A Fat Chance

Because I Said So

2008-01-18T01:02:00.000+01:00

There is a new study on the effects of probiotics on metabolism.

In the explanation article from Medical News Today, the journalist points out:

One of the many biochemical changes observed by the researchers was a change in how mice treated with probiotics metabolised bile acids. These acids are made by the liver and their primary function is to emulsify fats in the upper gut. If probiotics can influence the way in which bile acids are metabolised, this means they could change how much fat the body is able to absorb.

All of you out there, get some probiotics and start living better, especially if you've got intestinal lymphangiectasia!

Probiotics Just Rock!

2007-10-27T14:29:00.000+02:00

A new study published in the November issue of the Journal of Dental Research shows that application of beneficial bacteria as an adjunct to traditional therapy may become a valid, non-antibiotic treatment approach for periodontitis (gum disease).

If by any chance you travel to Italy, the best probiotics are Yakult and Yomo Plus. I actually use to prevent traveller's diarrhoea before it sends me and my lymphangiectasic bowel to the ER for losing a gallon of liquids.

Rhamnosus!

2007-08-19T14:08:00.000+02:00

If you happen to have diarrhea after all, try a probiotic drink with Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG.

It's not me, it's the BMJ.

So how are you?

2007-08-19T13:18:00.001+02:00

I'm fiiiiine!

At this moment, I stay away from:
1) red meats:
I only eat white (aka poultry) and black meats (aka game). Only exception is, bresaola, a cured meat that can be made of beef or horse (the latter is my favourite one);
2) any kind of oils:
MCT oil included;
3) most non-skim dairy:
occasionally I eat whole dairy but in small amount, and only if made with either cow or buffano raw milk, that is, containing probiotics (read: creme fraiche, sour cream, kefir, parmigiano reggiano, mozzarella di bufala, regular mozzarella, provola). For the rest I eat skim milk, skim cottage cheese and skim cream cheese.

However, since I still need essential fats (everybody does, even the ones with lymphangiectasia!), I replace all the fat I should eat daily (ie 30-40 grams a day) with a combination of:
1) nuts:
like walnuts and Brazilian nuts;
2) seeds:
like sesame seeds (and tahini butter), flax seeds, sunflower seeds;
3) legumes:
soy beans (and soy butter and soy products), peanuts (and peanut butter and -- NO peanuts aren't nuts!!!);
4) oily fish:
wild salmon, mackerel, sardines, trout, clams (always buy wild fish, it has more essential fatty acids and less saturated fat);
5) eggs:
especially quail eggs.

Avoiding oils is important, especially oils high in monosaturated fatty acoids, which we happen NOT to be able to absorb! So eat olives instead, if you like that flavor (I don't -- it's everywhere here!).

Furthermore, oils have no/few vitamins but no minerals whatsoever, while nuts/seeds/legumes have:

1. less oil (around 40-60%),
2. less calories (100 gr of oil is 900 calories, 100 grams of nuts is 600-700),
3. more proteins (oils have no proteins),
4. more minerals (oils have no minerals) and
5. more vitamins (oils only contain fat soluble vitamins, nuts also contain water soluble vitamins).

With this regimen, I only go 1-2 times a day and I don't have diarrhea unless I've got a bug or forgotten to check the label and mistakenly eaten transfats, mono- and dyglycerides or a mix of both.

Harvard Medical School on Probiotics

2007-08-10T22:55:00.000+02:00

In a society of anti-bacterial warfare, who would have thought that anyone would tout the benefits of bacteria?

I wonder why probiotics aren't a big thing in the US... in Europe there are SO many available you'd get lost in the aisle....

Enough is enough

2007-07-31T13:43:00.001+02:00

Look!

Still thinking we IL people should drink dead milk y'all?

Fat Free? Is It Really?

2007-07-21T16:54:00.000+02:00

Some foods claim to be fat free. Some of them replace fats with ingredients like gelatin and carrageenan (which are OK), some replace them with transfats and mono- and dyglycerides (which are NOT OK).

We all need to become label detectives.

EFAs help fat absorption

2007-04-19T23:44:00.000+02:00

As I care to remember, it's not in my head.

IL hugely impairs fat absorption. Impaired fat absorption means you have less essential fatty acids (EFAs) in your body. Less EFAs impairs fat absorption, which means your tolerance toward fats is lower which in turn means you'll absorb less EFAs.

In the end you'll be taking MCT but be completely unable to eat "regular" food, and still symptomatic for the rest.

Look here if you don't believe me.... start eating more EFAs and wean yourself off of MCTs... your tolerance for fats will magically be better. You won't be healed but being able to tolerate 25-30 gr a day will mean having a life.

Birthday Cake

2007-04-19T14:54:00.000+02:00

My own thresholds are: 30 gr overall daily fats and each meal 3% fat content or lower (I can tolerate 35 for 1-2 days, but will start doing poorly at 40) so don't tell me I don't have it just because you don't like what I'm writing.

I just celebrated my birthday few days ago and of course I wanted a cake, and a real one.

