Pizza by any other name...

When you first start any kind of elimination diet, the first thing you think about is all the foods you have to give up. You’re disappointed and think you’re going to have to eat the same 5 things over and over again. Fortunately, once you get over that initial bump, you realize that all you need to do is be a little creative. And there’s always the Internet!

When I started SCD, I was excited to learn there was a pizza crust alternative to conventional dough. Cauliflower crusts were all the rage, and all over Pinterest, as many people were embracing a gluten-free diet or were Low Carb. While it is a good option (I just shared a blog post about it!), making a cauliflower crust is pretty labor-intensive. It’s really critical to squeeze as much moisture out of your dough as possible, or it won’t crisp up. Soggy pizza crust is no fun! (Actually, one way around this problem is to reduce the amount of cauliflower a bit and add some coconut flour, which is a great moisture absorber).

However, to make life even easier and more flavorful, I’ve moved past cauliflower and have embraced THE MEATZA. Yes, meat as the base. Think of it as a true Meat Lovers Pizza. It’s so much easier to prepare, provides enough filling protein for the dish, and can just get piled on with vegetables and cheese. Voila. You’re done in less than 30 minutes.

Meatza

1 (1 lb) package ground chicken, turkey or beef
Olive oil
1 tsp each of your favorite Italian seasonings: oregano, basil, rosemary, salt and pepper, garlic and onion powders, for instance
Pizza sauce
Assorted fresh vegetables and typical pizza toppings you like
Cheese of your choice


Directions:

Mix meat and herbs well, with your hands, to incorporate the seasonings. Grab a 9x12 lasagne pan or sheet pan, and grease with a very thin layer of oil. Press the meat down to a thickness of about 1/2”.

Bake in a 350 F. oven for 10-15 minutes. Drain the liquid from the pan and perhaps dab a little with a paper towel to get more liquid off the top. Spread on your pizza sauce and add some cheese. Add whatever vegetables your heart desires and the rest of the cheese and return to the oven for another 10 minutes. For the last few minutes you could place it under the broiler if you like.

I pile on a mountain of fresh spinach, sliced tomatoes, mushrooms and olives and maybe some red bell pepper rings that I sauté a little ahead of time because I don’t like mine raw on the pizza. I actually do the same thing with the mushrooms. I use a sugar-free pizza sauce and Jack cheese.

Delish!

How eating Low Carb helped me

As you know from previous posts, I suffered a great deal from painful digestion which started about a year ago. It got so bad I was scared of eating and thought I’d be miserable for the rest of my life. I tried so many OTC (over-the-counter) digestive “aids” I could have opened my own pharmacy! When not even my GI doctor could help me, I felt completely hopeless.

After months of research, I came across an eating plan created for people with diverticulitis, ulcerative colitis, chronic diarrhea, etc. and thought, hey, if this works for them - people with “real” painful gut conditions - why couldn’t it work for me? So I started following the advice of a book I came across called "Breaking the Vicious Cycle" by Elaine Gottschall. The eating plan is called the Specific Carbohydrate Diet.  When the book said: if the diet does nothing for you, you can always go back to eating the way you used to, what would it hurt to at least try it?

The Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD), as the name suggests, is specific because of the limited carbs that are permitted. The basic premise is this: in our gut there is an ever-constant battle being waged between good bacteria and bad bacteria, and this is normal. But when bad bacteria take over, the good ones have no chance and this causes an imbalance in the gut flora. I felt strongly that this was my problem.

For those with digestive issues it’s a vicious cycle where the wrong carbohydrates create a hostile environment and the hostile environment creates gasses and bloating and pain. Usually we end up craving that which is causing the problem in the first place: more sugar. I used to have food cravings for bread and sweets like nobody’s business! Eliminating sugar, basically what all carbs turn into, seems to starve bad bacteria of food for them to multiply. So, in essence, it stops the vicious cycle.

When I first read this, I thought “sugar” meant sugar, but I learned it isn’t just about sugar. Sugar comes in a variety of forms and molecular structures that can impact digestion. There are monosaccharides, disaccharides, and polysaccharides. As you probably already know, mono means 1, di- means 2, and poly- means 2 or more. The culprits to feeding bad bacteria and slowing down the digestive process seem to be the di- and polysaccharides. The book said that monosaccharides on the other hand are much more easily digested, going through the digestive tract virtually unchanged, seeming to therefore cause few people problems. Examples of monosaccharides are honey, dates, and lactose-free yogurt, and tend to be fine for most people (proceed with caution as your results may vary). 

