I have been following my SWAMI Xpress diet for 9 months now.  I have found a lot of benefits from doing so, except with my allium intolerance.

My Dad (A+ Teacher) has digestive intolerances to various foods, allium family (onions, garlic in any regular amount but can tolerate powder forms and shallots), iodine, barley, rutabaga, etc.  His Mom has digestive intolerances to various foods as well, but not all the same ones.  

I grew up without eating a lot of onion or garlic, but I did still eat it.  (Salsa, soups, sauces, even occasionally cooked without any issues.)  After I became pregnant with my son at age 20, I started getting an upset stomach anytime I had a good amount of onion or garlic.  Now that I am 32, it has become worse to the point of having a major digestive problem when I encounter any amount of anything in the allium family... including onions, garlic, shallots, chives, etc.  I can't eat soups, salad dressings, most seasonings, or anything that may contain any amount of alliums.  The last time I got sick, my digestive system shut down and I lost 10 pounds in 3 days due to diarrhea and vomiting and couldn't eat anything save a few sips of water for 5 days!  

This is ridiculous!  I don't mind following the SWAMI lists, but to combine that with my intolerance, it has become very hard for me to eat anything that I don't make myself.  

My real question is, could there be an enzyme or other chemical deficiency in my stomach and/or gut that is causing my intolerance?  I was hoping that after undoing the lectin damage in my gut by following SWAMI that my sensitivity would lessen, but that has not been the case.  

Any help or advice is appreciated!

Have you looked at fructose mal absorption. follow low fodmap variation of swami for a while then when tummy is healed revert back to swami but don't go mad on high fructose fruit and veg. worked for the two girls in my family. takes a while and is quicker the more compliant you are but works well.

do you have any skin issues?

generally it seems that if you have an issue with fructose casean and gluten are a problem as well.

just a thought, is it possible you are an explorer?

Quoted from Jenn S.

This is ridiculous!  I don't mind following the SWAMI lists, but to combine that with my intolerance, it has become very hard for me to eat anything that I don't make myself.

I'm following my SWAMI lists, without an intolerance to any additional foods,and I also find it nearly impossible to eat anything I haven't prepared myself. I do so on very rare occasions, and I'm not able to stick to SWAMI 100% at those times. I don't trust that prepared foods are free from "avoid" oils or trace amounts of corn products.

I definitely think you should try to heal your gut so you can tolerate allium foods again, but, IMO, the "not being able to eat anything I don't make myself" part isn't ridiculous, it's typical.

Even though my Swami says garlic is not an avoid for me, my IgG blood test for residual food allergies says it is an avoid for me, that I react to it. So I'm going with the blood test.

Quoted from ruthiegirl

I definitely think you should try to heal your gut so you can tolerate allium foods again, but, IMO, the "not being able to eat anything I don't make myself" part isn't ridiculous, it's typical.

ruthiegirl: You're right.  It is much more typical on this diet to have to make a lot of food yourself to do our best at keeping out the avoids.  Unfortunately, my intolerance makes it harder than usual.  I was just hoping to see if there could be an enzyme or something that I could take (by food or supplement) that might help me be less sensitive to all things Allium.

policychecker: I don't know if I am a fructose mal absorber or not.  I know that I don't do well on high sugar foods in general, or they do give me a bunch of gas.  I don't like to eat fruit most of the time.  If I do eat fruit, I much prefer blueberries, cranberries and pineapple to apples and pears.  The only thing I drink on a regular basis is water.  I don't drink juice except for straight cranberry juice sometimes mixed with a small amount of 100% grape juice or 100% pineapple juice to sweeten on rare occasion to keep down my chance of a UTI.  (Which I haven't had any since following SWAMI! Yay!)

I don't have skin issues with the minor exception of the hormone related "from the bottom up" acne that I've had ever since I was a teenager.  It was never a major problem, but I almost always still have at least one "volcano" form each month close to my cycle.  

My SWAMI Xpress has never put me as an Explorer, always as a B+ Gatherer.

I tolerate minute amounts of gluten much better than chicken or corn, which I avoid at all cost.  I have never had an issue with lactose.

D.L.:  Did you find the IgG blood test for food allergies very helpful?  Onion and Garlic are both diamond beneficials on my SWAMI, but they aren't tolerable at all in actuality.

