Any Ideas Why I React To White Rice And Sweet Potatoes But Not White Bread And Regular Potatoes?

gately

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Whenever I eat white rice or sweet potatoes, either cooked a variety of ways, I get the strangest mental symptoms. Like my brain can’t slow down and I feel ramped up and can’t sleep at all.

White bread and regular potatoes don’t give me this reaction at all. I’m trying to figure out why and what this could indicate.

Thanks!
 
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gately

gately

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I should add I don’t react to tortilla chips either.
 

mbachiu

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I should add I don’t react to tortilla chips either.
I think excess beta carotene from the sweet potatoes. I do much better on white than I do on sweet potatoes. White rice is technically a grain, so that may have something to do with it. The key that is used to boil the corn for tortillas partially digests the starch.
 
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gately

gately

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I think excess beta carotene from the sweet potatoes. I do much better on white than I do on sweet potatoes. White rice is technically a grain, so that may have something to do with it. The key that is used to boil the corn for tortillas partially digests the starch.

I handle carrots fine. So it's not the beta-carotene.

I handle wheat, in any form, fine, so it's not simply starch that's the issue. Certainly pancakes / bread / crackers should be harder to digest than white rice or sweet potato, yet I don't get any reaction to them.
 

Spokey

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I get trouble with old rice. Severe pins and needles in legs. I think it's the formation of resistant starches in the rice left to its own devices for too long. Freshly cooked is usually okay for me.
 

cyclops

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It does seem odd that you would react to white rice, but be fine with so many other things. I thought white rice was pretty much just plain benign starch, without much going on in the way of nutrients or anti-nutrients. I mean its not the starch because your fine with other starches. Really dont know.
 
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gately

gately

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It does seem odd that you would react to white rice, but be fine with so many other things. I thought white rice was pretty much just plain benign starch, without much going on in the way of nutrients or anti-nutrients. I mean its not the starch because your fine with other starches. Really dont know.

Yeah it's really bugging me that I can't figure this out. Because there are other foods that give me this reaction. Sometimes when I'm out to dinner and eat a bunch of new things, something will trigger the same response, but I have no idea what it is. I'm hoping someone has an idea what could be the similarity between sweet potatoes and white rice but not corn / wheat / potatoes, so I can finally figure this out.
 

postman

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Rice affects me badly too. I don't know why but I have some suspicions. Maybe it's the high inorganic arsenic content, this should be able to cause mental sideeffects in susceptible people if eaten in high enough quantity and often enough. Rice also has a very strong 5a-r inhibitor. It's in the bran and supposedly none of it would remain in the white rice, but I'm not so sure. Maybe there could be a lot of residue depending on how it's processed. I haven't seen anyone try to measure it in white rice. Or maybe it's just some kind of endotoxin reaction to that specific kind of starch. I don't eat sweet potatoes because of the carotene so I don't know if I'd react to it.
 

lvysaur

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IMO bread has two advantages, which are

1) very high surface area = very easy digestibility. ONLY flour products have this feature (bread, crackers, rice pancakes)
2) very dry = necessitates saliva secretion = better digestion. Nobody swallows dry food. So when you swallow bread, you're usually swallowing it with more saliva than if you eat rice/potatoes.

As for the potatoes, I don't know. By "normal" potatoes do you mean red, or gold, or russet (aka most, medium, and least amylopectin)? Everyone here sings the virtues of quick digesting amylopectin, but russets and basmati rice (both high amylose) seem to digest better for me.

Sweet potatoes aren't even related to potatoes so it could be any number of things
 
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gately

gately

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IMO bread has two advantages, which are

1) very high surface area = very easy digestibility. ONLY flour products have this feature (bread, crackers, rice pancakes)
2) very dry = necessitates saliva secretion = better digestion. Nobody swallows dry food. So when you swallow bread, you're usually swallowing it with more saliva than if you eat rice/potatoes.

As for the potatoes, I don't know. By "normal" potatoes do you mean red, or gold, or russet (aka most, medium, and least amylopectin)? Everyone here sings the virtues of quick digesting amylopectin, but russets and basmati rice (both high amylose) seem to digest better for me.

Sweet potatoes aren't even related to potatoes so it could be any number of things
Damn Ivy, this has been my EXACT thoughts lately! So interesting you had the same idea as me. In fact, I began experimenting recently with in-salivating my food extremely well (like fifty chews per bite) and will post if it makes any difference. (It's bringing me back to my woeful macrobiotic days. Oy vey.) Will report back to this thread if it helps. Thanks for chiming in!
 

清貴杉山

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For me corn is the only grain that dont **** me up,rice and wheat do.
And i feel differences between digesting baked and bolied potatos/yams idk why,how do you cook them??
 
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gately

gately

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For me corn is the only grain that dont **** me up,rice and wheat do.
And i feel differences between digesting baked and bolied potatos/yams idk why,how do you cook them??
I have noticed I don't react poorly to roasted /baked russet potato, but will react poorly if I boil the potato into a mash. So if it's dryish potato, I handle it fine. This is part of the reason I suspect Ivy's idea, about my saliva playing a role. I couldn't completely in-salivate the white rice or mashed potato or mashed sweet potato and thus am having trouble with undigested starch molecules in my gut.

I'm still formulating ideas about this. Probably Crohn's disease has ravaged my gut enough that I simply need the carbohydrate digesting enzymes in my saliva to do the heavy lifting for me, but it could also be that my saliva just isn't producing ENOUGH enzymes, (which I haven't researched what that could be caused by yet.)

Very excited to continue this experiment and report back. I have been hypothesizing for years that completely in-salivating starch and other foods would cure certain GI disorders, such as SIBO, simply by starvation of bacteria.