The stuff you REALLY want to stay away from are all the other starchy things that feed bad bacteria, such as rice, corn, spelt, wheat, barley.....really grains of all kinds; cornstarch, thickeners, and emulsifying agents usually found in processed foods (guar gum, xanthan gum, carageenan and things like that); and all the usual starchy foods like potatoes, sweet potatoes and even regular dairy products. While many critics of the SCD site the difficulty in following it (because it does require “fanatical adherence” as it says in the book) I found that if you are motivated enough (pain is a great motivator) and have some cooking ability, it is not at all difficult once you understand the foods that contribute to your digestive distress. How long to stay on the diet probably depends on how bad things were when you started. I’ve been on it since right after Christmas (9 months) and feel I have a good handle now on what I can and can’t get away with, having only started experimenting in the last few months with reintroducing things that had been removed. What makes this process challenging is figuring out what YOUR particular trigger or problem foods are.

To say that this low carb way of eating has been a godsend would be the understatement of the century. Not to be too melodramatic, but it has given me the chance to return to normal and I am so glad I came across Elaine’s book.

It has become evident to me that there is something to this "low carb diet" thing. For many years, I was very skeptical of it, as many people still are. Who wants to give up eating bread, cookies, pasta and rice? I hear ya! But low carb seems to be working for a lot of people with digestive issues, not to mention a whole host of inflammatory conditions. People battling non-alcoholic fatty liver, diabetes and arthritis have managed their diseases with a low carb (LC) diet. And cancer research is discovering that starches feed cancer cells. In the absence of excessive carbohydrates, cancer cells don’t have much chance of reproducing. We hear a lot about inflammation and how we should be reducing it in our bodies. Well, come to find out, inflammation is a well-established driver of early tumorigenesis (the “genesis” or creation of tumors) and accompanies most, if not all, cancers. Wow! 

If that isn't a reason to cut your carbs I don't know what is!!!

Unfortunately, being "low carb" is still considered somewhat fringe and radical, although you hear about it more and more in mainstream media. Everybody thinks of the Atkins Diet right away. It’s really not the same. I certainly think this low carb thing is something worth checking into if you have health issues, or want to avoid any in the future.

P.S. Additionally, something I have found that works great in controlling symptoms when they flare up is a product called Iberogast (check out this link as it explains how it, as well as other natural remedies, can help those with any sort of digestive ailment, from IBS to heartburn). Iberogast is made in Germany and is very popular over there but fortunately you can buy it in the U.S. as well. I bought mine on amazon. Another thing that helps me is enteric-coated peppermint oil capsules and a digestive enzyme called Digest Gold from Enzymedica. This trio of products, along with the occasional activated charcoal for when bad gas pains hit, are my arsenal in fighting digestive distress. I carry them with me everywhere I go and am fortunately using them less and less as the months pass. In fact, I’m at the point where I don’t need them regularly any more. Success!

Honey, not just for bears

I used to eat a lot of honey as a kid (explains why I’m so sweet! Ha!). My dad would buy a big 10 pound tub of wildflower honey every so often from the health food store. It would go on toast, in smoothies, and over yogurt. Ten pounds of honey seems like a lot (and it is) but my dad and I did our best to get through it!

While technically still a sugar, with nearly as many calories (21 cal vs 16 cal) and grams of carbs (6g vs. 4.2g) as table sugar, honey is far better for you than most any other sweetener.

From a chemical standpoint, honey is a monosaccharide, comprised of a single sugar molecule. Because of this, honey is easier to digest than sugar. Sugar is a disaccharide and starches are polysaccharides. These require additional splitting in order to be transported from the intestines into the bloodstream and can often create intestinal problems for those of us who are sensitive. Other monosaccharides are fruit, lactose free yogurt, and certain vegetables.

Even if you don’t have digestive concerns (unless you’re diabetic, battling a candida (yeast) problem, or on a low-carb diet to reduce your weight) I recommend eating more honey and less refined sugar for a number of reasons. (For sure we should all be eliminating artificial sweeteners, which are just simply poison.)

Honey is a natural product, offering enzymes and minerals that sugar cannot.  Sugar has gone through a refining process and is no longer natural. Honey is simply a more natural way to satisfy a sweet tooth.

Eating honey local to your area can benefit those with allergies. By eating honey produced by bees near where you live, you are building your immunity from local plants. A resource for finding local honey producers by state can be found here: www.honey.com. Other good sites are www.beeculture.com, and www.localharvest.org.