My choice went toward a cake composed of merengue and whipped raw cream (freshly whipped, with no addictives, and then frozen). Raw stuff helps my bowel digest the fats by transforming them into short chain tryglycerides, and freshly whipping the cream helps me avoiding preservative (such as transfats and mono and dyglycerides) that make my bowel even more intolerant to fats.

I ate the slice of cake with 1 cup of skim milk in order to dilute the fat content of the cream (which is lower than unwhipped cream, since by whipping it you introduce air in it *wink*).

Basically the cake I ate was 50% merengue and 50% whipped cream. I ate a 40 gr slice (pretty big uh?), which had 20 gr of cream, which in turn had around 6 grams of fats and as I said I drank 1 cup of skim milk to dilute the content (250 gr milk plus 40 gr cake means 290-300 gr total, divided by 6 means 2% fat content).

This is to say there is a way out of tasteless food ;)

Incidentally I just got my blood work from the lab... from 2 gr albumin (and edema) of november, I am at 3.1 and no edema, so it's definitely working, and it might work for somebody else.

Bug #3

2006-09-27T04:16:00.000+02:00

Whatever the bug, it hits me hard.

This is actually my third bug since the beginning of the year. I got one in New York City, one in London and another one in Pisa, I gather.

This one had given me headache, muscular pain, upset my stomach, diarrhea, cramps, sore throat. It must be an Adenovirus.

I'll go to my physician to see if I can get some IV. I still can't eat (in 24 hours I had 6 spoons of steamed rice, 2 3oz can of applesauce, 1 small leaf of carasau bread) but I did start drinking, thank God, because I was afraid to have kidney stones again, given the dehydratation.

I'm in pain, can't eat, and I see no quick solution.

Fermented Dairy Basics #1

2006-09-11T15:30:00.000+02:00

There are many fermented dairy that can help you if you have intestinal lymphangiectasia, mainly:

(a) kefir
(b) buttermilk
(c) sour cream
(d) kefirized sour cream
(e) creme fraiche

Kefir is the simplest in terms of what you have to do to make it.

What you need is:
*whole organic milk
*1 tablespoon of kefir grains
*2 Mason jars with lids
*a plastic strainer
*a funnel
*a wooden spoon

What you do is:

put 15gr grains (1 tablespoon) in a Mason jar
put 450 ml whole organic milk (1 pint) in that same Mason jar
put the lid on without tightening
put in the cupboard for 22-24 hours, till curd and whey separate
put the funnel in the second Mason jar
set the strainer in top of it
pour the first Mason jar content into the strainer
stir with the wooden spoon
retrieve the grains from the strainer for your next batch
drink the kefir from the second Mason jar or store it in the fridge for later consumption

Variants:
50/50 coconut milk/organic milk (total 800ml) plus the juice of half lime

Bacteria in kefir:
A mix of homofermentative and heterofermentative bacteria (the former convert lactose into lactic acid without producing gas, the latter convert lactose into lactic acid and CO2 and ethanol aka alcohol), and yeasts.
Main bacteria:
Lactobacillus acidophilus (like in creme fraiche and acidophilus milk)
Lactobacillus bulgaricus (like in yogurt)
Lactobacillus spp
Streptococcus lactis var diacetylactis (like in buttermilk and sour cream)
Leuconostoc cremoris
Leuconostoc mesenteroides
Sacchoromyces cerevisiae (like in beer)
Acetobacter aceti (like in vinegar).
On top of that, kefir has a whole range of bacteria that only grow in kefir, such as Lactobacillus kefiri, Lactobacillus kefiranofaciens, Lactobacillus kefirgranum, Lactobacillus parakefir, and Candida kefir.

Tastes like:
acidic (lactic acid), sour (ethanol) and frizzy (CO2).

Uses:
anti-hearburn (it's like taking milk, with alcaselzer and bicarbonate... it does work wonders!), anti-constipation (young kefir), anti-diarrhea (old kefir), immune boosting (because of the probiotics), anti-UTI and anti vaginal infections (does change intestinal pH!).

Cautions:
when baking with it, beware of the fact that baking powder, baking soda, cremor tartar doses need to be adjusted because of kefir's pH or else the batter either won't leaven or will become twice as big as expected.

Organic Milk Has More Omega3

2006-08-30T01:51:00.000+02:00

Say giuro!

I was right on transfats!

2006-08-22T04:13:00.000+02:00

Replace trans-fat and save thousands of lives, says review

I kid you not!

2006-06-22T06:51:00.000+02:00

I went to McDonald and had a McRoyal Deluxe sandwich, together with 400 ml tea (a "medium" one), 150 ml kefir and 6 pills of soy lecithin.

Well guys, NO PROBLEM.

Of course my stools still have visible fat in them, and a lot. But, NO SYMPTOMS.

Coconut Kefir Recipe

2006-06-18T16:09:00.000+02:00

I've also tried whole milk kefir. I like them both, but prefer the coconut version.

