Serious Stomach Issues after Whole 30

[schick13]

I have had major stomach pains/cramping on and off for a couple weeks after the Whole 30... Also vomiting and other gastro-intestinal issues that I won't go into!!

Could the Whole 30 have made my stomach insensitive to certain foods? I never used to get these pains before...they are pretty debilitating and probably going to have to see my doctor to see what the exact issue is...

I thought it might be from dairy, but all day yesterday I had pains (including all night last night) and I have not had dairy for awhile...

Any one else experience this??

[Vian]

Did you do a proper reintroduction? If not, this is exactly the reason why you should have. There are many foods that compromise our health without us really noticing for a long time. When we stop eating that food and let our guts heal, the mucous lining our guts produced to protect itself from irritating foods thins down to normal and it gets used to not having that irritating food or foods all the time. When you start eating them again, your body is much more sensitive to the effects of that food and you suddenly have bad reactions to it and digestive problems, possibly other symptoms as well like headache, fatigue, muscle and joint aches, etc. This is your body telling you it doesn't like something that you stopped eating during whole30, and started eating again afterwards.

 

Go back on the whole30 for a week or two or until you feel better, then do a proper reintroduction so you can pinpoint what food is causing your symptoms.

[Cassfass]

I am having the same problems. The stomach issues started about 2.5 weeks into the Whole30 (while I was still eating healthy approved foods) and they have not stopped. I am 1 week off of it now. I never had any problems before and now every time I eat no matter what it is my stomach is in knots. I wish I could go back to before I did this. Will my stomach get used to the "bad" foods again?? 

[GlennR]

This is kind of the double-edged nature of the program. The healthier you get with the good food, the more vulnerable you are to the bad. So the way I see it, you either mostly stick with the program, or you go back to your old ways. Middle ground just whipsaws you the way you've been experiencing.

[ultrarunnergirl]

Your stomach probably didn't feel all that good before you did a Whole30, you simply didn't realize the way it felt wasn't normal.
Had you asked me if I had any stomach trouble before doing Whole30 I'd have said no, not a bit. Only after a couple of weeks on the program did I realize that mild bloating and gas were NOT normal. Now that you've allowed some healing to take place over your 30 days, if you go back to your old SAD ways, your stomach isn't going to be happy.

 

Depending on how many years of SAD eating you've done, your gut may take longer to heal.

I'd advise sticking very close to the Whole30, if not strictly. Especially avoid gluten and dairy if nothing else.

 

Make your own bone broth and drink a cup once a day. It's incredibly healing.

 

Introduce fermented foods, very slowly and in very small amounts at first. Kombucha, real fermented sauerkraut, kimchi.

 

All of these things will help heal your gut.

 

Here's to your good health!

[NYCDiana]

If you are still sick, I would go to a doctor.

[peahen65]

I have no gall bladder and have periodic issues with biliary reflux (lots pain from bile backing up into my stomach) and the Whole30 caused this to recur.  During W30 I was pooping 6+ times a day, yellowish (fatty gallbladder attack poop).  I attribute it to nuts and extra dietary fat that my system cannot handle.  Next W30 will be nutless and I will need to eat more sweet potatoes, bananas, and pears than are suggested.  Better that than pancreatitis! 

 

That saying, it's not unheard of for W30 to push one over the edge in gall bladder disease.