Bloating, digestive problems?

[Suiren]

 I have come to believe I may have a digestive / gut issue. 
Why?
Because I am very freaking bloated right now!  I look pregnant.
I have been having worse problems since getting off of a low carb Paleo diet. As some may remember, vlc (25-69 g of carbs shared with the baby I breastfeed) was not good for me. I lost hair, my hormones went all over the place, I started having acne, severe PMS, my thyroid and liver enzymes skyrocked, I was tired and had inflammatory pains....I am probably forgetting a few things...but you get the picture. It was bad. I don't have a spare liver or thyroid.

I am not sure what causes the bloating at this point. It seems like everything gets me bloated. I only know my worst enemy is sweet potato and rutabaga.

I know there are diets like AIP,  GAPS etc. that could help with this. Maybe it is SIBO. 

But my problem with giving these a try is that I am worried I will have a hard time getting enough calories (I was underweight 99lbs, don't want to go there again)  from my usual fat sources and it would also be hard to get enough carbs it seems.
Currently I eat a lot of bananas. But I was diagnosed with a fructose malabsorption before....I don't seem to have many options here...

To summarize my symptoms again: bloating, stomach belching, sometimes constipation, mild cramps in my intestines. My stools are sometimes hard, but mostly okay, normal brown, I think I have seen some fat or something on them before? Def. no blood.

I have had digestive issues since I was a child. So I tend to forget it is not normal. It worsened in my teens, and in 2006 I was diagnosed with a fructose malabsorption. I felt a lot better reducing fructose and reintroduced it after a half year. I always felt like I was able to tolerate a moderate amount of natural fructose.

I really feel I have had issues there for a while and I want to take care of this problem now, because I can see it causing (or having caused) a lot of damage.
I would appreciate recommendations regarding gut healing tailored to my needs.

[eveheart]

I wasn't going to post a response until I saw your signature line that said mostly cooked paleo... for me, digestive healing starts with raw paleo. I don't get full-blown digestive problems with an occasional cooked paleo meal, but the signals are clear: my digestive system has no problems whatsoever with raw foods and all sorts of maladies (gas, bloating, heartburn, food cravings, little cramps all along the large intestinal tract, hip pains, and much, much more) from sustained eating of cooked foods. If you're buying paleo foods, why cook them? And, if you choose to eat cooked foods, grin and bear the consequences - sooner or later, the discomfort will steer you to make better food choices. I don't mean this to sound harsh, only to say that it's easiest in the long run to make the harder decisions.

[Suiren]

Eveheart
I am cooking foods because some of the meats are only organic not grasfed or wild. We can not always get that.
Also way back when I started I had more problems digesting raw and got stomach aches from raw meat and veggies.
I still do. I think I need to better a few things first since I am obviously not digesting well. I don't want to throw my body off any more. I am happy with my liver back to normal and my TSH at 2.2 without meds. I want to keep a certain balance.

I understand a raw diet is great, but I feel I still can and have made improvements with cooked meats. So until I am able to digest a bit better this will have to do.

[eveheart]

How about digestive enzymes - full range of pancreatic enzymes with HCl - taken with your meals?

[cherimoya_kid]

You might be better off without grainfed meats. Try avocados, nuts, seeds, and other things to replace those grainfed meats.

[Iguana]

I am cooking foods because some of the meats are only organic not grasfed or wild. We can not always get that.

When we don’t get proper meat, we don’t eat meat. (By “we”, I mean my “instincto” friends and I). When we don’t get proper eggs, we don’t eat eggs. That’s very simple. I agree with CK's advice.

By the way, unfrozen New Zealand lamb is quite proper and cheap. We often find it in supermarkets in most countries.

Also way back when I started I had more problems digesting raw and got stomach aches from raw meat and veggies.

Of course, if you pre-mix and season raw foods, then you get digestive problems because you cannot feel which ones and how much of each you can eat in accordance with your digestive capacity.
 

I understand a raw diet is great, but I feel I still can and have made improvements with cooked meats. So until I am able to digest a bit better this will have to do.

Having plenty of raw food along with some cooked food sooner or later leads to problems for most people. There’s a reason why people on standard cooked diet cannot tolerate much raw food.

Best whishes
François

[Suiren]

How about digestive enzymes - full range of pancreatic enzymes with HCl - taken with your meals?

Yes, I have thought about that. What do I need to look for? Are there different types?
HCl would help with low stomach acid?