My way of doing it is:
*15 gr (1 tablespoon or 1/2 oz) kefir grains
*200 ml (0.8 cup) coconut milk
*200 ml (0.8 cup) whole milk
*50-100 ml (1.7 to 3.4 fl oz) coconut kefir from the previous batch
*5 gr (1 teaspoon) key lime juice

It is good and the grains keep on growing.

Experimenting Probiotics and Prebiotics on Myself #4

2006-06-15T03:13:00.000+02:00

At the moment I am on:
FOSs: 7 grams/day
VSL#3: 1 envelope a day
Yomoplus: Bifidobacterium longum BB46, Bifidobacterium bifidum BB02, Bifidobacterium BBR8, Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG
Saccharomyces boulardii (1 pill/day - 5 days)
In Forma (Continente): Bifidobacterium lactis BB12

I've tried both milk kefir and coconut milk kefir. They both tend to constipate me (hoooray!) meanwhile I can go out for dinner, and even have meat (I only tried the raw one).

Daring Ro' also had french fries at McDonald's without problems (small portion). Tonight I tried 15 grams (1/2 oz) fritos... we'll see how it goes. I'd say kefir has occupied my fridge and dislodged most food but hey so far it's all worth it!

Bowel Bacteria and Obesity

2006-06-15T03:10:00.000+02:00

Next time somebody tells me I'm offbase with all this bacteria stuff I'll rage.

Here's why.

Experimenting Probiotics and Prebiotics on Myself #3

2006-06-04T01:28:00.000+02:00

At the moment I am on:
FOSs: 7 grams/day
VSL#3: 1 envelope a day
Yomoplus: Bifidobacterium longum BB46, Bifidobacterium bifidum BB02, Bifidobacterium BBR8, Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG
Saccharomyces boulardii (1 pill/day - 5 days)

I still am not back on Bifidobacterium lactis BB12, but it's in my fridge. Lactobacillus johnsoni La1 was discontinued and I fully recovered.

I tried 90 ml Aptimil 1 powdered milk for babies (with galactooligosaccharydes) and had a bad run today, but it could have been yesterday's gorgonzola cheese (can you tell I'm daring more and more?).

I drank my first 100 ml of coconut kefir today. We'll see how it goes.

Experimenting Probiotics and Prebiotics on Myself #2

2006-05-30T01:55:00.000+02:00

I played here and there :)

At the moment I am on:
FOSs: 7 grams/day (prebiotic - 15 days)
VSL#3: 1 envelope a day (probiotic - 12 days)
Yomoplus: Bifidobacterium longum BB46, Bifidobacterium bifidum BB02, Bifidobacterium BBR8, Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG (probiotic - 5 days)

I have tried for 6 days Bifidobacterium lactis BB12, then I ran out of it and didn't replace it (bad mistake, tomorrow I will re-start it). I have taken Lactobacillus johnsoni La1 for 3 days during which I had increasing number of runs to the toilet. It has the same impact on my healthy mate (Pat). I am unresolved on whether to stop it now or give it some more time. I also had a couple of painful bowel air colics. I don't know whether it's due to the lack of BB12 or the introduction of La1....

I started Saccharomyces boulardii today.

In any case, I tolerate the fat a lot better, as I thought I would. I still see lots of it in my stools, but I have fewer episodes of diarrhea (like 2 a day) even when I eat without weighting everything (and possibly above 3%).

More experiments tomorrow (when I'll get my kefir grains)....

Why "Fat-Free" Can Still Give Troubles

2006-05-25T02:26:00.000+02:00

Read labels to make sure you're eating healthy.

Probiotic Strains in Fermented Milks Available in Italy

2006-05-23T19:05:00.000+02:00

Product name: In forma
Manufacturer: Continente
Probiotics: Bifidobacterium lactis BB12

Product name: LC1
Manufacturer: Nestlé
Probiotics: Lactobacillus johnsoni La1

Product name: Bella vita
Manufacturer: Meran
Probiotics: Lactobacillus acidophilus L5

Product name: AC Active
Manufacturer: Meran
Probiotics: Lactobacillus acidophilus L5, Lactobacillus casei 431

Product name: Yomo Plus
Manufacturer: Yomo
Probiotics: Bifidobacterium longum BB46, Bifidobacterium bifidum BB02, Bifidobacterium BBR8, Lactobacillus rhamnosus.
Notes: Fructo-oligosaccharydes

Product name: Fibrya
Manufacturer: Yomo
Probiotics: Bifidobacterium brevis BR03, Lactobacillus plantarum LP01
Notes: Fructo-oligosaccharydes

Product name: Actimel
Manufacturer: Danone
Probiotics: Lactobacillus casei immunitas

Product name: Vita Attiva
Manufacturer: Tesori dell'Arca
Probiotics: Lactobacillus acidophilus La-5, Lactobacillus casei 431.

Product name: Mila
Manufacturer: Benessere Rinforzo
Probiotics: Bifidobacterium lactis BB12

Characterized probiotic strains

2006-05-23T18:55:00.000+02:00

This is only a partial list, taken from Yeung et al., 1999.

