IBS And Digestion: Fructose V Starches

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My favorite thing to do is to have fruits/juices in the first part of the day and starches in the evening. Feels like a natural thing to do. Break-fast with sweet light refreshing fruit stuff and nice warm hearty salty starch meals for dinner and an evening meal. :):
 

kitback

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I am diabetic type two. In my pre-Peat years, when I thought sugar was bad, whenever I would have a starchy meal, it was pretty miserable. As soon as I finished eating, my insulin would lower my blood sugar and my muscles would tighten and I would feel chilled. Then in about 20 minutes, the cortisol would kick in and send my blood sugar soaring and I would be very hot and flushed and sweaty and thirsty for a couple of hours or more. It was like being on a blood sugar roller coaster all the time.

Once I learned about about Peat, I started adding sugar to my meals, always some kind of fruit juice or Mexican Coke (made with cane sugar). No more blood sugar roller coaster. No chills, no sweats, no thirst.Felt completely fine after eating What a relief!
 

kitback

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Thanks! It definitely improved the quality of my life .

My blood sugar numbers confirmed what I was experiencing (as explained in my above post).
When I discovered Ray Peat, my fasting blood sugar was 120. I had brought it down to 120 after a year of various low carb diets after my diagnosis of diabetes the year before when my blood sugar was in the 400s. My fasting blood sugar would be 120, then I would eat a meal and two hours later, my blood sugar would have soared up to 180 or 190. Then it would come down slowly over the next few hours. By then it would be time for my next meal so the blood sugar roller coaster ride went on all day and night. Miserable

Once I started Peating and balancing all my meals and snacks with sugar, (juice, Mexican Coke), my fasting blood sugar would be 145. Two hours after my meal, my blood sugar would be… 145. No change at all. Finally off the blood sugar roller coaster !
 
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Vileplume

Vileplume

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Thanks! It definitely improved the quality of my life .

My blood sugar numbers confirmed what I was experiencing (as explained in my above post).
When I discovered Ray Peat, my fasting blood sugar was 120. I had brought it down to 120 after a year of various low carb diets after my diagnosis of diabetes the year before when my blood sugar was in the 400s. My fasting blood sugar would be 120, then I would eat a meal and two hours later, my blood sugar would have soared up to 180 or 190. Then it would come down slowly over the next few hours. By then it would be time for my next meal so the blood sugar roller coaster ride went on all day and night. Miserable

Once I started Peating and balancing all my meals and snacks with sugar, (juice, Mexican Coke), my fasting blood sugar would be 145. Two hours after my meal, my blood sugar would be… 145. No change at all. Finally off the blood sugar roller coaster !

That's inspiring to hear! Why did you do just fruit juice and mexican cokes rather than actual fruit? Curious because I'm still tinkering with my fiber intake.
 
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Vileplume

Vileplume

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@Vileplume Coffee helps ibs quite a bit. You should try with a meal and some carb even sugar.

I have definitely noticed that! I am loving my morning coffees, which is a blessing because for so many years (and especially on low carb) coffee made me anxious, but looking back I think that's just because I wasn't providing my body enough proper fuel to accompany it.
 

kitback

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That's inspiring to hear! Why did you do just fruit juice and mexican cokes rather than actual fruit? Curious because I'm still tinkering with my fiber intake.

I am primarily an intuitive eater and that is what my body calls for. Since it does an excellent job of keeping my blood sugar stable, there would be no reason to change it. I like to have a beverage with my meals. I do eat fruit during the day but usually as part of a snack.
 

Geronimo

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I have definitely noticed that! I am loving my morning coffees, which is a blessing because for so many years (and especially on low carb) coffee made me anxious, but looking back I think that's just because I wasn't providing my body enough proper fuel to accompany it.

Have you been exercising? You need to use up your glycogen before carb binging again. Glycogen depletion significantly enhances fructose and glucose uptake from the digestive tract. If you're full on liver glycogen, as evidenced by your ability to fall asleep so early, you won't absorb fructose very well and it will likely ferment. Sprinting and lifting weights will deplete glycogen very effectively. It will also deplete arachidonic acid stores, essentially pulling arachidonate away from organs and into muscles, where it causes no harm. IMO, a lack of exercise is why most Peatarians fail. Intestinal uptake of glucose and fructose is impaired by having full muscle and liver glycogen, respectively. Lift some weights and eat all the clean carbs (fruit, rice, potatoes) you damn well please afterwards.
 
