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Hi everyone!
So, as I approach the 2 year mark I am still struggling with food! I know not everyone has gut issues/pain, but I have done a lot of searching and digging and finally found a site that talks about fructose malabsorption! I about feel off my chair! I have gone to specialists and gone through all my symptoms, main aggrivators, etc, etc and after an upper GI scope found the candida overgrowth! The Dr. gave me diflucan, protonix, and carafate and sent me on my marry way! I said I didnt feel better with the meds, he was less than sympathetic wouldn't listen to me, so I left the office mad and full of questions and feeling rather hopeless! I quickly started the candida diet and shorthly there after started treatment with Dr. B! Of course she made a few minor adjustments to my diet and started the supplements! After 2 years, I have just cut more and more food trying to figure this out! (like Deir says "doing detective work") Thanks for all your encouragment btw Deir!:) We have made progress, don't get me wrong, but I am almost to the point of fear when it comes to food! I eat the same food day in and day out and I think Dr. B is starting to worry about lack of nutrients and wants me to try and push through some pain and eat these more aggrivating foods every other day! I guess the whole point of this is has anyone else heard of/dealt with fructose malabsorption, and did it improve through treatment? I know the goal is to be able to eat "normally" again, but didn't know after my gut heals will I be able to eat foods higher in fructose (apples, brown rice, garlic, etc)? I am hoping/thinking yes, but want some reassurance! At this point I am afraid to eat food that is aggrivating and only going to make things worse! Thank you, for any and all suggestions!
Ugh. This is so hard. Could
Ugh. This is so hard. Could you contact the woman that runs the blog below (Gapsdietjourney)? The GAPS protocol is not necessarily right for ICers, but it may give you another take on things. In GAPS they cut out the double sugars (e.g. potatos) and grains. But they add in a lot of other stuff like bone broth which Dr. B does not think is good for IC. But I thought you might want to read anyway to get another perspective.
http://gapsdietjourney.com/2012/09/fructose-malabsorption/
Here is a quote from Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride from the FAQs on her GAPS website:
37. Does the GAPS diet heal fructose malabsorption, or would the GAPS diet need to be modified?
This condition is part of GAP Syndrome as well as lactose intolerance and most-sugars-intolerance. Why? Because in people with abnormal gut flora enterocytes (the cells which line the gut) are damaged and unable to fulfil their main function: digestion of sugars. The fructose malabsorption became prominent since high-fructose corn syrup came on the market: this is a processed sweetener which is extremely harmful to health. But as it is cheap to produce and very profitable for the manufacturers many processed foods and drinks are sweetened with it nowadays. GAPS diet removes double sugars and there is no need to modify it. If you have been specifically diagnosed with fructose malabsorption, you may want to avoid fruit and honey initially. As you go through the GAPS Introduction Diet, your enterocytes will start recovering and you will be able to re-introduce honey and fruit.
You can read the original post here: http://gapsdietjourney.com/2012/09/fructose-malabsorption/
If we don't excel at health, the only other option is disease.
Oh, thank you Mimi!:) This is
Oh, thank you Mimi!:) This is great info! It is just so hard to see the light at the end of this tunnel sometimes! Yeah, I couldn't figure out why brown rice was causing me such troubles, but then read was high in fructose, but not white rice! Who would have thought?! I am not going to switch to white rice at this point, I feel better without grains! I don't get that awful bloating stomach, or achy joints as much when I remove them! I get the same thing with beans, but Dr. B says need to push through some of that to get the nutrients, but at least not nearly the pain and indigestion, but makes sense since beans are an ok food in small quantities on the low fructose diet! Healing the gut is such a complex thing, yikes! Thanks again Mimi!:)
Oy, poor thing. I was afraid
Oy, poor thing. I was afraid to eat for months before starting the diet, and really up until about a week ago (when I accidentally left powdered garlic out of my meals and my GERD suddenly disappeared!) eating was so a terrifying experience. I knew it was going to be painful to digest, just not to what extent.
When I decided to move back to the States, that's where I was at. Every meal would cause me to get so dizzy I'd feel like I was going to fall down, give me terrible cramps, or make me throw up... oh or make me have terrible coughing fits. I'm so afraid of adding food back into my diet and whether or not I'll actually be able to digest it.
I THINK my grandfather's partner has fructose malabsorption... I never speak to her and am not close to her at all, but I'll see if I can glean some information from her and report back to you ha!
Keep on keeping on girl! You can do this. It sounds like a very difficult journey for you, but don't give in!
Love and healing,
Hannah