Interestingly, there was an old school Austrian cure called the Mayr Cure, which was based around fasting with milk and stale bread, and chewing them extremely well. Always wanted to test the theory on someone. Now I'm in the trenches testing it for myself!
 

Lollipop2

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I have noticed I don't react poorly to roasted /baked russet potato, but will react poorly if I boil the potato into a mash. So if it's dryish potato, I handle it fine. This is part of the reason I suspect Ivy's idea, about my saliva playing a role. I couldn't completely in-salivate the white rice or mashed potato or mashed sweet potato and thus am having trouble with undigested starch molecules in my gut.

I'm still formulating ideas about this. Probably Crohn's disease has ravaged my gut enough that I simply need the carbohydrate digesting enzymes in my saliva to do the heavy lifting for me, but it could also be that my saliva just isn't producing ENOUGH enzymes, (which I haven't researched what that could be caused by yet.)

Very excited to continue this experiment and report back. I have been hypothesizing for years that completely in-salivating starch and other foods would cure certain GI disorders, such as SIBO, simply by starvation of bacteria.

Interestingly, there was an old school Austrian cure called the Mayr Cure, which was based around fasting with milk and stale bread, and chewing them extremely well. Always wanted to test the theory on someone. Now I'm in the trenches testing it for myself!
Very interesting. Following.
 

Jib

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I get wicked acid reflux from white rice. And generally just feel awful after eating it.

Same with sweet potatoes. Regular potatoes are hit or miss. I do have to peel them as I'm allergic to the solanine content. I can always taste it, extremely bitter and extremely caustic, like rusty pennies with steel wool and vinegar on them. It's bizarre and I've had other people try prepared potatoes and they don't taste like that to them, so I'm just assuming it's an allergy.

The preparation thing makes sense to me. Salivary amylase could play a large role in how digestible these things are. Anything that typically requires less chewing or has a higher water content so the enzymes wouldn't have as concentrated an effect.....it makes sense that it would not digest as well, if you're relying mostly on salivary enzymes to deal with the starch content.

I had the same thing with granola. Tolerated far better than cooked oatmeal. I'd bake organic rolled oats with honey, coconut oil and salt. Did that daily for a long time but haven't done it in a few months now. But I always tolerated that granola better than oatmeal, presumably due to the water content messing with salivary amylase's ability to break down the starch for better digestion.
 

CLASH

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Interesting point on the baked/ roasted starch vs. boiled. To add anecdotal experience to the observation, I can eat rice flour cookies in
moderation with little issue, but if I eat fresh boiled white rice (I stipulate fresh as I use fresh specifically to avoid resistant starch which gives me gas) multiple days in a row it starts to slow down my digestion a bit. Also, I dont do well with sweet potatoes or yams at all. I do better with white potatoes but still feel better overall without them.
 
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gately

gately

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Interesting point on the baked/ roasted starch vs. boiled. To add anecdotal experience to the observation, I can eat rice flour cookies in
moderation with little issue, but if I eat fresh boiled white rice (I stipulate fresh as I use fresh specifically to avoid resistant starch which gives me gas) multiple days in a row it starts to slow down my digestion a bit. Also, I dont do well with sweet potatoes or yams at all. I do better with white potatoes but still feel better overall without them.
One thing I've noticed for years, just by virtue of all my eastern medicine study, is that by paying attention to my tongue, I can readily see I am more swollen when I eat starch that I can't insalivate well, with boiled tuber starch and white rice being the most problematic. (I wonder if well cooked sushi rice, which would be much easier to chew thoroughly would be safer?) I suspect so. This mild tongue swelling was always an issue for me, even long before I was having these issues, but now that I am reacting in such an acute way, along with the positive responses I have to amoxicillin and ox bile and carnivore, I'm led to believe the undigested starch is feeding an overgrowth. And since I've tried everything I can think of to treat it, might as well give this chewing thing a go.

Again, will get very strict with this "mastication and chewable starch" experiment starting tomorrow and stick with it for week or two and will let everyone know what happens.
 

lvysaur

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I was having these issues, but now that I am reacting in such an acute way, along with the positive responses I have to amoxicillin and ox bile and carnivore, I'm led to believe the undigested starch is feeding an overgrowth.
Do you know what your blood type is?
I still think that Dadamo has some truth behind him, he is right about alkaline phosphatase wrt A and O blood, for example.

I'm type O, and it seems like I react better to having more animal protein in my diet. Even if I don't feel intensely hungry for protein. (which is something I used to think was necessary to eat meat, my reasoning being that otherwise bacteria would feed off undigested meat)
 
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gately

gately

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Do you know what your blood type is?
I still think that Dadamo has some truth behind him, he is right about alkaline phosphatase wrt A and O blood, for example.

I'm type O, and it seems like I react better to having more animal protein in my diet. Even if I don't feel intensely hungry for protein. (which is something I used to think was necessary to eat meat, my reasoning being that otherwise bacteria would feed off undigested meat)
I'm A. Can't remember if it's A+ or A-. Anyway, I've certainly noticed that type O's typical do better on higher protein diets, and my worst reactions are all the major no-no's on the Type A list, so I definitely think there's some degree of validity to Dadamo's theory.

Anyway, I require high protein. I literally won't sleep a wink if I don't eat animal protein within a few hours before bed. It's been that way for a few years now.
 

lvysaur

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Anyway, I require high protein. I literally won't sleep a wink if I don't eat animal protein within a few hours before bed.

I have the same issue, and the heavier the protein the better the sleep. What are the "worst reactions" that are "nonos for type A" that you experience?
 

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