Elimination Diet

[Fairy Dancer]

Hi, despite taking gluten and grains out I am still getting stomach problems. I can no longer tolerate either the fatigue (or rather malaise) and running to the toilet 10 times plus a day. I am desperate and want to try a complete elimination diet but I am having trouble finding a clear list of allowed foods during the elimination phase. Can some one help me by linking me to an allowed foods list?

I have tried google and I get lots of pages saying go via a dietician (no can afford and the NHS are useless and keep putting my issues down to IBS without running sufficient tests) and basic instructions but no list of ALLOWED FOODS and foods to avoid.

If I know what I can and can't eat I can at least try it myself. The other option is to do a complete fast and then try adding one food at a time if I can't find any safe foods to eat until I do a challenge.

I really just want a break from feeling ill and having to run to the bathroom. There is no time for any kind of life between those two symptoms. Even if I do manage to feel well enough to get up (and I'm back to having to stay in bed again due to feeling bad) to get anything done I spend so much time going to the loo that I can't get anything accomplished.

On the bright side Im losing weight at around 5lbs a week without trying so there is a silver lining as I am over weight anyway and could do with being thinner..ha!

Help!

[Skylark]

Mine was really simple because I was testing for allergies. Lamb, rice, and lettuce.

Right now I'm starting into the GAPS diet to see if it helps my thyroid autoimmunity. If you have really bad diarrhea you basically make soup and eat just broth and cooked vegetables at first.

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[domesticactivist]

We have been using GAPS for 8 months. I have lots of posts about it on the blog on the site linked from my profile.

[CR5442]

Hi Fairy Dancer, boy I totally agree with you on the NHS. I kind of gave up when they sent me to a dietician who basically just looked at what I was eating and said Ummm, yes, and do you have this book (the celiac.org) book... which you aren't allowed until you are actually diagnosed positively with Celiac. She said 'no, itching isn't normal' but didn't have anything to add to that, any solutions, nothing! At that point I knew I just needed to carry on figuring things out for myself as I get blinding migraines on gluten and as a mum on my own with two tiny children couldn't risk being debilitated by a gluten challenge.

Have you tried eliminating the following: dairy (including butter), rice, soya (including milk), and solanacae family (potato, tomato, aubergine, pepper, chilli?). Try taking all that and any processed gluten-free foods you are eating out of your diet. Perhaps also try taking some L-glutamine. The combination of all this actually completely settled my tummy down... I too was running far too often to the loo after being quite a while on the diet. Are you taking a good probiotic too? A great one that I take, which is the only dried one I know from experience that works is Bio-Kult by Proteinex (sp?).

Try this for a couple of weeks and see if things start to get under control a bit on the loo front. If not then you may have allergies apart from these. I was literally living on The Black Farmer sausages (gluten-free) with a little potato starch in and peas for about a week until I was brave enough to introduce anything else! Also, take only multivit, magnesium and calcium that you know for sure are gluten-free. That will take out any possibility that you are being glutened by those.

Hope that you get to the bottom of things. I too was loosing 5lbs a week at the beginning. Now everything has stabilised and I'm even putting back on a little weight.

Hugsx

[CR5442]

Sorry, I would also cut out any citric/acidic type foods (as they are when they start in your system), so all the citric fruits and any vinegars, including cider vinegar.

[Fairy Dancer]

I do know that my diarrhoea and feeling ill get worse when I eat gluten or bread and some cereals so I took those out first.

There was some improvement but not enough.

Then I found it was getting worse with corn so I took all grains out at that point.

Things seemed to get a bit better and I thought I had cracked it. Then things started to slide backwards again so I took dairy out. No change. I also went onto a whole foods diet and stopped eating processed foods except for the occasional bit of chocolate ice cream and later on when I took dairy out a gluten free, dairy free, nut free, egg free dark chocolate bar. Other than that I eat no processed at all.

The more fruits and veg I eat the worse it seems to get...so now I'm becoming afraid of eating them. Actually as I don't know what exactly is upsetting me I am becoming afraid to eat anything. I am hungry but don't want to eat because I don't know what will make me feel worse and upset my gut and what will not. I spend my time either feeling so unwell I can't get out of bed or running to the toilet. Its ludicrous and I feel powerless to do anything about it because I don't know what is causing it!

[CR5442]

I do know that my diarrhoea and feeling ill get worse when I eat gluten or bread and some cereals so I took those out first.

There was some improvement but not enough.

Then I found it was getting worse with corn so I took all grains out at that point.

Things seemed to get a bit better and I thought I had cracked it. Then things started to slide backwards again so I took dairy out. No change. I also went onto a whole foods diet and stopped eating processed foods except for the occasional bit of chocolate ice cream and later on when I took dairy out a gluten free, dairy free, nut free, egg free dark chocolate bar. Other than that I eat no processed at all.

The more fruits and veg I eat the worse it seems to get...so now I'm becoming afraid of eating them. Actually as I don't know what exactly is upsetting me I am becoming afraid to eat anything. I am hungry but don't want to eat because I don't know what will make me feel worse and upset my gut and what will not. I spend my time either feeling so unwell I can't get out of bed or running to the toilet. Its ludicrous and I feel powerless to do anything about it because I don't know what is causing it!

Oh dear, I really sympathise. It might be an idea to get a pulse test done. This is different from allergy testing. It shows intolerances rather than allergy. I had mine done by my acupuncturist. She found out that I shouldn't be eating coconut - which was one that I was very surprised about. I took along small bits of food like butter, honey, linseed, etc. wrapped in one layer of clingfilm, put it against my face covered by my hand whilst she took pulses. You might find a local acupuncturist who can do the same... I would check before going however. There will be other complementary medicine practitioners who may do it too. It saved me a lot of time and grief of trying to get the NHS to take me seriously, particularly as i knew it was my gut letting things leak through to my blood that was irritating me rather than an actual allergy. If you need help finding one let me know.

I stopped eating a lot of things like you because i was so fed up of feeling bad. Now I have added a lot back in. Still struggling because my liver is very congested still, but am slowly sorting that out with herbs.

Let me know how you get on. One thing that you could do in the meantime is perhaps eat just one or two veggies per day with some plain white boiled rice and a small amount of organic chicken. Boring I know but as you go on and stabilise you should be able to add one thing back in at a time.

What supplements are you taking?

[Celtic Queen]

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This link might help.

[Celtic Queen]

Okay, for some reason that didn't work. Try this:

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[CR5442]

This site might also be useful for other possible sensitivities. Lots of useful info. Open Original Shared Link