Certain types of honey, such as Manuka, have been shown to be more effective than antibiotics in the treatment of serious, hard-to-heal skin infections. The only types of honey you should ever attempt to use for wound care are Manuka honey or raw (unprocessed) honey. Conventional “Grade A” type honey found in most grocery stores may actually worsen infection and should never be applied to wounds. Clinical trials have found Manuka honey can effectively eradicate more than 250 clinical strains of bacteria.

Purchasing honey is also a great way to support beekeepers, who often struggle financially to make ends meet. While buying honey at your local market, Trader Joe’s or health food store is better than buying their sugar, go to your farmer’s market or neighborhood beekeeper directly and buy honey from them. They will be happy to let you taste the many varieties of honey they offer so you can decide which flavor you like best.

A few months ago I did just that. We were driving the back roads to a little mountain town northeast of San Diego called Julian for the weekend and came across a roadside shack selling local honey. They had some really interesting flavors: avocado, habanero, and cinnamon honey to name a few. I bought 2: desert sage, and cherry; cherry being particularly good over blueberries and whipped cream!

A few weekends ago we were in Ojai and our friends noticed a sign on the main street advertising a honey tasting nearby. Heavenly Honey offered samples of the 6-8 varieties they produce. I again bought the sage (it’s one of my favorites) and also this time a little darker honey variety than I usually get, Buckwheat, which was also really tasty. I tried it on my nutty pancakes I made last weekend and it was perfect.

But there are so many flavors to choose from. Another one I really love is orange blossom.

Embrace your inner bear and eat more honey, especially from beekeepers at your farmers market. You’ll be supporting our endangered bees and hard-working beekeepers by investing in Nature’s purest sweetener.

This recipe is particularly good when peaches are in season and we’ve got the grill on half the time anyway.

Grilled Peaches with Cinnamon Honey and Whipped Cream

One ripe peach per person, cut in half, seed removed
1 Tbsp. butter
1 Tbsp. honey
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
Whipped cream or vanilla ice cream*

Turn on your grill to low.

Wash, dry and cut in half one ripe peach per person.

Melt some butter in a small saucepan, to which you’ll add a little honey and a sprinkling of cinnamon. Using a pastry brush, brush the entire surface of each peach half with a little coating of this mixture. Place the peach halves face down on the grill and cook for about 5 minutes until nice grill marks are achieved. Turn over, brush with a little more honey butter and cook another 5-8 minutes until the peaches are warm.

While the peaches are grilling, get out your Kitchen Aid mixer or hand held mixer and whip some fresh cream, sweetened with a little honey or a few drops of stevia, if you like.

Remove peaches from grill and serve alongside the whipped cream for a delicious, easy, summertime dessert.

* Alternatives to whipped cream or ice cream: ricotta cheese, mascarpone, chèvre, Greek yogurt, regular yogurt, or cream cheese. Any of those would be great with a little cinnamon, ginger,  and / or nutmeg, and of course sweetened with a little honey!

Lettuce Wraps

The heat of summer is upon us. It’s been pretty warm here in Southern California. Normally we don’t see these kinds of temperatures until July or August, but, here we are, burning up already. Last week we had an unprecedented 110 degrees F! Insane.

When temps reach this high, I crave something cool to eat, or at least something light. Lettuce wraps are perfect for that. Often they can be found on restaurant menus under the appetizer section, but I like eating them as a meal. I just eat more of it! In fact, this recipe is a copycat of those famous wraps everybody loves at P.F. Chang’s Restaurant.

But, of course, it’s been modified. And what makes this recipe so fantastic is that wonderful marriage of sweet and spicy flavors that I like so well. There are probably no less than a million recipes out there for lettuce wraps, but what tends to be a big digestive problem for me with most Asian food is either the corn-starchy, sugary component, or tons of soy sauce in their sauces, which I find sometimes overwhelming anyway. This sauce is completely digestion-friendly, and soy-free, as it’s both Paleo as well as SCD-compliant. I found it on a site called cavegirlcuisine.com and I think it rocks.

I love the crunch of the nuts, the slight sweetness from the little bit of honey, all balanced by the spiciness of the Sriracha. I plan to make this dish a lot this summer. It’s probably the best lettuce wrap I’ve ever had!

Give this recipe a try when you’ve craving something light on a hot summer evening. Makes good leftovers for lunch the next day. Serve with a side of cauliflower rice (recipe to follow soon), or if you eat grains, regular white of brown rice, or maybe a fried rice dish. If you’re especially hungry, add a side of stir-fried vegetables.