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Lord Cola

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The only time I had good digestion in my adult life was when I consistently avoided starch and unripe fruits, instead using refined sugar in milk. Depending on where you live, well ripened fruits may simply be unavailable. Any sourness in juice indicates that it will be irritating to my gut. Fiber in orange juice that hasn't been strained will also cause gut irritation for me.
 
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Vileplume

Vileplume

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The only time I had good digestion in my adult life was when I consistently avoided starch and unripe fruits, instead using refined sugar in milk. Depending on where you live, well ripened fruits may simply be unavailable. Any sourness in juice indicates that it will be irritating to my gut. Fiber in orange juice that hasn't been strained will also cause gut irritation for me.
Do you still do that, the refined sugar and milk, to this day? I have found that refined sugar and goat’s milk digests extremely well in regard to bloating and discomfort, but it leaves me constipated unless I have some easily digestible fiber a few times during the day. Most fibers mess me up though, unless perfectly ripe, like you said. Cooked strawberries seem okay, so I usually have a few bowls of those per day, with raw carrots too. Home-pressed OJ and pineapple juice digests really well too, but the high liquid content piles up and I still haven’t found a way around that.
 

youngsinatra

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Basmati rice has a lower glycemic index than white sugar. (50 vs 65)
Jasmine rice has almost 2 times higher glycemic index than white sugar. (110 vs 65)

Basmati works better for me in terms of blood sugar stability and regulation. Jasmine just makes me hot and energetic but crashes me hard after an hour.

I have IBS too and whole fruits are a no-no for my gut. Fresh juice without pulp is good, but the fruit fibers definitely mess up my gut.

I also tend to only like fruits on their own and combining them with savory foods like meat is just non-appealing to me. I rather have some rice, bone broth, lean beef and a few veggies and lots of salt.

Check out The Vertical Diet by Stan Efferding!
 

yashi

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Basmati rice has a lower glycemic index than white sugar. (50 vs 65)
Jasmine rice has almost 2 times higher glycemic index than white sugar. (110 vs 65)
I have a hard time believing this. Even though google does find a few pages saying something along those lines (most don't have the difference as drastic though). But I certainly would like to see a study that specifically compares those two with the same methodology and aims to explain on a molecular level why it would be so different.
 
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Vileplume

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Basmati rice has a lower glycemic index than white sugar. (50 vs 65)
Jasmine rice has almost 2 times higher glycemic index than white sugar. (110 vs 65)

Basmati works better for me in terms of blood sugar stability and regulation. Jasmine just makes me hot and energetic but crashes me hard after an hour.

I have IBS too and whole fruits are a no-no for my gut. Fresh juice without pulp is good, but the fruit fibers definitely mess up my gut.

I also tend to only like fruits on their own and combining them with savory foods like meat is just non-appealing to me. I rather have some rice, bone broth, lean beef and a few veggies and lots of salt.

Check out The Vertical Diet by Stan Efferding!
Interesting! I didn’t know different types of white rice had different GI scores. Maybe basmati will work for me, I’ll try it.

For me, ripe fruit is great. It digests well, but it’s impossible to find, most of the time you end up getting unripe fruit which totally irritates the gut. Juice works well for me too, but something salty and solid with it would be awesome to prevent a purely liquid diet.

What veggies work best for you? Do you boil them?
 
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Lord Cola

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Do you still do that, the refined sugar and milk, to this day? I have found that refined sugar and goat’s milk digests extremely well in regard to bloating and discomfort, but it leaves me constipated unless I have some easily digestible fiber a few times during the day. Most fibers mess me up though, unless perfectly ripe, like you said. Cooked strawberries seem okay, so I usually have a few bowls of those per day, with raw carrots too. Home-pressed OJ and pineapple juice digests really well too, but the high liquid content piles up and I still haven’t found a way around that.
I have been trying to make fruit juice work, by trying different brands, juicing fruits myself, different timings, and so on. While my digestion is good when I avoid all fruits and starch, and eat milk with sugar, my mood becomes worse, a lot less cheerful, and fruit improves my mood.

I think some fiber, like carrot, is necessary to get things moving regularly. I also found that avoiding fiber leads to a gradual increase in gut bacteria, which causes dry skin, dandruff, gas, etc.

