Food Intolerance Testing And Changing The Way I Eat

All of my adult life and possibly even my late teens, I’ve had digestive issues. I’ve always been windy and suffered with random stomach cramps and aches. I know what you are thinking, that Mr C is a lucky man. Well, I say, love me, love my trumps. I can put up with the windy bottom but as the years have gone on, my symptoms have worsened. A couple of years ago my stomach cramps were so bad that I went to the doctors about them. Back then I presumed that it was linked to my monthly cycle as they seemed to get worse when my period was due. I had some scans and nothing untoward was revealed. I felt like a bit of an idiot for going to the doctors with my concerns and decided that I would just have to live with the cramps and manage them.

More And More Symptoms…

Then towards the end of last year I started developing other symptoms. While we were on the cruise I felt quite poorly. You don’t need to know the nitty-gritty, but let’s just say that I was going to the toilet a lot. My stomach also felt really sore, I felt dizzy and lethargic. I presumed that I had eaten something that disagreed with me but then the symptoms didn’t go away. I then started getting lots of really bad headaches, was struggling to concentrate and I just felt generally rubbish. I had IBS symptoms that I presumed had been brought on by the stress of selling our house and moving. But then the symptoms hung around, even when I wasn’t stressed.

It was getting to the point where I was spending far too much time complaining about feeling tired, I looked awful and I was now really spotty on my jawline, forehead and around my mouth. Mr C told me that I looked dreadful and he was concerned that I was spending far too much time in the toilet. I think he was getting annoyed with having to constantly pause films and tv programmes for a loo break 😉 He suggested that I did a food intolerance test.

Getting To The Bottom Of It

In the past I have eliminated foods from my diet but I’ve still had the symptoms, so I would get frustrated and give up. The food intolerance test took the guesswork out of it. A simple blood test and we were able to get to the bottom (no pun intended) of it. It turns out that I have quite a few food intolerances which explain why I wasn’t able to work out what I was intolerant to. I wasn’t cutting enough out of my diet.

My Food Intolerances Are -

Gluten intolerance to wheat and spelt

Egg yolk (apparently not that common, you are more likely to be intolerant to the white, not me though. Lucky me.)

Beef

Veal

Cream cheese

Kidney beans

Black beans

White beans

Green beans

It’s great to finally to know what has been causing the problems. However, it is taking me some time to get my head around it all. I didn’t realise wheat was in so many food products. In the past I’ve cut out bread, but I didn’t think to look at the other products I was eating. Wheat is in so much stuff! The foods I am really missing are my boiled egg with marmite soldiers and cake, all of the cake.

Changing Old Habits

I’ve changed the way I’m eating and it is a learning curve. Dinner is fine but I can struggle with finding things that I like to eat for breakfast and lunch. I’m someone who loves her carbs. I love bread. LOVE BREAD. But no more bread for me, or pastries or cake (did I mention the cake?) I’m reading all of the blogs and books to find recipes that I like. It can be a pain but I’m already feeling loads better. I’m no longer in the toilet all of the time. I’m a little less bloated and my skin is looking a lot better. It’s still a bit spotty but it is getting there.

I’m embarking on a new way of eating, I guess you would call it clean eating. I’m not entirely happy about it but there you go. I’ve been planning what I will be eating over Christmas and you can read an article I wrote for VoucherCodes about how to have a gluten-free Christmas.

Here’s to eating better and feeling better in 2019!