Jenn, as an experiment perhaps avoid the high fructose fruits, apples and pears.

and have a space between fructose hits of at least 3 hours. keep fruit portions small.

max 3 bits of fruit a day.

keep onion and garlic to a minimum. see if you get less gas.

call it SIBO or fructose mal absorption, whatever but that helps while yur gut heals. and things get better.

if you get a benefit from that and want more exact details pm me your email address and I'll send you some info.

keep the water separate from food too. do you get on okay with grapefruit?

Quoted from Jenn S.

policychecker: I don't know if I am a fructose mal absorber or not.  I know that I don't do well on high sugar foods in general, or they do give me a bunch of gas.  I don't like to eat fruit most of the time.  If I do eat fruit, I much prefer blueberries, cranberries and pineapple to apples and pears. .

Hi Jenn S, I read and heard often that once a day of apple will make you away from the doctor but every time I eat fruit such as: Apples, Pears they do give me a lot of gas too. Now I stop eat those fruits. Also, in the GTD the Teacher diet an apple is a back dot.

http://www.drpeterjdadamo.com/wiki/wiki.pl/Schwartzman_Phenomenon_(Schwartzman_Reaction)

Has to do with the liver pathways-- if you increase exposure consistently slowly you will increase your tolerance.

This takes time and patience.

Dr. D'Adamo has mentioned this quite sometime ago on the forums.

Csharp might be able to locate the post but it is old and buried some place.



Might want to eat more of these foods to help the liver detox slowly--http://www.dole.com/NutritionI......aspx?contentid=8930

join the do it yourself club, when it comes to eating.....you are not alone!

PC: I currently avoid all forms of allium foods, and read all labels.  I have to.  I also don't eat fruit on a regular basis.  If I do it's only a small serving or two a week.  I like fresh blueberries, so that's usually the only fruit I have.  My husband likes grapefruit, so I do have that on rare occasion, but it doesn't affect me negatively.  I just find that my body doesn't like a whole lot of fruit.  I try not to drink with meals and only have water available during them if I need a sip or two to help the meal go down.  I drink my water in between so that it doesn't dilute the enzymes.  

wanthanee: I've also heard that apples and pears are supposed to be good.  I don't eat them as a general rule.  They are both listed as neutral on my SWAMI Xpress report, but I know from experience that my body prefers them to be more like a black dot.

Thanks Andrea and Lola.  I appreciate the advice.  More broccoli for me!  

Jenn - Yes, I did find the IgG blood test very helpful. It identifies foods that stay in your body and cause delayed symptoms. You know you don't feel right but don't know why, because it is a delayed reaction, not an immediate reaction, like the skin tests. It also confirmed for me things that I already knew I was allergic to, such as eggs, gluten, and dairy. Some  of these are on my Swami avoid list, some are not. The only thing is, though, the foods that you haven't been eating for a long time, or ever, don't show up as bad. Example, I am allergic to oysters, sunflower, and goat milk, so I don't eat them. They did not show up as avoids because I didn't have any in my system. On the other hand, eggs, which I only had a little in mayonnaise, showed up really high as an avoid. I took two of the IgG blood tests, a year apart, for comparison.

Quoted from Jenn S.

  More broccoli for me!  

Right on   I try to eat light stream broccoli 1 cup a day seem my hair more dark color. I am sorry I don't quite know how to explain in English. I mean my hair have more black color after eat 1 cup of broccoli every day for a few months. But have to cook it just the right time not overcook or not too hard and chew the food up to 30 times per bite.
On page 77 of the book cook right for your type say:
Eating and enjoying the flavors, aromas, colors, and textures of their food. The importance of mastication-using your teeth,lips, gums, and mouth to thoroughly chew and break down whatever it is that you’re eating-can’t be emphasized enough. Because the secretion of gastric juices is initiated by the sense of taste, chewing thoroughly and keeping the food in your mouth long enough to fully extract its full flavor helps prepare the stomach for proper digestion. This is also why foods should be eaten in their natural state. Digestive enzymes react only on the surface of food particles, not on their interior, so the rate of digestion depends upon the total surface area exposed to gastric and intestinal secretions. The more you chew the food, the greater the surface area, and the more effective the digestion throughout the gastrointestinal tract. This, in turn, increases the ease with which food is passed from the stomach to the small intestines and other areas of the body, thereby placing less strain on the digestive system.
   If your diet includes meats and seafood, you must take the time to thoroughly chew them, even up to thirty times per bite…..

All the book from Dr.D are very very helpful I wish I can have the book Live right for your type and swami. I have to wait thouhg.  