Lactobacillus acidophilus NCFM® Rhodia, Inc. (Madison, Wis.)
L. acidophilus DDS-1 Nebraska Cultures, Inc. (Lincoln, Neb.)
L. acidophilus SBT-2062a Snow Brand Milk Products Co., Ltd. (Tokyo, Japan)
L. acidophilus LA-1 Chr. Hansen, Inc. (Milwaukee, Wis.)
Lactobacillus casei Shirota Yakult (Tokyo, Japan)
L. casei Immunitas Danone (Paris, France)
Lactobacillus fermentum RC-14 Urex Biotech (London, Ontario, Canada)
Lactobacillus johnsonii La1 Nestlé (Lausanne, Switzerland)
Lactobacillus paracasei CRL 431 Chr. Hansen, Inc. (Milwaukee, Wis.)
Lactobacillus plantarum 299V Probi AB (Lund, Sweden)
Lactobacillus reuteri SD2112 Biogaia (Raleigh, N.C.)
Lactobacillus rhamnosus GGa Valio Dairy (Helsinki, Finland)
L. rhamnosus GR-1 Urex Biotech (London, Ontario, Canada)
L. rhamnosus 271 Probi AB (Lund, Sweden)
L. rhamnosus LB21 Essum AB (Umeå, Sweden)
Lactobacillus salivarius UCC118 University College (Cork, Ireland)
Lactobacillus lactis L1A Essum AB (Umeå , Sweden)
Bifidobacterium lactis Bb-12 Chr. Hansen, Inc. (Milwaukee, Wis.)
Bifidobacterium longum BB536a Morinaga Milk Industry Co., Ltd. (Zama-City, Japan)
B. longum SBT-2928a Snow Brand Milk Products Co., Ltd. (Tokyo, Japan)
Bifidobacterium breve str. Yakult Yakult (Tokyo, Japan)

Experimenting Probiotics and Prebiotics on Myself #1

2006-05-21T16:53:00.000+02:00

From all the previous entries, one can detect how I did my homework. Reason for that is, I got a bowel bug that impaired my life for sixteen days, delaying my dental surgery and creating a lot of malnutrition (and consequent muscular pain and edema).

I presently am on:

FOSs: 7 grams/day (prebiotic - have used it for a week)
VSL#3: 1 envelope a day (probiotic - have used it for 4 days). VSL#3 is composed of:
Streptococcus thermophilus
Bifidobacterium breve
Bifidobacterium longum
Bifidobacterium infantis
Lactobacillus acidophilus
Lactobacillus plantarum
Lactobacillus casei
Lactobacillus bulgaricus

I have tried fructose (diabetic sugar) for 4 days but would get me bloated, so I discontinued it yesterday (and am already improving).

Just today I added a functional yogurt having Bifidobacterium lactis BB12. The rationale behind that is, I seem to do great on FOSs, which feeds bifidobacteria. So, I gathered I lack bifidobacteria more than lactobacilli and Bifidobacterium lactis BB12 is not encompassed in the VSL#3 mix, thus I added it.

I might be adding Lactobacillus johnsoni La1 and Lactobacillus casei immunitas later on. I also plan to add Saccharomyces boulardi and see how it goes.

I keep my diet religious about:
1. drinking at least one cup of skim milk a day (lactose feeds bifidobacteria and lactobacilli! If we don't drink milk, or drink lactose-free one, chances are we aren't helping them help us!);
2. eat a little salad twice a day (I empirically noticed that some kind of greens are better for me than others.. radicchio and lettuce are dangerous to some degrees, but rocket, baby spinach, baby mix, spring mix are not);
3. try not to have "carb meals" alternated with "protein meals". On the contrary, I try to always eat balanced: some bread/focaccia, together with some proteins (fish, eggs, or cheese) and some greens at every meal.

Prebiotics and IL

2006-05-21T16:14:00.000+02:00

If probiotic comes from the ancient Greek and means "in favour of life", prebiotic still comes from Greek and means "before life".

Prebiotics are substances (not microorganisms!) that pass un-modified through the bowel. This means that our body does not modify them, while bacteria in the bowel do .

Basically, prebiotics are substances that our bodies don't eat but that our bacteria do eat. Plus, intestinal bacteria get their energy from sugars that are “leftover” because we can not digest them and from our own mucus.

Prebiotics selectively feed the growth of healthy intestinal bacteria (such as bifidobacteria and lactobacilli) at the expense of the less friendly putrefactive bacteria (such as bacteroides, clostridia, and other coliforms).

If we don't feed probiotics with prebiotics, even if we supplement our diet with probiotics, it will not be enough. This is the basic reason for functional food industry is going toward the commercialization of synbiotic food, having both pre- and probiotics.

Prebiotics are oligosaccharides, that is sugars "bigger" than normal sugar but "smaller" than starch.

The main prebiotics are:

*fructooligosaccharides (FOS), normally found in Jerusalem artichoke tubers, dandelion root, burdock root, onions, leeks, some grains, garlic, wheat, bananas, asparagus, tomatoes, yacon, raisins, prunes and honey;
*galattooligosaccharides (GOS), normally found in human milk (and some humanized baby formula, especially in the EU);
*inulin, normally found in dahlia tubers, burdock roots, chicory roots and greens.

