Introducing my "Squirrely Diet" - Vegan Keto? is that even possible? & an overview of the special diet books I've read recently.

Healing IBS/colitis, mental symptoms, or other gut problems, may need a special diet to heal; some of the diets may also help with weight loss and improving general health.

Summary thoughts after reading a bunch of special diet books.

Paleo - what did our ancestors eat in prehistoric times? All usable parts of wild game, non-starchy veggies and a few tuberous root vegetables, and berries.

The Paleo Answer by Loren Cordain does provide a lot of answers with solid academic referencing and discusses the science in an approachable manner. (Thriftbooks.com) It is a follow up to his book The Paleo Diet (thriftbooks.com) which likely led to a lot of ‘trolling’ from all levels. The Paleo Answer is answering a lot of frequently asked questions or challenges. He also makes the very valid point or return question - Why does the mainstream dietetic and medical systems call the Paleo diet a fad or too restrictive since it knocks out whole food groups, yet promote Vegetarian and Vegan diets as being healthful for all age groups and conditions . . . when that is really not true and they also are knocking out whole food groups.

Very true. In my own autoimmune enforced ‘vegan’ style diet, I have had a very hard time getting enough protein and other nutrients and I did bump up painfully with oxalate excess and sulfur and salicylate sensitivities. Phenol and amine sensitivity also seem to be problems for me and that includes the histamine problem but also tyramine headaches from aged cheeses or wine.

Eating is so complex, how did anyone survive? Redundancies in the chemical pathways - nature provides a lot of work-arounds so if one thing is missing, another chemical path might substitute.

Plant lectins are hard on our gut - how the food is prepared would have helped though. Fermentation would have helped.

Loren Cordain gives a good explanation about gluten, dairy and soy lectins and leaky gut, and also informs us about legume lectins. Presoaking and then sprouting the beans might help but the kidney bean shaped, standard, beans, all have a pretty bad lectin that can add to leaky gut issues and then be harmful to blood cells after passing through a leaky gut wall.

His reasoning for not worrying about total saturated fat content in a diet does not address my reason for limiting it to 10% or less of Total calories in the diet. He discusses heart disease but my concern is more towards cancer and mitochondrial dysfunction. An excess of Saturated fats in the diet balance chronically would be inhibiting the more efficient oxygen using Citric Acid/Kreb’s Cycle. Saturated fats will signal the mitochondria to switch to less efficient fat burning methods by inhibiting Acetyl CoA production - needed as the initial substrate for the Citric Acid Cycle.

That is really my only quibble with The Paleo Answer - it is a very well researched and well written book that gets into the Why? Why should we bother changing our eating habits? What is the scientific reasoning? Cramming info and a diet/recipes into one book doesn’t really fit. This book is the Why? without the How? of recipes and other support info for meal planning. See his first book The Paleo Diet for that info.

Very restricted grains, beans and seeds is a basic principle of the diet. Eating bone broth and organ meats and chicken or fish skin and egg yolk is an important part of the diet - not just steak and bacon. Our paleolithic ancestors were more likely to have a sardine equivalent meal than to have a high fat steak. Wild animals are leaner as they have to work harder for their living than pasture protected animals.

Starch or grain restricted diets for gut and mental health

The Gut and Psychology Syndrome (GAPS) Diet (thriftbooks.com) and the Specific Carbohydrate Diet (thriftbooks.com) also limit grains and starches a lot because an unhealthy gut lining will be unable to digest disaccharides due to degeneration of the digestive enzyme producing microvilli. (recent post 1, post 2) Once the gut lining is healed then some of the foods or many of them might be able to be added back, but expect that to take a couple years maybe. The Low FODMAPs diet gets even more specific in limiting starchy or fiber rich vegetables, grains and other foods. Gassy bloating or diarrhea/constipation might be symptoms that the diets might help with. Mental illness symptoms or anxiety/depression might also be helped as an unhealthy gut is not supporting the brain with positive mood chemicals and likely is sharing bacterial endotoxins that can cause inflammation and mental symptoms.

