Substantial improvement with (strange) dietary adjustments

[Wonkmonk]

I always thought peanut butter makes me worse, but that's maybe not the case. Instead, what probably made me worse is the 1-2 tablespoons of flaxseed oil that I used to make the peanut butter in my food processor. That's up to 10 grams of omega-3 fatty acids, which I am very certain are to blame (I recently checked it again with walnuts).

I might re-check all low-omega-3-low-oxalate nut butters. Maybe I can eat a lot more nuts than I thought. Sadly, tahin/sesame is out because of the high oxalate content.

 

[Wishful]

@Wonkmonk , keep in mind that it could be worse. What if ME made us have these unexpected responses to foods, but they changed daily or even hourly?

 

[Dysfunkion]

I always thought peanut butter makes me worse, but that's maybe not the case. Instead, what probably made me worse is the 1-2 tablespoons of flaxseed oil that I used to make the peanut butter in my food processor. That's up to 10 grams of omega-3 fatty acids, which I am very certain are to blame (I recently checked it again with walnuts).

I might re-check all low-omega-3-low-oxalate nut butters. Maybe I can eat a lot more nuts than I thought. Sadly, tahin/sesame is out because of the high oxalate content.

I react horribly to flaxseed, I always I get instantly fatigued and brain fogged though it doesn't come with the lead legs thing. Not sure what I'm reacting to in them, it's specifically flax seeds. Peanuts and chia seeds are fine. I have a mild immune reaction to cashews but it's not the same thing as the flaxseed fatigue thing. Not sure what it could be.

So I found a really weird one tonight that is a repeatable. Red tuna specifically makes me a million times better, I wasn't really sure if it was just me the last time I had it but it happened again tonight when I had it cooked into some veggies. I had swordfish the other night and it was just some meat, didn't do anything special. Now I'm going to try all fish I can from the store cooked in the same way to see if I can find any fish that do the same thing. I've eat large amounts of other fish and seafood together before but this doesn't happen, I just get more full and groggy. Probably one of the weirder food things I stumbled upon.

 

[Wonkmonk]

@Wonkmonk , keep in mind that it could be worse. What if ME made us have these unexpected responses to foods, but they changed daily or even hourly?

I have thought about this, but it appears to me that - so far - at least for me, the effects seem to be remarkably stable. I think the variability in symptoms from foods is because of time lagging effects, meal and nutrient mixing and repeat consumption effects. I think that's why it sometimes looks like it's unpredictable, but it looks to me like when I have fully understood the effects, it will be stable.

 

[Wonkmonk]

I have been thinking about the repeat consumption effect and it seems there are a variety of compounds (I mentioned TMAO before) that are only produced in the microbiome and only after repeat consumption of certain foods. Today, I found another one: Equol.

Source:

The woman in this study did not produce any equol, but after repeat consumtion of soy (from which equol is made), she produced it. It may even be equol or something like that, because I get pronounced symptoms from soy yoghurt and tofu, and also from other legumes.

That said, I don't think it's just one compound, because complete elimination of legumes did not lead to remission. For some reason, it's highly complicated with may foods causing the reactions under many different circumstances.

I have seen pronounced repeat consumption effects in:
*Legumes
*Kale
*Avocados

That means I can usually eat these once without any worsening, but severe worsening if I consume them 3-4 times over a couple of days. That would be consistent with the microbiome starting to produce a harmful compound after a few meals of a certain food and then stops again once it's discontinued.

 

[Wonkmonk]

I also have more on glycoalkaloids in nightshades, mainly potatos. I tried to eat a larger amount of store-bought, oven baked french fries several times (1-2 pounds) as a provocation test and see what happens. The result was always the same: No symptoms whatsoever for several hours, then 4-6 days of strong symptoms, espcially headaches, brain fog and fatigue were much worse each time.

I think it has to be the glycoalkaloids. Now I found a study that says glycoalkaloids in higher doses take up to half a day to reach maximum serum concentration (so probably a day or more for complete uptake) and then, half life is about two days. That would fit with a symptom worsening of 4-6 days.

https://www.researchgate.net/figure...-chaconine-in-human-volunteers_tbl3_343587180

I also made the observation that I can eat a lot more potatos in the fall (starting in late September) than in the spring and summer. Early harvest-potatos in the spring and summer are known to have much higher glycoalkaloid levels, like several fold higher.

I also seem to tolerate home-cooked potatos better than store-bought fries. I suspect that the fries are produced from older potatos who may have germinated already, which also increases the glycoalkaloid content.

I think I still can eat potatos, but only from October to February, non-germinated and home-prepared ones. Sadly there is no way to remove or destroy glycoalkaloids through cooking or frying.

 

[Wishful]

I think I still can eat potatos, but only from October to February,

Interesting. My tolerance for potatoes comes and goes, but I hadn't thought about a link to time of year. I'll keep that in mind.

 

[Dysfunkion]

I haven't touched sweet potato in months so I dont know how I'd react to them now but I wanna check that again soon (they always gave me more brain fog and a slight increase in that brain burn thing that was better or worse depending on how my head felt before). I dont have any immediate weird reaction to potato but now I want to eat a bunch of fries and see if in 4-6 days I solidly get hit with a wave of symptoms.