Babystep #20 Enzymes

The littlest threes' digestion took a hit over the Thanksgiving holidays. One reason was lack of planning which was purposeful. Last year, we missed all holidays because either us or people back home were sick. I purposed to not plan anything until the day of. It sounds counterproductive but it sure seems like we jinx anything we want to do if we make big plans. Spontaneous seems to happen better.

I need to plan for spontaneity. I need to have breakfast, lunch and snack options that are easy to grab and go. And that's hard to do when everyone seems to do better on homecooked foods. I'll be looking into some ideas and post more on that later.

We left for Mississippi earlier than I had planned. I called my aunt who was on the road as well and discussed picking up something for lunch. She would stop and get hotdogs, chips and lactose-free milk for the little ones. It had been over a month since they had hotdogs so I thought this would be a nice treat. I didn't give them buns and they didn't have rolls at supper.  I didn't forsee anything major bothering them.

Thanksgiving Day, John Micah had eaten his weight just about in turkey and potatoes. He's my anti-green kid so he didn't eat the brussel sprout salad. That night, his stools were a little loose but was fine the next morning. That afternoon, they were pale and looser. Katie Rose and Joseph had the same problem.

Now, the good news is that I got them home and gave them kefir and enzymes. We got back to our homecooked diet. The issues were cleared up very quickly.

But I wondered, "What in the world is the culprit?" They did have a couple of cookies and a little debbie snack but they've had way more gluten at home without that kind of reaction. Could it be the location or processed food or what?

I decided that at Christmas we would do a lot more enzymes to support their digestion and then it struck me. What if that's the issue? I looked up a lot of information on enzymes and I think I found part of the problem. We hadn't been eating potatoes much at all over the past 6 weeks. I was cooking more soups and dishes that didn't require them. I wasn't relying on chicken nuggets and hotdogs so we weren't going through a huge bag of tater tots or fries a week. So it turns out that potatoes are a seed and naturally have enzyme inhibitors. No wonder with our Irish heritage and potato cravings that we have trouble with digestion.

So here's the plan:

1) Take enzymes regularly so that our enzyme banks aren't depleted
2) Take enzymes with us wherever we go.
3) Eat foods that are high in enzymes like raw fruits and veggies in particular bananas, avocado and mango.
4) Limit potatoes and other enzyme inhibiting foods. Look into sprouting and other means of making these foods more digestible. Sourdough is one method of making enzyme-inhibiting foods more digestible so I'm heading down the right track.