• This post includes info about the GAPS diet/book and has cute cartoons from it of our enterocytes and their microvilli: Healthy gut lining is needed for starch & protein digestion. Poor starch digestion -> bacterial overgrowth; Also, methylation needs molybdenum, manganese & magnesium - the 3Ms. GAPS diet - Gut and Psychology Syndrome by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride, MD, MMEDSci in neurology and nutrition; and Bridget Briggs, MD & Chris Masterjohn, PhD on methylation. Molybdenum food sources.(Substack)

• This post is a more academic look at enterocytes and our intestinal lining, and has a graphic about TRPV channels within the gut. ENS and our need for gut microbes to protect our intestinal lining and promote gut motility - peristalsis motion. 'Gut Feelings' a slide presentation to read, by Tetyana Obukhanych, PhD (Substack) The key take-home point is that we really NEED our gut microbes in order to have normal gut motion. It is the immune challenge of microbes that stimulates an adequate immune cell response to provide the support the gut nerve cells need to keep the muscle signaling moving along at a steady pace.

• The Body Ecology Diet by Donna Gates is discussed somewhat in this post: Oxalate is in sesame seeds and Candida makes oxalate - oh, good to know.

  The Body Ecology Diet by Donna Gates is designed to fight chronic Candida yeast infections. It starves them of carbs and adds fermented raw veggies and kefir drinks. (Substack)

The Body Ecology Diet (Thriftbooks) is also in this cluster of restricted grains or starches, but it focuses on chronic yeast as the gut issue which can cause brain fog and difficulty thinking too. Fermented foods and meat or bone broths are a big feature of that diet too. The glutamine free amino acid within bone broth can be particularly healing to the gut and the fermented foods are an ideal way to restore healing gut microbes - as long as you are not sensitive to the histamine or tyramine as that might cause headaches and other negative symptoms. The glycine in bone or meat broth helps our collagen production which helps support strong blood vessels and healthy joints.

Bifidobacterium species - like a vitamin supplement that lives inside of us (*as long as we are avoiding chimeric spike products or exosomes from recently jabbed people).

The Bifidobacterium species that chimeric spike has been shown to negatively affect makes a number of vitamins for us - it adds to nutrient intake by making the nutrients - including: “amino acids, proteins, organic acids, vitamin K, pantothenic acid [B5], vitamin B1, (thiamin), vitamin B2, (riboflavin), vitamin B3 (niacin), folic acid [folate], vitamin B6, (pyridoxine), vitamin B12 (cobalamin), and assist absorption of Ca [Calcium], iron, and vitamin D.” (Campbell-McBride, pp 247-248, GAPS diet, thriftbooks.com) Those are good buddies to have in our gut - like a one-a-day vitamin supplement practically.

They would need us to have some cobalt in our diet to be able to make cobalamin.

• See the recent post: EMF, gut or soil microbes and B12 (other B's too), Sunshine, histidine and links to posts by Roman Shapoval. (Substack)

FODMAPS diet is more recent, the other two books are a bit older, 10 or more years, but were cutting edge at the time, and since diet is not handled well in mainstream medical - they are still largely cutting edge and both have an opening “Why?” section and “How?” sections. The GAPS book is mostly “Why?” with a few recipes. It has an excellent section on prenatal health and encourages mothers and fathers to improve their health before conception is attempted. If pregnant mom has gut dysbiosis and/or chronic yeast, then….the baby will too. We are having babies born with brain and body inflammation because mom was already inflamed.

Prenatally - too much fat loss is a risk and excess protein intake can be a risk to baby too.

Background: The placenta does filter out quite a bit of toxins, but breast milk doesn’t - it might even have a greater concentration of toxins than is circulating in the mother’s blood stream. Toxins tend to be stored in fat tissue and that is mobilized during lactation, it can be easy for breast feeding women to lose weight. For that reason, weight loss is not encouraged during pregnancy as toxins would be mobilized and might affect the growing fetus.

