You’ve read about the healthy fats and nutrient density in avocados, so you eat them.
What about all the benefits from fermented foods? You’ve tried those too.
Aren’t garlic and onions supposed to be great?
And chocolate is rich in polyphenols and minerals, right?
You are already eating a Paleo, gut-healthy diet!
But what if eating these foods is making you feel worse?
There are some food compounds in otherwise healthy foods that can be contributing to your symptoms. Exploring these can provide you with some important clues that can help you not only customize your diet, but clues that can help you to explore further testing with your practitioner.
THOSE CRAZY COMPOUNDS
Avocados are high in FODMAPs, histamines, and salicylates.
FODMAPs - Many doctors suggest a low-FODMAP diet for IBS, though it is not recommended for long-term use (1). Normally FODMAPs are a good thing. They are food for the beneficial microbes in your large intestine. If you get a bloated or distended belly after eating foods high in FODMAPS such as garlic, onions, asparagus, cabbage, avocado, apples, or mangos then you should temporarily find replacement foods. You may have more extreme digestive symptoms like diarrhea, constipation, or a combination of the two, or even abdominal pain. Most people complain of bloating that gets worse throughout the day, and many feel better when they don’t eat. If you feel better without FODMAPs in your diet then talk to your functional or integrative practitioner about testing for SIBO (small intestinal bacterial overgrowth). SIBO may be underlying your IBS. FOPMAPs will feed an overgrowth of microbes in the small intestine, where numbers of microbes are usually low. If your microbial community is high in your small intestine then feeding them FODMAPs can contribute to many of your digestive symptoms. It’s important to work with a practitioner who addresses WHY you have SIBO.
Strawberries are high in histamines, and all berries are high in salicylates. Try apples or pears instead!
Histamines - If that long, slow cooked bone broth or those beautiful gut-healthy ferments are making you feel worse, then histamines could be a contributing factor. Does red wine cause your face to flush? Or maybe a romantic evening of chocolate covered strawberries caused a migraine, vomiting or diarrhea? If you have allergy-like symptoms such as a runny nose, hives, itching, or swelling in your throat, then you may have high histamine levels. Other indications can include fatigue, headaches or migraines, high blood pressure, depression, heartburn and other digestive complaints, intense pain with periods, asthma (including exercise induced asthma), anxiety, eczema (2)… The list is long, but each person’s symptoms can look different. A low-histamine diet that avoids ferments, slow cooked foods, preserved or dried foods, leftovers and high histamine foods such as chocolate, avocado, tomato, strawberries, and walnuts is helpful, but it’s also important to explore why your histamine levels are high. Your body might not be good at breaking histamines down and clearing them, or your gut microbiome could be high in species that produce histamines. A concise gut-healthy, low-histamine list can be found at Whole30. Possible triggers include SIBO, mold illness, allergies, stress, and trauma, so these are all areas worth exploring with your practitioner, along with genetic variations impacting your ability to breakdown and clear histamines.
Salicylates - the symptoms and contributing factors overlap extensively with histamine-mediated symptoms. One of the symptoms that is unique to salicylate issues is hyperactivity. If you react negatively to Pepto Bismol, aspirin(3), or other NSAIDS (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) then this could be you. Over-the-counter versions include Advil/Motrin/Ibuprofen, and Alleve/Naproxen. If you take an anti-inflammatory prescription do an online search to see if it fits this category of drugs. Just like histamines, you may have difficulty in breaking salicylates down and clearing them from your body. Common foods high in salicylates include berries, apricots, avocado (again?!), cherries, endive, grapes, oranges, nightshades, coconut oil and olive oil. You can find a list here. If you feel better without salicylates then keep working on gut health and work with a skilled practitioner to address contributing factors and genetic variations that impact clearance.
If you use spinach in your smoothie or salad, try cooking it or replacing it with lettuce.
Oxalates - if you have vulvar pain, joint pain, bladder/pelvic pain or have had kidney stones then you might have high oxalate levels. Some of the foods high in oxalates include beets, carrots, chocolate, kiwi, potatoes (all kinds including sweet potatoes) leafy greens (especially spinach), and nuts. The good news about oxalates is that cooking reduces their levels. Talk with your practitioner about doing an Organic Acids Test if you have unexplained pain or a history of kidney stones to find out if oxalates are involved.
If you are having problems with any of these food compounds then it’s a sign that more work needs to be done a the gut level. It might be time to dig a bit deeper into what is going on in your gut, and to change your diet up to manage your symptoms until all the contributing factors can be identified and addressed.
Personally, addressing my histamine levels was what finally allowed me to get rid of eczema for good. Are you feeling stuck? If your symptoms match what I’ve described above, then it’s time to change things up! Which food compound do you think is causing problems for you?
Happy, Healthy Eating!
Tracey