Constipation caused by inability to digest starch

[FlyingCrow]

Hello, I'm just dropping in to share what I've learned about why the Whole 30 didn't work for me, in case it's useful for others.

I tried Whole 30 in May 2015 however I was plagued by constipation and a lot of flatulence. Though people were encouraging me to stay with it, I did not feel good and was also gaining weight.

So I stopped - and it's a good thing I did, as in fact I couldn't digest the starchy veg. It actually took me a long time to discover this, but that was the reason the Whole30 didn't work for me, as of course starchy veg feature quite prominently!

I'm now on the Specific Carbohydrate Diet which excludes starches of all kinds and I got a lot of symptom relief within a week, further trials revealed I've also got a problem with Fructose malabsorption, but hopefully a week or two of no fruit or honey will take care of that as it's likely due to a bad bacterial overgrowth.

The SCD is a remedial diet, all being well it will take care of the issues and eventually I'll be able to eat starches again in the future, but obviously continuing to eat starches when you can't digest them will eventually result in a lot of problems: it definitely cannot be cured by continuing.

I hope this post will be of use to any who are struggling with continued constipation.

The inability to digest starches can also cause diarrhoea by the way.

[jmcbn]

Hi FlyingCrow & welcome back.

 

It's good to hear that you got to the bottom of what was causing your constipation - I remember you struggling with both constipation and thirst.

There are actually quite a lot of people who go on to do SCD following their Whole30, or who have been there first - I have a problem with fructose malabsorption myself so follow a low FODMAP diet to keep things under control, but still under the parameters of the Whole30, which seems to work for me. Symptoms vary from one person to another, and tolerance levels for the offending foods can vary too so it can be difficult to pinpoint the exact cause.

Wishing you success with SCD and hoping that in the long term you make a full & speedy recovery 

[shawnyken]

This is really great information! I have been diagnosed with ulcerative colitis and am feeling good on the Whole30 ...for sure have seen some improvements with my digestion. But would still like to see further remission of my UC symptoms. Trying the SCD diet post Whole30 makes sense.

 

Flying crow, did you do the intro diet for SCD or do you use the Whole30 template with SCD legal foods?

[FlyingCrow]

Hi FlyingCrow & welcome back.

 

It's good to hear that you got to the bottom of what was causing your constipation - I remember you struggling with both constipation and thirst.

There are actually quite a lot of people who go on to do SCD following their Whole30, or who have been there first - I have a problem with fructose malabsorption myself so follow a low FODMAP diet to keep things under control, but still under the parameters of the Whole30, which seems to work for me. Symptoms vary from one person to another, and tolerance levels for the offending foods can vary too so it can be difficult to pinpoint the exact cause.

Wishing you success with SCD and hoping that in the long term you make a full & speedy recovery 

Thank you - Wow! That's well remembered - I'd forgotten about the thirst myself. That was just down to the increased protein and resolved itself once I stopped eating quite so much of it.

There are so many things that could be wrong aren't there?! I thought fodmaps might be an issue, and I'm still not sure, I've certainly discovered too much cauliflower causes a few issues

One other thing I wasn't taking into full account and of course no one here would know because you don't see me, but my activity levels were so low at the time I did Whole30 due to chronic illness that my protein requirements were actually pretty low, which was probably why I gained weight.

I might return and try again if I can get my gut a bit happier regarding starches - but as I'm still far less active than even the average person of my age and as I cannot currently increase that, I'd really need to be careful regarding the amount of protein I think.

[FlyingCrow]

This is really great information! I have been diagnosed with ulcerative colitis and am feeling good on the Whole30 ...for sure have seen some improvements with my digestion. But would still like to see further remission of my UC symptoms. Trying the SCD diet post Whole30 makes sense.

 

Flying crow, did you do the intro diet for SCD or do you use the Whole30 template with SCD legal foods?

I'm really glad the whole30 is working so well for you!

Yes, intro diet - in fact because it was such a little change for me diet wise I didn't do the intro at first so much as drift into the diet! However after some problems that made me think Fodmaps might be an issue I decided to do the intro and I'm really glad I did as that was how come I realised I had problems with fructose.

The intro bit is boring and bland but really worth it, because it makes it so easy to spot things that are causing a problem. If I have any problems in the future I would turn back to it straightaway now.

I'm not following the whole30 template because as I've got a chronic illness and my activity levels are really low - so my protein needs are just not that high - it turns out if you eat more than you need it also makes you fat However I probably still eat the same amount of fat.

I haven't given up on whole30 but it's for the future.

Good luck