Elimination diet to detect food sensitivity - brain fog etc

[ScotHill]

Anyone ever done one of these? Did you identify anything useful? Three weeks of eating like a monk and then introducing a new food every few days, seems pretty difficult to do it strictly enough to identify which foods can cause problems?

I get sleepiness, brain fog, lethargy etc related to eating, along with some 'interesting' digestive experiences, don't know whether it's worth me doing something like this independently before going down the medical route. It's having a pretty stifling effect on my life, especially with son #2 nearly here.

Edited by ScotHill on Monday 28th June 18:12

[ScotHill]

mcelliott said:

My wife did the Fodmap thing a few months ago, was very time consuming but she pinpointed all the foods that gave her trouble, do your research on the subject, it's fascinating to see what we put in our stomachs influences what goes on in our brains, personally I would not bother with going to the Dr, they know surprisingly little about gut health.

Your first port of call if I were you would be to introduce a quality digestive enzyme and pro biotic.

Not heard of Fodmap, will look it up, thanks.

Would you mind sharing what she changed and what difference it made?

[ScotHill]

Mr Whippy said:

I did a Yorktest.

I changed some stuff, did another and stuff changed, but some stayed the same despite avoiding it a lot.

In my case, milk. A lot happier now. Just needing to eat more protein from other sources.
But it’s highlighted lots of things i was doing badly/wrong with regards diet and eating and stress etc.

Other approaches probably fine too. Ie, fodmap.
You have to be careful though about changing stuff because it may not be the issue.

Ie, fodmap is probably exacerbated by a sugary diet, stimulants like caffeine, stress, alcohol, poor sleep etc.

You can’t have a bad lifestyle, remove a ‘bad’ food, and get ‘better’

Your lifestyle needs to be good already for these changes to probably have the desired effect.

Disappointed that a Yorktest isn't 'how many Yorkies can you eat'. They're on sale until midnight (if you mean yorktest.com) but still pretty pricey - which one did you do and what did it tell you? Are they recommended by medical professionals or are they a 'consumer' test?

My lifestyle is pretty good, but once I go off balance (for whatever reason, food, kids waking me up too much in the night) it can take a few days to a week to get back on track again.

Like a lot of health things, I probably know on some level what I need to do to improve things, but sometimes it's motivating to have a person/piece of paper formalise it for you.

[ScotHill]

NorthDave said:

I've done them and noticed a big change. My main issue is milk of all types and if I cut it down I feel less bloated and weigh less. A few years ago I couldn't work out why I was putting weight on - up to 5 Kg in a week or so! I realised cream had snuck in to one of the prepared things I was eating for lunch, stopped eating it and the weight dropped off just as quick. I assume the weight is actually water retention...

Did you cut everything out at the beginning, if so how long for? Or just cut out things individually and see if it had an effect? That's the bit I'm kind of struggling with, it seems like a massive commitment to do it properly, especially if you're living with other people.

[ScotHill]

Mr Whippy said:

You can substitute tons of stuff wrt family needs.

Then cut other stuff out almost completely for whole family if it’s generally accepted as not great for you.

Ie, I hardly use butter for cooking/baking now etc.
Lard, coconut oil used instead.

It’s very easy in our western world to eat the same things again and again.
Ie drink milk, have butter, yoghurts, cheese... it’s just tons of cows milk.

I’ve found this chap tends to say things which my body agrees with.

Dr. Sten Ekberg
Top 10 Healthy Foods You Must Eat

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=F7gDIshc-S0

Edited by Mr Whippy on Wednesday 30th June 14:08

Some people cope with that other stuff fine though, my wife seemingly has no negative response to pretty much any food she eats, sleeps well, only gets tired in the day if she's stressed or working hard. Reminds me of this rant: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5bKN6xP8Kk#t=27s

I never like taking one person's word as gospel, but I probably do most of what the guy says in your video - maybe a bit more variety in the greens and tubers, and I avoid eggs as they turn me inside out. He says grains can be problematic/inflammatory, but from what I've read rice is one of the most benign things you can eat.

So maybe it is just finding out what your personal 'food profile' is, things need to cut down on and things you need to avoid completely.

[ScotHill]

Did you suspect milk before you started investigating or was it out of the blue? Would you have done anything about it without the test?

[ScotHill]

Cheers all, I might be able to get an appointment with a gastrodoc in the summer for something separate but possibly related, so I'll lay out the symptoms and see what they say. I know the medical establishment can be behind in new thinking sometimes, but they also tend to cut through the bullst. Will try excluding a food type for a week at a time and see what difference that makes.

[ScotHill]

Okay I've been paying attention to what I've been eating over the last few months, including a detailed food diary for a week so far, and while I've not been strict on eliminating certain things (apart from dairy which I dropped but only for a week or so) I noticed I can quite happily eat pretty much anything without any immediate effects, i.e. it's not like I'm fine and then I have pasta with a cheese sauce and a glass of milk and then get symptoms in the next 24 hours.

But if I overeat, either portion sizes too big or eating too many complex meals/snacks (basically meat, dairy or wheat) over the space of a few days, it starts to kick in. So it may be that just balance and moderation is key for me, something which has been strongly lacking in my food life, especially now I'm working from home and no-one can see me eating tiramisu with a long spoon.

The food diary also showed that I snack A LOT, mostly healthy but some not; so I might need to factor in an extra reasonable sized meal into the day, rather than constantly returning to the kitchen for more and more snacks which inevitably snowball into overeating unhealthy stuff.

The three major things I noticed were that everything improved once I'd stopped work for a month (new baby) - so even low level stress or worry can knock my digestive system off balance; exercise helped greatly, an hour's cycling seemed to calm down my digestion a lot (had noticed that on all-day rides in the past too but always thought that was caution due to the lack of available toilets); and a bad night's sleep can knock me sideways for a couple of days, longer if I don't manage to get decent naps the next day, and I would get sleepy and sluggish again after every meal (which is what I originally thought might be caused by food sensitivity).

And if I did feel sluggish then missing breakfast and not eating until lunchtime was a great way to help get back on track, didn't miss breakfast at all on those days.

I'll explore the FODMAPs a bit more, but just easing off on everything is probably the way to go. At 44 and with a 3 week old baby and a 4 year old I can't afford to be off my game, so I might actually do something about it this time.

Edited by ScotHill on Saturday 21st August 20:02