Eric there is a simple association of how starchy stuff is with how much of it we eat. Total grammes per day is also relevant - not just percentage content, but as John says a big block of high starch in the gut is not welcome.
Ginger may actually be borderline, but we eat so little of it that anti-inflammatory benefits easily outweigh any starch disadvatage. Maybe one starchy unripe pear is OK, but a pair of pears will make one flare...
Ho Hum.
At the extreme end of LSD i can eat a meal of rice and another three days later with zero effect, but no way could i eat it every day nor would i eat rice with corn or sweet potato or similar - just one at a time.

Ted

NSAIDs = biochemical warfare where our tactical decisions are hostile to our strategic interests.

Hmm,
What IS the starch content of ginger anyway now you mentioned it, as it is not in the list? I agree totally with your rice idea's I react in the same way. Another thing I wondered about are lentils. They are pretty high in starch but Jan (Twisks) seem to thrive on them. Are there others who get away with some of the higher starch foods?
Gerard

The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not 'Eureka!' but 'That's funny ...'
-Isaac Asimov -

Where was this list taken from?
This evening I have been searching for lists of food containing sucrose, lactose, maltose and glucose, but haven't had much luck. I wonder if the source of this list would also have sugar lists.
Eric

Hi, Eric:

This list was compiled mostly from McCance and Widdowson's "The Composition of Foods," and they also have sugar contents, but this is not of great interest for our purposes. You can look up GI (glycemic indicies) of foods on the internet with good results, or any specific foods I'm sure bilko can look it up for you, but these are widely published and available. You may download a pdf of the entire composition of grains by going here and clicking on "Table"

Best Regards,
John



"Any teacher who can be replaced by a machine, should be."
Isaac Asimov, 'Project Hole-in-the Wall'

Eric,

as John says, McCance & Widdowson's book also lists sugar content, broken down into glucose, fructose, sucrose, maltose and lactose.

This we prescribe though no physician . . .
Our doctors say this is no month to bleed. (Rich. II)

John and Bill,
Thanks for the info. I am bit confused because I believe I have read that Klebsiella eat starch and if they can't, they eat disaccharides, such as sucrose and lactose.

At the same time I have read in the Ebringer and Wilson paper on this site that:

"It would appear that dietary mono- and disaccharides can be readily absorbed in the stomach and upper part of the small bowel and therefore they are not available as substrates for bacterial fermentation in the colon. The carbohydrates detected in the "ileostomy fluids" would appear to be derived from complex carbohydrates. These observations could form the basis of a "low starch" diet for AS patients."

I don't know if I have fully understood everything I have read, but does this mean that sugar and milk are okay? Are the problems that people have them individualistic, or if the evil bacteria does eat the sugars, does it just react in a different manner than when it eats the starches?

Eric,
the klebs will ferment any food which passes from the small intestine to the colon undigested, so any undigested food would be a problem, including lactose to those that are intolerant. Starches are a problem for us all because a significant amount is always undigested, and the starches in raw wheatflower and potato are totally indigestible. They only became a possible food source after our forebears played with fire and took up cordon bleu cookery.

This we prescribe though no physician . . .
Our doctors say this is no month to bleed. (Rich. II)

Edited by bilko on 02/11/04 10:23 AM (server time).

Wow, big time clarification! A limited amount of anything, other than starch should be okay.
Thank you!

there seems to be some disagreement between foods listed on bilko's list as low/no starch and the table that appears within the Diet Center section of the website. The main one seems to be in dairy products - bilko's list has them with little or no starch, but the table, divided into three sections - foods to avoid, foods that are neutral and foods that may ease AS - has milk in the avoid column

Many people who have AS are also lactose intolerant. Maybe it is best, if you do the NSD, to avoid dairy at first and later work it back into your diet to see if you react to it.
Eric