Make sure to properly chop everything very fine. You want the mix to be small enough so that you can adequately wrap a lettuce leaf around the filling. Big chunks won’t do!

Also, you can make this dish vegetarian if you like by using a soy crumble, or breaking down tofu with a fork to resemble ground meat. Tofu, however, has no flavor, so you’ll want to season it with some spices to give it a little more oomph.

Ingredients:
1Tbsp. coconut oil
1 lb. ground chicken
5 oz. mushrooms, finely chopped
1/3 cup green onion
1 Tbsp. minced fresh ginger
3 Tbsp. coconut aminos
4 cloves of finely minced garlic
1/4 cup almonds, sliced or rough chopped
1 Tbsp. white wine vinegar
1 tsp. Dijon mustard
1 Tbsp. Sriracha hot sauce
1 Tbsp. honey
1/4 tsp. sea salt
1 tsp. finely chopped cilantro (optional)

Directions:
Heat oil in a wide sauté pan. Add the chicken and brown, making sure to crumble the meat into the smallest possible bits. When almost cooked all the way through, add mushrooms, onion, ginger and garlic and cook until limp. Add remaining ingredients, except for cilantro, and stir together for a couple of minutes, then remove from heat.

Serve with either Boston Bibb (my favorite) or iceberg lettuce leaves that have been washed and thoroughly dried. Sprinkle chopped cilantro on top.

Grain-free Crackers

When people with digestive troubles hear that they should give up wheat, as it could be the cause of their trouble, either due to a possible celiac condition or simply a food intolerance, they inevitably switch to GF (gluten free) flour for their baked goods. Sadly, many times their symptoms actually worsen, as was the case with me. Due to the high starch content of nearly all gluten-free flours, if you suffer from digestive problems, you might want to consider completely removing them from your diet, at least for a while, until you get your symptoms under control. That’s exactly what I have done and I feel so much better!

But this is a drag, to say the least, as your baking options have now shrunk considerably. But it’s not completely impossible to enjoy muffins, breads, and crackers again. Two options are coconut flour and nut flour!

One of the most versatile nut flours available is almond flour. There are 2 types of ground almond products on the market - almond flour, and almond meal. Almond flour is made by taking blanched (skinless) almonds and pulverizing them into a very fine powder. Almond meal is made from whole, ground raw almonds - a heavier product than almond flour. If you’re intending to bake muffins and cakes, the lighter blanched almond flour would be preferable, as it will result in a lighter, fluffier product. But when you’re making crackers, it doesn’t matter much. 

When I started omitting starchy things from my diet (once I regained my appetite!), I started to really miss crackers. I enjoy crunchy things, especially when I have cheese. When I got the cookbook, "Against all Grain" from Danielle Walker, I was excited to see a recipe for crackers. Not just a regular boring old cracker, but a rosemary and raisin cracker - something that sounded like it would go so well with my new favorite cheese: English Coastal Cheddar! 

I have been making these almost weekly for months now, so that I have nearly a steady supply! One batch lasts me about a week. Even if you’re not on a grain-free diet yourself, you could benefit from reducing your reliance on wheat-based products and make these every so often. They are really a lot healthier than wheat crackers or even rice crackers, as wheat disagrees with a lot of people and I do believe that eating too much wheat can lead to an eventual wheat allergy, and rice frankly has no nutrition worth talking about. It’s really just all starch. Why not eat more nuts? Nuts have fat, which makes us feel fuller (as opposed to rice, which is like eating air), plus they have fiber and minerals.

Blanched Almond Flour

These are easy and quick to make - from start to finish, it’ll take you maybe 20 minutes. But do stick around the kitchen while these are baking though because, being nuts, they can burn easily. You can make these with 100% almond flour if you like, or 50% almond flour and 50% almond meal. I’ve tried them both ways and it doesn’t make any significant difference because crackers are not meant to be fluffy. Plus the meal adds a little more fiber if you need more of that in your diet! For a twist, you can substitute some finely grated Parmesan cheese for 1/2 of the flour, omit the raisins and seeds, and replace the rosemary with thyme. That’s pretty tasty, too, especially when topped with a sliced tomato. 

Anyway, on to the recipe.

Rosemary Raisin Crackers

1 cup blanched almond flour
2 Tbsp. raisins
2 Tbsp. cold water
1 Tbsp. raw sunflower seeds 
1 sprig rosemary
1-1/2 tsp. extra virgin olive oil
1/2 tsp. sea salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Place all ingredients in a food processor. Process for 15 seconds or until thoroughly combined with small bits of speckled raisins throughout.

