That's also what I observe and it's so strange. Some of the best foods for me are white bread and white pasta. The really gut-healthy stuff is almost invariably bad.
I thought about this, too. My theory is that it is an immune reaction. A dormant intracellular virus (Dr. Lerner's theory) gets reactivated by some compounds in the diet (or produced in the microbiome) and the immune reaction to it causes the symptoms. The virus may also change all sorts of things in the cells and the body including the gut-brain communications system. In fact that seems likely given how many symptoms all seem to be related to the gut (foods) and the brain (e.g., brain fog).
The symptoms appeared after repeat-consumption of 125g of roasted macadamia nuts on on three consecutive days together with high fermentable fiber foods (e.g., fruit, lentils - I know you can't do those -, avocados).
Sad to hear that night went so terribly. Does activated charcoal generally help you with symptoms or bluts the effects of foods that would otherwise cause more problems? I never thought of that, it's a really novel idea that maybe I should try.
I first thought it might be something like TMAO, but I no longer think so because I couldn't definitely establish the link between symptoms and choline.
Even if you bombed it with antibiotics and succeeded in eradicating it, it would return, because it is ubiquitous in the foods we eat and our environment. It would always return. That's why I think a microbiome transplant wouldn't help me (or might even make things worse).
"I thought about this, too. My theory is that it is an immune reaction. A dormant intracellular virus (Dr. Lerner's theory) gets reactivated by some compounds in the diet (or produced in the microbiome) and the immune reaction to it causes the symptoms. The virus may also change all sorts of things in the cells and the body including the gut-brain communications system. In fact that seems likely given how many symptoms all seem to be related to the gut (foods) and the brain (e.g., brain fog)."
I feel like so far this may be right on point. Things I do know is it is definitely immune focused, these reactions besides some bloating now and then don't seem to physically do much in there, the reaction goes right to my head. I can modulate symptoms a bit with some unpredictability with nicotine so I suspect through the vagus nerve as a main route but it's not the whole picture at all.
"Sad to hear that night went so terribly. Does activated charcoal generally help you with symptoms or bluts the effects of foods that would otherwise cause more problems? I never thought of that, it's a really novel idea that maybe I should try. "
It can blunt the worst of the reactions enough for me to at least make it through less harmed but not completely stop them and then when it's out of my system it's back to business like usual in there. Activated charcoal though tends to make me really tired and blank minded as its passing through so I only use it when I absolutely have to immediately after accidentally consuming something very bad. Which will almost always be accidental since I know well what the worst triggers for what are at least.
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The next day after a bowl of peas I felt very head heavy, irritated, and dragging at work. Nothing like the reactions to other foods with the whole face burning thing, flushing, and other assorted more traditionally viral infection like symptoms. Iy may help build on those other reactions if the peas are present in any significant amount but they definitely aren't the main culprits here in what is feeding what in there to produce what is being produced to do what happens.
Interesting experience though from this weekend. On friday I went to some fried seafood place and ate a ton of the junk. Afterwards I obviously despite the sickly pleasure of it felt quite ill, almost sedated or drunken in feeling BUT the whole reaction with the facial burning and other traditional viral symptoms didn't appear besides nasal congestion and drip. In facr the next day despite how sad my digestive system was, I felt nothing of the sort in my head neurologically. My senses were also much clearer overall and I had more drive to do things hobby related and such. I also through this managed to trigger diarrhea and like last time I managed to do that which is extremely rare, I also didn't have the symptoms temporarily. Though they have come slowly crawling back as things started getting more in order again. Maybe the food I ate temporarily triggered a reaction that when the conditions are met for diarrhea in general it halts the process that is doing what I don't want but in a very unproductive way. Could also be that a lot of grease in the intestines blocks the byproduct of the bacteria responsible too. I'm not sure if post that reaction it altered my reactions to my typical foods as I haven't eaten too much since it happened though but I will tonight.
What I'm going to do next is the experiments with my usual dinner and microwaving it after letting it cool from cooking normally. I don't know how I'm gonna go about it but it might be a couple weeks minimum before I have much to say on how that went. Obviously I don't want to keep microwaving food but this is just to find more out about what could possibly be going on here. What is clear from all the individual symptom windows is that it appears everything is still there and in working order with my receptors and all BUT the immune response to what is being produced in the guts by everything through like you said some possible viral mechanism can partially block and lead to other weird cellular changes causing what is happening. If this gets completely out of control like I imagined happened over last Summer then I can crash so badly that I can become homebound (I was able to move and work but felt like an 80 year old and barely made it through every day, any worse and I would have been totally bed bound) and essentially shut down almost my entire nervous system which had to have been what happened as I had just about no sensation in my skin or reactions to much of anything, absolutely no sexuality either or reactions to anything there either. Just total nothingness and a struggle for my body to even retain basic functions with nothing the doctors could find from besides some elevated liver enzymes as usual throughout my whole life. I actually think we can apply part of this theory to PFS/PSSD/other post drug disorders as getting PFS from saw palmetto is what triggered this to get out of control. It also interestingly triggered a full shift towards bloating and constipation as opposed to diarrhea which is what you'll also see in one of the cases of someone who got the same thing as me but far less severe on that Moral Medicine interview with someone else who was also a saw palmetto victim.
edit - Why does coffee need to be so volatile with me when it comes to flavors? (may even just be the brand idk) I picked up Peets vanilla ground as I wanted to try it and thought I'd be fine since Starbucks ground vanilla is fine with me as well as their caramel flavor. Almost instantly more inflamed head feeling and a bunch of nasal drip with a little more bloating. I have a whole bag of vanilla hazelnut coming from another brand, I pray I'm ok with that one, thankfully it was a gift with a couple other flavors in the package. Vanilla is bad sometimes but something like artificial cinnamon caramel toffee swirl chocolate crunch is just fine with my body. Gotta laugh sometimes at this nonsense.
edit 11/11 - It's an early update but I wanted to note it. Microwaving the food reduced the main reaction I get to the food in terms of immune response but gave me increased brain fog and the next day my senses were clearer and I had less of an environmental reaction to my workplace with includes the cross over brain burning thing to a smaller degree than what consuming something will. Overall today mentally I felt a bit more inflamed and irritable, somewhat more anhedonic. Things that normally wouldn't make me irritated were a bit more infuriating today. Was also dragging myself more through the work day. Had a bit more ear pressure in my worse ear too on and off but nothing horrible. All of this but with less immune over response, strange. A bit bloated today but nothing severe. Maybe eating the food like that killed off a bunch of the bacteria responsible, maybe it changed some immune parameters. I just don't know. What may point me in part of the right direction is the immune response that typically went through my forehead with the brain burning thing this time only reached my cheeks and a bit of eyes with the brain burning thing which may imply doing so reduced the load of something being produced or killed off some of something producing it temporarily reducing its numbers. Tonight I will do the same thing but normally and see what happens to compare and see if anything changed or it changes something else. After that I'll dinner fast for a couple days and give my everything a break.
