This afternoon I felt a little off. I’m not unwell by any means, but I don’t have the energy I usually have at this time of day. If I lay down I’d probably fall to sleep, and I have the mild bodily aches akin to recovering from a bad case of flu. I’d usually attribute this to having some sort of “off day”. I haven’t studied the depths of Biology, but common knowledge leads us to understanding that the body is made up of numerous organs which must work together in good harmony if we are to function well. Because of the bodies complexity, we could often conclude, just I have done that the “off-days” I mentioned are due to something not under our control, or within our capacity to understand; particularly with regard to viruses or bacteria which may have an effect.
Today however, I had a light-bulb moment. Occasionally, I’ll make a bowl of Overnights Oats. Recipe’s for this vary, but mine consisted of a combination of Greek Yogurt, Milk, Oats and Honey; it’s left in the fridge overnight for the oats to soften. I find it’s a good source of complex carbs and protein, tastes great and isn’t time consuming to make. Regardless, today’s recipe contained more than twice the oats I would usually have. This wasn’t the intention from the outset, I simply poured too much milk, so I needed to add more oats to compensate. Little did I know that it’d be this blunder which would lead me to a possible realisation.
I like to think that most of my “light-bulb” moments are the result of a slow accumulation of thoughts that spark a realisation, similar to how the slow process of completing a jigsaw puzzle suddenly allows you to see the fullness and even the meaning of the image when it’s almost complete.
In my particular case, a series of thoughts flooded to my mind as soon as the double quantity of oats had been considered. I thought about the times I’ve had overnight oats in the past, and in many of these cases, just an hour or two following, I would experience a light case of what I think is acid re-flux, which presented as a sickly sensation at the back of my throat. I also recalled a couple of specific occasions where I’d eaten home-made Granola, the 2nd time of which I realised I had some kind of intolerance, as each sitting gave me a particularly bad case of the aforementioned acid re-flux. At the time, I attributed it to a possible mild nut allergy, but do you know what Granola also contains? Oats…
So, that’s the hypothesis, I’m intolerant to oats. Now I realise how misleading a thought process like this can be. All I’ve done so far is to associate separate ideas and events in my mind, then put them together, similar to how a detective would use pins and string to associate different pieces of evidence on an investigation board. Like any good hypothesis, it would be useful to scrutinise this idea to establish whether it stands up to reason.
If my line of work has taught me anything, it’s the realisation that there’s an explanation for everything. As a Systems Admin, I often come across issues with systems that require a degree of troubleshooting. In the past I’ve occasionally suggested that a particular problem we’re facing is “Weird”, or “Strange”, which would be to imply that there isn’t an identifiable cause. In reality, there is always a reason for the issue, I just don’t understand it yet. It’s not that I was being disingenuous, I simply didn’t always have the foreknowledge to provide a root cause in that moment. To offer that a problem is “Strange” really insinuates that it requires further analysis.
So, referring back to my potential oat problem, I want to quickly analyse some further ideas. Upon tapping into some research, I discovered numerous articles dedicated to this topic. According to Healthline.com, a sensitivity to oats is usually due to a type of protein called “Avenin”. Some more serious symptoms include a rash or skin irritation, vomiting and stomach pain. I haven’t experienced these; I’d imagine I would have picked this up sooner if I had. Rather, it goes on to list some milder symptoms which could be relevant, including:
Oat Allergy: What You Need to Know (healthline.com)
- Stomach Irritation and Inflammation
- Diarrhea
- Fatigue
I experienced mild stomach irritation and fatigue. Thinking back to my other oat eating occasions, this also seemed to apply, but in an even milder form (possibly due to my lesser portion of oats on previous sittings). Maybe because these symptoms have been so light in the past, it’s taken this long to spot the trend.
You’ve likely heard of terms such as the Keto, Mediterranean, or vegan diet. All these methods of eating typically include restricting certain foods, and observing the proper ratio of carbs, fats and proteins according to their definitions. Professor Jordan Peterson, a well known Clinical Psychologist based in Canada, has on occasion spoken rather passionately about his all meat diet, or the carnivore diet as it’s typically known by. It is exactly as described; only meats such as beef, pork and chicken are allowed. Peterson takes it a step further and eats only beef for periods of time. His claim is that he would suffer greatly with an autoimmune condition, and solely eating beef has been the only diet which has remediated its symptoms to any meaningful degree. It’s important to note, Jordan stresses that he isn’t a trained dietitian, and the experience he has had shouldn’t be taken as advice; it’s simply what he’s discovered through his own observation. I’ll link the discussion he had on a podcast with Joe Rogan here.
Just like Jordan, I’m also not a trained dietitian, and I’m certainly not here to offer advice. My intention is to instil a thought of mindfulness in regard to the food we eat. I would generally agree that the commonly accepted knowledge of a balanced diet is something that’s useful to apply, but could it be that foods we eat on a daily basis aren’t completely suited to each of our unique and individual anatomies? Jordan Peterson’s example is rather extreme, but could it be that we have certain mild intolerance’s to foods that we haven’t previously considered? Day-to-day living doesn’t always offer ourselves the head space to be conscious of whether our bodies are performing to the best of their ability, but taking just a moment to consider it, may just spark a theory.
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