Paleo Diet and Paleolithic Diet Questions & Answers

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Hi all,

I noticed a while back when I tried to add heavy whipping cream to my coffee (per paleonu) that I would get a bit, lets say gurgly, and gut irritation. I thought that was a dairy intolerance so I cut dairy for a while. I've reintroduced it with seemingly no problems. I generally eat organic cottage cheese, cheese, and organic milk products if I have dairy. Yesterday I attempted to eat the organic sour cream + cocoa that was mentioned in another question. That was the only thing I ate within a few hours and I got the gut irritation that I thought was specific to dairy way back when. I have also noticed when I have a lot of bacon I get the same feeling.

Is there such thing as someone having an intolerance for too much fat at once? Is there a threshold? Any ideas? Maybe there is something in HWC, Sour Cream, and Bacon that I can get too much of?

Thanks!

flag	asked Aug 23 2010 at 16:14 JakeA 5,657●11●31

	Can we be more specific her - is it gurgles, or diarrhea, or wind - or what??!! I find too much fat / oil / butter is most certainly laxative..... – andrew Aug 23 2010 at 20:01
	Stomach gurgles and then would have some laxative properties too. – JakeA Aug 24 2010 at 11:44
	I always used to experience that when I consumed cream - my Mum often notes that cream doesn't agree with her either. However, after making cream a decent part of my diet for the past 20 months (on and off), I have no such problems anymore. I attribute this to improved digestive abilities - a rebalancing of enzymes. – Girl Gone Primal Aug 24 2010 at 12:09

David Moss · Accepted Answer · 2010-08-23 16:36:16Z UTC

Sounds like pretty standard indigestion. Fat necessarily requires quite a lot of breaking down (e.g. through bile), so eating a lot of it will obviously require larger amounts of bile, digestive enzymes (lipase) etc.

This might be especially so when you're combining a large amount of fat with caffeine (which itself stimulates the digestive juices) from coffee or cocoa (both of which are also tannic and so can aggravate the digestive system).

The volume of liquid from the coffee might also contribute, given that fat is hydrophobic and so liquid will just interfere with digestion and spread the digestive juices around the stomach (or potentially up into the oesophagus if you have reflux).

The only thing I can think of that might make bacon aggravating, would be the high salt content, which aggravates gastritis and heartburn.

Hannah · Answer 2 · 2010-08-23 16:48:30Z UTC

Yes- most modern people, especially if you've previously tried to eat "healthy" by avoiding sat fats, will have difficulty digesting so much fat at once (at first). The liver/gall bladder is just not up to the task and won't produce enough bile. You may need to go with smaller amounts of fat at a time at first and slowly keep increasing. You could try digestive enzyme supplements too, but I think this problem sorts itself out once the body gets used to the extra fat. However, there is a chance that the cocoa was the culprit in your most recent digestive issue. Like in David Moss's comment, cocoa can really aggravate the stomach/intestines.

Bread-Eating Beelzebub · Answer 3 · 2010-08-23 17:40:37Z UTC

I would suggest setting your cream with gelatin per the advice of WAPF http://www.westonaprice.org/food-features/513-why-broth-is-beautiful.html I normally can't tolerate heavy cream, but gelatin allows me to digest it well. It's also protein-sparing. Plus you can make panna cotta!

pure fat meals/snacks and gut irritation

3 Answers