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Weird Question, I Know: Solanine Poisoning


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;)

Okay, this is probably one of the weirdest questions that has been or will be posted here. But, I think most of you know that I'm on a diet that consists of nothing but white potatoes (peeled and microwaved, I eat about six one pounders a day. After they've been nuked, there's not that much to them.) I also eat lamb. Since my Addison's diagnosis, we haven't even worked on my diet.

Anyway, I've been getting pretty sick after eating. I looked up a bunch of stuff to see if eating too many potatoes could be causing a problem, and I found something about potatoe toxicity. I read it and was floored. There were my symptoms under something called Solanine poisoning. The potatoes I eat aren't green, they are peeled, and I don't eat ones that have started to grow. But, still, nightshades are said to contain some amount of solanine, and I'm eating six potatoes a day.

Have any of you heard of this before? I know this is bizarre. Hey, if nothing else, I've made you smile.

Thank you for your responses. I really appreciate any that I get. My husband and I have been researching this, and we've found some articles that talk like this could be a possibility, and then ones that say no, we don't grow Solanine-filled potatoes here in the US as they have to be a certain variety of potatoe, which I don't believe.

Anyway, would like your thoughts on this. I know this isn't exactly POTS, but this toxicity does cause a lot of neurological problems, which is weird as I'm back in the hospital again seeing a neurologist.

Thanks,

Linda

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Dont' read here much and have no clue what people eat. WHY would you eat nothing but potatoes?

A high carb diet is HORRIBLE for autonomic stuff for a host of reasons I thought most all patients knew?????

Been under weather myself and no time to explain. Carbs are MAJOR vasodilator and can make us sick after eating.

I need small protein meals. All potatoes it not healthy. period.

Addison's is a stress disorder of adrenals and potatoes can't be good for that either. Carb diets not good for adrenals.

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Sophia,

I have a mast cell disease, and my major reactions are to all foods. I can only tolerate lamb and potatoes right now. It's all I'm allowed to eat, per my mast cell doctor in Boston, until I get situated with the Addison's and we trial other foods. Trust me, it's not by choice.

Linda

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Im sorry but that sounds pretty crazy. Is your doctor a professor or a specialist in MCAD disorders? Were your result unequivocal. Id be fairly sceptical of any doctor that told me to eat nothing but potatoes (full of starch, heavy carbs, low nutriet content compared to most other vegetables).

Also high starch vegies tend to provoke inflammation.

Im always fascinated how doctors seem to talk about disorders like POTS and MCAD like the science is all done and we fully understand the mechanisms of both disorders.

I think solanine poisoning has something to do with chlorigenic receptors or something similar? Off the top of my head...

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Some people can't handle nightshades very well at all.

When I was doing food sensitivity testing I went off of EVERYTHING that I previously had been eating. Through the help of my doctor and a licensed dietician who speciallized in food sensitivities ... my diet included amaranth (high protien whole grain), buckwheat (its not wheat and is completely gluten free), millet and a whole slew of other foods that I never tasted before.

I couldn't ever eat a whole peeled potato, because my blood sugar would become too unstable. I can handle a small red potato with skin on and lots of butter.

Perhaps, given the fact you are having a rough time with your current regime, you could check with your specialist about a "rotation diet". These are traditionally used during a healing crisis. You might eat amaranth and garbonzo beans one day, venison and buckwheat the next day, millet and lamb the third and turnips with buffalo on the final day and then back again to day 1. {I made these up of course as an example -- my diet included the strangest foods at that time. And tho I was vegetarian, I do recall the list included some really strange fish, fowl and game for those who ate meat.}

The theory being that most food sensitivity comes from an autoimmune reaction that builds up over time (like eating potatos every day could do). But that if you rotate your food every four days with foods from completely different families, then your body won't have a chance to develop a response.

Good luck finding the answers you need for your unique body. Good thoughts that you feel better soon.

~EM

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Linda, I don't have much advice to give. But my mom knows how it is to have to live on such a restricted diet. Because of her severe diarrhea from carcinoid syndrome (and some other issues) she can only eat peeled potatoes, chicken, and a few other starchy foods. She's lived like this for years now, and never encountered the poisoning you mentioned. Just extreme boredom with her diet! :)

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Linda, I don't have much advice to give. But my mom knows how it is to have to live on such a restricted diet. Because of her severe diarrhea from carcinoid syndrome (and some other issues) she can only eat peeled potatoes, chicken, and a few other starchy foods. She's lived like this for years now, and never encountered the poisoning you mentioned. Just extreme boredom with her diet! :lol:

Hi, Thankful. Thank you for sharing your mom's experience. Yes, boredom is the norm with this, I think. I don't eat for enjoyment anymore, that's for sure. What other starchy foods can she eat, may I ask? I'm wanting to try a few new foods and am looking for suggestions.