I was also thinking about seeing a gastroenterologist to get a few tests done to figure out where exactly I have problems (if I even have bacterial overgrowth). That way I can adjust my strategy.

You might be better off without grainfed meats. Try avocados, nuts, seeds, and other things to replace those grainfed meats.

I was wanting to get off of grainfed completely soon. We have been buying other meats as much as possible from the stores and plan to order from a few online sources that don't seem too expensive (thanks littleelefant!)

I have also been eating more avocado for fat/ calories. But with prices from 1.60 to 1.99 it can be hard to afford when you are buying other foods that cost a bit.
Seeds and Nuts seem to get me super bloated, at least at the moment. More than other foods.

[Suiren]

When we don’t get proper meat, we don’t eat meat. (By “we”, I mean my “instincto” friends and I). When we don’t get proper eggs, we don’t eat eggs. That’s very simple. I agree with CK's advice.

By the way, unfrozen New Zealand lamb is quite proper and cheap. We often find it in supermarkets in most countries.
Of course, if you pre-mix and season raw foods, then you get digestive problems because you cannot feel which ones and how much of each you can eat in accordance with your digestive capacity.
  Having plenty of raw food along with some cooked food sooner or later leads to problems for most people. There’s a reason why people on standard cooked diet cannot tolerate much raw food.

Best whishes
François

That is one of the reasons I went back to eating more cooked foods (as some have suggested here too). I seem to be absorbing and digesting them better and keep my weight more stable.

I seem to have problems with unseasoned and separate foods as much as tossed together. I tried both.
I think my body will have a problem with anything at the moment. I am not sure if my stomach is reacting to the change in my diet (I had less problems on a SAD diet, very minor bloating).
It makes sense to me that digestion would be different taking out grains especially.
But my body does not seem to be adjusting.

lamb:
We paid 5.29Eur for 500g of frozen new zealand ground lamb yesterday. Compare that to ground beef which is only about 2.20. Deer and normal lamb is even more.
The only affordable fish is salmon, but I don't want to eat a lot of salmon, because it would be salmon OD and I worry about PUFA considering my thyroid.

[Suiren]

Oh, and I forgot but we have not been able finding pastured eggs at all here! The best we can get is Bio and I am not sure these are okay to be eaten raw?

Another question

Has anyone found face mapping to be true?






I did not have acne before changing my diet. Since switching from SAD to Paleo, my acne has slowly increased and went really bad when I cut out most of my carbs and did LC.
The detox has improved my skin much, but I still break out. Just my problem is less severe (and my skin is not dry and oily anymore since the herbs).
Looking at these maps it tells me most of my problems are mostly of the digestive kind.

I get it worst on my cheeks (stomach, fallopian tubes)
Second by the mouth (large intestine, colon)
A little on my forehead (small intestine, bladder)
And sometimes by my eyes (liver, gallbladder)

I think cleansing and somehow relieving these parts would relieve my body and promote normal function again. I haven't had as many problems for long. Sometimes I am thinking that detoxing after changing my diet, loaded my body with a lot of toxins it could not get rid of at once (maybe too much at a time?). My digestive tract not being able to adjust as well could have contributed with that (creating more toxins and problems).

That would explain why my liver and gallbladder had problems (from my blood tests).

[LePatron7]

For bacterial problems I've been doing a raw version of scd/specific carbohydrate diet. You know you can eat grain fed meat raw? It's not ideal. But it's still better than cooked. I've eaten a lot of lower quality foods raw when there's nothing else available. Say I'm at a friends house and all they have is regular eggs, I might down a couple just cause there nothing else.

Also if you're able to find it raw beef fat is usually very inexpensive, high calorie, and good for you.

[Iguana]

But my body does not seem to be adjusting.

lamb:
We paid 5.29Eur for 500g of frozen new zealand ground lamb yesterday. Compare that to ground beef which is only about 2.20. Deer and normal lamb is even more.
The only affordable fish is salmon, but I don't want to eat a lot of salmon, because it would be salmon OD and I worry about PUFA considering my thyroid.

Frozen and ground… No wonder why you have problems. Here we sometimes get fresh NZ whole lamb legs at about 8 €/kg.

Salmon OD ? I searched what it is  on Google and found this: “Dr. Salmon received OD and PhD degrees from Indiana University” .  I thought salmon is one of the most expensive fish, the cheapest being sardines and herring.

[Suiren]

No lol  OD is short for overdose.
Alaska wild salmon is one of the most affordable fish here. A few times I bought fresh fish at the store and had a swollen throat from it.

