Posted by Smiler7700 (Manchester, Nh, United States) on 10/25/2011
Hello, at about age 30, I began having severe gastrointestinal distress from eating lettuce on anything, even if there was lettuce snuck inside a sandwich or a burrito. It took me a while to isolate what was causing the problem. It happens with all raw green substances (all lettuce, romaine, alfalfa sprouts, anything raw and green). However, I can still eat celery & bell peppers. What occurs is......... I get these huge stabbing, painful cramps in my stomach/intestines that is the worst pain........ Then pretty soon thereafter, I get the worst diarrhea ever, painful, and it goes on for hours, until whatever green was in there is out. (Sorry to be so graphic, but it's awful........... ). Now, every time I look at raw greens, I shudder, and I'm very vigilant about making sure no one puts raw greens on anything of mine! I told a gastroenterologist about this, and I don't remember if he had a real "explanation" for it.
I do have Irritable Bowel Syndrome. I don't remember if he said that this raw green intolerance is part of the IBS. However, I cannot find anyone else in which this happens. It seems very rare. And, I don't really know how to "cure" it. The gastroenterologist didn't really seem to help. Perhaps I should try a more naturopathic gastroenterologist? They could possibly recommend digestive enzymes? Because, the idea of me slowly introducing raw greens into my diet until I tolerate them........ It just frightens me, the pain is so bad when I eat them. But, I think I might have to "risk it" and plan to re-introduce myself to greens when I have a few days off of work, because it takes a lot out of me, I'm drained after these digestive attacks. Thank you for any input. I read on here a lot, but have never posted.
