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I'm new to Paleo - Day 10 today. I've followed pretty close to perfect, but the standard plan, not with auto-immune restrictions. Typical day is 3 eggs with peppers and onions, two slices of turkey bacon for breakfast; paleo meat and veggie recipe for lunch; salad with cukes, peppers, tomatoes, carrots, some sort of meat for dinner. Snacks are 1oz walnuts with 1oz macadamias and about 10-15 raisins; and half a can of coconut milk with hemp protein powder.

The first few days, I felt great. After that though, we started using some coconut oil to cook our eggs and I got stomach pains and heartburn. I picked up some digestive enzymes, along with some D, mag/calcium, and we already use fish oil. Now I'm not sure if the coconut oil or the enzymes are causing the problems. Should I just wait it out and chalk this off to my body getting used to the change in diet? I can obviously try eliminating one at a time to see if it helps. I was just wondering if anything puts up a red flag here. Thanks!

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3 Answers

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Take both your suspects out of your diet for a while (a week to 3 weeks). Add them back in one at a time, with a one week spacing.

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I had the exact same symptoms you describe at practically the same time in my paleo changeover. I visited my GP and he referred me to an allergist. Turns out I have a sensitivity to nightshades.

I kicked the peppers off my plate, and problem solved.

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I personally think eating lots of coconut-oil is not completely natural. The easiest argument I can make against industrial seed oils is it just doesn't make sense to me to take a bunch of seeds and extract their oil. I think this argument could be extrapolated to coconut oil too. It just seems a lot more natural to cook with animal fat. I understand of course that coconut oil should be much safer than seed oil because it's mostly saturated fat, but it is a different saturated fat than animal fat, and it's possible we don't completely understand everything that's different about it. All that goes to say I wouldn't assume it's safe and it's possible it takes our bodies time to adapt to eating it in large amounts (more than you'd get from just eating a coconut).

Like you said in your post, easiest is to change 1 variable at a time, rather than 2. Worst case, start with a whole 30 type plan and then add 1 food (or change) every week or two.

Also, off topic, but turkey bacon is an abomination. Get the real deal!

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 So do you cook with lard? Olive oil? And Husband agrees on the bacon comment. ;) No worries, it's all gone. Back to the real stuff! – AmyLea May 29 at 16:53
I get big hunks of suet (free) from my pastured beef guy and render it into tallow. I keep the tallow in the fridge (just to be safe) and just scrape a little into the pan for frying. I'll do low temp frying (e.g., vegetables, eggs) in butter. And if I'm making bacon, I'll definitely use the lard (especially good for frying liver and onions, and then crumble the bacon on top). I'm not against using coconut oil, I just don't think it's necessarily as harmless in huge amounts as many on here assume. Glad to hear you're back to the real stuff. :) – Mike T May 29 at 16:59
I personally would put olive oil in the same bucket as coconut oil. As long as it's not extra virgin, it's fine for frying (see paleohacks.com/questions/113142/…), but again I wouldn't assume it's safe to eat it in large amounts. Can add a great flavor though. – Mike T May 29 at 17:00
And yes, I know coconut oil is likely preferred over olive oil because it's mostly saturated. – Mike T May 29 at 17:01
And.. welcome to paleo hacks! +1 for your first question. – Mike T May 29 at 17:02
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