I don't eat ground meat often. I was just saying that we found frozen ground lamb yesterday, and that is the only lamb we have come across so far.
What exactly is the problem with frozen meat?
We can not get any suitable meat that has never been frozen. Some is shipped frozen and stores often had their meat frozen at one point too.

[Suiren]

For bacterial problems I've been doing a raw version of scd/specific carbohydrate diet. You know you can eat grain fed meat raw? It's not ideal. But it's still better than cooked. I've eaten a lot of lower quality foods raw when there's nothing else available. Say I'm at a friends house and all they have is regular eggs, I might down a couple just cause there nothing else.

Also if you're able to find it raw beef fat is usually very inexpensive, high calorie, and good for you.

So would grainfed raw be better than grasfed cooked or seared?

I read some really scary things about grain fed raw meat too.

But then there is still the issue that raw gives me a stomach ache. I tried many types, wild, grasfed, lamb.
I have been eating it in small quantities hoping my stomach will get used to it but no change so far.

[jessica]

I really hate to say it but I think grainfed is grainfed regardless if you cook it or not.  When I was eating heavily grainfed raw beef I was having mood swings, felt very inflamed, was visably swollen andnot often satiated from it.   Grainfed has a horrible omega 3:6 ration, which contributes to inflammation.  It was promoting the horrible systemic candida I was suffering from at the time and often I would end up with angular chelitis, which is a sign of b12 deficiency, and all kinds of little zits and blemishes around my mouth and chin.  (This was a few years ago when I was eating grainfed meats raw, cooked sweet potatoes and lots of vegetables, minimal but some fruit and lots of vegetable based oils, I had horrible digestive issues but thought that was normal, also starting having gallbladder and liver issues and systemic candida.)


Try your best to get those grassfed/wild animals, if you cook them do it at very low temps, like a crockpot full of water, set on low for a long while, cook large chunks like roasts, they should be less expensive and if you can find them buy a few and buy some soup bones...previously frozen is fine as long as its grassfed.  when you buy large roasts(and soup bones, and offal! stock your freezer, make it a point!) just defrost them and let them with in the air in the fridge for a few days, then cook, they wont get high in this time but it will allow the remaining good bacteria and enzymes(they aren't all dead from freezing!) to proliferate

to help your digestion try solaray brand Pancreatin, its a great digestive supplement with  minimal ingredients, just pancreas and papaya leaves. 

to stimulate your own HCL production try and c  hew a few sticks of celery before a meal, if you break celery in half you can peel out the little fibers, I suggest doing that as its really fibery! 

to help heal your gut also try some bone broth.  alternately you can buy gelatin from great lakes brand and add a scoop to hot water, its from grass fed animals

also try ODing on some probiotics for a week, garden of life "primal defense" in powder form is a great soil based probiotic, you can take it with a bit of water upon waking, after breakfast, after lunch and before bed.  It might make your stomach worse before better, but it cured my giardia and also helped to repopulate my gut.

As far as veggies go, sweet potatoes are sugar and fiber, if you have candida or any disbiosis you are just asking for a swollen belly!  anything that is carbs+fiber is going to do that at this point. I really do think their comes a point when you just have to give your belly a rest, and also give your body as much rest as possible from inflammation caused by carbs and bacterial imbalance.

  I am going to suggest that you work on getting offal instead of carbs and upping fats to keep your weight up.   You can grind up hearts, livers and even kidneys into a nice pate.  Its very tasty and easy to do, they can be previously frozen.  I really hope you can find a source and just stock up on these!

Do you get enough minerals Suiren, I forget, do you eat any seaweeds?  Maine Coast and Frontier Brand are legit and should be added to meals/water.  Kelp is especially good to heal the gut as it is mucilaginous but also has iodine, so it doesn't cause bacteria overgrowth in the intestines.

I love to consider and observe things like face mapping and iridology, whether or not its truly legit I cannot tell.  In myself I do see some coincidences, but they may be just that!  I still think its interesting:)

[eveheart]

So would grainfed raw be better than grasfed cooked or seared?

Grainfed beef is not food! Cattle cannot digest grains, so they create toxins when they are fed grain. If you are worried about toxic effects from food (such as your concern with salmon), then it makes sense to avoid animals that have created similar toxins from their inappropriate diets. Why would it be acceptable to eat the toxins just because your own body didn't create them?

