<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>>

Several respondents suggested causes based on alternative medicine
and vitamin-deficiency.

"I used to get cancer sores before going gluten free and they were
from vitamin C deficiency. I found this out one time when eating an
orange and the cancer sore immediately went away."

<Years ago, one of my sisters claimed that oranges gave her canker
sores.  Then she decided to burn-out the problem and ate cases of
oranges and drank gallons of orange juice over a fairly brief period
of
time, and then claimed she had overcome the orange connection.>

"In the Chinese model, a cancer sore is an expression of 'liver heat
rising' - meaning there is lots of strain on that organ, it is having
to
labor to keep your body in balance, and its not keeping up (detoxing,
emulsifyi ng fats, etc) gives 'rise' to those herpes and canker
sores.

Chocolate and peanuts are commonly regarded as THE most stressful
foods
for the liver (any heavy duty sugar-fat combo like chocolate in
particular).

Coffee, on the other hand, is regarded as a bit of a liver assistant,
as
long as it is drunk pure and black (adding sugar and cream negates
all the
bile-releasing "benefits"  you get from the bitter substances
contained i
n coffee.

Do you drink your coffee black?

<No, I drink my coffee with milk.>

It may be that your coffee/chocolate regimen is too much of a roller-
coaster for your poor liver - I know it is for mine, esp. if I
concurrently don't sleep enough and my nutrient intake (esp. protein)
is
poor overall.   It's not that coffee has turned on you, it's that
your
overall health status is poorer so that your liver is struggling
more, the
chinese would say.   Analogously, they'd say it wasn't so much the
gluten
that caused the canker sores, but that your liver could not keep up
detoxing all the junk that the undigested gluten turned into once it
entered your bloodstream."

"It is possible that coffee could be causing it... you see coffee
tends to be a bile producer and if as I you still have sensitive
intestines bile can cause irritation and any irritation to the
intestines can cause such sores.  Chocolate is a bile binder in the
fact that chocolate slows down digestion by slowing the release of
bile."

"Cancer sores are also associated with a vitamin deficiency.
unfortunately I can't remember which vitamin. You might want to check
it
out though."

"I dont know if it is the culprit, but caffeine (coffee & chocolate)
makes
our body unfit for absorbing vitamins.  So, lack of vitamins often
results
with canker sores."

"Could be that you are lacking lysine, an essential amino acid. It's
sold
as l-lysine and is widely available.  Nature Made is probably the
easiest
to find."

<Over the years I have experimented with l-lysine and found it to be
no
help at all with canker sores.  Of course this was before I went GF
and
most of my canker sores stopped.  I am also willing to try vitamins
and
even eat oranges if it will let me go back to my cups of coffee!>

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