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.

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.