Interestingly, bacterial species differ in the types of sugars required for growth. Bifidobacteria grew well on FOSs and inulin, while lactobacilli grow poorly on these sugars.

The by-products of the metabolism of these sugars are primarily short-chain fatty acids, which are considered to be "food" for the bowel cells in the colon.

Coming to IL, why is it all so interesting?

Because among the several aspects affecting the gut microflora, high levels of fat in the stool as well as high level of proteins can negatively affect the level of Bifidobacteria.

What Probiotics Are

2006-05-21T15:43:00.000+02:00

Probiotics are bacteria and/or yeasts that help our body by helping a healthy balance of our bowel flora.

They do not have to be confused with yogurts, because:

* they are alive, like some yogurts
* they are administered by mouth, like any other food
* they reach the bowel alive, and this is the big difference they have with respect to yogurts!

So, actually, probiotic foods are more similar to kefir, which verifies these properties and is a dairy product fermented with bacteria and some yeasts.

When we go to the market and browse the yogurt section, we happen to find dairy products that claim to have probiotics in them. Some do, some do not. The rule of the thumb is to check the list of probiotic strains before buying a "probiotic" product.

This being said, probiotics can be classified as either bacteria (such as some Lactobacillus acidophilus, Bifidobacterium, Lactococcus, Streptococcus and Enterococcus strains) or yeasts (such as Saccharomyces boulardii).

Different probiotic strains have been tested and proven effective in different kind of disorders. The most striking examples are the use of VSL#3 for IBD.

The way their presence in the bowel works is very simple. By being there and being alive, they produce lactic acid. Lactic acid diminishes the pH of the lumen, making it more acid. Enhanced acidity inhibits the growth of "bad" bacteria, which causes intestinal infections (mainly rotavirus diarrhea - the "usual" summer bugs, and antibiotic induced diarrhea - due to Clostridium difficile), UTI (through Escherichia coli overgrowth) and vaginal infections (both vaginosis and Candida's).

Gas Colic

2006-04-08T20:20:00.000+02:00

Sometimes, you can get a gas colic, just like babies'. In this case the pain is different from usual IL's, in that it:
1. is localized around the navel and below the stomach,
2. gets far worse when you stand up
3. also worsens when you tighten your abdominal muscles

What can you do to make it go away?

Lay on your left side, because that will relax your abdominal muscles and diminish the pain. This position will also help you release gas without straining (that is, it will help painlessly).

Use a hot water bottle that will keep contractions in check.

If you can, sleep and allow the bowel to do its stuff.

Intestinal Lymphangiectasia Damange Control

2006-04-08T03:43:00.000+02:00

What to do when the sh*ts hit? There are many things that I found helpful and I'm going to list them here so that every surfer stumbling on this site can benefit from them.

When the whole thing starts and you get nauseated, you can lay down on your left side: that will prevent vomit and ease your nausea. Because of its anatomy, the Gubaroff valve will keep your stomach closed.

When the pain hits, put a hot water bottle on your tummy: heat relieves the cramps you undergo due to diarrhoea.

After loosing all those liters of fluids, rember to rehydrate your body! In order to do it correctly, you have to weight how much you loose.

If you don't have oedema, you can drink isotonic solution (1 liter, 9 grams of salt, 30 gr of sugar) and use the equation for burnt people to establish at which pace to rehydrate (half of the total losses in 8 hours and the other half in the next 16 hours). If you do have oedema, add a protein mix (such as Meritene) to the whole solution.

Stop eating for a while. Your diarrhoea is of the osmotic type, which means it will go on as long as there is food in your bowel. Therefore, fast for some number of hours, usually 12, meanwhile living on isotonic solution and solution of water and sugar.

Re-start getting eating those foods that block your bowel. It's pretty personal, but mine are canned tuna, french bread and cous cous, together with unheated skim milk/dairies.

Eat foods with a very low fat content for a couple of days before restarting pushing toward a higher percentage. My personal threshold is 3%, and I eat food below 1% for a day or two after an "episode".

If you are eating a fattier meal, take some simethicone (Mylicon): that will prevent unabsorbed fats from being used as food by bacteria, with consequent production of gas that will overstretch your bowel's wall (which is already full of oedema by itself!) and accelerate your bowel movement speed.

Taking 1 teaspoon of lecithin per meal helps emulsifying the fats, thereby enhancing absorption and diminishing the symptoms. A food that can help you hugely, because of its content in phospholipids (emulsifiers) is egg.

The way you eat is also very important.

1. try to eat MAINLY polyunsaturated fatty acids: they are absorbed via a protein, not through the "fat" part of cell membranes the way saturated fats are and create far less pain for you because they put less pressure on your lymphatics;
2. avoid transfats COMPLETELY: they enhance diarrhoea even in healthy individuals, so.. bake your own tarts, cakes, muffins, etc.
3. don't give up on making tasty food, there are zillions of ways you can substitute, for example, butter in bakery or use spices. Just learn, learn, learn

How Intestinal Lymphangiectasia Feels

2006-04-08T01:31:00.000+02:00

Right after a fatty meal (in 20-30 minutes), I start burping a lot and having some stomachache. It's like eating too
much: you feel swollen and your digestion takes longer. It is uncomfortable but not painful (yet).

