An Irritated Foodie
From the title of this blog, you're probably expecting a rant. In a way, I guess you will get one - though not quite in a way you'd expect.
This isn't my usual kind of blog, but nonetheless it is an important one. And one that probably affects more of you than you think.
You see, I suffer from stomach problems that the doctors seem to think is IBS and I'll be going to see a specialist and a dietitian in the very near future.
Don't panic - I'm not going to give you the details of my bowel habits. No one needs to know that!
But I am going to talk about the biggest change that's occurred. My relationship with food.
When I get a particularly bad bout of stomach cramps, I stop eating for days on end. The first time I got sick this lasted for a week, after which I spent three weeks eating nothing more than plain rice and grilled chicken. Very slowly, I reintroduced other foods - vegetables, meat, pulses and, finally, dairy. And for the most part, it worked and does continue to work.
Of course, there are things that I've found I can no longer enjoy without feeling sick an hour or two later. This is nothing new though, I've had migraines since my teens and have successfully identified and eliminated several foods from my diet - the principle one of which is all forms of oranges and orange juice. Chillis have had to go from my diet, with peri-peri found to be quite lethal. Face it, I'm never going to dine at Nandos and this is probably no great loss.
Well meaning people point to my diet, suggesting I cut out bread as I simply must have a gluten intolerance. It is possible that gluten causes me problems, but so far I've been advised by my doctor to carry on as normal a diet as possible until they can investigate further. This will mean having allergy testing to discover if I have an allergy/intolerance to any particular foods. To be honest, my biggest concern would be them telling me to cut out dairy. I adore cheese and it'd be hard to give it up.
So far, the only things that help are the usual suspects in tummy calming goodness. No, I'm not talking about magic pots of yoghurt, more like mint, lemongrass and ginger. Mint tea seems to be very effective at relieving my cramps, as well as staving off migraines. I'm not sure whether this is the mint itself or simply because I'm upping my fluid intake and rehydrating.
I guess my real problem, and the one that I'm seeking your advice and support on, is how do I reconcile my food-loving ways with the fact that I have a weak digestive system? Do other foodies suffer similar problems? Have you had to cut out a particular food and how easy did you find this?
This isn't my usual kind of blog, but nonetheless it is an important one. And one that probably affects more of you than you think.
You see, I suffer from stomach problems that the doctors seem to think is IBS and I'll be going to see a specialist and a dietitian in the very near future.
Don't panic - I'm not going to give you the details of my bowel habits. No one needs to know that!
But I am going to talk about the biggest change that's occurred. My relationship with food.
When I get a particularly bad bout of stomach cramps, I stop eating for days on end. The first time I got sick this lasted for a week, after which I spent three weeks eating nothing more than plain rice and grilled chicken. Very slowly, I reintroduced other foods - vegetables, meat, pulses and, finally, dairy. And for the most part, it worked and does continue to work.
Of course, there are things that I've found I can no longer enjoy without feeling sick an hour or two later. This is nothing new though, I've had migraines since my teens and have successfully identified and eliminated several foods from my diet - the principle one of which is all forms of oranges and orange juice. Chillis have had to go from my diet, with peri-peri found to be quite lethal. Face it, I'm never going to dine at Nandos and this is probably no great loss.
Well meaning people point to my diet, suggesting I cut out bread as I simply must have a gluten intolerance. It is possible that gluten causes me problems, but so far I've been advised by my doctor to carry on as normal a diet as possible until they can investigate further. This will mean having allergy testing to discover if I have an allergy/intolerance to any particular foods. To be honest, my biggest concern would be them telling me to cut out dairy. I adore cheese and it'd be hard to give it up.
So far, the only things that help are the usual suspects in tummy calming goodness. No, I'm not talking about magic pots of yoghurt, more like mint, lemongrass and ginger. Mint tea seems to be very effective at relieving my cramps, as well as staving off migraines. I'm not sure whether this is the mint itself or simply because I'm upping my fluid intake and rehydrating.
I guess my real problem, and the one that I'm seeking your advice and support on, is how do I reconcile my food-loving ways with the fact that I have a weak digestive system? Do other foodies suffer similar problems? Have you had to cut out a particular food and how easy did you find this?
Comments
Various digestive problems seem to be very much on the rise, and I suspect many people don't make a big deal of it, because it's not the kind of thing that you want to draw attention to.
I would say that the best thing we can all do is try to enjoy our food and do what makes our insides happy. Accept that not every food is available to us, and be glad that so many other foods are!
Good luck with tracking down the cause of your troubles!
The obvious approach is adapting the british-style 'meat and two veg' dish to have a vegetarian pie or quorn escalope or something instead of the meat. But as you can imagine, this is not really satisfactory and is an awkward compromise for both the vegetarian and the meat-eater!
I found it much more rewarding to look to other cultures with similar dietary needs. In this case Indian food has been a rich seam, due to the large vegetarian culture there. It's really easy to make a delicious curry without meat which should satisfy everybody.
In the case of wheat intolerance, for example, you could examine the cuisine of some culture that does not have wheat as a staple, like Chinese or South American, and you can have food the way it was meant to be enjoyed without compromising on ingredients or, ultimately, flavour.
Hopefully this approach could be helpful for you too!
My husband and I were so shocked to see these make such a HUGE difference in his skin and he even began to eat many more foods that we never expected him to be able to. It was a miracle for us and he still takes them and has remained nearly Eczema free for a whole year! I cannot say enough great things about these and wanted to share our story -
who know! Maybe all you would need is a probiotic too to feel better? I hope this helps :) Godd Luck with your testing.
