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I've been Paleo for 3 weeks now... trying to heal my leaky gut. Adding smoothies into my diet helps me keep my fiber up on days I don't eat enough veggie. But now the smoothies are giving me gurling, and stomach discomfort. All the items in the smoothies I eat individually and they don't bother me that way. What is it about mixing them together that becomes a problem?

Ingredients are: Frozen Peaches Fresh strawberries Applesauce Coconut milk Honey

Appreciate any ideas or feedback?

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12 Answers

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The peaches, applesauce, honey, and strawberries offer up the potential for lot of fructose. We can only absorb so much fructose at a time and if much goes unabsorbed it can cause a number of gastrointestinal ailments. Additionally, lot of people have fructose malabsorption, especially people with gut disorders, in which fructose absorption is impaired and even less fructose would be required to cause stomach issues.

I've also heard people say they have gut troubles with coconut milk, especially if it has added gums (e.g. guar, etc).

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Sorry to say, but I'm not suprised this isn't agreeing with you. This is an awful lot of sugar - and I think the parts that get left in your blender are the most fiberous parts.

I think it's worth trying to eat more veggies (you can prepare a lot in advance) and not having the smoothies. If you really want a smoothie, perhaps go green and add in egg - but very minimal fruit and no honey.

I think you'll find you fare fine with less fibre on a fairly strict Paleo diet.

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Is the honey raw, unfiltered and local? Don't use random honey, which actually is not even real honey, it's just bad sugar. That's the first thing I'd check. The second thing I'd check is the applesauce, which I hope it's homemade.

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Honey is local & raw - but it doesn't say unfiltered? Applesauce is Trader Joe's unsweetened Organic. Thoughts? – Want2BHealthyGirl Mar 26 2012 at 4:39
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Not sure why it would cause gurgling but it does seem like an awful lot of sugar. Maybe try and substitute an avocado for the peaches?

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That was my thought, those are pretty high sugar things. That's a lot of easily absorbed, high sugar stuff. Try going lower on the glycemic index, berries. And maybe throw in some kale or spinach or protein powder. – November Mar 26 2012 at 5:41
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The simplest answer may be the air whipped into the smoothie. Since you say that the individual ingredients don't bother you at other times, try eating them all together at once, like you would for a smoothie, but without blending. If it still bothers you, could be one of the many things people mention above...if not, my money's on the air.

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What is the quantity of each item? How much honey do you use? What is the nutrition profile of it? Is it 90% carbs, 10% fat? I think knowing more details about it would be helpful.

Excess fiber can be really hard if eaten in one sitting. If you really need the extra fiber, try adding some greens to replace the fruit...again, how much fruit are you using? If your total amount is just a cup of assorted fruit, it's probably not that.

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Fruit and coconut milk are of course fine, but I've noticed if I eat a smoothie like yours on an empty stomach, it often does not agree with me.

You might consider eating something with your smoothie, something with more substance...say, an egg or some other protein.

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Might be too much fructose at one time.

Or, it could be the guar gum in coconut milk. How much coconut milk do you add? A cup or more? If so, this may be too much.

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Thanks all for your comments - wow this really helps! I didn't think about all the natural sugar from the fruit - I'm sure my stomach was reacting to all that. As I mentioned all these items individually didn't bother me but all at once is probably too much. Coconut milk I used doesn't have guar gum - probably about 1/4 cup. – Want2BHealthyGirl Mar 27 2012 at 3:21
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I'm a big fan of smoothies, but it's pretty easy to get too much fructose up in there, which make my teeth and stomach feel "fuzzy" (terrible description, but hopefully you get what I mean). My smoothies are: full-fat coconut milk, 2-3 cups of spinach or kale (I promise you can't taste it), 1 banana, berries, almond butter, 1 raw egg, cinnamon, and matcha. I find that the fat from the coconut milk and the egg, as well as the starch in the greens, makes it so that I drink just a portion of the smoothie at a time, so I can stretch it over a pretty good time period and not just get one hit of fructose. I kind of treat it like a "dessert"- sip a bit after my big breakfast, sip some more after lunch, have some around 4 pm before dinner when I start getting hungry. It is ideal if you have a smoothie cup with a skrew on lid, so you can bring it to work or school or the library or whatever, nice to-go snack.

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Does the banana stay blended in? I've toyed with the idea of sipping a smoothie over a longer period of time, but I thought the banana would separate from the mixture. I usually make mine with ice. Would it work better if I left it out? – Sunny Beaches Mar 26 2012 at 19:53
Yeah, I give it a good shake, and I think the texture stays just fine! I use frozen berries instead of ice, and they just defrost (obv) and the smoothie changes colour, but the flavour doesn't change. I think it tastes great! – JeJ Mar 26 2012 at 20:04
Thanks for the suggestions Jenny. But I'm on a low oxalates diet so I can't have anything "almond" or spinach, and no cinnamon -- all high oxalates. I'll have to simplify the smoothie and try adding Avocado which is low oxalates to add fiber. I did add banana (which I forgot to mention in the original post) which thickens up the smoothie... Many thanks for the suggestions!! – Want2BHealthyGirl Mar 27 2012 at 3:26
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I have the exact same problem. I've been drinking smoothies made with my hand blender now for a few months and never had any stomach problems. Then I recently went out and bought a proper blender which makes the smoothies much more "smooth" and creamy. All of a sudden, my stomach is bloating and feeling really uncomfortable not long after I start drinking it. I'm not sure if it's the air, or just the lack of "bits" in it, but I plan to blend it only slightly from tomorrow onwards so that I have lots of chunks left just like I was doing previously. I don't believe it's the sugar, because like you say, if it's not blended then it doesn't upset my stomach. I think it's the fact that it's all blended together.

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It might be the coconut milk: if you use a whole can that could be upsetting your stomach. One thing is cooking with it, another thing is drinking a whole can (at least for me). It might be related to additives etc so you could try using different brands.

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Is the smoothie cold? Made with frozen fruit? I used to love smoothies, and developed an intolerance as well. My sense is that I may tolerate small smoothies that are not as cold as I'd like them, and without almond milk or coconut milk, and minus soy as any fraction of the protein source in the powdered supplement. I hadn't thought about the additives in my coconut milk. Thanks for that point. I also wonder about the Vitamin D2 in the unsweetened almond milk.

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