Ammonia from excess protein breakdown would be bad for the baby’s brain and a very high protein diet for the pregnant mom could be a risk. The Paleo Diet is not intended to be super high protein like the Carnivore diet might be. Non starchy vegetables are encouraged as a primary food and a few starchy ones. It is not a controlled starch diet like the GAPS or Specific Carbohydrate or Low FODMAPS diets. The Paleo diet does include the idea of ketosis - our ancestors likely ate less often then we do, or less often of rich meals. When we are just eating non starchy vegetables, fats and a little protein, the body shifts to using ketones for the brain fuel. Ketones bypass the Citric Acid Cycle issue or question of mitochondrial function versus dysfunction. Ketones are less likely to stimulate the appetite than starches. Starchy foods can make us just want more. Adequate protein and fat in a meal or snack is what is satisfying.

Ketosis diets

The Keto Diet by Dr. Josh Axe (thriftbooks.com) blends the trends of Paleo and Keto and has the “Why?” information which goes back again to the evolutionary idea that we likely were used to going longer between large meals and were likely to be in ketosis more often than we are in modern life. Modern food prevalence and standard meal patterns mean that we are rarely if ever in ketosis now.

Dr. Axe is laying out a diet plan for a 3-4 week time period to use ketosis for weight loss and cleansing. He makes it clear that it isn’t intended for long term use without having some periods of more starchy meals too. It really isn’t a balanced diet and nutrient supplements would be needed and the high fat percentage would be inhibiting normal oxygen using methylation cycles and that can be a cancer or epigenetic risk. For short term adjustments to health and weight, a keto diet might be helpful for a few neurologic or physical conditions. Long term it is very helpful for epilepsy.

Ketosis diet balance:

A ketosis diet is not higher in protein than a typical meal plane (~ 20%) - it is very high in fats to make up the person’s calorie needs (~70%) and is very low in carbohydrates, only 5-10% of total calories. Once fully into ketosis the appetite is reduced. Starchy foods make us hungrier. Fats are satisfying.

Epileptics are the people who may be really helped by ketosis diets.

The ketosis diet is therapeutic in other ways for people with epilepsy and might be needed for lifelong use to prevent seizures. The use of ketones within the brain doesn’t cause seizures while glucose - starch and sugar energy use can be causal for seizures in susceptible people. (*Adequate inositol daily may help, like take a supplement every 4-6 hours instead of once a day. Magnesium and phosphatidyl serine might also be calming and Dimethylglycine may also.)

Inositol likely is helping against seizures because it helps keep TRP channels closed.

“These are the keys to open TRP channels, as elevation of diacylglycerol and depletion of inositol trisphosphate stores activate TRP channels (Bottari et al., 1993).” (Dhakal and Lee, 2019)

Overactive TRP channels in my brain may have been adding to my migraine history (weekly, severe). Cinnamon and mint became migraine triggers for me. Gut dysbiosis plus pyroluria causing very low zinc and vitamin B6 were also involved I think, and inadequate magnesium absorption due to gene differences in my magnesium absorbing TRPM 6 or 7 channels - more on TRP channels is included later.

Vegan Ketosis diet?

My major quibble with Dr. Axe’s Keto diet book is his blithe suggestion that the Keto diet can be vegan too, but it might be a little more difficult … or in my opinion, a lot more protein deficient. An example on the “Vegan keto menu” is Chicken soup made Keto - I look at the recipe. I’m sorry, NO, simply not adding chicken does not make a vegetable soup anything but a vegetable soup. To me, a “Vegan” entree still requires at least 14 grams of protein (2 oz meat equiv.) if not 21 grams (3 oz meat equiv) for me to call it a “meal”.

The food combining meal planning rules of The Body Ecology Diet were also very low in protein for the “starchy meals”. If you hand me a plate of skillet fried potatoes and sauteed green pepper and onion I am not going to call it a “vegan omelette/scramble”. Just removing the animal protein and handing over a salad is not giving someone a ‘vegan’ meal - in my opinion as a dietitian and food eater. Followers of Dr. Sebby’s recommendations may be getting too little protein. Yes, vegetables have some protein, but really not much. Humans do not have the multiple stomachs of grazing animals in which bacteria are making amino acids and other nutrients out of the starchy grasses. A big rule of thumb regarding ‘healthy diet for humans’ is that we do need adequate protein to get the essential amino acids to be able to build and repair our cells or make enzymes and RNA for building other proteins. A very low protein diet will not heal colitis or any other “-itis,” any other inflammation, of the body.