Then, the food progresses into the beginning of the small bowel, and it feels like when you have motion sickness: you get irritable, can't stand and tend to lay down on your left side and wish for it to go away. That is when you start complaining.

After a while you start hearing noises out of your belly. That is when the REAL pain begins. Pain gets worse and worse till you have to go to the bathroom. It's pretty much like a stomach bug BUT it's a lot more painful. I can't even move my legs, cause the pain radiates to my feet (it's similar to menses', if you have the painful
form of them, or the first stage of labor, with shivers, nausea, inability to walk, and pain).

At this point, I will start passing the fatty food in 6 hours or so (sometimes even 4) and go on passing more and more liquid stools till at some point will feel hungry when in the bathroom. That's the signal I am having my "last" run due to that food.

Spice It Up!

2006-03-22T07:52:00.000+01:00

Cooking low-fat is hard also because the food might not taste as rich.

However, there are some interesting ways of making the taste richer, one of which is the liberal use of spice (some of them, like oregano and cloves, have loads of omega3s). McCormick's site has an awesome Spice Encyclopedia you can use.

The importance of omega3s for all the aspects of our health is reviewed in detail here.

Finally, my last gift for today: a Gourmet Calculator.

Fat Substitutes

2006-03-22T01:44:00.000+01:00

Many many times, we end up searching for low-fat recipes. We could as well learn to substitute fats in a way that is easier for us to tailor recipes on our personal needs.

I have two sites to bring to your attention.

This is from the Mayo Clinic, and also has substitution tricks for sugars and salt.

But this one is a real encyclopedia!

My personal way of substituting butter in bakery is:
2 parts of apple sauce
1 part of corn starch
1 part of soy lecithin

Pink Chicken

2006-03-02T09:06:00.000+01:00

3 red bell peppers

3 chicken breasts

½ cup Red currant

5 sprigs thyme

2 teaspoons soy sauce

2 tablespoon pine nuts

1 teaspoon fennel seeds

3 teaspoons marjoram

1 teaspoon pink pepper

¾ liter red wine

Chop the chicken breasts. Set aside.

Put red currant, thyme, soy sauce, pine nuts, and fennel seeds in the mixer. Mix till it’s fluid. Set aside.

Put the chicken in a big Ziplock bag, pour marjoram and pink pepper all over it. Add the mix. Add red wine.

Put in the fridge for at least 6 hours.

Chop the red bell peppers.

Put the chopped chicken in skewers alternated with chopped red bell peppers.

Set oven on 180°C (350°F) and cook.

Serve with toasted French bread with garlic rubbed on it.

Note: the amount of fat is the one in chicken (French bread is fat free).

Hints for Low-Fat Cooking

2006-03-02T02:02:00.000+01:00

Just today I was reached by this wonderful About.com link.

Among the many things, that I already knew, I wanted to highlight some stuff.

1. Oils:
remember some basic things:

A. Every solid oil contains transfats (margarine), saturated fats (coconut oil) or both (butter);
B. the more the omega3s an oil contains the less suitable it is for frying, because the double binds of omega3s, when heated, change configuration and make them become transfats.

Ideally, the best pick is a liquid oil whose fats are mainly saturated, like coconut(click on the slide to see its characteristics) or palm oil, but this is not healthy for your heart. Use sparingly. Plus, if you want to be sure it has no transfats, buy the virgin organic freshly squeezed one. If you fry more often and saturated fats would be too much for you, you can try using an oil that is high in monosaturated fatty acids, for example olive oil, but keep in mind that there are other substances in olive oil whose benefits would go lost completely when cooked.

Note: there are many dietetic fads. One of which is coconut oil, the other one is olive oil. The former tells you that coconut oil "makes you thin", supposedly by virtue of MCTs (medium chain tryglycerides) that aren't absorbed or metabolized as fats. The latter tells you that olive oil is always ok, frying included, while it is composed of 70% of monounsaturated fatty acids that will turn into transfats if heated.

2. Among extra lean meat, consider eating game: it's tasty, lean, and the few meat it contains is mainly omega3s. All wild animals, that is game, wild animals and grass-fed ones, have higher omega3s content.

3. Buy an appropriate set of knives: cutting fat from meat and poultry can be hard (and dangerous) without such specific tools.

4. Also learn to use parchment paper and aluminum foil to bake food into; "fry" omelettes by putting their ingredient in a ziplock bag, close it and cook it in boiling water; marinade vegetables and meat and then roast/grill it without oil; steam with herbs in the water so to give additional taste to the dish you're preparing; substitute butter with a mix of soy lecithin, apple sauce and cornstarch, and so on. Be creative.

5. If after draining you don't like the shallow taste (it does happen), add spices to flavour, cornstarch to thicken and, finally, some fresh flaxseed oil when the dish is on your plate.

