Starch Intolerance! And resistant starches...PLEASE READ !

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Happyme2009
Happyme2009 Posts: 233 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hello,
through personal investigation I arrived to the conclusion that I may be starch intolerant.
Anyone else like that?
So, I will tell you that every time I eat pasties, cookies, pasta, pizza etc ( all of which I love ), I gain weight. Not only that, but I am also bloated, low energy, depressive.

A little history related....
I also had, years ago, Irritable Bowel Syndrome.
When I was a baby I was malnourished and dystriohic.

Back to these days..... I always suspected I may have some sort of carbohydrate intolerance. But how could I explain the fact that chocolate never made me fat or gave me any problems? Or the fact that I eat tons of fruits and vegetables, which never give me any problems or fatten me???

Well, this is what happened.... A few timesI went over my calories by a lot. Let's just call these times cheat days.
If I cheated with pizza, the next day I would show a gain 3-5 lbs. It would take me 1 week to drop those lbs.

But I noticed that when I cheated with cheesecake ( not eating the bottom cookie part, only the cheese ( sweet and chocolately , with fruits or caramel, etc ).... or chocolate.... nothing happened. I mean, going "over " by more than 1000-1500 calories and then the next day the scale would be exactly the same! Not even half a pounds gained!!!!!

Strange right?
Well, this got me researching starches...... and I arrived to the conclusion that I am starch intolerant. Basically if I eat starches I get bloated, fat, depressed, constipated, full of pimples on my skin.

BUT wait, bananas have starches! and sweet potatoes ! And beans !
But those don't give me any of those symptoms!

More research.....
Turns out that those are full of starches, but these are full of the so called RESISTANT STARCH. Resistant starch is considered a third type of fiber ( besides soluble and insoluble fibers).... it goes through the small intestines undigested, stops in the colon where it ferments and releases good stuff, and gets out.... just like fiber. This type of starch, even though a carbohydrate, doesn't make it into the blood stream as it is never broken down to simple sugars !!!!!

So there you have it.... my biggest discovery :)

From now on ( today is March 24, 2013) I will try to avoid as much as I can starches, unless they are the "good type ".
I need to research more "resistant starches"....

Anyone else with similar experiences????

Replies

  • EasterKingston
    EasterKingston Posts: 27 Member
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    This is interesting, as it matches my own experiences... Off to google resistant starches myself, now :) thanks for giving me something to think about!
  • azanne07
    azanne07 Posts: 32
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    hmmmm very interesting.
  • FitGirl329
    FitGirl329 Posts: 103 Member
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    I've had very similar experiences. I've attributed my issues largely to wheat and white flours. But I guess that's the same thing in a way. I'm going to have to do some research as well!
  • mmk137
    mmk137 Posts: 833 Member
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    you should read wheat belly, the author had the same problem, very interesting read.
  • thecrass
    thecrass Posts: 79 Member
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    I had something very similar, i changed my diet and after a little while of avoiding certain foods i noticed that i had no ibs and no heart burn and indigestion, and after trial and error i narrowed it down to a gluten in tollerance or other wise known as Coeliac "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coeliac_disease" and after research i noticed that it can go 2 ways you either can gain wait or drastically loose weight with it well i was a gainer not saying my diet was perfect in anyway prior but after figuring this out i feel amazing. now being 31 and suffered from ibs etc etc since i was around 15 its been totally normal.

    good luck and hope you get on well :-)
  • GiGiBeans
    GiGiBeans Posts: 1,062 Member
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    Interesting. It's possible when it comes to pizza and pasta that you're reacting to the sodium content of the tomatoes. Plus tomatoes are nightshades, which some peeps like myself are sensitive to. Turns me into a balloon with sore joints if I eat too much.

    What happens if you eat plain white bread?
  • leotardbanshee
    leotardbanshee Posts: 92 Member
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    I have started just eating gluten free recently. I feel so much better. Still have ibs due to recent gallbladder surgery but much of my pain inflammation and skin problems have improved :)
  • amonkey794
    amonkey794 Posts: 651 Member
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    Everyone bloats with starches. It's a property of carbs, simple water retention. I highly doubt you have an intolerance.
  • piscesy2k
    piscesy2k Posts: 21 Member
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    I was getting the same symptoms, with incredible pain thrown in as well, firstly thought it was gluten, so had the tests for coeliac, and they came back negative. Then thought it was just carbs, but most vegetables and fruit did nothing to me.