Bifidobacterium species may be making some amino acids for us, but we need more from our food intake.

In practically all of these lower starch diet plans, meat or dairy as a protein source is a need. Legumes are too starchy to fit within the various low carb or low fiber requirements. The attitude within The Body Ecology and GAPS or Specific Carb diet books seems to be that just gradually adding a bit more bone or meat broth and fermented foods will gradually get the gut microbiome more on board to help digest and tolerate those foods.

. . . but what if you have also set up an autoimmune intolerance to animal proteins? The Prime Diet by ayurvedic neurologist Kulreet Chaudhary (thriftbooks.com) does mention that autoimmune conditions against animal proteins can happen. I bought a book by a dietitian for Hashimoto’s thyroid disease and it does emphasize removing gluten as a likely molecular mimicry cause of autoimmune antibodies. It also mentioned if problems are continuing, than eliminating eggs might be worth trying because albumin might become an autoimmune antibody issue too. YES, it did for me, BUT that means that I also react to the albumin in plasma of meat and fish and scallops and hemp kernels, and wheat and ginger also have plant form of albumin.

Individualizing a diet is a bigger need if you are already unhealthy.

. . . what diet will work for an individual depends on whether they are still healthy and just want to prevent problems, or if they are currently unhealthy and we need to figure out what problems have occurred within the body that might involve ingredients in the diet.

The WHY BOTHER! is because pain hurts and health is better. If you are nutrient deficient and add the nutrient back it can seem like a miracle. Removing problem foods can also seem like a miraculous turn around in symptoms, but it can take time if multiple nutrient deficiencies need to be identified or numerous food ingredients need to be identified and removed.

The GAPS, Specific Carbohydrate and Body Ecology diets all mention ‘phases’ or stages to work through - and that is because we need to give the gut what it can tolerate before it will be able to start healing. Once it has started healing, then gradually more and more will be able to be tolerated again. We have to restore the enterocytes and their lovely digestive enzyme containing microvilli before digestion will be working well. Taking digestive enzymes with meals during the initial healing phase might help it chug along faster.

“Diet rules” might seem too restrictive or controlling if you don’t also have an understanding of WHY? Why would following that guidance help with my healing or food intolerance symptoms?

A caution - if disordered eating is a problem, binge eating or bulimia or anorexia, then adding ‘rules’ might lead to even more disordered eating. From my own issues with emotional over-eating - I learned to always have food available, healthy food, so that I wouldn’t get overly hungry and then succumb to tasty but unhealthy foods that are available for purchase everywhere. I need to bring food with me because of my autoimmune or other sensitivities, I can’t eat a lot of common foods without suffering a health setback that might be brief but also might be weeks to rebalance.

Autoimmune disease means your white blood cells are attacking your own cells and that is nothing to mess with. It takes strict avoidance of the autoimmune antigen/offending protein for six months for a flair-up of antibodies to go away again.

The various diet books do tend to encourage you to go at your own pace with the various suggestions and stop if it is worse, try again in a few weeks with a tiny amount and gradually try to build up tolerance. I would just add, BUT STOP trying if it doesn’t seem to be working. If an autoimmune issue is present than total avoidance for life is probably safest. Once the gut is healed and less ‘leaky’ there would be a lower risk of proteins getting into the blood stream and resetting up the autoimmune antibodies - but it could happen and any stress in life can also increase risk of leaky gut even if you are being careful in your diet.

My own ‘colitis’ was never diagnosed because I got it under control in about three weeks, although I lost about thirty pounds in those three weeks and fainted once or twice from the chronic loss of electrolytes. It is NO fun to have irritable bowel or colitis and to never be sure if you can make it to a bathroom on time.