6. Remember vegetables too contain fats. Do NOT think their are fatless when you do the counting.

7. When coating in breadcrums, do your own ones, starting from French bread, which is entirely fat free.

8. Remember to check for the amount of fat on sausages of any kind. Some still are 17-18%! Choose sausages from organic grass-fed chicken and turkey.

9. Replace oil for sauteing with bacon or pancetta, then skim the excess floating fat.

10. Use organic eggs, they have a higher omega3s content and a lot of lecithin, which keep them digestible and emulsified.

11. Eat fish that are "meat-like" as far as proteins are involved, like tuna or sardines. Similarly, use legumes or eggs or dairy to substitute meat. Eat at least two dishes of omega3 rich wild fish a week (salmon, mackerel, tuna, sardines, anchovies).

12. Also use low-fat bouillon powder, not cubes, because cubes have an awful lot of transfats.

13. Beware of fat-free dairies. Most of them contain transfats or mono and diglycerides (called from E471 on in Eu).

14. Also line your tarts with a small amount of butter and plain old simple French bread breadcrums.

15. Also over fry fishsticks.

16. Don't forget to also use cornstarch, or agar, or carrageenin to thicken homemade sauces.

17. Only eat cheese without added preservatives.

18. Make your own low-fat yougurt, sourcream, buttermilk. You can even make cheese. And you'll know what's in it.

19. If you use fat free cream cheese for cheesecake, add an additional eggwhite to keep it together.

20. Replace the rest of it with soy lecithin.

Beware of Milk

2006-03-01T01:05:00.000+01:00

I don't have lactose intolerance, my Irish descent protects me from the damn thing. In fact, I've always been able to drink whole milk even in my adult life.

I've been sick for two days, and couldn't figure out why. I went through my food journal and I couldn't understand the reason, yet. Then, I had the light went on when I was in the bathroom.

I thought skim (fat free) and partially skim (low fat) milk were ok, while whole milk had to undergo to a dilution. I had not considered the cooking method!
I've been sick because I've eaten cappuccino (that is, coffee and heated milk). I couldn't make sense of it because the milk was either low fat or whole but diluted with coffee.

I think the mechanism is that the heat changes the fat structure. I still don't know how, but having a milk and coffee with whole milk gives me zero problems.

There's More To It Than Low-Fat

2006-02-28T00:43:00.000+01:00

Despite a low-fat diet, some fat free foods still made me sick, and I couldn't understand why for the life of mine. Once, I had eaten a 2.4% fat chocolate sorbet with fat free whipped cream and I still got sick!! Patterns seemed herratic... I couldn't understand the meaning of it all.

I started - surprise surprise - reading the food labels and... I made some important discoveries!!!!!

Aside from the illness per se and the low tolerance to high amounts of fats, there are some substances that make me sick no matter what. I found it out by journaling the food I was eating and the symptoms I was having (that's a technique that is used for bipolar, in which one charts his/her moods AND what happens in their life).

These substances are used as food preservatives, emulsifiers, and substitutes of fats.

First big thing I discovered:

Foods advertised as fat-free might not be fat free, for three reasons:
1. the FDA regulation allows manufacturers to claim a food is fat-free when the fat concentration is less than 0.5 grams per serving. When the serving is below 0.5 gram (like for PAM spray), it can be labelled as fat-free even if the whole serving is composed of fats (that's what happened to me with the "I can't believe it's not butter" JUST before Thanksgiving!);
2. up to January 2006, trans fats were NOT included in the count of fats you find on the label (!!!) and the FDA allows manufacturers to still sell food with old labels provided the food was labelled before Jan 1st 2006;
3. mono and diglycerides (which basically are fats, but broken down in their components) are NOT counted as fats in the label.

Trans fats are also called partially hydrogenated fats and are artificial fats that aren't absorbed or digested by our bowel (thereby creating diarrhea!!). Even bacteria can't eat them, which is why they are used as preservatives (the food spoils later because even bacteria can NOT eat them!!!!). Interestingly, the "average" American eats up to 6 grams of trans fats a day, and diarrhea starts at 10 grams (some 30 grams "fat-free" chips, or cookies, are enough to go way above this limit).

Mono and dyglycerides are byproducts of fats (called triglycerides). When you eat them you eat exactly the same amount of calories you get from fats. They too can give diarrhea, especially in allergic people and especially in people allergic/intolerant to aspirin.

Second big thing I discovered:

Later, when I got back to Italy, some OTHER artificial food addictives, preservatives, emulsifiers, leviting agents and dyes can ALSO give problems. I have a whole list of all these substances, which ones are ok and which ones are bad, I will post them later.

Now, back to when I was in the States. I wanted to cook some Italian dishes but I couldn't find swiss chard. I got pointed to Whole Foods and I started buying organic food. Note: I had never bought organic stuff and thought that it was pure quackery. But I improved so much in my condition that now I eat organic only (OR industrial food without those nasty preservatives, trans fats and mono/diglycerides).

