Vitamin deficiency

[1iora]

Hello!

I'm on day 7 of my Whole 30. Everything's fine. I have cravings in the late evenings but more for dairy than anything else. I was already paleo and never had a problem with carbs (sometimes I want a chocolate cookie but I never crave bread. My boyfriend keeps bagels in the house and it's alright).

But... well everything is not really fine. I developed a headache, a bad mood (not from low carbs, I haven't been watching them, was already low carb, and have been eating decent amounts of fruit), and couldn't sleep starting on day 5 and continuing on. I also got this rash back that I had always thought was caused by gluten (it always comes when I'm not eating paleo). But I haven't had any gluten. So I tried everything. When I noticed it starting up I cut out coconut in case I was allergic. On the 2nd day it was worse-than-ever, I put on an antibiotic cream, a hydrocortisone cream, even an antifungal. I even took a leftover prednisone pill. It's no better. In the past it would be a small crack in the corner of my mouth and then a red mark radiating down from that area. Now it's all the way along my jaw and bumpy.

I think that it's a vitamin B deficiency. Probably riboflavin, from my google searches. I know my family has vitamin B issues (a cousin has panic attacks unless he takes a supplement) and I know that when I went paleo I was able to quit taking my liquid B supplement (which I previously took to prevent mouth sores). I took it several times yesterday and today and there was not even a change in color to my urine, which is what I would normally expect from excess intake of B.

The only big difference between the way I normally eat and the Whole 30 is the cut out of natural sugars and the cut out of dairy. I was eating a lot of dairy before. Raw cheese, grass fed sour cream, grass fed butter, homemade ice cream (I don't really enjoy milk so I don't drink it).

Do I add the dairy back? Am I a poopyhead/quitter? Will it mess with my hormones? I've been appreciating the hormonal balancing and don't want to do anything to mess it up. I care more about getting adequate nutrition and my body is definitely craving cheddar and sour cream, but at the same time the whole reason I'm doing the Whole30 is for hormone regulation.

Attached is a photo though it's probably hard to tell from.

[Tom Denham]

I'm sorry you are having a problem. I don't know why you have developed a sore spot on your face, but I don't think you would develop a vitamin deficiency in 7 days even if you didn't eat at all, at least nothing serious enough to cause problems. And a good Whole30 approach to eating is much more nutrient/vitamin rich than conventional approaches to eating. You just don't get anything from dairy that you can't get plenty of from meat and veggies.

If you have been on a liquid vitamin B supplement before with good effect, I would try taking it again now.

If you want some help assessing your diet, we would need to see a log of your food for a few days to see what you are eating.

[1iora]

Thanks!

I've been eating pretty well rounded. I know most people wouldn't have such an issue so fast, but I think I'm genetically predisposed to not process the B vitamins well based on my past experience on the SAD diet and on my cousin's issues when he doesn't take supplements.

I should also add I've been paleo since around last April.

I've had a little grass fed ground beef, pastured pork, pastured eggs, an entire trout (so 2 meals), free range chicken leg quarters (probably 5 meals of this, assuming I've been eating 2 or 3 meals a day in general), sausage (venison, pork, spices, sweetened with cherry) for meats. Veggies and fruits: Tomatoes, bell peppers (some from my garden, some from the store), onion, carrots (from my garden), green beans, broccoli, lettuce (bibb from my garden and romaine from the store), herbs (some from garden some from store), apples, a banana, a mango, some strawberries, a few blueberries. For fats I've been using ghee to cook in and then olive or coconut oil for cold items. For spices I've used sea salt, fresh ground black pepper, a tinnnnnyyyy bit of cayenne, lime juice, and a tich of garlic. I've also had coconut butter/manna and a little almond butter, no more than normal of either, and not much. I eat when hungry, stop when full, and don't have to force myself to eat any of the meat or vegetables listed.

Basically, I'm eating the same as I eat 80% of the time with the exception of the lack of dairy and natural sugars, and doing it 100% of the time instead.

[Renee Lee]

Where are you at with dark leafy greens like kale, chard, etc? You didn't list them, but they're definitely nutritional powerhouses if you suspect a deficiency. The other thing you should be eating to cover your bases is liver.

I'm really stumped to think of any single thing in dairy that you wouldn't be getting from a well rounded Paleo diet.

[1iora]

I think it's a weird metabolization/synthesis thing.

I really don't like dark leafy greens and so don't have a big variety or intake of them, but I do eat (I forgot to mention) Bubbie's or homemade sauerkraut (and on that note, kombucha), spinach hidden in other foods semi-regularly, and had collard greens last week. I also forgot I've been eating dulse (which I think is pretty equivalent to dark leafy greens?) and mushrooms.

If you really think that'll help, I'll quit taking the B supplement again, go to the market for dark greens (and hide them in meatloaf or under poached eggs with ghee-based hollandaise), and give it a week to see what happens. It just stinks because the split in my lip bleeds when I open my mouth too far, and the rash is embarrassing. Thank goodness for long hair!

[Flynn]

I'm sorry this happened, skin rashes are the worst, especially on the face! Do you have a doctor you can go to? It may be helpful to have a professional look at it instead of making yourself crazy trying to guess They can test you for vitamin levels as well as possible allergies or dermatitis from some irritant like lip balm or toothpaste.

One other thing...a lot of people get mouth irritation from mangoes, especially if you get any peel...the same thing that is in poison ivy is in them and it causes dermatitis in some people. Good luck!

[1iora]

I didn't know that about mangos! That's really interesting, and I really wish that was it. But I don't get poison ivy (suspected when I crawled through it as an infant, and confirmed when I laid down in a patch in the middle of a roadtrip this summer), and it started (though wasn't as big) before the mango-ingestion. I definitely got some peel. As in, it wasn't quite ripe so I didn't cut it all out and instead used my teeth to scrape it clean. Your other suggestions are great as well. I did have the vitamin levels tested a while back.

I wondered in the past when I got it (it was always very small though) if it was caused by my toothpaste, but it happens no matter if I'm using crest or, more recently, Tom's. I suppose they could share a common ingredient. I'll look into that further. It could be that there was just some left on my face overnight. I'll put some on my arm overnight and see what happens =) I don't put anything else on my face, so it'd likely be that if it's topical dermatitis.

I took the B supplement two days (because it's the sublingual kind it has sorbitol sugar in it, but sublingual is much more effective than pills, and it had to be done. Not sure if you all would consider that requiring a restart, but I'm not concerned past the fact that it was contrary to the letter of the plan). My lip is no longer cracked and the rash seems to be a little bit better.

If it's not the toothpaste thing I guess we'll see if it comes back in another week! I'm wondering if my gut was slightly damaged from my holiday and finals indulgences (pretty much the entire month of December I was really bad at paleo) and that caused problems with the B. Leaky gut or whatnot.

[Tom Denham]

I took the B supplement two days (because it's the sublingual kind it has sorbitol sugar in it, but sublingual is much more effective than pills, and it had to be done. Not sure if you all would consider that requiring a restart, but I'm not concerned past the fact that it was contrary to the letter of the plan). My lip is no longer cracked and the rash seems to be a little bit better.

In your case, I would not worry about the sorbitol in your vitamins.