I never saw a doctor about it because I knew from working with clients that there wasn’t much treatment help. I did have to cut out salads and raw veggies largely in order to heal - went straight through too often. You learn what works if you get lucky with your choices, but seasoned foods or mixed dishes are too confusing - what were the problem ingredient/s? Eventually I learned that TRP channel activating seasonings and foods were now on an Avoid List for me. Cinnamon had been a migraine trigger, but now turmeric, ginger, and hot pepper were Irritable Bowel triggers.

» » » » Few to none of these gut healing diet books mention limiting spices as a possible or probable need for someone with a chronic gut problem. Herbs and spices can be very healing, but they also may be an irritant for sensitized people. They tell the body to do stuff, and sometimes that can be helpful stuff, but in excess, TRP activation might not be helpful, or be overly helpful. The burning tongue and running nose after eating hot pepper or a lot of black pepper is from TRP channel activation.

“TRP channels are involved in diverse physiological functions, ranging from sensation (pheromone signaling, visual, auditory, and taste transduction, nociception, and temperature sensation) to motility (muscle contraction and vaso-motor control). Furthermore, TRP channels are the key participants in the regulation of gut motility, mineral absorption*, blood circulation, bladder and airway hypersensitivities, body fluid balance, cell growth, and survival (Nilius et al., 2007; Uchida et al., 2017).” (Dhakal and Lee, 2019)

*TRP channels are important for “Mineral absorption” in the gut for magnesium in particular — TRPM 6 and TRPM 7 channels are needed for magnesium absorption. When diarrhea is a sudden blast of watery fluid - then it may not be only what you had eaten and drank recently, it likely includes an exodus of fluid from cells. The blast-out will leave a person with IBS/colitis more dehydrated and depleted in electrolytes.

During stress and inflammation too many TRP channels may be expressed - leaving the person with an overactive response to TRP channel activators (types of TRP channels and their activators varies but most will cause some action to take place inside of the cell and it is driven by an influx of calcium allowed through the TRP channel. Effects of TRP activation might include a hot flush and runny nose (hot pepper) or itchy or pain sensation (horseradish or stinging nettle). Once you’ve reduced inflammation for a year or two, the excess of TRP channels might have returned to normal levels and over-sensitivity to TRP activators in the diet might return to normal - go have a hot curry again without an immediate trip to the bathroom.

Someone with colitis type problems might not have success with the gut healing diets if they are still adding hot pepper or curry spices, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, Wasabi, ginger, and maybe mint.

The Squirrely Diet - my version of a ‘keto-ish’ vegan diet

*Affectionately called the Squirrely diet, I like squirrels - but don’t feed them, they are too much like rats with a fluffy tail and will demand more and take your bird food. However, I did try to feed a squirrel that was losing its hair in a California farmland region. Agricultural chemicals are probably bad for squirrels physical and mental health too. It was a very timid squirrel.

Photo by Włodzimierz Jaworski on Unsplash

Pecans have in one ounce, 28 grams, ~ 200 calories (196 used in my calculations) about 20 grams of fat, 1 gram of sugar, 3 grams of fiber and 3 grams of protein. Out of total calories that is approximately 92% calories from fat, 2% calories from sugar carbs, and 6% from protein. Fiber may add some calories if converted into short chain fatty acids by colon bacteria but generally dietitians don’t add calories for fiber content. That ratio of 92/2/6 doesn’t meet our protein goal for a satisfying snack (>12%), or total diet ratio for a Keto diet of 70/10/20, but it would be in the ketosis range of mostly fat calories.

Adding potassium rich salad or steamed non-starchy vegetables helps make it feel more balanced for electrolyte needs, and a bowl of bean soup sometime in the day adds more protein and more carbs. Having only nuts or seeds and non-starchy veggies for portions of the day is closer to intermittent fasting because it is staying within the ketosis ratio of macronutrients.