The reasons grainfed is so cheap is because (1) grain-food sources are government-subsidized crops in many countries, (2) CAFOs (concentrated animal feeding operations) take little land compared to grazing, and (3) grain over-fattens each animal, leading to more yield per age of animal. The bottom line is: grainfed is not food! I hope you don't mind a little sarcasm: There are cheaper non-foods that you can stuff your stomach with - dirt, for instance.

I hope you are hearing Iguana's and CK's "bottom line" suggestion - find food that is not grain-fed!

Digestive enzymes that you can buy in capsules are hydrochloric acid (HCl) and pancreatic enzymes (such as protease, lipase, peptase) can help with digestive issues. Do you still see your naturopath?

[Iguana]

No lol  OD is short for overdose.
Alaska wild salmon is one of the most affordable fish here. A few times I bought fresh fish at the store and had a swollen throat from it.

Was it tasty unprocessed and unseasoned?

I don't eat ground meat often. I was just saying that we found frozen ground lamb yesterday, and that is the only lamb we have come across so far.
What exactly is the problem with frozen meat?
We can not get any suitable meat that has never been frozen. Some is shipped frozen and stores often had their meat frozen at one point too.

That is a problem. We don’t know exactly why but raw thawed food generally cause troubles once we are out of tolerance. It’s obviously not as much harmful than cooked food since there’s barely any molecular damage, but the ice crystals break the cells walls during thawing. Seems there’s no troubles when thawing occurs in the mouth…! Polar bears are certainly fully adapted but we are obviously not polar animals.

So would grainfed raw be better than grasfed cooked or seared?

It’s hard to say which is the worst of two evils, even more so as there is an infinity of different conditions and ways of grain feeding: various grains (wheat or other less harmful cereals), raw grain or hot dried grain, vaccinations, medicines, chemicals, supplements, food additives, etc, etc.

But then there is still the issue that raw gives me a stomach ache. I tried many types, wild, grasfed, lamb. I have been eating it in small quantities hoping my stomach will get used to it but no change so far.

Yeah.... Actually we are fully adapted to a 100% raw paleo diet. On the opposite we are only accustomed to cooked food. Thus there should be no problem to transition “cold turkey” into a 100% instinctive raw paleo nutrition (with the help and advices of someone experienced, so as to avoid mistakes, there usually no problems). But if only some of our food is not perfectly raw and unprocessed, then it is likely to destroy the subtle equilibrium which is necessary to get out of decades of habituation to cooked food, dairy and disregard of our instinctive feelings.

[cherimoya_kid]

No lol  OD is short for overdose.
Alaska wild salmon is one of the most affordable fish here. A few times I bought fresh fish at the store and had a swollen throat from it.

I would try eating the salmon.  If you start to notice negative symptoms from it, then back off.  Otherwise, it's wild and fresh, and that's waaaay better than grainfed beef.

[Suiren]

I would try eating the salmon.  If you start to notice negative symptoms from it, then back off.  Otherwise, it's wild and fresh, and that's waaaay better than grainfed beef.

I would eat more if it wasn't for my thyroid. The PUFA in salmon can aggravate Hashimotos.
I recently got another affordable fish at the organic store here. It was called Pangasius filet and I tolerated it well. I will have to see if it has PUFA.

[Suiren]

@Iguana
That makes sense. Thank your for explaining.
So once all my food is of better quality my sensitive gut should do better transitioning. That is something to look forward too.
The salmon was the really orange looking kind with skin. I ate it off the skin unseasoned and uncooked. My husband had a rendevous with the toilet all night and my throat got really sore and swollen with some cold symptoms. Not sure if it was tasty...it tasted stronger than expected.

Eveheart
I'm not sure you are understanding me correctly. Like I said, I have been wanting to get off of grainfed, and have reduced it, but I was just asking DaBoss88 what he thinks, since he recommended grain fed. I wasn't sure how he meant it.

I have never seen a naturopathic doctor would be nice though. I have seen regular physicians and basically just got test results so I could decide what to do and make sure my strategy was working.

[aLptHW4k4y]

Bio eggs are fine; I buy free-range at a farmers market, but have never had problems with the bio eggs either. But check at the better shops, the supermarket where I buy also has pastured eggs, and actually from two different producers.

If you have problems finding good meat, just eat it less often.. and you don't need to eat tons of meat and protein anyway, especially considering you're a woman at 50kg.

The fear of PUFA in fish regarding the thyroid sounds unfounded to me, but maybe there is some connection, I couldn't say for sure.

