Ummm Chocolate

604 Views 15 Replies 12 Participants Last post by Persistance, Feb 13, 2001

beth_crocker1

Discussion Starter · Feb 11, 2001

Sorry, didnt meant to tease everyone. Was just wondering how many of you have any problems eating chocolate? It doesnt seem to affect me. But Ive read that it bothers some people with ibs d. Im ibs c. I was just wondering what is in it that would make an ibs person worse.

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Clair

· #2 · Feb 11, 2001

2

BethI'm IBS C&D it bothers me - it gives me D - could it be the lactose - milk proteins?Lactose intolerance seems quite common.I must admit it bothers me like anything, but sometimes can't resist digging into a tub of Ben & Jerry's New York Super Chocolate Fudge ....I'm quite happy to pay later!

Clair

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Kathleen M.

· #3 · Feb 11, 2001

Chocolate has caffiene in it and some people are very sensitive to the stimulatory effects that can cause diarrhea.K.------------------I have no financial, academic, or any other stake in any commercial product mentioned by me.And from the as if IBS isn't enough of a worry file...from New Scientist's Feedback column: photographed on the door of a ladies' loo in the Sequoia National Park in California by reader Liz Masterman: "Please keep door closed to discourage bears from entering."

shadow

· #4 · Feb 11, 2001

Sometimes it bothers me, sometimes it doesn't (kind of like pizza). Sometimes I just don't care and eat it anyway

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AD

· #5 · Feb 11, 2001

Since chocolate comes in so many different forms, it's hard to pinpoint a problem. Cocoa powder products are fat-free but still chocolate. They are also dairy free. Also, chocolate bars are made dark and milk so they don't all contain dairy. Bar chocolate does have a high percentage of fat that may trigger some symptoms. Cocoa powder and some brands of bar chocolate actually contain a good deal of fiber and have been the most helpful type of fiber so far. Chocolove organic dark chocolate bars and any brand of unsweetened cocoa I know have fiber.

G

· #6 · Feb 11, 2001

3

Hi Beth!

quote:Was just wondering how many of you have any problems eating chocolate?

Unfortunately, I find it all too easy

Question for SpecialK ...

quote:Chocolate has caffiene in it and some people are very sensitive to the stimulatory effects that can cause diarrhea.

I am a C(predominant)/D type ... and chocolate can always be guaranteed to quickly bring on a massive bout of D within a few hours ... BUT I can drink coffee till the cows come home and see no ill-effects. I am also sure I don't have a problem with dairy. Any idea what might be causing this?BTW - as I've mentioned in other posts, I'm diabetic, but I can eat other foods high in sugar without this effect, so it can't be related to sugar.Julie

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Kathleen M.

· #7 · Feb 11, 2001

Chocolate is a very complex mixture of things, so it could be any of them. Caffiene is a common problem with chocolate, Theobromine is another compound in chocolate that has effects on the nervous system, and that is fairly specific to chocolate.Given the large number of compounds in chocolate it would be hard to pull out which specific thing.K.------------------I have no financial, academic, or any other stake in any commercial product mentioned by me.And from the as if IBS isn't enough of a worry file...from New Scientist's Feedback column: photographed on the door of a ladies' loo in the Sequoia National Park in California by reader Liz Masterman: "Please keep door closed to discourage bears from entering."

JenS

· #8 · Feb 11, 2001

I love chocolate and it is NOT a problem. I am IBS-d. Of course, I only have small quantities.

Mannie

· #9 · Feb 12, 2001

Chocolate doesn't bother me, but sweets of any king will make my stomach feel like there is a rock in it if I eat too many. It's a built in control so I don't overdo it! Like I could eat a candy bar but then I could not have anything else sweet that day or I will feel sick to my stomach. It does not seem to aggrivate my IBS-D. But I am not a big sweets eater... my favorite it a peppermint patty.

Auroraheart

· #10 · Feb 12, 2001

I like chocolate too but can only have maybe a bar or so and then I know I have had too much. Not dark chocolate though; that's instant revulsion.I just grosed myself out...Kirk & I broke up so I had some chocolate here I had bought him amongst the many gifts. I'll be damned if I will give it (or any of the gifts) to him so I went to eat a piece of GOOD Laura Secord chocolate...but the bag I had all the gifts in also had soap in it; the scent went into the chocolate and it tasted like soap!! Ick!!!

