More Sensitive Post Whole30? Talking to your PCP?

[CpBatchelor]

So.. Whole30 ended on 2/20... Wine was on 2/21 that went well... Grains on 2/24.. Kinda messed that day up. Had steel cut oats for Meal 1 which were technically gluten free... Well within 2 hrs felt horrible. Headache, body ache, ear hurt, stuffy, warmth/rash around my mouth... Meal 2 had sourdough roll from whole foods. No headache after but still did not feel well.

 

Yesterday (2/23) felt better did not ache body wise, ear pain went away, no headache. Woowhoo... 

 

Today (2/24) woke up to a swollen left tonsil.. and a tonsil stone... They had gone away during my Whole30 which I was ecstatic about as I had battled them and the bad breath they caused for a while... My PCP always chocked it up to allergies of a viral bug going around... 

 

Upon discovering the tonsil stone and swollen tonsil this morning I scheduled an appointment with my PCP for 3/24 to discuss what I have discovered so far. I will do another attempt of oats before the appointment. 

 

However, to me it sounds weird that I am more sensitive to oats compared to gluten. It is also weird that my body reacted in a more extreme way than it ever had before. I ate 1/4 cup of dry steel cut oats in my overnight oatmeal 5 days a week, so yeah they were not dry by the time I ate them. And sometimes steel cut oatmeal on the weekend.

 

So, is it normal for your body to have a more extreme reaction post whole30 since you had not consumed it for 30 day?

 

Also, what is the best way to approach talking to a weary PCP? My appointment is not until 3/24 (yeah he only sees patients on Monday and Wed.. Reintro isnt 100% over until 17th). I have not been tested for food allergies/sensitivities before and am not sure the best way to have the right conversation? I would like to be tested for various food sensitives/allergies but I suspect insurance will not cover this without PCP approval. 

 

[Carlaccini]

Hi There

 

Yes it is definitely possible to be more sensitive to foods after a whole 30.  I believe it was Pysibeth who best described it as such:

 

Think about someone poking you in the arm for years.  It gets so repetitive that you don't notice it anymore.  You take away that poking for 30 days then on day 31 that person starts poking you again - it's going to hurt - right?  That's what foods are doing to you.  This is the whole purpose of the whole 30 to find out what foods bother you.

 

That being said from a personal experience - I cannot handle gluten free grains either.  They wreak havoc on my system.  White rice is about the only one I can handle decently well.  The gluten grains are much more subtle and tolerable - but they build up in my system and will give me a migraine as part of my period.  (it took me months to figure this one out!) My stomach can tolerate gluten grains with large amounts of fats - butter or good quality oils (forget anything baked with anything other than butter.  If shortening is listed on the ingriedients list I need to keep well away)  Obviously because of the migraine thing I like to keep well away from gluten grains but every so often I will indulge a little.

[Tom Denham]

Your body loses some of its defenses against irritating foods when you do a Whole30, so you often feel the problems more sharply when you reintroduce. If you keep eating the offending food, your body will build up defenses again and dull your awareness of the problems it is causing.

 

You are testing for food sensitivities/allergies now. The tests that your doctor can run are not better. in fact, many people get the results of such tests and are told they are not sensitive when they really are. I mean really, you stop eating oats, you feel good. You eat oats, you feel sick. If that happens once, you might think you just got sick the day you ate oats, but if you try the test again and get sick again, oats are looking like they may be a problem for you. 

[CpBatchelor]

Hi There

 

Yes it is definitely possible to be more sensitive to foods after a whole 30.  I believe it was Pysibeth who best described it as such:

 

Think about someone poking you in the arm for years.  It gets so repetitive that you don't notice it anymore.  You take away that poking for 30 days then on day 31 that person starts poking you again - it's going to hurt - right?  That's what foods are doing to you.  This is the whole purpose of the whole 30 to find out what foods bother you.

 

That being said from a personal experience - I cannot handle gluten free grains either.  They wreak havoc on my system.  White rice is about the only one I can handle decently well.  The gluten grains are much more subtle and tolerable - but they build up in my system and will give me a migraine as part of my period.  (it took me months to figure this one out!) My stomach can tolerate gluten grains with large amounts of fats - butter or good quality oils (forget anything baked with anything other than butter.  If shortening is listed on the ingriedients list I need to keep well away)  Obviously because of the migraine thing I like to keep well away from gluten grains but every so often I will indulge a little.

 

That makes me feel better knowing I am not the only one.. I did some online research today and it was interesting to read up on the oats. However, it seems more common to have a gluten intolerance as well. But since I botched Monday by doing the steel cut oats and gluten sourdough bread I am not sure how I will react to gluten alone. Should be interesting to try it out next week LOL

 

 

Your body loses some of its defenses against irritating foods when you do a Whole30, so you often feel the problems more sharply when you reintroduce. If you keep eating the offending food, your body will build up defenses again and dull your awareness of the problems it is causing.

 

You are testing for food sensitivities/allergies now. The tests that your doctor can run are not better. in fact, many people get the results of such tests and are told they are not sensitive when they really are. I mean really, you stop eating oats, you feel good. You eat oats, you feel sick. If that happens once, you might think you just got sick the day you ate oats, but if you try the test again and get sick again, oats are looking like they may be a problem for you. 

 

That makes sense! Thank you! The end of next month was the first available appointment at my PCP (one of the many reason I am thinking about looking for a new one) so I still have time to cancel. I already have a dye allergy (pink and red) and was sensitive to citric acid as a kid. Mom has food sensitivies (starts her whole30 next month) and sister has allergies to many things mostly airborne items and gets shots twice a week. So part of me would like to know what all I react to without trial and error but sadly I know it is not that simple. So I am unsure today if spending the money at the Dr. would be worth it. But, I am going to attempt oats again before the appointment if I decide to keep it. 

[praxisproject]

I hope your gluten reintro isn't too yukky. I too can't handle oats either At first I thought it was cross-contamination, but it looks more like "coatings".

 

I don't tolerate gluten (worst), as well as anything on this list http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prolamin (many of these are "gluten free").

I couldn't complete the coeliac test, I couldn't complete the "gluten challenge".

 

Rice is the least worst, but brown rice or whole rice is always worse than white rice (which has the coating removed). Malaysian "red" rice is better than brown rice, but worse than white rice. I generally avoid most pseudograins too, but they're generally just "less well" rather than make me feel sick, I haven't done a lot of specific experimenting with individual pseudograins.

 

It's not all bad though, when I got rid of the grains, I got rid of a bunch of ongoing health problems

[Khhdesign]

I have food allergies and have done testing...they always seem to come up with something that I'm deathly allergic to. Although I either never eat it so it can't be causing my reactions, or I eat it all the time and don't have reactions.

The point is that your body is the best test there is. If you eat something and have a reaction, test it one or two more times to be sure (unless it's a life-threatening reaction). If you get the same result, there's your answer.

Also, keep in mind that reactions can change over time, so it's worth doing trying foods again every so often if you really miss them, again unless it's life-threatening. People ask me if I miss cheese...not enough to stop breathing.

[praxisproject]

lol now I laugh when people say things like "I bet you're really missing X right now" when they're stuffing their face with a gluten-filled muffin or something.

 

They're quite shocked when I say no.

 

I'd much rather feel good, I have no desire to feel like crap. My brain now associates the two things, so I don't yearn for anything that makes me feel sick.

 

Totally agree with reactions over time, and also sometimes the devil is really in the details. Some formats of the same triggers are much worse than others. Freshly made restaurant white corn tortilla chips were totally different (felt fine) to yellow ones from the store (made me very very sick).