This is not an inexpensive diet - one ounce of nuts isn’t much. I can eat many ounces of nuts or seeds over the course of a day. Eight ounces of pecans would only be providing 24 grams of protein which is about one 3-4 ounce piece of meat. An excess of phosphorus is a caution to watch out for. (post)

Hypothetically (or realistically) if I eat six ounces of pecans in the morning and another six ounces later in the day, I have eaten 3/4 of a pound and netted about 2,160 calories in fat, 36 grams of protein and only added 12 grams of sugar/carbs to a carbohydrate tally. One bowl of a bean rich soup would add about 14 grams of protein (14x4=56 calories) but with maybe 40 grams of carbs (40x4=160 calories) - more than a strict Keto diet would likely have room to include.

Adding it up → 36+14=50 grams protein x 4 = 200 calories; 12+40=52 grams carbs x 4 = 208 calories; 2160 calories in fat, plus 200 plus 208 = 2568 calories for the day (do some physical exercise in the sunshine) with macronutrient ratios of 84% fat; 7.8% calories from protein; and 8.1% calories from carbohydrates. That leaves a little room to reduce the fat/pecans and try to increase protein more form lower fat sources that don’t have much carbohydrate either….those aren’t readily available in the vegan diet.

Try number two, with eight ounces of pecans and two bowls of bean soup ~ 28 grams of protein (112 calories) with 80 grams of carbs (320 calories) from the beans, plus eight ounces of pecans = 160 gr fat, (1440 calories), 8 gr sugar, (32 calories + 320 = 352), 24 gr protein (96 calories + 112 = 208) = 2000 calories with 72% calories from fats (160 gr), 17.6% from carbohydrates (88 gr), and 10.4% from protein (52 grams). That also equals an out of balance diet that might not achieve ketosis reliably or provide enough protein for basic health. I don’t think the Keto diet is feasible for ‘vegan’ use without some protein powder supplement that is carbohydrate free or very low carb → not just pea powder.

My Cheerful Juice recipe adds some free amino acids as an example of a protein supplement. A couple grams (roughly) each of dimethylglycine, methionine, lysine, N-Acetyl cysteine, taurine would be adding ten grams of protein equivalent without any carbs or fats, and only 40 calories if Stevia sweetened or unsweetened. **Note that this is not really a recommendation, I am not sure if that is the best ratio or specific amino acids to include with a vegan diet rich in nuts and seeds. Glutamine might be added for gut healing, but if excitotoxicity and mood swings is a concern caution is needed - it might make mental symptoms worse.

Rechecking my Squirrely Diet math: 2040 total calories, 1440 calories from fat, (160 grams); 352 from carbs, (88 grams); and 248 from protein (62 grams now) = 70.6% from fats, 17.3% from carbs, and 12.2% from protein - that is now above the threshold of being satisfying but the overall balance might benefit from a little more protein powder and less bean soup.

There is some room there for tweeking the diet ratios and it does seem to help me lose weight with a reduced appetite when I have lots of nuts on hand. It seems like a basically balanced diet as long as I am adding potassium rich veggies and some beans and a little starchy veg or gluten free grains. I think the amino acid powders are required though, rather than optional for best gut and body health. Too little lysine can add to gut problems.

Taking N-acetyl-glucosamine (NAG) can also help gut health and may be critically helpful if a bloated belly from water retention is a problem. NAG is found to be low in kwashiorkor/protein-calorie malnutrition or edematous malnutrition. Crickets/insects as a side dish, or powdered shells would be a natural source. It is not the same as the Glucosamine sulfate supplements that are recommended for arthritis.

. . . and therefore, that is why I think the vegan diet is not really suitable for a ketosis diet - also that much fat might interfere with methylation which we don’t want. The point that Dr. Axe and Loren Courdain make about our ancient past and ketosis eating patterns is in the windows of eating during the 24-hour cycle. If my pecans are during certain parts of my day without any carb foods, then it would be a little like intermittent fasting or ketosis during those parts of the day, without my going so low in blood sugar that I get moody. No food leaves me teary too easily.

