On Sibo Diet - So Hungry!

[lucia]

The good news is that I am feeling better everyday on the SIBO diet. One week ago, I pretty much had continuous stomach cramps, and those are gone.

As I feel better though, I'm beginning to experience real hunger again. I'm only eating fish, eggs, and fruits & vegetables, no grains at all. I can't seem to satiate this hunger.

Has anyone else done the SIBO diet, and experienced this? Is it just a stage?

[gary'sgirl]

The good news is that I am feeling better everyday on the SIBO diet. One week ago, I pretty much had continuous stomach cramps, and those are gone.

As I feel better though, I'm beginning to experience real hunger again. I'm only eating fish, eggs, and fruits & vegetables, no grains at all. I can't seem to satiate this hunger.

Has anyone else done the SIBO diet, and experienced this? Is it just a stage?

I'm curious... What is the SIBO diet? And are you on it because of things you can't eat along with gluten?

I'm glad you are feeling better and I hope that it continues, but not the hungry part... of course.

~Sarah

[cassP]

i havent experienced it- because i dont have the discipline u have!

years ago (before suspecting Celiac)- i limited my diet to ONLY meats, veggies, & fats. (atkins,then bloodtype)- but i STILL ate dairy. i pretty much felt fantastic!

have to admit tho- it would be almost impossible for me to do what you're doing, tho im sure i would feel great.

im wondering- if any of you out there ever see articles & videos put out by the GlutenFreeSociety??? they talk about how other grains have a type of Gluten that may also be harmful... that when they first studied Celiac Disease & Gluten Intolerance- they only studied a few grains..?????

i dont know if they're full of it OR if my favourite doctor is right- but i FOR SURE feel BEST when i eat NO GRAINS WHATSOEVER.

hhmmm?????

lucia- glad you're feeling better

[lucia]

gary'sgirl, The SIBO diet is designed to treat bacterial overgrowth. I was getting sick from eating/drinking everything, so I suspected that I had bacterial overgrowth. It's definitely a desperate measure.

cassP, You reminded me how hard this diet is. I wouldn't be doing it if I didn't need to to recover.

This experience has made me think that I need to include some foods to eat in case of emergency hungers.

[Skylark]

I'm so glad you're feeling better! Hungry is much better than sick.

I wonder if you're not getting enough calories, especially since you will be healing if things are settling down. People don't use protein very well for fuel so we need either complex carbs or fats. If you took all the complex carbs out, you have to put some fats in! I don't know much about the diet. Are you allowed nuts and seeds? Can you eat a handful of nuts, drizzle some extra-virgin olive oil over your veggies, or put some peanut butter on celery sticks?

[India]

Hi Lucia, I'm so glad to hear you're feeling better! I'm sorry to hear you're so hungry though... I know that feeling! As Skylark suggested, perhaps there are some safe foods you could add. Can you eating oily fish at oil? The extra fats might help your appetite a little.

Sorry if this isn't much help, I mostly replied to say how happy I am for you :-)

[cassP]

sorry Lucia- didn't mean to remind you that it's hard- im just always amazed- because i have such lack of self discipline

i like the above suggestions- with EVOO & nut butters... the fats will help you absorb more vitamins too

[Girrlock]

Hi Lucia! I am not a frequent poster here but I read your post about having SIBO and I just had to chime in. Its great that you're feeling better with your new diet. What you're describing is akin to the diet I feel best on (I have SIBO too) except I don't eat any fruits except berries and I eat all meat (not just fish.)

I run an online support group for people with SIBO and I also write a SIBO blog so I'd love to know where you got your SIBO diet from. Is it just something that came to you from experience? Because there isn't much of a consensus on what to eat and what not to eat when you have SIBO. The way of eating that Dr. Pimentel describes in his book allows small portions of white carbs (white rice, white bread, etc. - easier to digest) and this works well for some folks while the no-grain thing works better for others. Its funny; I was actually vegan when I got sick with SIBO. Later on, before I got the SIBO diagnosis, I had added dairy back in - mostly because my doctor had told me I had gastroparesis so I thought I should add dairy back in for the protein. Years later I am just now giving it back up again (dairy that is) because I never saw my symptoms get worse when I added it. Its only been a few days really but I notice a huge difference.