Thanks.

And, thanks to all who wrote. I appreciate the suggestions. Yes, a rotation diet would be good. I'll be talking with my doc soon about it.

Linda

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Hi Linda,

She limits her foods to those low in fiber (although she can tolerate peeled, cooked apples), low in amines (amines make her carcinoid tumors active), no milk (totally lactose intolerant), 5 or 6 meals a day. She can eat steamed white rice, white bread baked without milk, oatmeal from quick oats, applesauce that she makes herself (no peels). Non-starcy food includes eggs, peanut butter, chicken, and she drinks a couple cans of a pre-digested tube feeding called Peptamen each day to supplement her calories and protein.

From what you said, her health situation is quite different than yours, although you can relate to the boredom. Poor things!

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I found this on wikipedia about the effects of cooking potatoes on the levels of solanine present in them:

Deep-frying potatoes at 170?C (306?F) is known to effectively lower glycoalkaloid levels (because they move into the frying fat), whereas microwaving is only somewhat effective, freeze drying or dehydration has little effect and boiling has no effect.

One thought (totally unrelated to solanine) is that some people advocate not using microwave ovens to cook food (fears that the process may damage the nutritional content of the food). Have you thought about boiling your potatoes instead of microwaving them? (Yes I realise that boiling requires someone who isn't dizzy on standing to do the cooking).

Flop

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Yeah rotational diets have been studied intensily. Makes much more sense.

Also I wasnt aware that exclusion diets were a normal treatment protocol for MCAD disorders. I dont mind potatoes and lamb but after a while it would get kind of old and nutrient wise its pretty crazy. Im sure if you spoke to another doctor about this they would have reservations.

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I don't think LindaJoy has any choice at all in her diet. Eating anything other than potatoes and lamb has sent her into anaphylaxis. I think everyone would agree that such a restricted diet isn't healthy long-term but at least it is something that she can eat without causing severe reactions needing hospitalisation.

Linda, I hope that as your adrenal problems start to stabilize you are able to continue to explore other "safe" foods.

Flop

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Thank you, everyone, for your suggestions here. Yes, I've tried over foods lately, and I did have some major problems, so it's back to only lamb and potatoes. Pre-Addison's, we were working on this.

Hmmm... I didn't know that about microwave cooking. I seem to be holding my own with potassium, which is a blessing since the hydrocortisone can sap it pretty quickly, so is that a good indicator that the potatoes, even though I nuke them, are still somewhat nutritional?

I am so lame at so much of this. :unsure:

Too, it's been found (did I tell all of you this?), that I have active TB somewhere in my body (did that new Gold standard blood test). I've tested positive for years, through that skin test and I have calcified granulomas in my lungs. No doctor ever seemed concerned, so I was never concerned, until my new pcp, who is infectious disease, nearly choked when I told him, "Oh, by the way, I test positive for TB." "You WHAT??? And, you're on steroids!!!" Anyway, I have it, have to begin treatment this week, and my doc thinks this may have caused some, if not many, of my health problems. We're reading that it can cause Addison's, autoimmune urticaria, things I am suffering with now, oh, and if it's centered in your GI, it can cause all of the pain, diarrhea, bloating, malabsorption, etc., that I've been experiencing. I never knew. I have fluid in my perinteal (??) cavity that shows on CT scans all the time, and this can be indicative of GI TB. (The docs never knew why I had it and pretty much ignored it.)

A lot going on. Anyway, again, thank you for taking an interest in this question. I know it's bizarre, but I have to explore all possibilities right now, and blessedly, I've found a doctor who is willing to look at things with me and not blow me off.

Take care,

Linda

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Actually, I've gotten literally hundreds of opinions over the years, and the latest opinion, the one who has me on this limited diet right now, is one of the world's top allergists/ immunologists, believe it or not. She's at Boston's Brigham and Women's. She's not saying my diet is healthy, by any means, just that this is what I can eat, without having to go to a TPN line, which I've had and gave me blood clots, or elemental formulas, which I've been on and couldn't tolerate, and without anaphylaxis. As I said before, we were trying new foods two months ago when I began having Addisons symptoms. My diet was put on the back burner after I went into crisis and nearly died. Now, it's been found that I have TB and will start medication for that this week. On top of all that, I am on such high doses of HC that I've gone into Cushings, and we're concentrating on lowering the HC, which keeps sending me into adrenal episodes.

I really wasn't posting about the potatoes to discuss my diet. I know it's absolutely, totally unhealthy, but it can't be helped right now. I was just wondering if anyone had ever heard of solanine poisoning from potatoes, and if you had, if you believed in it, or if it was hype.

Thanks.

Linda

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