Quoted Text

Among all of the cruciferous vegetables, broccoli sprouts have the highest level of the glucosinolates relevant to this enzymatic process. Just two or three tablespoons of broccoli sprouts a day provide a powerful dose of glucosinolates. After broccoli sprouts, cauliflower sprouts are second highest in terms of containing the relevant glucosinolates.

Make some sprouts way better then broccoli.

I've never made my own broccoli sprouts.  I'll have to look that up.  Thanks, Andrea!

Also thanks to D.L. and wanthanee for the tips!

Quoted from Jenn S.

My real question is, could there be an enzyme or other chemical deficiency in my stomach and/or gut that is causing my intolerance?  I was hoping that after undoing the lectin damage in my gut by following SWAMI that my sensitivity would lessen, but that has not been the case.

I don't think I missed it, but nobody has mentioned molydenum being the deficiency that causes intolerance to sulphur foods... Might be worth considering... along with B vitamins

on the broccoli front, when you have a gut problem it is sometimes better to actually boil the broccoli rather than steam, makes it more easy to digest.

the broccoli sprouts are good but better when you are on the mend, we use then now several times a week but before they weren't well tolerated, especially by Emily and amber, although everyone is different.

Jenn, if you would like to keep diary of exactly what you eat and drink for a few days or a week and email it to me I'll make some suggestions that way, usually that works very well. or if you prefer note them on here too.

if you Google the easy sprout sprouter that works the best from all the ones I have tried

here is a link and a site i found useful

http://sproutpeople.org/supply/sprouters/easysprout.html

and how to actually do broccoli sprouts here http://sproutpeople.org/seeds/broccoli.html

they use 3 tables spoons i only use 1. but do that 2 times a week.

Quoted from wanthanee

Hi Jenn S, I read and heard often that once a day of apple will make you away from the doctor but every time I eat fruit such as: Apples, Pears they do give me a lot of gas too. Now I stop eat those fruits. Also, in the GTD the Teacher diet an apple is a back dot.

Eating these fruits separately may work. This is one of the main rules in food combining diet ("Hay diet"), i.e., to eat fruits either as a separate meal, or to eat them on empty stomach and give 20 minutes before eating proteins, carbs, or vegetables, thus avoiding mixing these nutrients with sugars and avoiding unnecessary & unpleasant fermentation within the GI tract.  

Quoted from Possum

I don't think I missed it, but nobody has mentioned molydenum being the deficiency that causes intolerance to sulphur foods... Might be worth considering... along with B vitamins

Thank you, Possum!  Yes, that was the kind of information I am really looking for.  I have an appointment with a Nutritionist at a Holistic Health Center tomorrow and I wanted some more ideas to help lead me in my own "homework" ahead of the appointment.  

PC: I will check out the links.  Thank you!

Yaeli: I have tried food combining strategies before after reading some books by Mary Ann Shearer.  I found that having an all fruit lunch is a bad thing for me.  I can do a small handful of fruit as a snack sometimes, but most of the time I need to eat some protein with it, or I get a horrible stomach ache and/or I get very tired from my blood sugar spiking and then dropping.  I'm not diabetic and just had my fasting glucose checked when I had my check up in April.  Maybe that could be a symptom of being a "fructose mal absorber" or just a Gatherer Genotype thing?

Quoted from Jenn S.

Thank you, Possum!  Yes, that was the kind of information I am really looking for.  I have an appointment with a Nutritionist at a Holistic Health Center tomorrow and I wanted some more ideas to help lead me in my own "homework" ahead of the appointment.

You're very welcome!! Btw there is a facebook group & a yahoo group on onion/allium intolerance, if you are looking for people experiencing similar sensitivities?! Interestingly I couldn't stand the smell of lillies (& nor could my Grandfather) when I was young, & they are in the allium family... Goodluck with your appointment...

As I mentioned - "molybdenum is very good at supporting the sulfur pathway and worthwhile supplementing. Dose = 500 – 1000mcg/day.
If you have elevated cysteine and you want to convert some glutathione, take 2:1 weight ratio of glutamine and glycine and your body will do the rest." Quote taken from: High Sulphur-Sulfur food list « livingnetwork.co.za

Quoted from Jenn S.

I found that having an all fruit lunch is a bad thing for me.  I can do a small handful of fruit as a snack sometimes, but most of the time I need to eat some protein with it, or I get a horrible stomach ache and/or I get very tired from my blood sugar spiking and then dropping.

I see. This is no fun. There was a time when I couldn't digest raw apples, and I used to cook peeled apples with cinnamon bark.