Form the dough into a ball then roll it out to a rectangular shape, 1/8 “ thick, between 2 sheets of parchment paper.

Remove the top sheet of parchment. Use a pizza cutter to cut the dough into 1 inch wide rectangles. Transfer the parchment paper to a baking sheet. 

Bake 12-15 minutes, rotating the pan once until crackers are golden. Check to see how they are doing - you want golden, not brown.  You may also want to turn the oven temp down if it’s looking like they are browning too quickly. 

Let cool on a wire rack for 15 minutes, then carefully break the crackers apart. Cool completely before serving.

Recipe courtesy of Danielle Walker from her cookbook, “Against All Grain”.

An Evolution in Eating

A few months ago, I told you that I'd been feeling "unwell" for a while and that's why I hadn't blogged in several months. I thought maybe it was time to tell you what happened.

It started as a vague burning sensation just under the breastbone. It felt like something was gnawing at me from the inside. I ignored it, thinking it would go away. 

Weeks went by and it didn’t go away. Thinking it was just a little heartburn, I eliminated the usual culprits: coffee, alcohol, spicy food and tomatoes. I tried this for several weeks but I didn’t feel any better. In fact, it started to get worse.

I began having trouble getting to sleep because of the discomfort. I was awake at 3:00am every single morning from this feeling. I’d have to get up, take Pepto Bismol or Alka Selzer, and hope that I could get back to sleep. Often I wouldn’t.

I tried leaving out even more foods. Nothing changed.

I read more about reflux and decided to try the “natural" route, spending loads of money on supplements touted as being helpful: a variety of different probiotics, DGL, slippery elm powder, Swedish bitters, digestive enzymes, apple cider vinegar, soothing herbal teas, gelatin capsules, EFA’s, even mineral clay. I was shocked and dismayed to find that NONE of these things helped. In fact, I was starting to feel even worse!

While I was attempting to deal with this on my own, I also went to a GI doctor to see if we could find the culprit. Over the course of a few months, she put me through the whole battery of usual GI tests: endoscopy, colonoscopy, blood panels, CT scans - nothing suspicious found. Great, no stomach cancer or tumors. No celiac disease. Organ values all good. That offered some relief, but also frustration, because I’d hoped we’d find an explanation for the cause of all this pain.

I pressed her for a diagnosis and got GERD (gastroesophogeal reflux disease). But that just didn’t sound right to me, because everything that I was doing was supposed to be “helping" the reflux. All the foods and drinks I had given up, the supplements and medications I was taking, laying on my left side, or even sleeping sitting up (!), eating well before bedtime, everything - they were all supposed to be helping that condition. And they simply weren’t.

By now my sleep was really suffering. I was getting 3-4 hours a night and over the course of all these months it was no surprise that my days began to suffer. I was a zombie. I couldn’t concentrate. I was tired and weak. I stopped bike riding and walking because I had trouble even climbing the stairs to my bedroom! I was nauseous and dizzy all the time. Worst of all, the pain would not let up!

Four months had gone by and I was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Out of desperation, I tried the not-so-natural route: varying brands of stronger antacids and pain meds; accepting, and filling, a prescription for PPI’s (proton pump inhibitors). The fact that I even accepted this prescription shows how desperate I was for relief. Surprisingly, and much to the chagrin of my doctor, I found virtually no relief.

By now, I had deteriorated so much that I had to summon whatever strength I could just to get through the work day, all the while hiding my condition from my boss and co-workers as much as I could. When my 8 hours were up, I could barely stay awake during the drive home and when I got there, I would often collapse into bed. I barely ate anything anymore. I was down to 400 calories a day and then would only reluctantly eat, as many of my supplements required they be taken with food.

Let me say that I was feeling the absolute worst of my life. I was in pain 20 hours a day.  I had tried almost everything I could, and my doctor was of absolutely no help to me. When I mentioned things like diet and bacteria, parasites and the like, she looked at me like I was from Mars and promptly told me that was all nonsense, that I should stay off the Internet and stop worrying myself! Stop worrying myself? I was in pain! 

My endoscopy showed inflammation down the esophagus, in to the stomach and duodenum (the upper part of the small intestine), which is about as far as they can get with the camera. The medical report read that the cells were beginning to change and that scared the hell out of me! Left untreated, the burning from reflux can damage the esophagus and affect the vocal chords. As cells are repeatedly exposed to the acid, they begin to change, which can lead to cancer, so it’s not something to take lightly. How could I not be worried about that? I had to fire my doctor.

