5 replies to this topic

[Alie J]

Hi all, hope you can help me with this.

I'm a 30 year old male and had suffered anorexia for a year. At the worst point of my illness my BMI was 16.5 and energy intake around 750kCals per day (estimated by a nutritionist) for a duration of around six weeks.

Fortunately, thanks to the support and love from my parents, I've been in recovery and being putting on at least couple of pounds as week. The trouble I now have is I can't eat much in one go and certain foods, especially wheat, cause horrible bloating and sickness which has nearly triggered a relapse.

I've never had any food intolerances before, could it be that lack of food has damaged the part of my stomach responsible for digesting wheat?

I know that my gut fauna could've been depleted so I've being eating blue cheese (will also give pro-biotic yoghurt a go) and my stomach mussels have wasted away so any foods hard to digest will cause problems.

Does any one know if this will get better as my body recovers?

I'm worried the nerves could've been damaged which could be permanent.

My current diet consists of five bowls of porridge a day with whole milk and fortified with minerals, vitamins and protein powder (1000Kcals a day), plus another at least another 2000KCals (I try not to count, this is estimated form my rate of weight gain) in snacks (mostly fruit nuts and sweets) with the odd small meal.

[GottaSki]

Your body has been under stress for a long while. Stress can trigger Celiac Disease. It can't hurt to have doctors order a full celiac blood panel.

How horrible if you were to sabotage regaining your health by eating foods that are not right for your body.

It looks like you are eating a large amount of dairy - cheeses, milk, protein powder - perhaps you are intolerant of dairy?

Digestive enzymes taken before each meal may help with your taxed digestive system.

Can you make soups/pureed foods - carrot/ginger soup always feels good to me. Chicken broth with vegies is soothing as well.

I definitely think it would be good to look into food intolerance and rule out celiac sooner rather than harm your healing body any further.

Good Luck to you

[kareng]

I'm agreeing with Ski Lisa. I also think that is not a very balanced diet. 5 bowls of porridge is a bit excessive. Change out 4 of them for real food. Does your ED doc know you are eating this way? It may be making you gain weight but it is still an unbalanced way to eat.

[Alie J]

I'm certain I have no problem with dairy because I don't get bloated at all until I eat wheat, although some fruit also causes problems if I eat too much of it: figs, seedy berries and apple in particular but even small amounts of wheat seem to cause problems. If I just eat my porridge, cheese, chicken, nuts, potatoes etc. all day I never seem to have any problems.

I completely agree with you, I don't have a very balanced diet at the moment but it's only temporary and the porridge is fortified with my RDA of all essential vitamins/minerals and contains 69g of protein, 55.8g of it being from milk which has a good biological availability.

Unfortunately I'm mostly doing this on my own - the NHS aren't any good these days. I do have at least one real meal a day but it can't be very big because my stomach can't stand it. Today I had a small amount of cottage pie for lunch and will have a sausage and jacket potato for dinner.

I'm contemplating seeing a nutritionist on a private basis. I want to quit the porridge (making it is a pain) but don't want to try to change my weird eating habits too quickly or without guidance from a professional, as it could trigger a relapse. So far it seems to be working, my health has improved a lot: I'm no longer anaemic, constipated or have bad joints and I have loads more energy.

I agree, a food intolerance test is a good idea and I'll go private if needs be.

Maybe I'm hoping for too much too soon - it's only 3 weeks into my recovery.

[Alie J]

Ah bugger, my mum made me some jam tarts with soy/cornflour pastry; I ate one for breakfast and became bloated.

I agree that puréed foods and soups maybe good for me but I've never liked soup and I know relying too much on liquid food can cause dental problem, especially if it contains sugars and acids.

If this doesn't get better soon I'll see the doctor and get tested privately if needs be. As a last resort I may temporally up my porridge calories too. I know this isn't good but my body doesn't care whether my diet is balanced in the traditional sense of the word or not. As long as it gets all the essential vitamins and minerals, protein and calories to repair itself, plus fibre for bowl movement, it'll be fine. The only problem with restricting my diet further may harm my mind and is more likely to cause a relapse. Bloating is bad enough but if I get board of food I may not bother to eat, especially if I'm not hungry. So far I don't seem to be too board of porridge because I flavour it with anything from vanilla to cheese and is easy to digest so is a good fall-back food at the moment.

[JNBunnie1]

Alie, what exactly is this porridge made of?