    After lots of research and cutting out and reintroducting foods into my diet, I have discovered that any foods that contain yeast, sets me off. So if things like pastries, breads etc seem to affect you, have a look at the yeast.

    All this started off after my gallbladder operation, and apparently acording to the dr is quite common. Never knew that so many foods contained yeast, so have to look at all the foods I eat.
  • FitGirl329
    FitGirl329 Posts: 103 Member
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    You may "highly doubt" but for many like myself, we're referring to more than just bloating. I completely eliminated wheat and white flours along with artificial sweeteners and added sugars for months. I've had some other things since with small amounts of added sugar. It was when girl scout cookie time came and I had 2-4 cookies at night, when my troubles started again. I've attended some dinners and parties and have consumed crackers, etc. It's not bloating. It's major stomach upset. If small quantities of a food send someone into this kind of a reaction, something else is going on. I am unable to leave my house...it's that bad. And it's always the following morning if I do it at night. Always. When I eat clean and good, I have no stomach issues at all. My skin even clears up more. My mood is better and my energy as well. It's amazing. And I don't think my issue is gluten since I can eat oats and Ezekiel products. I can't tell if mine is yeast or wheat or something else. All I know is that it's something.
  • maryjaquiss
    maryjaquiss Posts: 307 Member
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    My colleague was diagnosed with starch intolerance after numerous hospital tests so it's definitely a thing (and her symptoms sound very similar to yours), although I'd go and see a doctor just to make sure it's nothing more sinister.
  • Happyme2009
    Happyme2009 Posts: 233 Member
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    I just thought I would report again....
    Yesterday was Sunday.... I usually "cheat" Sat. and Sun.
    Well, Sat. was the day described in the first post of this thread.
    Yesterday I ate eggs, steak, chocolate cheeesecake ( without the bottom cookie ), jam with fat free cottage cheese, sole fish, grapefruits, milk, tomatoes, zero noodles, pasta sauce, chocolate bar, and only one slice of bread early in the day. My net again was over 2000 calories, with an excess of 730 cals over what I was supposed to eat.... ( 1280 net a day, I want to lose 1 lbs a week).
    Guess what?
    After 2 days of cheating and going "over" by almost 2000cals, I still didn't gain anything!
    Shouldn't I attribute this to the lack of starch?
    Because surely I ate a lot of carbohydrates and sweets....
    I truly have no explanation.
    Again, if I was to cheat with pastries I would have gained a ton, normally.
    I cheated with cheese and chocolate and didn't have a problem.... To me it's weird.
  • suprzonic
    suprzonic Posts: 68 Member
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    I think I'm the same!
  • HomeBody52
    HomeBody52 Posts: 13
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    I bought the book "The CarbLovers Diet" by the editors of Health Magazine. It's built around Resistant Starch foods. It seems to work. I've lost 10 pounds and my husband has lost 15. A big plus? I'm almost never hungry. Here's the website for anyone who's interested::

    http://www.health.com/health/package/0,,20367333,00.html
  • moondrem
    moondrem Posts: 1
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    I know you posted this sometime ago but I thought I would add to see if it helped. I was diagnosed with starch intolerance a little over a year ago. I went through 6 medical tests/procedures before they found the cause. It turns out I had it all my life and people blamed my tummy aches in being a "nervous child". If you have it, it is not fun. You can eat hardly anything and you have to be super aware of everything. I recommend going to a specialist because my family doctors gave me several wrong causes before I went to a specialist. Beware though, I have good insurance and I'm still paying medical bills from all that.
  • aewen007
    aewen007 Posts: 1
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    I have recently discovered I'm also intolerant to starches.

    I started developing serious reactions. Fevers and skin would just crack and I looked a state.
    Couldn't concentrate at work or anything. Started to get depressed.
    I did a food diary etc and could work out what was causing it.

    I'm of caribbean heritage and in my culture we eat a lot of rice ands I love rice. But now i can't eat it at all. Its what gives me the strongest reaction.

    I though i could eat pulses but I get a similar reaction. White potatoes also. I thought I would try sweet potatoes and bananas but then I got a reaction from those. That was 8 months ago.

    I brought these issues to my GP who never heard of this allergy and didn't respect my analysis. He was just giving me creams on top of creams
    So I have had to live off greens meat and dairy. But I just don't have the energy levels need to perform daily.

    So I tried banas again. And all is right with the world.
    I can still eat everything but starches and get energy from bananas.
    Plus losing weigh is an added bonus.

    there is not much info on the internet regarding this allergy but I imagine there are a lot of intolerant people out there just that some manifest more serious symptoms than others

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