[LePatron7]

Raw grass fed is best

Whether raw grain fed is better than seared grass fed, I can't really say.

What problems are you having with raw grass fed.

[Suiren]

jessica

Thank you, that was very detailed. I will try to defrost and then leave it a bit. It makes sense.

I am going to suggest that you work on getting offal instead of carbs and upping fats to keep your weight up.

 
But I just got off of low carb (25-69 g a day halfed because of breastfeeding) because of all the problems I developed on it.
I went LC last year August, I started losing weight and looked really shitty, my skin was not as clear anymore (it was nice and clear at first when switching to a moderate carb Paleo diet), by the end of September I looked like death, my face was sunk in, I had dark undereye bags, I was always tired. I got my period back despite breastfeeding exclusively still (too early imo) and started having PMS.
In October my hair started falling out and the little zits got worse, I started having inflammatory pains, first in my right arm, then all over my body. I also developed joint pains and swollen finger joints.
My acne and PMS worsened with every month. My cycle was long and irregular. I got my period every 40 days instead of every 29, I would only get black sticky blood, instead of regular red blood, it would last for 11 days (my period used to be 3 days long only, 3 days of light bleeding and never the slightest pain or discomfort!!), I would get backaches that felt like back labor and I had to sleep off the pain. I would have very painful cramps too.
In January my labs came back and showed that my liver enzymes were elevated, and my thyroid was not doing well anymore. I was told to start taking levothyroxine for my thyroid. A more detailed test of my liver showed a lot of inflammation and my enzymes were so high, my doctor was considering hospitalizing me if they don't drop soon.

I had started the detox with herbs just a little before that and my skin was improving fast.
I went back on more carbs. From then on every lab result got better. My liver went back to normal, my thyroid was better than ever, my pains went away, the fatigue, my period was almost normal again, I gained weight, my hair loss slowed down, etc. Every problem just gone like that.
I have all the test results and will post them in my journal.

If anyone knows why that happened, please share. From what I have read it either says too low carb is not good for many or going low carb quickly is not good.
Either way, that is how my body responds and it is telling me it is doing better with a moderate amount of carbs right now.

I would feel awesome if it wasn't for my digestive issues and blemishes that are not fully gone (possibly from the digestive issues).

Do you get enough minerals Suiren, I forget, do you eat any seaweeds?  Maine Coast and Frontier Brand are legit and should be added to meals/water.  Kelp is especially good to heal the gut as it is mucilaginous but also has iodine, so it doesn't cause bacteria overgrowth in the intestines.

I love to consider and observe things like face mapping and iridology, whether or not its truly legit I cannot tell.  In myself I do see some coincidences, but they may be just that!  I still think its interesting:)

I don't think I get enough minerals. I even heard that we can't get all the minerals into our diet with food...I eat nori once in a while. Is that okay for seaweed?

The face mapping seems to be true for some, but not everyone with liver issues will break out I think.
It seems to match my past and current problems that are connected to hormones and seem to also worsen my digestive issues in turn. I hate how it is all connected

[Suiren]

Raw grass fed is best

Whether raw grain fed is better than seared grass fed, I can't really say.

What problems are you having with raw grass fed.

It feels very "cold" in my stomach at first and then results into a stomach ache that feels very different from digestive pains (but it was room temp. meat). My whole stomach feels sore, with some sharp pains and a few times I got nauseated.
If i eat small amounts, I get the cold feeling too and some discomfort but it subsides.

[Suiren]

Bio eggs are fine; I buy free-range at a farmers market, but have never had problems with the bio eggs either. But check at the better shops, the supermarket where I buy also has pastured eggs, and actually from two different producers.

If you have problems finding good meat, just eat it less often.. and you don't need to eat tons of meat and protein anyway, especially considering you're a woman at 50kg.

The fear of PUFA in fish regarding the thyroid sounds unfounded to me, but maybe there is some connection, I couldn't say for sure.

How much meat is good then you think? I eat meat daily atm, less than I used to. About 2 filets, or two chicken breasts at day or about 250 grams...something around there.

[jessica]

maybe just try and add more offal anyway, if you can get it.  and think about digestive enzymes and those probiotics I mentioned, if anything they will help you digest the carbohydrates you are eating and hopefully cut down on the gas.  I think if your guts heals enough from this you will be able to slowly taper off carbs without losing weight and also stop supplementing, this could take a year of good steady healing tho.