JakeLeg
04-11-2007, 02:41 PM
I became lactose intolerant in about my mid 20's, and couldn't really place it at first. Not being an overwhelming fan of dairy to begin with (except ice cream!) i didn't have it too often. The bloating, gas, diarrhea, pain, etc, I attributed to the odd stomach cramps that I think many people get every once in a while. Then I started putting 2 and 2 together and figured out that I was lactose intolerant.
I buy the Walmart brand lactase tablets to keep in my coat pocket and at the house for when i eat pizza, ice cream, etc, and they work fine.
A few years ago, in my early 30's, I started getting very similar symptoms to lactose intolerance when i shouldn't be getting those symptoms. The symptoms are even a bit more accute, with the cramping a bit worse, the pain a little more intense.
I couldn't place the cause, though. I went back to keeping notes of what i was eating (as i had years ago), but there didn't seem to be a common thread to the cause.
Things that seemed to be causing it as i was able to narrow down over time: coca-cola (a favorite of mine), bottled iced tea, orange juice, honey, pineapple. At first when Coca-cola became a potential culprit, on a hunch i switched to clear sodas like 7-up and ginger ale. Kept happening.
I started digging around the internet, and finally had a Eureka moment. What's the common thread? Fructose. The natural fructose in the fruit and the honey. The processed fructose in the beverages in the form of high-fructose corn syrup. Since i like a cold soda while mowing the grass or in place of a beer during the week (beer on fridays only), i have again started reading labels pretty carefully. I have not found a non-diet soda or bottled iced tea (except for one organic iced tea brand which i can't remember off hand) that DOESN'T contain high-fructose corn syrup.
The soda's not the end of the world, though, since i'm fine with water, and make homemade sun tea in the summer anyhow. The worst part is that i love fruit and honey and have to pretty much curtail my consumption down to almost nothing with regard to these.
Unlike lactose intolerance, which has an over the counter corrective enzyme (lactase), there is no enzyme that i know of for the fructose intolerance.
Crap. Well, maybe one day....
I buy the Walmart brand lactase tablets to keep in my coat pocket and at the house for when i eat pizza, ice cream, etc, and they work fine.
A few years ago, in my early 30's, I started getting very similar symptoms to lactose intolerance when i shouldn't be getting those symptoms. The symptoms are even a bit more accute, with the cramping a bit worse, the pain a little more intense.
I couldn't place the cause, though. I went back to keeping notes of what i was eating (as i had years ago), but there didn't seem to be a common thread to the cause.
Things that seemed to be causing it as i was able to narrow down over time: coca-cola (a favorite of mine), bottled iced tea, orange juice, honey, pineapple. At first when Coca-cola became a potential culprit, on a hunch i switched to clear sodas like 7-up and ginger ale. Kept happening.
I started digging around the internet, and finally had a Eureka moment. What's the common thread? Fructose. The natural fructose in the fruit and the honey. The processed fructose in the beverages in the form of high-fructose corn syrup. Since i like a cold soda while mowing the grass or in place of a beer during the week (beer on fridays only), i have again started reading labels pretty carefully. I have not found a non-diet soda or bottled iced tea (except for one organic iced tea brand which i can't remember off hand) that DOESN'T contain high-fructose corn syrup.
The soda's not the end of the world, though, since i'm fine with water, and make homemade sun tea in the summer anyhow. The worst part is that i love fruit and honey and have to pretty much curtail my consumption down to almost nothing with regard to these.
Unlike lactose intolerance, which has an over the counter corrective enzyme (lactase), there is no enzyme that i know of for the fructose intolerance.
Crap. Well, maybe one day....