Pecans have some oxalate and are more digestible and lower in phytic acid if presoaked. I also eat a lot of blanched almonds (the oxalate is in the peel) and some blanched pistachios and hazelnuts. Cashews are high oxalate and are more tolerable if presoaked and boiled, discard the water - toast with a little coriander for a crispy treat or accent in a stir-fry. Presoaked pumpkin or sunflower seeds and sesame seeds are among foods that I eat regularly. Presoaking does make them more tolerable. Sprouting might be better yet but I haven’t tried it. Amaranth is an oxalate source but is a pseudo-grain seed that I eat sometimes and it has all eight essential amino acids. An all nut diet would have too much arginine and not enough lysine. Beans add some lysine and less arginine.

I have been enjoying Wormwood suntea as a bitter accent after eating or between meals - my latest coffee substitute.

If the gut is unhealthy, then some foods may not be tolerated without changes in food preparation - healing may be needed first.

»If the gut is too ripped up, too unhealthy to start with, nuts and seeds might need to be limited, or the presoaking and peeling is more critically important. A healthy gut has a healthy microbiome which is helping to digest our food and oxalate content or has less Candida yeast which can add oxalate to our load without our having eaten high oxalate foods. Other beneficial bacteria can break down oxalate for us.

»If the gut is dysfunctional, mucilaginous fibers help rebuild a healthy gut biofilm and are soothing. Totally restricting that type of ‘fermentable’ food when we are trying to repair the gut and support beneficial microbes seems like a mistake to me. The level of inability to digest starches might be a factor there for individual sensitivity being worse or better. Slippery elm powder is a mucilaginous food made from the inner bark of a type of elm tree. Marshmallow root powder, Gumbo file, Irish sea moss, and okra are all mucilaginous foods. Chia seeds are too but they are high oxalate, okra is too. Adding Gumbo file (sassafras leaf powder) to my okra helped make it less gassy for me - the Gumbo file may be helping to promote beneficial bacteria more than gassy ones.

»When the gut is unhealthy, gently steamed veggies and fruits may be needed and avoid raw things. If histamine excess isn’t a problem, fermented foods might be better tolerated in moderation - ease into new foods when the gut is not doing well.

» »But a HUGE CAUTION: If histamine excess is part of the physical and mental symptoms, then ANY of the diet plans that are pushing use of fermented foods will be leaving the person with physical and possibly extreme mental symptoms too. Histamine within the brain is a modulator - it helps keep us on an even keel, an even temperament. Too little histamine activity from use of seasonal allergy anti-histamines can cause sleepiness. Too much histamine activity from lack of the right enzymes or enough methyl folate to break it down can lead to extreme mania, paranoia and can involve suicide or homicidal urges. Non-beneficial gut microbes may be making histamine too.

The problem with unidentified potential problem foods within a ‘plan’ is that the person may be thinking, and the instructions may be suggesting, that they just need to try harder at the suggested restrictions and keep trying harder at the new strategies that were suggested, rather than that maybe there is some other unidentified issue adding complications that the plan didn’t account for. If it doesn’t seem to be working then it might not be the right answer. I managed to get my new onset ‘colitis’ like symptoms under control within a month, not several years. At that time I did have to make a bunch of changes in what I routinely ate.

»Apples and pears (or any fruit in larger amounts) can cause a lot of gassy overgrowth and are better balanced by eating a half of the fruit along with a little glucose containing food - too much fructose at once is overfeeding gassy species.

»When the gut is unhappy, feed it small amounts more often and avoid large meals. Have warm food instead of cold, and avoid a big load of acidity, like having a lemonade or soda or coffee. At my worst even a mouthful of coffee could set off gut pain. Coffee is an oxalate source and is acidic and might trigger TRP channels too.

Disclaimer: This information is being provided for educational purposes within the guidelines of Fair Use and is not intended to provide individual health care guidance.

Reference List

(Dhakal and Lee, 2019) Dhakal S, Lee Y. Transient Receptor Potential Channels and Metabolism. Mol Cells. 2019 Aug 31;42(8):569-578. doi: 10.14348/molcells.2019.0007. PMID: 31446746; PMCID: PMC6715338. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6715338/