The tests I'm having are to check if the raised acid levels in my gut are doing any longterm damage to my digestive system. Diet will come into it later.
I guess the purpose of my post was to find likeminded foodies like TB who still want to enjoy eating but have had to change the way they think about food.
I have severe food allergies (the ones that cause anaphylaxis and are fatal when untreated, not the ones that cause a rash & an upset tummy), so I had to cut quite a few food groups from my diet. That includes chocolate - I have been asked a hundred times at least if it's possible to survive without chocolate. The answer is, obviously, yeah. The slight difference is that I haven't had chocolate for most of my life, and got used to it by now.
Food is a major humanising influence. Or, put in another way, being off food is incredibly dehumanising. I've been through prolonged bouts of nausea as a side effect of medications, and have on occasion been too ill to eat and had to be sustained by intravenous nutrition. It's no fun. Even after a week without eating properly, you feel distinctly less human. So eating well, even if it's the last thing you actually want, is psychologically vital. Even if I'm really ill, I try to make myself small portions of nice food. At worst, I get to sit and marvel at it :P
Will restricting food groups change the way you appreciate food? Heck yeah. You will encounter limitations in where and what you can eat and you may feel a certain segment of foodie wisdom passes you by. Certainly for all my foodieness, I'll never be a cake connoisseur! But there's plenty of fish in the sea. If a limited list of spices and food items cause you IBS, you can exclude them and get on with foodie goodness. Arguably, you're better off than people with food allergies, as small traces will (probably) not cause you too much trouble :) Most restaurants are willing and able to make some accommodations for you (that being said, if chilli is a trigger for you, ordering chilli con carne may not be the über super wisest idea!). In either case... the world is a big place. You may have to cut some foods, but still, so many will remain.
So make yourself nice food, food you can eat, and it'll all be fine. It will make you a better foodie and more inventive - it will force you to focus on what you *can* eat and inspire you to make an infinite variety of delicious dishes out of a finite variety of sources. It's a challenge, but a very fun one. I make a mean korma without almonds! :)
Good luck, Nicky :)
I'd be interested to know how you tackle it though, so I hope you keep blogging about it if it's not too personal of course.
Second, before your doctor makes an IBS diagnosis, he should exclude coeliac disease (gluten intolerance) as a cause of your symptoms. It is relatively simple to do initial screening for CD these days – there are good blood tests (with a follow-up biopsy if necessary).
If it turns out to be IBS, you may have to adjust wheat intake or the type of wheat you eat (varies a lot depending on your symptoms – your dietitian can advise).
If it turns out to be CD, you would have to exclude gluten. Dairy intolerance is a temporary side-effect of undiagnosed CD, and would normally clear up after some months on a gluten-free diet, should this be the case.
If you do need to cut out any foods, you’ll find there are lots of replacement free-from foods out there these days. I work for @foodsmatter whose website has lots of info on this.
Your doctor is right that you shouldn’t attempt to cut out wheat/gluten yet. This can invalidate test results.
HTH.
I was so angry and resentful. I love growing, cooking and sharing food. I make my living helping families to be adventurous with food. I put mucho effort in to helping my young children widen their palates so I don’t have to make separate 'kids' and 'grown ups' meals, so I resented massively having to have separate ‘mummy’s weird tummy’ food.
Having ruled out coeliacs, and not having an actual allergy, which I agree is a different proposition, I have kind of refused to take it lying down. For me, several annual stints of elimination / anti-candida diets / anti-fungal pills / expensive 'good bacteria' tablets have helped a lot. I can now eat most things including wheat a few days apart, so if I am thoughtful about food I can eat everything I like SOMETIMES.
Two positives came out of this crappy thing. I had to take more interest in my own health and while I know some people never do find a solution, it is good for the soul to be pro-active and at least try. And I’ve had to expand my repertoire to include alternative foods to give my system a break, that’s been an adventure, and we all eat the new foods. Focussing on new things I CAN try, not what I’m NOT allowed has made it more positive. If you’re unlucky and there is no way to improve your position, at least you’ve found new ways to eat, rather than just restricted your old ones. If you’re lucky like me and can manage to get halfway back to your old position, then your diet is all the richer for the experiments.
I recently made some changes to my diet that have significantly improved the reflux/regurgitation issue. I have cut out pretty much all refined carbohydrates and fruit and now generally exist on a diet of protein, "good" fats and "good" carbs. This has helped me reduce my reliance on prescription medicine to control the issue, which to my mind can only be a good thing.
As for the IBS, I discovered some years ago that this generally flared up because of dairy products, particularly cheese and whole milk. I don't have to avoid these completely but if I consume them excessively then I pay the price for it for days on end afterwards.
Finding the cause of food induced digestive/IBS problems really is a case of trial and error, and it is possible that you may never discover what's poisoning your system, but don't give up trying, because one day, possibly by accident you may find the root cause of your problem.
Joseph - I also react badly to stress, for instance there was a death in the family last year and it meant my symptoms got so bad I was off work for two weeks. People don't understand the pain, discomfort and the need to be close to a loo at all times!
That said, I found it reduced greatly when I left that job and is definitely aggrevated when I'm feeling stressed or if my body is already fighting something else.
The only particular trigger I've found is red meat cooked rareish and since I refuse to give that up, I just cope with the consequences. The rest of the time seems unrelated to diet at all.
I do find that mint tea made from fresh mint leaves not dried teabags, has a really good calming effect on the spasm/ pain side of things.
Ginger is, of course, great for those who suffer nausea.