As far as the hunger, I can only imagine that when you are starting to feel better, and feel more like eating, then yes, you'd be hungrier. Are you getting any fats in? Because with few carbs like that, you'll probably need fats in order to not feel hungry. I see another poster addressed that already.

[BRUMI1968]

I've done grain free, and it works best for me. It is really hard to maintain, however. I use sweet potato for that feeling of full, and recently added back regular potato after not eating it for two years.

I'm also, though, typically vegan and to be honest, this is catching up to me. I am adding back some meat right now because I'm anemic and it's hard for me philosophically to grasp that taking supplements made in a lab someplace could possible be better than eating GRASS FED humanely raised meat once a week or so. That said, I'm struggling with it. I'm also an aspiring Buddhist, which adds to the problem philosophically.

I think the grain free thing just needs a way to make enough calories. One way is to add quinoa or amaranth to the diet - they are not grasses/grains, but we call them that as it makes them easier to talk about. They are actually seeds. Amaranth especially helped me when I first went grain free - it tastes a bit odd but you get used to it. I have never in my life been more "regular" than when I had amaranth every morning for breakfast.

I'm currently on the low fodmap diet, for similar reasons to why you're on the sibo diet...it is pretty interesting if you want to google it. It separates out types of sugars and then through elimination and adding back, you can see which of these highly fermentable sugars you might have troubles with. Already being vegan I did not have to worry about milk sugar, so mostly I had to quit beans (which I know I do better w/o anyway), onions, Brussels sprouts (totally my favorite), cabbages, zucchini (ate a lot of this) and I think that is mostly it.

Anyway, I'm blathering on due to the crazy low-oxygen anemia brains....but try adding quinoa, amaranth, or sweet potato for feeling full. Cream of cauliflower soup can help too (just cook the cauliflower and then put it in the blender, it creams up by itself, or add some avocado)...if that's allowed on sibo. Good luck to you!

-Sherri

[cassP]

i've read that amaranth is good for your large intestine

and ive read that dark turkey meat can have as much iron as red meat... but i totally understand the philosopy- i feel bad eating animals too- if i could be healthy as a vegetarian i would.

[gary'sgirl]

gary'sgirl, The SIBO diet is designed to treat bacterial overgrowth. I was getting sick from eating/drinking everything, so I suspected that I had bacterial overgrowth. It's definitely a desperate measure.

cassP, You reminded me how hard this diet is. I wouldn't be doing it if I didn't need to to recover.

This experience has made me think that I need to include some foods to eat in case of emergency hungers.

Lucia, where did you find out what to eat for this diet? I have been looking up a lot about it, but can't find too many specifics on what is best to eat and for how long you should be on the diet to ensure things have gotten back to normal.

Also, how long had you been on the diet when you started to notice improvement?

I think that this may be part of my problem with not recovering. I know that I have been having bacterial overgrowth problems, but I wasn't tested specifically for SIBO.

I'm so glad you started this thread!

[Katie B]

I know this is a late reply but I'm on the SIBO (low FODMAP) diet as well. I'm sure you've progressed from where you were about a month ago so sorry if this isn't applicable anymore but thought I'd jump in.

I'm eating small amounts of carbs (15-20g) every 3 hours - this includes corn flakes from Erewhon (gluten-free/sugar free), lactose-free milk (1/2 cup at a time 1 cup a day), rice wraps, pumpkin, zucchini. I'm eating a lot more protein - tilapia, shrimp, chicken, salmon, lactose-free cheese (cheddar), lactose-free yogurt (lactose-free Specific Carbohydrate Diet), gelatin with stevia. I've been adding safflower oil to lots of things like to tuna rice wraps and to my zucchini. Having 6 meals a day. Very difficult to follow the diet but it's worth it. I'm hoping to expand to fruits and other cooked veggies soon but I'm also recovering from c. diff. colitis so I can't process a lot of foods - thus making sibo even worse. It's definitely doable though! I'm just happy I can eat anything really. Also supplementing with Vivionex T.E.N. as per Dr. Pimental - find I have to sip this slowly so I don't overload on carbs.

Just as proof that this diet is working I went through the glucose challenge for diabetes (have to basically drink a soda pop) and had horrendous D afterwards - way too many carbs.

I've been working with Diet Solutions in Australia via Skype - they've been great. Also bought Sue Shepherd's cookbooks.

Anyways, good luck with your diet...it's a process!