. this is just not so!

Yes if a persons diet contains lots of empty calories (like sugar and fats) this can be true.

If people only eat for example lots of vegetables fruit and sweet foods like say cake, they will be really short on just about all vitamins and minerals (except Vitamin C)

Most people, because Sweet foods are so very addictive and "nice", eat a lot of them and hardly any meat these days.. this is a very unhealthy way to live.

The most unhealthy Diet is a Vegan one which excludes all products of animal origin!

Vegans eat only fruit and vegetables, have to take many vitamins and minerals because of this, if vegetables and fruit is so healthy why do Doctors advise vegan women, if pregnant, to eat meat for the sake of the child?

However vegetables do provide essential Fiber which helps slow down the digestion of sugars, without this Fiber sugar will cause lots of fat to be made (cholesterol) and cause stress to the liver leading to obesity and Diabetes, so sugar is really quite dangerous stuff.

Your little boy may need some fiber too, in his diet.

You may need to ask your Doctor for some NONE-digestible fiber to help keep his bowels regular.

The reason the Fiber needs to be NONE digestible is because Digestible fiber turns to sucrose (normal sugar) in the gut.

I cannot recommend the stuff I take because it is not supposed to be used by people under the age of 3 years old.

So in short DO NOT PANIC if you allow him to find the things he likes to eat he will grow and become a fine man in due course of a few more years

I would recommend trying to make sure he gets a variety of meats and as much oily fish as you can get him to eat, and some liver also!

If you cannot face cooking Liver then give him some liver pate which will do the job just fine

His tastes WILL NOT match yours he will for example be far happier eating really sour food that you could not get near to eating.. this is because you are used to using sugar to counteract the taste of sour.

Please do not make, what I consider to be the common mistake, that you need to add artificial sweeteners or Dextrose to foods to make them taste less sour..

He will naturally prefer foods that do not taste like the foods that make him ill.

This is good and a self protecting mechanism that should be encouraged in an HFI child.

It will help keep him safe throughout his life.

I hope this helps?

The HFI diet is not an unhealthy one at all, it is in fact a VERY healthy diet!

So keep smiling he will grow and be a fine man

[makavelica]

Thank you very much ukbill, your post is very helpful and encouraging. I am offering him a variety of meats but he only wants to eat fried pork and chicken and a little bit of cooked liver. White rice and pasta he doesn't even want to see let alone eat. He will be 3 years old in february, so I would like to ask you to recommend the fiber that you take and I will talk to the doctor about it.

[ukbill]

PSYLLIUM HUSK 1kg NATURAL FIBRE PREMIUM FOOD GRADE Plantago Ovata Isphagula
Ebay listing number 330712067837

This is for sale in Australia but you can find the same Whole husks for sale in most health food shops. where it can be expensive.

So I buy it off Ebay here in the UK

Make sure you get the Whole Husks not the fine ground powder which I believe is far more digestible and therefore provides a source of sucrose in the lower intestine.

Amazon also sell it in the UK
www.amazon.co.uk/Buy-Whole-Foods-Online-Ltd/dp/B004E2S7KA/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1358458281&sr=8-2

If you cannot find it where you live or get anyone to ship it to your country then let me know and I will get some and ship it to you ok?