So, I went on a salad binge for a couple of weeks and ended up with awful GI issues. I was eating butter leaf lettuce. I thought it was the nuts I was eating that was causing the issue (I like sprinkling nuts on my salad) but it continued after I ended the nuts.

So my thoughts are that there's a lot of problem causing bacteria on the pre-washed, prepackaged lettuce or else I'm sensitive to lettuce now.

I guess I should try whole-head lettuce and see if it also upsets the GI tract.

Sheesh, I wish I could eat more foods without getting my tummy in a twist.

I know they use a strong chemical solution to wash the prewashed stuff. Maybe you are sensitive to that?

Hope you figure it out.

It is organic, I would hope they don't use a strong chemical on it!

they use a bleach wash even on the organic lettuces. i never buy prewashed anything anymore after i read about how organic lettuce is dealt with in the omnivore's dilemma.

Have you looked into the issue of low stomach acid at all?

That is another possible explanation for reacting badly to foods.

amanda

Wouldn't meat give me issues if it was low acid? Meat seems to be the one thing I can digest properly.

I do have to HCL, I should probably try it more seriously.

Sounds like IBS, I get the same thing with all raw vegetables.

A good way to test is to eat some raw turnip, that sets me off like nothing else.

I'm going to invest in the Now foods digestive enzymes and see if that helps.

It seems like everyone has their own foods that cause it. I think I'm fine with turnips. God knows I love those suckers.

Hi Nancy,

I have the stomach of a proverbial ox; funnily, the COMPLETE opposite to anyone else in my family. Even as a child, I never had a stomach ache in my entire life - not from too much candy, not from huge quantities of TOTALLY unripe fruits, plucked straight from the trees... not from seafood, or carbs, or anything, in my whole life.

And yet both in my own experience, and in observing others; perfect looking, and double and even triple carefully washed lettuce, is something that seems to be the speediest culprit known to humankind, for stomach upset of absolutely indescribable, epic proportions... and which can go on for days.

I think lettuce leaves are harbingers of SO many different kinds of bacteria that can be responsible for DIRE gastric upset... even after people have been absolutely fastidious to an extreme, in cleansing the leaves.

I hope it's a temporary blip on your radar... and that something like a glycerine-based spray all natural produce wash from whole foods or something similar, will help you avoid similar repeat occurrences.

I really know what you're talking about on this one, and full commiserations are definitely in order

Hey, I never knew if those sprays actually work or not, so I googled. Turns out using vinegar and water is best.

http://ticketforhealth.com/diet_tip...ng-veggie-wash/



The vinegar solution is 3 parts water, 1 part water. For bumpy things you have to soak them for awhile.

I'm not sure what you meant by 'salad binge', but maybe the sheer amount of lettuce made you ill? It generally contains a lot of water. Plus there's fiber.

I had never even considered the implications of pre-washed. Thanks for the vinegar-water wash info.

A binge is like one meal sized salad a day for a couple of weeks. Not an actual binge, like I ate bag fulls at one sitting. Probably about 1/3 of a bag everyday.

I used to grow organic veggies for market and the experience taught me to do this with all of my fruits and veggies. My solution is a little weaker than that, more like six to one, but I do not trust organic veggies to be pesticide free. They are sprayed with organic pesticides that still wipe out fish (rotenone) and are still caustic to humans (mum pyrethrum), so I dip and lightly wash everything in about a 6-1 solution of vinegar and tap water. I do it in the sink as part of putting away groceries. I used to have testing kits for pesticides back when I was selling veggies, and that solution was as effective as stronger solutions and left no residual taste behind after a straight water rinse.

I just checked my antibacterial fruit and vegetable wash... I was quite off the mark, when I said glycerine-based! Must have had the general idea of soaps in my head...

My spray wash from whole foods is made from oleic aid - naturally derived from olives, baking soda, and distilled, organic grapefruit oil.

just fyi for anyone else who might be reading, and interested, and wondering what might be in "those" organic extra spray washes.

I wouldn't wash anything though, ever, before putting it in the fridge to store though. That would lead to a wet and humid environment which leads to even more rapid decay and bacteria growth than normal, on any kind of produce. Same goes for meat though.

Good thread though!! Sometimes it feels like everything under the sun has already been addressed here at one point or other - I feel sure this is one of the subjects that often flies under the radar though,... nice helpful, spotlight/reminder/ recap for a lot people, I hope

Honeypie, from what I read it doesn't sound like those sprays actually work any better than water.