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The recent discussions of celiacs who were experiencing severe weight
loss while on a non-gluten diet hit home with me, and I'm curious if
others have experienced the following problem:

1) If I eat only non-processed foods, I have an extremely difficult
time maintaining body weight.  I am already skinny to begin with,
so much of the weight loss is probably muscle tissue.  I am physically
active, and I estimate my daily calorie needs at around 3000 calories.
To get this many calories in unprocessed foods requires me to
just eat all day.  Since I have a full day job, I don't have time to
fix this much food or eat all day.  So I end up constantly feeling
tired and doing without enough calories.

2) If I eat sugary foods, including just fruits, I get diarrhea.  I
assume that this is related to low absorption, and in the case of
fruits it may just reflect an osmotic reaction (i.e., water rushes
into the gut to equalize the concentration of fructose in the gut and
in the blood).  The same thing happens with almost every type of sugar
I have tried (sucrose, glucose in the form of corn sugar, etc.).

When I eat sugars, I am able to get enough calories.  As an athelete,
I recognize the distinct feeling of a carbohydrate load in the muscle
(glycogen load), and I only get this when I allow myself to eat sugar.
But I find getting enough energy to my muscles at the expense of
diarrhea to be a pretty poor solution.

This is a very frustrating situation I find myself in, and I'm curious
first if others experience something similar, and second if there is a
recommended solution.

Is the recommended course to wait for the gut to heal before
attempting to introduce poorly absorbed foods back into the diet, or
should I just go ahead and get the necessary calories through fruits
and sugars, and just endure the diarrhea until the gut begins to
heal?

Is this a question for a dietician who works with celiacs?  Does
anyone know of such a person?  I have not had any luck finding one
locally who understands the needs of celiacs or people with food
allergies (I'm in the San Francisco Bay Area).  Contact info would
be appreciated.

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Will Estes                              U.S. Computer
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