Digestive trouble??

The only problem I have is with milk. Whenever I drink it, I get stomach cramps and feel like I'm going to barf...but I can eat other dairy products with no issue. Go figure :ohwell:

Once we started this new lifestyle, we found I had major trouble with bleached flour. I've always had problems with dairy, especially when I have a fever, but this new problem became more pronounced as the new lifestyle choices became easier. We are in the process of taking all the bleached flour products out of the home.

I have fairly severe IBS...the kind where it can be so bad that every so often my doc convinces themselves it must be something else, sends me off for all sorts of tests (cameras, blood tests you don't want to know), so I have for some years now been keeping a food diary (although the calories thing is new!), alongside a normal diary to see if anything in particular triggers it. Bread, especially white bread bloats me out completely but I find wholemeal tortilla wraps and pittas are ok. Dairy in large quantities definitely doesn't agree with me, same with alcohol and spicy food, and anything too fatty. As do some vegetables and fruit. I have found one of the bigger triggers is stress....! I am also one of the unlucky ones that just gets it sometime for no apparent reason.

All in all, writing down what you are eating, and perhaps making notes of what you have been doing for the day may help you see if there is a pattern.

Good luck, and keep talking to your doc.

Erika x

P.S. I have also found the probiotic supplements and yoghurts (which are supposed to help) make me worse.

Good luck! I should add that over the years I have got much better at dealing with it, and controlling it!

Depending what you have, there may be many ways of making it better. Yu may find avoiding certain foods help, or eating certain foods make it better. Supplements can help, and depending what you have there may some medication that makes the world of difference.

As for 'when did eating get so bad for us?' - My doctor tells me it all comes down to eating things that we're not supposed to, in that our bodies weren't really designed to deal with it. My doctor has said that he thinks a lot of people don't tolerate cow dairy very well, particularly when we're young and old. He says this is because back in stone ages etc we wouldn't have farmed large animals like cows...we would have had small herds of small animals like goats and sheep and we would've drunk milk from them and our stomachs have not yet evolved to tolerate cows milk as well as goat or sheep milk. My husband and his brother cannot tolerate cow dairy at all and eat goat and sheep dairy and are fine with it.

Wheat has been selectively crossbred for years and years to produce strains which are disease resistant and have a higher yield....a kind of genetic engineering not done in the labs!!! Some believe that as this wouldn't have happened naturally in nature, we have problems digesting it. There has been some success for wheat intolerant people with Spelt. Spelt is still wheat, but its a very old version of it, and seems to be tolerated much better by some people.

Of course there are also all the pesticides and chemicals which are used on foods now, and all the chemicals they put in foods for longevity etc..there are a number of clean eaters on this forum, and I can definitely see where they are coming from as far as chemicals in foods.

I'm not sure how true some of the above is, and what kind of evidence there is to support these claims with milk and wheat and stuff, but some people have definitely seen success by changing their diets. However, your doctor will work with you to help, and if you need to he will send you to a nutritionist.

Good luck with working out what it is. Before the doc finally settled on IBS with me, it was very frustrating not to know what it was, and what I could do to make it better. Just drop me a note if you need any support.

All the best,

Erika x

I have a full range of symptoms!

Bloating (and I don't mean a bit of mild water retention, I mean going from normal to looking nine months pregnant within a few minutes) and constipation. Stomach cramp and really bad diarrhea. Gas (lots of it). There's been times when I've almost not made it to the loo in time, and I'm pretty sure one day it might actually happen. Sometimes the pain in my stomach radiates up in to my shoulder, which is pretty weird. My stomach 'talks' a lot - it is generally very noisy. I can feel very 'uncomfortable' after eating. If I eat to much it sets it off, if I don't eat and get hungry that also can trigger it. Stress can trigger it, certain foods can trigger it...it sometimes goes off for no reason whatsoever!

I'm unlucky in that I have not responded well to medication, but I know other people who have responded really well, and it is definitely worth talking to your doctor about it. There are some things like peppermint oil capsules that are natural and can really help. Keeping a food diary can really open your eyes as to what is making your pain start, whether it is IBS or something else. A colonoscopy is not a fun thing, and they've never found anything else 'wrong' with me.

Good luck with it.

Erika x