Third big thing I discovered:
The reason for organic food is healthier are two folds:

1. it's without nasty substances (preservatives, dyes, etc etc), and
2. it has loads of omega3 essential fatty acids, which are mood stabilizers, anti-inflammatory and natural pain killers. Omega3s are found in WILD oily fish (salmon, herring, tuna, yellofin, mackerel ONLY if wild, the farmed version contains too much fat and too much saturated, that is, animal fats), game (deer, wild rabbit, quails, etc etc) and in some vegetables (garbanzo beans, flaxseed oil, green leafy veggies, etc).

In my case, I can absorb them a lot better than animal fats. Just to give you an idea, I can only eat 3% fats (in weight) if assorted fats, but I can digest without problem up to 12% omega3s (like fresh salmon - yes, sushi helps a lot).

Fourth big thing I discovered: some ways to cook food are more dangerous than others, and for specific reasons. For example, butter and margarine have LOADS of those nasty trans fats and, when heated (like in baking) they develop even more trans fats. Deep-frying also produces trans fats, unless one fries in oils that are very stable (coconut oil, palm oil, lard and pork fat). Problem is, these very oils are dangerous for other reasons (they raise cholesterol and raise the risk of strokes, heart attacks, etc etc). At any rate, do NOT fry in oils rich in omega3s (like flaxseed, canola, sunflower, safflower, etc), you could get diarrhea out of it.

Five big thing I discovered: I improve my diarrhea by supplementing my diet with 3 teaspoon of soy lecithin a day, because it helps with fat absorbption and it prevents unabsorbed fats from eliciting diarrhea. Also, benefiber (powder) can help. Do NOT take the pills, cause they too have mono and diglycerides.

If you still don't believe how pervasive trans fats are, read this WebMd article.

From Now On...

2006-02-26T20:04:00.000+01:00

When you get diagnosed with Intestinal Lymphangiectasia (IL), you better not hope that doctors will help you, because most likely they won't. You'll be told blanket statements like

1. "stay on less than 30 grams of fat a day":
You will not be told that there are some (dietary) fats that are more digestible than some others (artificial) supplements.

2. "take MCT supplements"
You will not be explained that medium chain tryglicerides (MCT) also are naturally occurring in some foods (like butter, coconut, nuts and green tea).

There are many problems with such approach.

First off, dietary fats are not "all bad" for you even if you have IL. Some symptoms can be hugely ameliorated by eating foods rich in lecithin and omega3s, for example the pain and the shits. If you don't know anything about it, you could paradoxically eat a lot of saturated fats among those allowed 30 grams, and still have huge symptoms. If you know something more about it, you might need not be that restrictive in food intake and cooking methods. In other words, you might eat tasty foods that sit ok with you and aren't always the same few "balanced" dishes.

Some fats are essentials because, like vitamins, they cannot be manufactured by the body. When having restrictions in the amount of fats it's mandatory to know which fats can be safely avoided and which ones have not to be avoided.

MCT oil can give you diarrhea. There is absolutely no reason for you have to cope with that diarrhea, because MCT are not composed of essential fatty acids. If you can't tolerate them, don't take them.

Finally, you still have to eat food, and nobody teaches you its composition. You need to know what a food is composed of, how it is made, and how to make tasty, nutritional and safe food. You need to learn to avoid trans fats that can give you diarrhea and trigger IL.

Doctors won't tell you food information. Dieticians will usually put you on a diet. This blog is here to inform you and teach some tricks. But above all, use your brain, learn and be the master of your Fate.

Snapshots of My Story

2006-02-26T19:25:00.000+01:00

This is a long story. I have no formal day to give you as a starting point, so I'll set an arbitrary one for the first day reality broke thru full force.

June 1st 2004:

Sitting in the bathroom, my head spins. The pain is so much I can't even see the tyles in front of me, just the cracks between them. "I need to pass the brush into them" I think "Ok, when the pain goes away". What a weird intestinal bug, so painful. Painful shivers radiate from my belly, up to my neck and face, down to my feet plants. Right after that, the shits.

July 22nd 2004:

This is my first day out of the house since when my 12-16 daily shits began. I can't believe I'm venturing out. "I can't miss her, I can't miss her" That's all I can think.

February, 4th 2005:

I thought I was past the shits, I have felt better since September. But here they are again. Maybe it will go away again. It must be my gastritis or something, hence the nausea.

April, 8th 2005:

Curled up in the couch, in a ball of pain, I'm watching the Pope's funeral. "What is the meaning of this pain, Lord? What do I have to learn from it?". I wanted to go to Rome, but am still shitting over 10 times a day. I'm, again, afraid of getting out.

May, 12th 2005:

I'm afraid of what I'm shitting. It doesn't look "regular" to me, all that yellow stuff... my God I'm getting rotten. I need to do something. I thought I was getting better because I would shit less, and yet, here I am with all that weird stuff. My God.

August, 14th 2005:

Now I'm really scared. The pain, again, that stuff again. I showed it to mom, who turned white and said: "You have to call your brother's specialist, and you have to do it now".

September, 28th 2005:

The darn thing has a name and the name is intestinal lymphangiectasia.