Salacylate page updated.
brief notice of a page change and more foods for me to not use, sadface. Garlic, cucumbers, apple cider vinegar, greens, asparagus, green peas, oh dear.
Salicylate sensitivity is an additive problem and I haven’t managed to exclude enough sources to remain symptom free consistently.
Knowledge is power to change for the better and I am still learning.
The addition is on page Salicylate Risks and Benefits; Fibromyalgia & POTS (Substack):
A website & post, low-sal-life.com, focuses on why Food Lists vary so much - plant content varies with growing conditions and peel/outer leaves versus inner fruit/food content; and testing accuracy has varied. Older lists that aren’t updated likely have old information. the author adds celery, garlic, green peas, cucumbers, to the moderate rather than low lists. I still have been having symptoms even after stopping use of a bunch of herbs, spices, and foods. I had still been using garlic and celery generously and Romaine or green-leaf lettuce which are not the same as ‘Iceberg lettuce’.
This reference about salicylate production in the Skullcap plant in response to environmental stressors goes into more detail about how growing conditions affect salicylates. They are made to protect the plant against oxidative stress. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5810995/
Excerpt from a helpful article on why Salicylate food lists online so often are WRONG!
“These foods were listed as low on the website (following Swain et al. 1985) but have now been moved to a high list (Malakar et al. 2017)
Lemons, Rhubarb, Cashews, Mangoes, Asparagus, Mushrooms (doesn't specify fresh or canned), Squash (doesn't specify what type, but most are high), peas, green beans, and fresh corn.
Listed "Greens" as ok to eat, and "lettuce spinach, and other greens" - this was just bad advice because it is vague and the majority of greens are extremely high in sals.
Vinegar type was not specified and recommends it's ok. This is not the case. White vinegar is very high (Swain et al. 1985), as is red wine and apple cider vinegar. Malt vinegar is zero (Swain et al.), and I've heard that rice vinegar may also be ok.”
[…]
Items in the low category that just shouldn't be:
herbal teas & coffee are OK (they should specify that reg coffee is not low sal, and most herbal teas aren't), Allspice, Caraway seeds, cardamom, Chili (tested lower for Malakar et al, but is still in the high group), Cinnamon, Cloves, Fresh herbs, ginger root, marmite, nutmeg, pepper, vanilla, vegemite, vanilla ice cream, chili peppers, coconut, vague "all other nuts" - not the case, chestnut, pinenuts, pistachios are all high,
Items that are in the low/no category that should be moved to up to a medium range (Malakar et al. 2017)
pawpaw
Items that are in the low/no category that moved to up to a high range (Malakar et al. 2017)
banana, garlic, mango, lemon, passionfruit, rhubarb, mushrooms (fresh)
[…]
Personal peeve: No science ever PROVES anything. It is very important if you see an article with "prove" in it, you find another article. Science builds up a body of evidence that SUPPORTS a theory. Even with gravity, we can't say a falling object proves gravity is real. It supports the theory, but could never prove it.
Which List to Pick - and Outdated Lists on Web, website & post, low-sal-life.com
That does help. I like my yummy ‘nutritious’ food favorites, even pomegranate, but I don’t like having my belly get instantly gassy or for my legs to swell up with edema. My legs drain during sleep but are already swollen again this morning after eating one mixed food dish that contains garlic, green peas, asparagus and green leaf lettuce, outer leaves, and I use apple cider vinegar regularly (or did). The congestion and approach of asthma symptoms are not present at the lower intake, but I still have been having the digestive and edema symptoms and sometimes a headache if I missed my DMG containing Cheerful juice mix.
Ouch, is all.
Glycine helps break down salicylates and being lower acid within the body and urine helps it be excreted instead of retained.
Having the DMG glycine more consistently does seem to help. I will have to try to mix it in to other foods too and have it more often in the day. Or make more of my Cheerful drink without as many of the other amino acids that I add. *methionine, lysine, taurine, and N-acetylcysteine.
Re acidity: I have ordered a product with sodium, magnesium, and potassium bicarbonate in a mixed supplement to try to help reduce acidity but it hasn’t arrived yet.
Dandelion tea may help as a diuretic, my pomegranate use seems too strong for me right now. I reduced it to see if that helped but I have still been having symptoms.
The edema fluid retention is due to reduced sodium excretion in part, so taking sodium bicarbonate is adding to the sodium load.
Dandelion tea may be my diuretic solution - it is low oxalate and medium salicylate per this article: Low Oxalate AND Low Salicylate FOOD LIST with PRINTABLE (eatbeautiful.net). That one mentions that coconut oil is HIGH, while coconut itself is lower in salicylates. That one conflicts with this one regarding some foods (website & post, low-sal-life.com), and the low-sal-life.com article seems very well researched.
Eating used to be more fun before I knew how much I was hurting myself unintentionally. (I knew a bag of chips or M&M’s were hurting me ;-)
The Carnivore Diet as an Elimination Diet? with a goal of adding back more variety.
The Carnivore Diet is being promoted as a quick way to reduce inflammation and help identify what foods were bothering you if it is used more like an elimination diet with the gradual reintroduction of foods to see what works and what clearly didn’t work. Used in that way, it might be helpful for people who ‘switched to vegan/vegetarian and now feel unwell’. My main cautions about the Carnivore Diet are that it may be dangerous to a growing fetus and the argument that we can make our own glucose doesn’t mean we can make our own mannose, fucose, N-acetylglucosamine, and other essential monosaccharides, or maybe not make them very well.
My own yummy food is still not working for me.
And I hate to throw it away, gosh darn it. But if it is hurting me - is if ‘food’ for me?
Magnesium helps, I need topical sources regularly.
I was in pain again this morning and took a very early am Epsom salt bath - day two in a row, 15 minutes seemed good instead of 20-30. The main concern with magnesium is to not overdo it in one sitting or supplement. As an electrolyte the body does better with small amounts throughout the day. Excess magnesium all at once (from an Epsom salt soak or non-chelated ionic supplements) can cause watery diarrhea for the whole day possibly, not just once and it’s out.
Day one of the rest of my life - onward and upward.
Disclaimer: Opinions are my own and the information is provided for educational purposes within the guidelines of Fair Use. While I am a Registered Dietitian this information is not intended to provide individual health guidance. Please see a functional health professional for individual health care purposes.