In my twenties I got really sick; lying in bed for 5 days, bleeding from the lower part of my digestive tract: not pretty. I didn't see a doctor at the time because I had no health insurance, so I have no idea what the diagnosis might have been.
Delirious days later and ten pounds lighter and I was recovered, except for one problem: I had diarrhea for the subsequent 14 years. That's right, 14 years. When I got back into active sports it was a real problem, I had to bring a roll of toilet paper along everywhere, just in case.
Post moved to Substack.
All veggie oils, like corn/canola/palm are bad and why? Also, what do you use as an alternative when you cook?
ReplyDeleteVeggie oils is really too broad a term, "Industrial seed oils" is correct, but gets tiring to say.
ReplyDeleteBasically the distinction is between traditional oils, made using a hand press, and modern oils made using an industrial process.
Palm, coconut, and olive are all traditional oils that can be produced by hand, and have been used safely for thousands of years.
Corn, canola (rapeseed), cottonseed, etc, are produced using industrial equiptment, and contain high quantities of linoleic acid.
Stephen Guyenet has a great post on corn oil here:
http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.com/2010/02/dissolve-away-those-pesky-bones-with.html
His entire collection on the topic is here:
http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.com/search?q=industrial+seed+oils
My family now cooks with olive oil, butter, lard, beef tallow, and occasionally coconut.
There's a brand at my local Whole Foods called Spectrum which makes cooking oils. What's interesting is that for each kind of oil is says on the bottle "Refined" or "Unrefined". Some of the oils (like coconut oil) can be either.
ReplyDeleteI'm starting to see this on other cooking oils as well.
http://www.spectrumorganics.com/?id=6
Unrefined toxic oils are no better than refined toxic oils. Given the additional plant toxins that can be concentrated in them, they may be worse.
ReplyDeleteJust remember, poison ivy is "natural", and "unrefined". I'd still advice against eating it.
I don't know how you could run with the condition you describe. Actually, I don't know how you were able to sit up in bed, much less run. I've just come out of a second attack of diverticulitis in the last six weeks and the ER doctor's call for morphine sounds very familiar. When it happened with me, I refused it. The pain is awful, but morphine? Isn't that what they use now to slowly steal the life out of dying people in the Hospice situations? I refused it on that principle alone. When I'm ready to go, I want to go with all my faculties, not stealthily and in a stupor. I want everyone to know I'm dying, including me.
ReplyDeleteLuckily, I've not had any bleeding. The diarreah sounds awfully familiar, though. It's distressing when one must find excuse after excuse to run out of company meetings. Eventually, one runs out of credibility.
Lately, I've been cooking with avocado oil, using it for salads and most everything else. I started with coconut oil, but read somewhere it breaks down when cooking at high temperatures and that its chemical breakdown is equally as bad as olive oil when it too breaks down at high temperatures, so I opted for avocado oil with its chemical composition that allows it to be used at high temperatures without breaking down. It's expensive, though.
My most recent bout with diverticulitis has subsided; of course, with large quantities of antibiotics. I was told to eat chicken and pasta, to stay away from salads and all vegetables for at least four to six weeks after the end of the episode. The doctor claims I had a second attack immediately after the first a month ago because I started to eat leafy vegetables and salads too soon after the symptoms of the first attack subsided. So far, sticking to the chicken and pasta has worked for me, but I also eat saltine crackers. This indicates to me that I'm not Celiac. Were I suffering from the disease, my intestinal tract would not have returned to normal.
What do you think? Are our conditions similar or is the only similarity that we were both suffering from gastrointestinal issues that appear to be but are not similarly related?
"This indicates to me that I'm not Celiac. Were I suffering from the disease, my intestinal tract would not have returned to normal."
ReplyDeleteMy docs told me to eat a 'low residue' diet, which is what yours sounds like. This included white bread, and wheat bread. My condition also improved short-term after antibiotics, but it kept coming back.
Now, I'm two years in to my new diet. I get symptoms reliably after eating wheat or seed oils, or food that contains a lot of seed oils (like conventional chicken, for instance). My last test was two months ago. I ate some pork with soy sauce (most soy sauce contains wheat). Within 45 minutes I was in the bathroom, it took several hours to get back to normal.
I don't know if I would progress to celiac symptoms or not. I don't plan on finding out. Despite what your doctor will tell you, there are people who don't ever get the classic symptoms of celiac until after they've come down with other symptoms, if ever. (I suggest reading up on Alessio Fasano's research for more.)
I've also encountered several other people with diverticulitis whose reactions to a wheat-free diet are identical to mine. I suggest giving it a shot, and ignore your doc's dietary advice. It's most likely worthless. I'll be posting a couple more diverticulitis posts here soon, keep an eye on the blog. Hopefully you'll find it helpful.
Good luck, FGS.
This digestive issue can be quite painful
ReplyDelete