Salicylates occur naturally in plants as a defense mechanism, to protect the plant against any threat such as disease or pests. Most people have no issues with eating plants containing Salicylates – but some people however can experience all sorts of problems from these natural chemicals, from migraines, hives, IBS, asthma and even sleep issues and ADHD. Since aspirin and NSAID’s are Salicylates, most people with these intolerances will react badly to these drugs.
If I eat a lot of foods containing high levels of Salicylates, my skin becomes itchy, swollen and covered in hives. Since I’ve been eating a Paleo diet I’ve not had a bad reaction and I’m conscious to reduce my consumption of the foods that I know are high in Salicylates – and seem to affect me the worst. Unfortunately (because they are a favourites) tomatoes seem to be a particular trigger. Other people with Salicylate sensitivity seem to react in different ways to different foods.
It appears that in those with Salicylate sensitivity, there is an acceptable level of exposure to foods containing high levels – but once “too large” a dose of the high Salicylate food is eaten the effects of the sensitivity kick in. I can eat a tomato based sauce with no problems, but if I eat several meals in a row containing high levels of these foods, my skin starts to break out in hives! People with Salicylate sensitivity seems to have very varied tolerance levels.
Salicylates and Paleo
As Salicylates are naturally occurring, this is one intolerance that a Paleo or Primal diet can’t solve. However, processed food often contains ingredients high in salicylates, so a Paleo diet enables you to control and know exactly what you are eating. It’s certainly possible to eat a low Salicylate Paleo diet as there are plenty of foods that contain negligible, low or moderate levels of Salicylates.
Food High In Salicylates
Broadly speaking, foods such as tomatoes, peppers, capsicum, cucumber, sweet potato and watercress seem to be high in Salicylates. Lots of fruits have high levels, particularly dried fruit. Coconut and olive oil are also reported to contain high levels of Salicylates, though I’ve never had a reaction from them and use these oils almost everyday. Fortunately meat (in a Paleo – i.e. unprocessed) capacity seems to contain very low levels.
A Low-Salicylate Paleo Diet
With some planning and substitutions, there’s no reason not to keep a Paleo diet low in Salicylates. One of the hardest things to replace is tomatoes (also a nightshade), as tomatoes are a common base for sauces and recipes. I’ve been experimenting with some tomato-free Paleo sauces and will share the recipe I’ve come up with tomorrow. It’s definitely possible to make a tomato-like sauce without tomatoes!
Do you have a Salicylate intolerance? I’d love to hear which foods you are sensitive to and how you incorporate this into your Paleo diet.
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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Have you seen this one:
http://tomatoesareevil.com/
?
What a great site!
I found this so enlightening, as I’ve had to stop eating tomatoes. As how can I put this ? They caused problems with my gums & other similar soreness though not IBS.
Just as well you found out what was causing the problem Zara!
About 15 months ago I started to have gut related health problems (acid reflux, bloating etc.), headaches, and a really weird thing of sneezing a lot – like a bout of 10-20 sneezes! and often when eating a meal my nose, or more precisely one nostril, would start to run – and I mean like a tap was turned on! Also had awful facial rosacea for a number of years.
My GP suggested a salicylate/food intolerance and I started to pin point the foods that set me off. Evidently the body doesn’t eliminate the salicylate enough and eventually there’s a build up in the system and the bucket overflows. The only way to turn this around is to eliminate the foods for a while.
Yes, tomatoes set me off and I can live without them, but avocados seem to be much worse which is much harder for me to do without as I used to practically live on them! Even a small amount sets my skin off again (though not as bad as before
A terrific site for lists of foods etc is Sue Dengate’s Food Intolerance Network at http://www.fedup.com
I also found taking a good digestive enzyme called Trienza helped, and all my symptoms subsided to a tolerable level. My runny nose though is a dead give-away when I eat an offending food though sometimes it’s hard to figure out which food in the meal is the culprit. Hence the dreaded ‘elimination diet’ if you can stand it!
Luckily all this is what led me to the Paleo way of eating and many other health problems have subsided – especially arthritic stiffness (bloody grains!)
Therese – loved the tomatoesareevil site! Sending this to my niece who can’t stand the things!
Keep well……..
I haven’t tried taking an enzyme, definitely worth considering. I’m completely fine with avocados thankfully, but not too many tomatoes! Thanks for that link – very interesting.
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