G

· #11 · Feb 12, 2001

Beth -- Sometimes. It is unpredictable.I can eat a Hershey bar two days in a row,and the third day, I get the Ds and zits.Or I won't have chocolate for a long time,and when I have some, I may or may not getthe Ds. Chocolate is loaded with sugar andsalt. I suspect that salt is a hidden culpritin IBS/inflammatory bowel problems. Saltburns tissue. And look what it does toyour car, if you live in Minnesota, in thewintertime! Bye, bye car body! Think ofwhat salt does to the human body!------------------Jim

Mike NoLomotil

· #12 · Feb 12, 2001

CLAIR:Ahh choclate...on of thsoe subjects where veryone in the thread is correct.For example the referenced xanthines are always suspect, but usually the onset is early.Enzyme-deficient lactose intolerance is usually not implicated unless you really eat a bunch ot it. One bar can usually be handled without distress...unless something else in it is soething you are reactive to. Then you can get an additive response.The milk proteins can be implicated and if you are "allergic" you will get belly trouble quickly. Delayed reactions can take mcuh longer. Could be tomorrow and you think it is your eggs or whatever.Then you have all the other stuff the chemicsts try to see how much they can cram in their, oils of various types, soy lecitithin, etc.So as was said it is a complex compound that to find the offending substance you have to evaluate all the pieces parts not the chocolate itself.Now an interesting paper published in 1996 by Bengtsson & Hansson at the Allergy Center, University Of Gotteborg, Sweden was looking at correlations between patients with food intolerance of both allergic and non-allergic immune reactions and cross matching them with various constsitutional symptoms.There were all kinds of oddball things but one thing interesting was the correlation between excess mucuous production in the GI tract (ever notice how many people post around here compalining of or asking about how mucousy they can be?).The control group without food related symptoms had a very low freqeuncy of, among other things, mucous in the stool.Among the food reactive people, the ones with rapid sonset of sympotms from friuts, vegetables, milk, fish and meat (41 subjects) 20 were atopic (predsiposed and allergic) (only 50% of rapid onset had IgE allergy); of the ones with slow onset (11) 10 (91%) were negative for atopy...not food "allergy" but another immune mechanism.PLUS they found a strong correlation between patients with excess mucous and reactivity to chocolate, in addition to various vegtable and meats. So from that report there was a strong correlation between mucousy stools in chcoclate reactive people. They found the same with reactivity to other staple foods. (ie: excess mucosu procuction is one of the effects of immunologic activation in the mucosa).So if chcolate gives you trouble and you are mucousy too...there is/was a suggestion to these investigators that you are either allergic immunlogically or have another immunologic inflammatory reaction to something in the chocolate. The trick is then to figure out which.If it is plain old "xanthine stimulus" like the caffeine/theobromide you'll just have to go like when you drink coffe but the bowel mucous is normal. Just a curiosity as over the long haul I have read alot of people complaining of or asking about being mucousy.Now they did other work later which confirmed the non-allergy inflammatory responses in the small bowel in response to various food substances. But that another topic.have a CFDMNL_________________ www.leapallergy.com

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LUCIA

· #13 · Feb 13, 2001

Hi all you chocolate lovers. If you love chocolate go see the movie 'CHOCOLAT'. Take some candy with you . It is a fun movie.My favorite chocolate candy is SEES CANDIES or Russell Stover. I can only eat a few at a time. Sometimes it hurts my stomach.------------------

AD

· #14 · Feb 13, 2001

Just a short note-I've heard chocolate has VERY little caffeine. Compared to a coffee or caffeinated soda (Mountain Dew being the worst), it's almost negligible.

me3

· #15 · Feb 13, 2001

I can't eat more than a very small amount of chocolate occasionally. Dark chocolate is the worst. I find Tropical Source chocolate bars (found in the health food section usually), which are vegan, don'r bother me as much.

Persistance

· #16 · Feb 13, 2001

Caffeine or no -- or whatever -- chocolate is a very fatty food, and most people with digestive problems, including Gerd as well as IBS, have a problem with chocolate. It seems rather simple to me. And the butter isn't baked into it, as it is in butter cake or cookies, which some people with IBS are tolerant to.

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