Thanks for the many replies to my posting, some of
which were sent as individual direct replies and others
of which were sent via the list.
I'm sorry to be late responding to the replies, but I've
been out of the office and thus out-of-reach.
Questions lead to answers which lead to questions...but
first: I'm 3/4 German and 1/4 southern Italian with no
Jewish background.
With regard to the onset of my chronic diarrhea:
Doctors repeatedly asked me about obvious causes for
the onset of a digestive problem, such as medications
that I I may have been taking, a trip overseas, or
psychological traumas. There were none. The
problem started a few days before I took a two-week
trip to Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands, a couple
months after I ceased taking a strong anti-biotic for
tonsilitis (which gave me no digestive problems), and
during a time that I was generally feeling great.
With regard to gluten intolerance:
During the worst period of my chronic diarrhea I
actually gained ten pounds, mostly of muscle. I
work-out (weight-lifting) regularly. I had just switched
to use of free weights (which helps build bulk much
better than machines) and a couple weeks after the
problem started I began taking creatin (Creatin is a
dietary supplement that is all the rage among
bodybuilders recently as a way of developing mass
without steroids. Everybody told me my problem was
the creatin, but the diarrhea continued long after I
ceased using this.) Also, I was eating lots and lots (and
drinking lots of protein shakes made from concentrated
milk protein mixed with fat-free milk!!!), and drinking
gallons of water to compensate for the diarrhea.
My "smart" gastroenterologist told me that I could not
have gluten intolerance because I was gaining weight
and tests showed that my nutrient intake was fine. He
said that gluten intolerance causes the microvilli of the
small intestine to flatten out and decrease in surface
area, thus reducing absorptive capacity of nutrients
(i.e., makes you lose weight).
Questions: What is celiac? What is celiac sprue?
What is gluten? As far as I know it is a protein found in
wheat. But is it found in other grains? What do you
have to avoid to avoid gluten? All grains? Certain
types of grains? How do you know if gluten is a
problem? Maybe gluten consumption has, in fact,
slowly caused my brush border to lose
lactase-producing sites to the extent that a threshold
was reached where my body could no longer handle
bombardment with milk products.
Regarding Asian food:
One of the reasons that I had trouble figuring out the
cause of my problem was that I would get diarrhea
after eating Chinese food (and I knew that it's not
supposed to contain lactose). Part of the problem here
may have been from eating bad Chinese food from a
cheap restaurant across the street from work. Avoiding
that place has helped. But I've also sometimes had a
bit of trouble after eating Chinese food from more
respectable establishments. MSG problems?
Being lactose intolerant in NYC:
Yeah, you can get everything in New York and there's
kosher food everywhere, especially on the Upper East
Side where I live. But I always seem to go out with
friends downtown to one of the millions of Italian
gourmet restaurants which use cream in many sauces,
or restaurants that served "home-cooked" fare like
delicious garlic mashed potatos made with milk and
butter. I'm going to have to learn more about kosher
foods and kosher restaurants. Also, the billions of
coffee bars that have sprung up on every other corner
in Manhattan never seem to serve Lactaid or non-dairy
creamer. Gone are my days of drinking iced
cappuccino at a little table on the street at Cafe
Rafaella (if not from NYC, imagine classic urban leisure
scene and you get the idea!). Iced coffee served black
just doesn't do.
Cheers,
Dave
P.S. Actually, for iced coffee I can have the waiter give
me some hot coffee to which I add my own non-dairy
creamer brought from home. Then I can mix this with
half a glass of cold coffee in a glass full of ice. But this
is kind of complicated.
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