Since none of the conventional or alternative therapies were working and I decided not to see my doctor anymore, I was feeling alone in my nightmare and really down. It was like major depression was coming on. There were days I dreamt of driving over a cliff. Why was this happening to me?  How could my digestive trouble have led me into such a state of mental despair? How could someone so interested in health be so unhealthy? I wanted out of this hell. I wanted to stop worrying about EVERYTHING I ate. I wanted to enjoy life again. Instead I was crying all the time.

Utterly exhausted and nearly at my wits’ end I somehow found renewed energy to think outside the box. They say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over while expecting different results. What was I doing wrong? I googled everything I could and started reading more. 

One day I came across a book that I downloaded for free onto my Kindle called Heartburn Cured by Norm Robillard. I promptly read that in less than an hour and then downloaded his other one, Fast Tract Digestion. I was intrigued but somewhat doubtful about his claim that my heartburn and reflux were being caused by the carbohydrates I was eating. Could they alone really be the cause of my digestive distress? I had trouble believing that. Weren’t whole grains healthy? I already gave up gluten - what else did I have to give up?

While searching for more to read, I found the Gut and Psychology Syndrome (GAPS) and Breaking the Vicious Cycle and now all 4 of these books were saying the same thing: fermentable and indigestible carbohydrates from grains, starches and sugars were likely fueling my reflux.

We were now into December and vendors were sending tons of sweets to the office - a grain, starch and sugar nightmare! We had potlucks that I respectfully declined. While all those around me chowed down on sugar and starches, I started reducing them, but sadly didn’t really feel much better. I had to make a 100% commitment.

So December 26, I started the GAPS Diet, making bone broth out of chicken bones, carrots and celery. I drank that morning, noon and night and nothing else. I felt better in 2 days! Then I added some boiled meat to it, and a few days later felt even better. In fact, I was sleeping through the entire night. I cannot tell you how that alone made me jump for joy. Sleep! What a wonderful thing! I was immensely grateful and hopeful. Maybe the black cloud that had hung over me all these months was lifting!

Over the next few days, I started eating well-cooked vegetables with the meat and bone broth. I was hungry from a month of barely eating and this tasted so good! Every few days I would add a little more: cooked eggs and sautéed spinach for breakfast, more variety in the vegetables, and some of the other recommendations from the book. I realized that I would start boring of the "broth and meat and vegetables” routine and decided to switch to the Specific Carbohydrate Diet to broaden the variety of foods.

It was at this point that I realized the gut-brain connection. My digestive trouble was fueling my depression! I’ve read that it’s actually the gut that produces serotonin, the “feel good” hormone, and now that makes total sense. When the digestive system is not well, neither is your brain. Which is why both these books talk about how to cure kids with autism and other mental disorders through diet.

I was so excited about feeling well that I got cocky and started adding things in too quickly and relapsed. Clearly I wasn’t ready for them. I had to relearn all that I thought I knew about food. Just because something is “healthy” didn’t mean that all the ingredients in it would agree with me.  Things I had otherwise thought were innocuous, like soy, gums, thickeners and hidden starches, even in supplements (!), caused problems for me. They all had to be strictly avoided.

The book had warned me, but I didn’t realize, I’d start becoming FANATICAL about reading labels, making sure that everything I ate was “legal” (a term that means the food gets the green light). It has been a shift in what I eat but I cannot say that it’s been difficult. Pain is a fantastic motivator!

What I’ve only now really begun to understand is that eating is about chemistry. Everything we eat causes a chemical reaction and affects us in different ways. When the balance is off, the trick is to find what works in your digestive system and what doesn’t. 

Patience is also a requirement because this process will take time. This evolution in eating is a journey. I am not healed yet. I still don’t know what is “wrong” with me. I have a feeling that it’s SIBO (small intestine bacterial overgrowth), meaning that the good and the bad bacteria in my system are out of whack. If things don't improve or actually get worse eating this way, I would go a different medical route, finding a healthcare professional that has training in functional medicine.

I don’t know how long I have to continue eating this way. The books say maybe 6 months to a year or two. Maybe for the rest of my life. It doesn't matter. I am fine with giving up foods that trigger pain. All I want is to feel better and heal my gut.

It took some considerable effort over many months to find relief but the best thing I could do was just keep searching. It was really trial and error, exploring options, and keeping an open mind.

So that’s my story.