Regarding high liquid content, I think it becomes problematic when thyroid and/or digestion are inefficient. When my digestion and metabolism were good, I could drink 3 quarts of milk every day and have no problem.

I want to find a way to improve my digestion so that I don't have to eliminate all foods except milk and sugar. If I have to be so extreme in avoiding different foods, even when they don't have common irritants, I think that means my health is not as good as it could be. I recently tried putting some dissolved aspirin on grated raw carrots instead of vinegar (I found vinegar gut irritating, therefore counterproductive), and my intestines feel a little less inflamed.
 
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oxphoser

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It seems like most whole fruits give me bloating and gas. When I first introduced just a few cups of berries spaced throughout the day, my digestion hardly noticed it. I got a little too excited then and rapidly went from cups of fruit to bowls of fruit, while adding in orange juice. The bloating And poor digestion commenced. Your response highlights my need to be more methodical about this, which I plan to do once I achieve a tolerable and comfortable baseline. That’s what I’m trying to achieve with this potatoes, maple syrup, meat combo.

Maple syrup must have a good deal less fructose then honey, right? Because Monash University (the fodmap researchers) list 2 tbsp of maple syrup as okay, but 1/2 tablespoon of honey as troublesome. And even still, when I have too much maple syrup (more than a few tablespoons at once), I get a tiny bit of bloating and gas.

Not sure what to make of the slight hyperglycemia from starch. Do you think this is problematic, or will it resolve itself in time?
I know this thread is 2 years old, but a quick search for "fructose" and "fodmap" got this page from Monash U, where they explain that, in some people, fructose by itself is absorbed slowly, and survives into the lower digestive tract where it ferments and causes problems. But then they add that there is another absorption pathway that occurs when you mix glucose with the fructose, and this pathway causes quicker fructose absorption. Thus keeping the fructose at roughly 50% should help prevent fodmap problems.
 
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Vileplume

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I know this thread is 2 years old, but a quick search for "fructose" and "fodmap" got this page from Monash U, where they explain that, in some people, fructose by itself is absorbed slowly, and survives into the lower digestive tract where it ferments and causes problems. But then they add that there is another absorption pathway that occurs when you mix glucose with the fructose, and this pathway causes quicker fructose absorption. Thus keeping the fructose at roughly 50% should help prevent fodmap problems.
That’s excellent information and definitely helps narrow down sugar sources.

Among foods highest in fructose that could cause problems:
-dates
-apples
-honey
-mango
 

oxphoser

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On second thought, I'm not so sure that eating glucose along with fructose would reduce gut problems. There's a study out of Monash U which tested that strategy specifically. Subjects who took glucose with fructose experienced no improvement in symptoms.

BTW, you can actually test for fructose malabsorption with a breath test that looks for exhaled hydrogen. Have you looked into that? If hydrogen isn't present, your problem may lie elsewhere.

Here's the study: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/jhn.12409
That’s excellent information and definitely helps narrow down sugar sources.

Among foods highest in fructose that could cause problems:
-dates
-apples
-honey
-mango
 

GreekDemiGod

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My favorite thing to do is to have fruits/juices in the first part of the day and starches in the evening. Feels like a natural thing to do. Break-fast with sweet light refreshing fruit stuff and nice warm hearty salty starch meals for dinner and an evening meal. :):
That's what I tend to gravitate to.
Starch is an evening/ dinner type food.
 
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Vileplume

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On second thought, I'm not so sure that eating glucose along with fructose would reduce gut problems. There's a study out of Monash U which tested that strategy specifically. Subjects who took glucose with fructose experienced no improvement in symptoms.

BTW, you can actually test for fructose malabsorption with a breath test that looks for exhaled hydrogen. Have you looked into that? If hydrogen isn't present, your problem may lie elsewhere.

Here's the study: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/jhn.12409
I haven't taken the hydrogen breath test for it, but I do notice that high fodmap foods give me very pronounced bloating, gas, and constipation. Garlic and onions are the worst for my stomach. Honey does it too, I think, and other high fodmap fruits like cherries. (I seem to do much better with maple syrup, which is lower in fructose.)

But I don't think it's only fodmaps at play because I also do terribly with potatoes, rice, and other low-fodmap foods. And I digest goat milk great, which has lactose (a fodmap).

I think certain fodmaps are troublesome for certain people, but the type of fiber and fruit ripeness play a very critical role, sometimes more important than fodmaps.
 

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